There's Nobody in the Forecasters Hall of Fame

Hello my dear show notes readers,

Welcome back for another episode advice. This one starts of personal for me as I explain how I've been getting into lifting weights. In the process, life reminded me of the old adage
"experience is what you get, when you don't get what you want." In short, I try to be as honest with myself and you as I can about hitting the bit 4-0 and making some important life decisions. 

Later, we devolve into our usual banter with a heavy dose of AI talk. Dan and I are both having a blast with Nat Eliason's Course Build Your Own Life Coach. If our convo piqued your interest, you should check it out. 

Later, Dan decides to match my energy - if you don't know what I mean, check out the Adam Grant and Charles Duhigg books below - and gets personal on recent challenges facing one of his ecomm businesses. 

Y'all, it's simultaneously hard and exciting out there and we get REAL this week. 

Cheers,

Sean

Books Discussed:

• The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg
• Works of Carl Jung

Companies Discussed:

• Bloomberg
• Amazon
• Google
• Apple
• Walmart
• Peloton
• Academy Sports + Outdoors

Chapters

00:00 Embracing the Big 4-0
03:53 Winding Down Fig: A Tough Decision
09:55 Lessons Learned from Business Ventures
12:48 Setting New Goals and Exploring AI
25:36 The Evolution of AI and Data Privacy
33:31 Personal Updates and AI Coding Adventures
40:28 Challenges of E-commerce and Tariff Enforcement
48:13 Navigating Tariff Codes and Compliance
54:08 Exploring Global Living Options
59:18 Insights from Carl Jung
01:04:16 The Power of Consciousness and Fate
01:08:11 Reflections on Planning and Control

Episode Transcript

(00:47):
Sean, welcome to your fourth decade.
Thank you.
I feel like I've been lifting weights over here, Like as it was approaching, I felt a lotof weight of the imminent, you know, the big four-oh coming.
And then I think since it's hit, I've felt the weight of that kind of lift off.

(01:10):
It's been kind of nice.
A little bit, yeah.
Like I was worrying about it more than I needed to.
I don't know.
or
I think that's natural, at least the people that I've talked to that, you know, in ourcircles, there's lots of people moving from 39 to 40.
I just moved to 41.
Yeah.

(01:30):
It's, uh...
I mean, it...
I think I haven't felt as good since I've been 38, honestly.
Nice.
This is happens when you let the dread rule over you.
Yeah, right?
guess I was, it was eating at me more than I really was willing to admit to myself,perhaps.

(01:51):
Yeah, I was letting it.
I was letting it.
So yeah, shame on me, but.
No,
well on that front, I guess I have some news to relay.

(02:17):
so, I, I have decided to wind down fig.
so something that I, I was taking our advice to heart of asking more questions and askingsome hard questions of myself and just looking at what costs had been growing and I hadn't
been able to grow the top line enough.

(02:38):
My compliance costs went up like 50%, my bookkeeping went up 50%.
and I just wasn't, I'm not able to keep up with it.
So I am going through the process now of figuring how to wind everything down, on theprofessional front.
mean, I'm still going to obviously do what I do on the side.
but yeah, I think that was something that had been kind of weighing on me and seeing thosecosts, what they were last year and knowing I wasn't covering them and,

(03:06):
And just feeling like I'm probably not going to be able to grow that quick enough, thatbusiness quick enough.
And as I've done it, you know, I kind of, I satisfied the itch, I scratched the itch and Irealized the quote you sent over kind of made me think of that.
you're not going to get anywhere in this world.
You're not going to get anywhere financially, spiritually or socially until you otherwise,get to the point where you don't give a damn about what other people think about you.

(03:30):
And I think some of what was making me not.
realized as sooner was the not wanting to, thinking about how other people would see mefor making that decision.
If that makes sense.
It does.
So if that is true, I hear what I hear you saying is that this decision was sort ofalready made.

(03:52):
You had to come to grips with it.
I think so.
Yes.
I think so.
Like, and I had, when I opened up, I said, I set myself a goal of by the time I'm 40, I'meither going to do this, like to be able to pour my heart into it and, you know, do it
full time or I go on and figure out what the next step is.
and here I am at 40 and you know, did some introspection over the time, you know, the kindof time between, when we last spoke and the birthday and

(04:23):
Just kind of realize that, you know, I had, I had said this to myself and I can givemyself precision permission to, you know, follow through with what I said.
Um, not feel shame about that.
So.
Is this an arbitrary line in the sand that you wish you hadn't made?
Or is this a gate that
it was, I think it was a good, a a good signpost.
Like I needed to have some point where you have to assess how things are going.

(04:47):
Right.
And be honest with myself about is this real that I'm going to be able to do, you know,make this a something that's thriving and, as I thought about it and thought about what
it's going to take to, to take to get there, I just, the, the time it takes outside of,you know, my already

(05:08):
hectic and stressful day job.
just, it was leaving the thought, thinking about it was leaving me feeling emotionallydrained and I didn't like that, you know?
I get that.
There's only so many places where we can spend our time and gain energy.
We spend a lot of time spending energy.
Exactly.
And, and then, you know, I got to go through my lovely first and, and, I guess last, stateexamination periodics that they do, within every three years.

(05:41):
so got to, got to go through the fun part, you know?
I think so.
Yeah.
I mean, like there's a couple of minor things that I need to
correct on some forms but it was nothing significant.
At least in the initial closing meeting, they didn't have anything significant that I waslike, no, it was minor stuff that would have been fairly easy to rectify anyway.

(06:06):
So yeah, right.
what they're paid to do.
If they bring you nothing, then clients tend to say like, why did I pay you?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So I think they have to, you know, I mean, and what they found was, yep, yeah, that's anerror.
You know, should have checked that box and not that box.
Oops, no big deal type of stuff.

(06:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're a lone wolf, you're trying to build something and yet you pass this prettystringent examination.
So that's kudos to that.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah.
I feel like if I were in a video game, an RPG, my title would be The Audited with the lastthree, four months that I've been through.

(06:49):
That's true.
You've been doing it at work and on the sidekick.
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, I ain't scared of no auditors.
I'll say that.
No, and I, you know, honestly, at the end, they're like, you know, this was a reallypleasant experience.
I'm like, well, I do this, you know, on the other side for a living.

(07:10):
So I know what you guys are doing, what you need, like the point point of this.
I'm not, you're not here to make my life hell.
I'm not here to make your life hell.
We're just here to, you know,
make the whole system better for everyone, largely, yeah.
yeah.
So anyway.
All right, Sean.
Well, thanks for, but you know, sharing that and, and being honest with not only yourself,but all the rest of us.

(07:34):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's been, I've been kind of dreading having this conversation a little way.
So I'm glad to now be past that part.
Yeah, I think I said it out loud to myself for the first time on like the 31st.
And then it took me another week to really come to grips with it after saying it out loudto myself for the first time.

(07:58):
So here we are, you know, two and a half weeks later, and finally I'm.
Moving through it nicely, I think.
I was gonna say, it's gonna...
Moving through it is the right way.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's not getting past it or anything like that.
Just moving through it and...
No, it's going to remain a part of you forever.
Yeah, exactly.

(08:18):
and if I ever get a wild hare or an inheritance of an enormous sum later and I just had todo it again, you know, I can always do it again.
So.
Well, that's I was admirable about what you're trying to like.
were many admirable things about what you were trying to do.
Um, but the, the crappy part of it is like the base business itself really needs a largeAUM for it to be, uh, you know, an ongoing thing, right?

(08:49):
Um,
couldn't get there to where I needed to be.
know, inside of the timeframe that you want.
I believe in you, I think you could have gotten there.
But if you don't come from moneyed networks, then it's really hard to get started.

(09:11):
It is, it really is.
And you know, I had a couple of shots and did okay with them, but it just, you know, itwasn't enough.
wasn't enough.
And that's, you know, that's what it is.
you don't, not everything in life is, I don't know.
It wasn't a success, but I also don't feel like it was a failure.

(09:31):
So it was a valuable learning experience.
somewhat expensive learning experience, but not really that expensive.
was, you know, I'm not, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, wasn't, honestly, I'm not, yeah, exactly.
It hasn't restricted anything.
I set a little bit of money aside to make it, basically keep the business open andfunctioning for a couple years.

(09:54):
And it either, okay, I gotta put in more or wrap it up, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
I totally agree.
I think the other thing that, people, people who are in the arena will recognize is thatyou, you tried, you put risk on the table and you put yourself out there.
That's a highly respectable thing.

(10:16):
And, other people who have done it or actively do it tend to highly respect others thatare doing it.
I'm very glad to have, I don't feel, I feel very, very little regret.
Very little about anything, I think.
And I'm happy about that.
Yeah, yeah, right?

(10:38):
The min-max regret.
try.
You might fail.
You probably won't regret it because you tried.
Yeah.
So I'm happy that, happy to have had an experience in my life.
So Dan, that's what's new with me this week.
Yeah, that's big, I guess.
What's, what's, is there anything on you?

(10:59):
Are you taking a complete like sort of brain hiatus or is there something on your mindthat you have cooking or you're looking forward to?
well, I'm looking for, you know, what I am looking forward to is digging into, uh, the AIlessons this week.
Jamie's leaving town tomorrow and I'm planning on starting, uh, having the laptop on thecouch most nights and plugging away with some parks and rec in the background or

(11:25):
something.
And, uh, uh, you know, getting into exploring.
those tools and learning how to build a few little agents of my own to see how I can applyit in my life in different ways.
And then honestly, like, you know, I'm, focusing on the goals I already set out for myselffor the year.
You know, I want to write a thousand words a week.
want to, you know, I've, have thankfully not gotten off to no start.

(11:49):
I've got, I'm not at my weekly goals, but I'm, I'm at least making progress towards theoverall annual, annual goal so far.
I've gotten a couple of rides under my belt and, I don't know, maybe 1200 words.
So not, not fully there, but at least getting some momentum going.
And I think now that
The year, feel like the year for me really started this week.

(12:11):
The first two weeks of the year didn't, between New Year's and my birthday and going on atrip to New Orleans, I feel like I didn't really get started in the year till this week,
so.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, but yeah, don't have anything in particular in mind, cooking, and I'm looking forstuff and I'm open to ideas and I think, you know, in an exploration phase right now.

(12:34):
of different processes, right?
Like you have a writing goal that's hopefully is a forcing function on a process.
we're, we are both taking this class from Nat Eliason that, is, know, yeah, you want tocook off on check the boxes and be through goals, but it's kind of like teaching in a, I
don't know, teaching some other skillset that we can use and, and some other kind ofprocess.

(12:59):
speaking of that course, how far are you through it at this point?
I'm curious, you're done?
Okay.
but he's still posting stuff, right?
So as soon as he posts another module, I'll get cooking on that module.
But for what has been posted, I'm all the way through.
Okay.
Any tips from someone who's about to start it up fresh?
just don't skip any videos.

(13:20):
they're all really short.
He doesn't, he doesn't waste your time, which is I really love cause a lot of video basedlessons.
I'm like, man, I wish I could be watching these things that well, a lot of video play.
It's like, yeah, I can watch it at two X, but every video is seven and a half minuteslong.
And every single time the video loader or video thing loads a new page for the next video,have to reset all my preferences and like,

(13:45):
speed it back.
These are small minor complaints for the material wasn't very dense and wasn't very goodmaybe on these other experiences.
Yeah.
but with that stuff, I'm going at one speed, because on one panel I've got, I've gotcursor open and I'm, cooking.
I was spending a lot of time pausing frankly, cause, there's room, there's a lot of roomfor movement, right?

(14:12):
So he might.
If he's saying, you know, we are going to build this, read me so that cursor knows andunderstands the context of what we're trying to build.
And we're on step three and step three is user authentication.
let's just say that like right off the back of user authentication, I get it working.

(14:33):
And I'm like, I've got this other idea.
I'm going to, I'm going to insert another step here.
So I'm going to move on to step four, but it's going to be my own step.
I might just have net.
paused for like another 45 minutes while I cook on this other feature that wasn't part ofthe plan, right?
cause there is no, it's not dictated to you.
It is very choose your own story.

(14:55):
Okay, well I'm looking forward to it.
I'm really looking forward to it.
yeah, good, good.
Thanks for finding it and turning me on to it.
I think it'll be a fun little thing to do here over the next week.
Keep my...
I think, I think you're, yeah, it'll start getting your mind cooking.
There's been a lot of thoughts running through my head about, I now have too many ideas.

(15:15):
Just fun.
Yeah.
Not enough time to chase them all, you know?
Well, now that I'm not going to have access to the IBKR professional traders workstation,I'm going to need to come up with a new interface to execute complicated baskets.
Yes, complicated baskets.

(15:36):
It's like part of the reason why I don't, you know.
I love Satrini, but I don't have his powers of portfolio management.
Well, yeah, mean, he's running.
Yeah, he's running everything off of Bloomberg terminal, right?
So I'm sure he has much better tech available to him to make the things he doesrelatively.

(15:59):
Simple.
can.
also their support desk is a main Bloomberg support desk is just, I mean, it's maybe it'schanged.
haven't called Bloomberg support in seven years, but it's so good.
And if the person you're talking to doesn't know that thing, they're like, hold on, I'llgo grab Jamie.
He's got the blah, blah, blah set up and he knows this.
And then then then they get tossed over to the API specialist and then you get tossed overto the so-and-so and you've got this like crazy thing cooking.

(16:24):
It's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's...
expensive, but it is cool.
Yeah, I would love to just sit down and play around with one for a day.
Did you know that at the offices, I don't know what their workplace policy is post COVID,but back in the day, your badge would not let you take the elevator to your floor.

(16:46):
You had to get off like one, two or three, so many floors away from your floor.
That way you had to walk through other business units floors before getting to your desk.
It was a social forcing function.
Interesting.
I mean, unless you're, you know, have a disability, I guess that works out pretty well.

(17:10):
Yeah.
I'm sure Mike could go directly to where he wanted to go.
But I bet Mike is also the kind of person that didn't.
I bet he walked a lot of floors.
Yeah.
that sounds right.
That sounds right.
How big is that building?
I don't have any concept of how many floors they would even occupy.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't know the direct answer or the specific answer.

(17:34):
Okay.
But yeah, interesting company culture over there.
Interesting, yeah.
Well, something to, I guess, consider if you're young and able to get into that industry,I think that would be a pretty cool place to work.
Yeah, I agree.
As a starting point, I think it'd be a great place to work.
Yeah, think it would be, exactly.

(17:58):
That's why I say I think if you're younger in your career, it's probably more realisticthan, I don't think I would have it in me.
today.
I don't know, maybe.
I don't know, like what does demanding mean, you know?
I think it's different once you reach a certain level.
If you're our age and are still a junior analyst or something, you're not going to keepup.

(18:24):
You're not learning enough.
You're not learning fast enough and you have too many demands.
You likely have too many demands at home.
Yeah.
Totally different ballgame.
you'd need to be on the cutting edge of the latest coding.
I haven't coded anything in decades.
Yeah, that's true.
you can just make it happen with the English language.

(18:47):
It's pretty...
If you can organize your thought, like now I'm thinking like if you get a high GMAT orLSAT score...
Mm-hmm.
you're a good prompter.
Therefore you can build anything.
Like if you can think logically and convey that information, that's all that's necessarynow.

(19:07):
That's an interesting point.
think I see that.
We may not be there right, right now, but like we're, we're on a cost, right?
Yeah, I can see that, because so much is like, the power of the prompt I've learned isvery important.
Like you have to really consciously think about what you're trying to get out of it anddescribe it appropriately and the details you give it are what it's gonna give you.

(19:35):
if you're...
you can ask for like what kind of output you want to.
I think that's a very important thing to do.
That's true.
make up whatever it wants.
But if you want five bullet points, it'll give you five bullet points.
Yeah, I've
want structured data or you want it in CSV, it'll do it.
I set up a quote unquote, usual analysis, to dump our, the transcripts into just like runlike the same.

(19:56):
was realizing I must have the same question at a time.
Can I just make this a standard thing?
It's like, yes, we'll make this your usual analysis.
and then like, I didn't give it like the format of the output I wanted the last time.
And it just dumped it out into like an Excel table and like, this is unreadable.
Put this in a bulleted list, please.
Like, you know, it did.
You're like, why would you choose that?
Yeah, but what?

(20:18):
You gave me the least readable possible output.
Well, think there's like the news today is Google just released.
So Google and it was 2017 or something and released a paper.
Google researchers released a paper in 2017 and that that kicked off the LLM revolution,the large language model revolution.
They just released another paper and I think they referred to it as Titan or something.

(20:40):
And it's all in regards to memory.
And, mind you, I had to run to a phone call this morning.
So I got through like a third of the article.
but.
The gist of it was this memory problem, this memory context problem that AI has right nowmay be significantly lessened in the future given this new model from Google research

(21:06):
called Titan.
And I might be mixing up some of my vocabulary so I might not be nailing it, but at theend of the day, it's like instead of, you know, I think right now a lot of AI products,
what the...
The value being given is that the people behind the scenes are adding tons and tons ofcontext to the particular prompt from the user.

(21:30):
The user says, like, here's a picture and like question, what is this?
But in order to get a really, really useful answer out of the AI, adding more context andmore requests about what kind of output you want and what the, the voice of the output to
be in and all that kind of stuff, that all that matters a great deal.

(21:53):
and so that's the value of these like AI wrappers are largely doing right now, but, wheream going?
But the, the bigger context of like, is my, when is AI going to be my like executiveassistant or something?
Right.
Well, it's like, it's not because you're going to spend all of your day trying to likereinsert the context of you inside of every single question as you context switch around

(22:18):
your particular day.
Right.
But with this Titan model or change or whatever, they're saying this memory problem willbe, not what it is currently, right?
So if you, maybe if you had like a custom, let's call it a custom Titan, it will continueto learn you as you integrate and work with it.

(22:46):
That seems, that sounds kind of terrifying.
it makes sense.
Yeah, because like, you know, it's like what you want from your, you know, go figure it'sGoogle and not Apple.
It's what you want from your phone, right?
Like the more you use it, the more it knows you and the more it's like, yeah, itunderstands the context with which you're doing things and understands that.

(23:13):
when you ask it a question exactly what you mean without having to give it a longer promptessentially, right?
Yeah.
To know that I'm a 41 year old male, to know that like, you know, all these differentthings, because it's funny, some of the health, I just did a bunch of blood work.
And, so I was asking Claude about particular numbers and, it's great feedback.
It's way easier than the doctor until you get to a point where like, maybe I still, youknow, maybe you still need to talk to a real one.

(23:40):
But, but I kept thinking about like, what does a doctor know just by like, just the intakeform, if you will.
Right.
And.
Claude doesn't know any of that information.
He's going to need to know certain things about me.
Claude was smart enough to ask a bunch of questions about the places where I didn'tprovide context, but still.

(24:00):
Yeah, you have to think about all these things.
But then in the context of this, know, Claude4U, or whatever you want to call this newTitan thing, it's very interesting that so much of the context and your history would just
be baked in.
Pretty cool.
Yeah, I mean...
It could know everything in your email, right?

(24:20):
It could.
And it could know your search history, know your browsing history, which says a lot abouta person really, when you know those, those things that gives you a really big insight
into a revealed preference, you know, the revealed preferences of a person.
Yeah, the thing that people often aren't honest with themselves about.

(24:40):
Exactly, but this is what you really searched, what you really clicked on when I gave youthe, this is the one you actually chose, so.
Yeah, we know you like Newsmax.
Yeah, so Google is probably going to do better than Apple in this arena then for a whilefrom what I'm hearing.

(25:04):
Or is it going to be something that is easily adapted by everybody?
Yeah, I think that's, I think that's it.
It's going to be a paradigm shift and it's just going to play out slightly differentlyacross the already existing and also incoming AI companies.
know, the GPT, the, that 2017 paper by Google was about transformers and GPT stands forlike general something, something transformer.

(25:33):
so like open AI stuff.
is built off of this research that was done at Google.
And so with this Titan stuff being released, mean, my imagination says that they couldhave kept it secret if it was going to be like, I don't know, but they didn't.
I don't, you know, and I'm not, I don't know these things well enough to be like, theyreleased everything you need to know.

(25:55):
Or is it just more like they released enough to be like, ha ha, we have it.
You don't, I don't know.
But with AI, Apple's approach to this is completely different, right?
Like they want more localized processing, micro LLMs on the phone, the handling of privacyand data from their standpoint is just a completely different model than what Google would

(26:24):
choose.
the data privacy around all of this is going to be interesting to me and how it develops.
cause that I think will.
could limit the power of some of these tools.
Like good privacy could limit the power of some of these tools, but if you're not able to,yeah.
because of HIPAA and privacy.

(26:45):
it'll be interesting to see how we decide to tackle that and how companies can build, youknow, security in a way to make sure that if you do want to include sensitive information,
cause it'll make the out, you know, the output better that there's a way to keep it secureand private and segregated from not just, you know, the general access, I guess, or, you
know, Mal, Mal, Mal, the actors, bad actors coming in and getting their hands on.

(27:09):
Well, that's, I mean, that's just, that's a risk.
cyber security will always be a thing.
What could a bad actor do with your health data?
realistically.
Outside of social security number, you're asking the wrong person because I feel like Idon't understand.
Other than the only other thing that I can think of is that you've completely hidden somesort of illness from an insurance company or something.

(27:38):
Or the American public, as in the West Wing.
Yes.
which I am now watching for the first time 25 years later.
So I'm nice and current with what I'm doing, yeah, could be like that, you know, if youwant to hide your MS from everybody.
Hold on.

(27:58):
you, I'm a big West Wing fan, have been for ever.
I used to watch it with my mom.
And you had sent me that, you know, if I was familiar with the West Wing or whatever, andI said yes, and that you were getting back into it.
And you you said something about like, like it's relatable to today or something.
Could you expand on that?

(28:20):
Yeah, well no, mean just like all the- all the little- all the little-
All the issues are...
Yeah.
one and two, maybe you started three.
I just went into you just started three like just started three like the first coupleepisodes Which you know is wait they do the 9-eleven episode at the start of season three
which doesn't fit in with anything else but it's like just a because it happened they Youknow had this weird episode kind of bottle episode addressing 9-eleven

(28:45):
Sorkin left because he had to go to rehab or something.
So you can kind throw those seasons out and then it comes back later.
Good to know.
Good to know.
But the, a lot of the same issues that we were seeing today around, I'm trying to thinklike healthcare around the courts, you know, how people, well, that's just timeless as you

(29:13):
know, you know, people get appointed to the courts.
That's just, that's a timeless thing.
Education was a big, has been a, was a big topic in the early season.
and I'm trying to remember, like there were a couple of specific, like topics that cameup, like issues that came up and like, man, I feel like we're talking about those issues
the same way today.
And it, it, it still feels timely the way they're having the discussion is what I was,what I was saying.

(29:36):
trying to say, but now I can't, it's been a couple of weeks since I've, seen thoseepisodes and I don't remember what, what, what the topics were, the issues were.
But you're liking it.
You're liking the show.
It's amazing how well it's held up.
Like I think as far as it doesn't feel particularly dated, doesn't feel, you know,doesn't, it doesn't feel out of time at this point.

(29:57):
I think it still feels.
think one of the first shows that was shot the way that it shot, which is a moving camera,very quick.
So like it feels fat.
Like then I think it felt turboed.
Now today it feels matched, even though it's a 20 year old show, right?
Cause everything just keeps cuts, keep getting faster the whole bit.

(30:18):
Yeah, that's a good observation.
Cause I think, yeah, if I watched other dramas around that timeframe, probably a lotslower pace.
Yeah, fewer cameras.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
you know, Sorkin's dialogue is Sorkin's dialogue.
He's just he's known for this, know, very dense, information rich, like nobody canactually speak like that because you I don't like you'd have to be

(30:42):
went to rehab for.
So is it just as good when he gets out of rehab or is it is it not as good?
Fair question.
No, but I couldn't agree more.
That was later on and he had very much the same style, right?
Same style, no, that dude's brain is definitely, yeah, he's good at dialogue.
It's sharp, it's character rich,

(31:05):
Mm-hmm.
I wish I could develop a character the way he has on some of these.
Like, it's like, man, those are, you he does a good job of building them out as wholepeople, I will say, in terms of, and the way they, you know, start weaving in some of the
history of the people in season two and how they got into the roles.
And because it is a TV show, they get to make some mistakes that like people wouldn't beable to in real life.

(31:33):
Yeah, that's true.
I'm like, some of it's like, there's no way this is actually the way this hat this thinghappens.
But maybe it is.
don't know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, also, who am I to judge?
Yeah, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on.
The government is a weird thing.
It makes me want to go to Washington DC, I think for a trip and take like three or fourdays.
And I've never, I've never actually visited DC.
yeah.

(31:53):
So I'm feeling, I'm feeling the itch to go and, know, check out the Smithsonian and walkaround the national mall and see it for the, for myself for the first time.
I don't know.
Do it.
Yeah.
Beautiful city.
Yeah, that's what I here.
Anyway, well, what's new with you, Dan?
I think we never really got around to that.

(32:13):
good question.
it's like four here or something and snowy.
so there's a little cabin fever going on.
but it was like 60 on Thursday.
We're recording on Sunday.
So, so, you know, we had a nice break going into it then we got dumped on a bit of snowand it got super cold.

(32:34):
And, yeah, this weekend has just sort of been like hunker down, cookies and all that kindof stuff.
So it's been good, but I think we're all ready to like.
Leave the house.
It doesn't take long when kids are my age, guess.
What else?
No, I've been cooking on the Nat Eliason coding with AI stuff.

(32:55):
I've been having a lot of fun with it.
It's been drawing me in.
It's kind of hard to like not keep going, even though my brain sometimes is like, you'redone now.
Or there's other things I have to do that I don't want to do.
You know.

(33:16):
That's exciting, I'm glad to hear that's the experience you're having with it.
it makes me super excited.
That's hard to do sometimes.
yeah, totally.
Yeah, I put on some music and I just go and it's really, it feels like, what does it feellike?

(33:37):
It feels like earlier in my career when it was just like, there's this long, but veryknown to do list.
And I, I just, I need to put my head down and jam and get through this project.
Right.
there's something similar to it with that.
It's sort of like,
But then, but then the side quests that sort of develop as you go are welcome.

(34:00):
They aren't like more work.
They're like, this feature makes sense.
Let's add that and see if I can get that to work and without breaking everything else.
cause there, there is very much a like, okay, well that worked.
And now the five things we just got done building don't work.
And you know, you're building with Claude doing the programming.

(34:22):
Mm-hmm.
And if you don't know how to code, there's definitely some, you know, difficulties, let'ssay, and honing.
an error if it does exist, probably.
And then honing down Claude's attention on a particular thing or finding the right contextto submit to it.

(34:43):
There was, there was one error that I was looping.
I looped through this error like seven times, right?
And I was like, I might just go back a lot and start rebuilding.
then I forget what happened, but I realized the error was being triggered by this one codewithin this one file.
I added that as context and,
Fixed it.

(35:04):
So sometimes it's about finding the right spotlight.
Okay.
Other than that, we've just been kind of, Doing all my regular things and then this, likein every free waking moment.
Yeah, which is why like I'm fast on Nat's heels as he creates these things.

(35:25):
Okay.
How are, how's the year starting for the picture business?
Not bad.
You know, down year over year, but moving in the right direction.
Yeah.
So hopefully.
continued positive trend from a couple of months ago or good.

(35:49):
Yeah.
Think it'll be okay, but we'll see.
Yeah.
You said your voice seems a little less tense when you're talking about it.
So that's good.
Yeah.
No, I mean, like the context here is that like, you know, when you basically LBO at abusiness, like I did, you have to keep it up at a very particular level.

(36:12):
Otherwise you stop paying bills pretty quickly.
It's not like, you get to take home less money.
It's like, it happens very fast and suddenly.
and, and we were sort of,
You know, we could see the writing on the wall of like, this, this, you know, if we don'tchange something here, things are going to get uncomfortable pretty quickly.

(36:35):
And yeah, it seems as though the boat is now turning in the right direction, but it's abig slow boat.
we need, we need some, some weeks under our belt to make sure that the trend continues andisn't just some sort of, you know.
revenue jumps all over the place day to day, right?

(36:56):
So we need to just smooth that out and see, make sure the trend line is moving in theright direction.
But at this point, the data says yes.
That's good, that's good.
I didn't really consider how much variance you probably have in your daily revenue.
It's probably quite volatile.
A little bit.
mean, you know, both of our businesses are surprisingly consistent compared to like lotsof other e-commerce, especially e-commerce where like there's a whole bunch of people who

(37:22):
make all like, they make almost all their revenue in the quarter four, you know?
and then I know some other people that are in like outdoor sports, like they sell kayaksor something like that.
And it's three quarters of the revenue in summer and that's it.
But they're buying all their inventory in December.
You know, so it's like a real hard cash game.

(37:44):
but yeah, ours are a little bit more like spread throughout the year, which is good.
It's easier to manage that way.
Yeah, that is a little easier to manage and not have to worry about.
Like I would think if you have a seasonal business where you're getting one, your revenuein one quarter, like budgeting would just be so tricky.
Well, demand planning too.

(38:05):
Like if I go out of stock on an item.
I can get more stock.
Like I'm going to be pissed off that I went out on a stock.
Amazon's going to be really pissed off that I went out of stock and I'm going to getpunished for it and the whole thing.
But it isn't that I missed out on that year.
I'm going to miss out on some weeks probably.
Whereas if I, if, if I sell, you know, 98 % of my revenue was made in Q4, but I've got tobuy all the things in Q2.

(38:33):
put in the orders for everything in Q2.
I have to know how many I'm going to sell in Q4.
Otherwise, if I have extra, I've got to liquidate them.
Or I don't have enough, then I've left money on the table.
I don't know how people do it.
I mean, I know there's people that are really good at that game, but...
Yeah.
Blows my mind.
I mean, there's, know, as the line goes, there's zero people in the forecasters, hall offame, right?

(38:59):
it's impossible to do accurately I'm sure there's certain industries where that's not thecase, that things are pretty predictable, like toothpaste, you know, I bet that, I bet
Procter & Gamble has that forecast figured out pretty well, but.
Yeah.
Certain like seasonal items.
It's I, I don't know how, who knows what's going to catch the attention of everybody nextyear.

(39:23):
Right.
So much of it's about like, look at what happened to Peloton that, that quarter, everybodyhad their attention on Peloton and they just, you know, everybody wanted one and it was a
cool trendy thing to have and everybody was getting them.
And then now not so much.
a bunch of money trying to meet that demand because a lot of times to meet it, you have tooverspend.
then you destroy your margins, yeah.

(39:45):
Yeah.
Trying to do in-house manufacturing.
think they bid off more than they could chew and really hurt their profitability from whatI remember reading at the time.
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
But yeah, I mean, if you're, you know, Academy and trying to decide what bikes or kayaksto stock, mean, shit.

(40:06):
Yeah.
Good luck.
Those are very smart buyers out there.
know that do it for them.
I don't know.
I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's a good amount of luck involved with there too, but I'msome people, I'm sure there's a skill.
This is what we have.
We're going to sell it.
Right.
don't, we have too much of this.
You need to turn up the dial.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(40:26):
Marketing.
think, I forget how powerful that probably is.
And like the tools they actually use, which is why, which is why.
on the direct marketing and also the indirect.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
You know, which again is why Amazon and Google eat all the, all the margin eventually,right?

(40:47):
Through ads and marketing.
Yeah.
Amazon takes about 40 cents on the dollar.
Just period.
That's just operations.
If you're using FBA and then since it's pay to play, you basically like will eventually goout of business if you don't use their ads machine.

(41:07):
So basically call it 60 cents on
insane.
That is insane.
And no obvious competitors in sight, guess maybe other than Walmart's marketplace, butreally even them.
No obvious competitors in sight.
There you have it.
this kind of goes back to like a stated versus revealed preference.

(41:28):
Everyone I know come bitches and moans about Amazon's power, but do they buy anywhereelse?
Mostly not.
No.
Really?
I mean...
Like Walmart is a real alternative for most people.
Like, they're everywhere in this country.
They are.
And, I mean...
the breadth of...
items either.
No, it's a much more curated selection, right?

(41:50):
But again, it's that, yeah, fair enough.
they haven't.
They haven't gone to China the way Amazon has.
tries to get Amazon, I mean, tries to get Chinese businesses to kill American businessesthat operate on Amazon.
Like they help them, is my statement.

(42:15):
And then the American system like helps further by not taxing any of the Chinese entities.
Can you give any examples of how that assistance is rendered?
Every single help article is in English and Chinese.
I'm sure it's in other languages now too, but if you receive any of the email blasts as aseller, it's English and Chinese.

(42:39):
More than 50 % of all third-party sellers are now Chinese.
and whether it's like highly documented or not, I think there's plenty of evidence showingthat Amazon, like people go to China and try to get more Chinese sellers turned onto the
platform.
But then they'll play whack-a-mole with them too.

(43:00):
cause the Chinese have no ramifications, right?
Like if they try to skirt tariffs, they'll just shut it down.
They don't need to worry about paying the tariffs.
There's no penalty.
because the US government doesn't have reach into this Chinese system or CCP or anythinglike that, nor does the CCP care of what they do to American business.
So if you skirt tariff law and thereby, you know, being able to sell your item for $3instead of an American seller having to sell it for five because the American seller is

(43:31):
paying income taxes and tariffs on the imported good.
Mm-hmm.
But the Chinese seller skirted the tariff and doesn't pay income taxes.
Right?
So this is how it all kind of up playing.
That's quite a dire sounding situation really.

(43:51):
It feels like, yeah.
I mean.
is people want more and they want more junk and they want it cheaper.
Yeah, that's what people are buying, right?
They're looking at, they're buying the, often the lowest cost thing of whatever it is.
Huh.
How do you fix this,
You have, sounds like you have to actually enforce tariffs that are, would be in place,right?

(44:15):
If you're not actually enforcing the tariffs and what good are they doing?
They're just hurting everybody else.
So.
they're more, seems this is very much like not set and the rest of the stuff is real.
This for me is an opinion.
It feels like they're more apt to punish the people playing games with the tariff codesand all that kind of stuff if they're American, because then you have someone to enforce

(44:44):
it against.
But if they're just Chinese, then what?
All you do is.
throw away the container.
There's no other further action you can take.
Yeah, you're not gonna be able to...
can be full of fentanyl and it's like, we can't go after those people.
You can destroy the container, but you're not getting any help in enforcing.

(45:06):
So.
No, exactly.
If the government party on the other end is not willing to help or actively be a partnerin a system and say, yeah, we're going to control this trade more tightly, then you're
never going to do it completely remotely.
than just, yeah, like not living the goods in and throwing away whatever shows up becauseit wasn't brought in properly.

(45:33):
I don't know what you do, if you're right.
So those goods come in and they go to like an Amazon fulfillment center essentially,right?
Mm-hmm, yeah.
How do...
I don't see how they would get around...
Who pays the tariffs?
The importers paying the tariffs.
So the importer is the Chinese company themselves, right?

(45:54):
Haaaa
I if it goes there.
So what you're saying is you're basically putting on the wrong harmonized tariff codes,the wrong HTC codes to drive like different tariff, like drive them into different tariff
buckets essentially.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm not saying all of them do it.
It's just one way.
There's lots of different games to be played here.
yeah, if there's money to be made, people will find the game to play to make it.

(46:17):
not gonna go play risk with breaking federal law and going to prison over this, right?
Whereas the Chinese where it's like, oh, well, we could save $30,000 on this container.
And that's why your thing is $1.98 instead of $3.
Hmm.
Well, you know what won't fix it is more regulation.
It's like, we'll just make a cert, make it so that all the goods are certified.

(46:42):
So, know, you're buying a, you know, certified tariff paid somehow.
no.
certified tariff paid that is I could see it happening though you
Like the tax stamp on a bottle of liquor.

(47:03):
At least in Texas, they have to put tax stamps on everything.
tax stamps, the tax, alcohol, like the excise tax.
Yeah, yeah, like they have they have to pay, know, when they're initially distributing itthat it's been taxed at the appropriate level.
so, like, because there certain spots that don't pay that, like, I guess it's the yeah, itis paid differently or by or by distributors, like, because we have a three tiered system

(47:28):
here, most places, I think that I don't know where the tax falls.
Exactly.
I mean, ultimately on the consumer, but I don't know where it's at the the transaction.
happened.
It's actually the taxable transaction.
But what happens they put a sticker on it.
And yeah, like if you're at a bar and they empty a bottle, they it's the state law thatthey go and they have to scrape the sticker off so they can't just refill it with non tax

(47:54):
liquor.
So you could create a certified taxed Amazon product, but again, I don't know that moreregulation is the answer necessarily.
Yeah, no, I think I was just working over here trying to pull up a tweet that youtriggered me into remembering.
I think all we have to do is enforce laws that are already on the table.

(48:16):
We just aren't enforcing them.
If this is correct.
So this is from a guy I follow on Twitter.
I'm going to butcher the pronunciation of his name, but it's Shingy.
He used to work way back in the day.
He used to work on Amazon and then he started an e-commerce store and he's been in thee-com game a long time now.
And so he tweets at Doge.
Hey, Doge, I think I found a few billion just by auditing whether or not foreign sellerson Amazon pay taxes.

(48:45):
and I think this is a chat with like, well, I'll just give you the links and stuff so youcan post it, but, I don't have, he didn't post the actual question, but the answer is
generally no.
Amazon does not typically issue 10 99 Ks to foreign sellers.
Hmm.
I was just looking up a 1099k.
I'd never heard of that form.
Yeah.

(49:06):
Looks like a joy.
Anyway, the end of the, the summary of the prompt that he's posting here is if thatcompany is indeed operating as a foreign entity and not reporting us income, they likely
are not receiving a 10 99 K from Amazon.
However, this does not absolve them of their potential U.S.
tax obligations.
This is a key point for the IRS to investigate as it suggests potential ca tax evasion.

(49:29):
Makes sense.
And there's like a follow-on tweet that I'm trying to load, but it won't load.
the, I think the moral of story is like, until this goes to court, there's been no likeprecedent set, but once it's decided in a decently upper court or something, then the
precedent will be set.

(49:51):
you know, then these foreign, because this is foreign, this is income made in the UnitedStates that ought to be taxed.
Mm-hmm.
maybe I just don't understand the system well enough, but you know, if I make the money, Igot to pay the taxes.
I don't, I don't see why if they're making money off of U.S.
consumers that they wouldn't also be taxed.

(50:12):
Shouldn't that be money that was made here?
would think so.
Otherwise, you're going to give every foreign seller just an ungodly advantage againstlike that's not why.
You know, we do have some protections and you know, that's why we have tariffs is to tryto protect our you know,
Okay, okay, I got it, Sean.

(50:32):
I got it.
You ready?
What book are you reading right now?
Or what book are we supposed to be reading right now?
So what does it stop?
If like, as things go more borderless, like they do in this book or purport to in thisbook, then if, if I see this advantage from the Chinese sellers and I'm like, okay, well,

(50:54):
this isn't just Amazon.
This is like the entirety of the United States economy.
Why shouldn't I?
just move to Vietnam.
Outside of my family life and connection to friends and community, whatever, but like, orfrankly, like Singapore is not out of the realm of possibilities, right?

(51:14):
Go to Singapore, live a very Westernized nice life with high connection to East Asia.
pay very little in taxes, and completely skirt U.S.
income loss.
Like what?
of living in Singapore is probably more than Vietnam, from my understanding.
So you might have a disadvantage with the cost of living, but no, you're absolutely right.

(51:35):
that's one of their central arguments, right?
Is that if people are able to digitally escape tax burden, they will.
And this is where I think one of the things that's wrong with this book is like, I don'tthink countries are going to stand, I'd lay by and do nothing.
However, me right now, that's how I feel my country is doing because billions of dollarsare being made by Chinese sellers and not being taxed.

(52:02):
And it's all money being made in the United States through United States businesses.
I think there should be an income tax on it.
You're free to make money and participate in our system.
But
You got to pay the same taxes.
You got to pay the base level tax that everyone else pays.
I would agree with that.
And it's a shame that that's not actually what's happening or being enforced if that's,you know, or that's what you're seeing.

(52:24):
Yeah, because like, that's one of the reasons I feel that their argument is wrong is thatgovernments won't stand out by or that they also seem to almost in a way argue that they
won't be able to actually have control over this.
I think we've seen that with the way we, you know,
TikTok is no longer in the United States.

(52:44):
So they were able to control that, right?
So...
And not the first time in history that they've done something like that.
Needed to with a foreign adversary.
be control implemented or that there's not going to be a desire to, because you know what?
Like I think their argument is valid if you're ultra rich and that's about for it.
And so that's, that's, you know, one, 2%, the other 98 % of the people are going to standup and do something.

(53:10):
I would think at some point.
So, I don't, I, I, yeah, the more I listen and get through that book, the more I'm like,these guys are just not.
They're taking something that's in their heads and applying it so broadly against thepopulation of people in the world.
And I think that's one of the mistakes is, you know, I moved away from home and I haven'treturned.

(53:35):
I've lived all over the country and traveled the world and I'm lucky to have done all ofthese things.
And I'm in no way promoting my way of doing it, nor am I putting someone else down thatchose a different path.
However, the majority of people do not leave home.
Mm-hmm.
They're not going to leave the comforts of home.
was just watching like Blade Runner 2049 the other day.

(53:55):
And it's like, man, if LA looked like that, why would anyone stay?
It's like, because that's their entire world.
They've known it since they were born.
That's where their whole entire community is.
It's really hard to leave the fabric of the place of where you're from.
And I think it can be distinctly American, but, um,

(54:17):
These two guys I feel like are this way.
They're just wired.
They're like, why wouldn't you just choose the best, the best situation that's availableto you with no regard to the other, things going on.
That's a very good summary of the way that book makes me feel.
Which is by and large frustrated.

(54:39):
Yeah, okay wait, like I want to know more about that.
Frustrated like what?
that they keep taking like these, these like recurring themes of talking about how, wellback before technology, when, um, you know, we were more feudal Lords and we're going to
atomize to be, you know, the city state, like before the city state was in power, it waslike this.

(55:00):
And their, argument is that the city state's going to, you know, collapse and that we'regoing to go back to that, you know, more feudal Lord type situation in a way.
And, and, uh, there, they keep repeating the same.
I feel like weak arguments or the same, they're, trying to paint the picture, using,historical details And I keep feeling like they're grabbing irrelevant details.

(55:27):
I don't know.
It just, it doesn't feel, it doesn't feel I'm frustrated because I feel like, okay, you'veexplored this idea and you keep exploring it, but you're not giving me anything new as you
explore it.
and I think the core of the idea itself is kind of bunk.
So it's just frustrating all around.
Okay, what is it?
as one to skip and get the Cliff Notes, y'all.
Yeah, I very much agree on that one.

(55:50):
What?
There's something that.
I had caught to a summary of Carl Jung the other day.
Really good.
You mentioned you were getting into Jung
Yeah, well here I'll give you the couple quotes that like grab my attention and are makingme like dive in a little bit.
But first, there.

(56:13):
What were we just saying with the...
Benjamin Disraeli.
He was a prime minister out of Britain, I think.
There's a quote that Chris Williamson of the Modern Wisdom podcast that he pulls out ofhis pocket every so often.
And it's something along the lines of an American first lady is at dinner with a Britishprime minister and the one at the time.

(56:41):
I forget the guy's name and then the next time she had dinner, it was a different primeminister.
I think it was Disraeli and Her comment was well the the first one whoever was Made methink that he was the smartest man in the From then sitting with Disraeli and maybe I'm

(57:01):
getting him backwards Sitting was Disraeli.
He made me feel like the smartest person in the world
And it was more or less not in like how people perceive you, but how can you make peopleperceive themselves?
Yeah.
And the sovereign individual, Peter Thiel the whole, the whole bit, the, the, makes mefeel like if I were at a table having a conversation with them, I would be very much

(57:27):
enthralled and impressed with their intelligence, but at no point would they have made mefeel anything about myself.
I think that is an apt description.
get that statement.
I can understand that emotion very much.
I would feel, I see it, I feel it.
Yeah, I mean, you know, smart guys really, really put their heart and soul into this book.

(57:51):
But anyway, cliff notes.
That's yeah.
Okay.
So a couple, a couple of Carl Jung quotes that have found me here and have made me want todive into him a little bit more.
The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parents.
So is that in relation because of what the parents then put their children through?

(58:14):
Or then is it in relation to the parent, the child seeing?
their parents and...
Read the quote one more time.
The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parents.
Yes.
Okay.
So is it the burden of seeing like your aging parents and them not having lived theirdreams and, or is it the burden of the parent putting on their unlived dreams on the

(58:39):
child?
Does that make sense?
Like those are the two ways I was trying to figure out which, which way is theinterpretation that he's going for.
because I think both would be valid.
Yeah, I think both would be valid.
I would need more context to be able to give you an answer of like what he specificallywas trying to convey.
But inside that quote, I'm right there with you.
think both of them, but I think the more powerful one is probably the one that affects thechild when they're younger, which would be the, the parent who basically is moping around,

(59:08):
not having realized what they feel they should have realized of themselves.
Right.
Or, or the most toxic version would be.
You, child.
You stole my life from me.
Yes.
Yeah, you're right.
I think that's it.
I think that's it.
That's the most dangerous one.
I think you're right.

(59:30):
saying that out loud breaks my heart.
because it happens to kids.
It's too bad.
I mean...
It really does, it does happen to kids.
Which is a shame in this modern day with access to, know, should have ready access tobirth control and measures to make that not the case, but still happens.

(59:56):
you know, and people I think, you know, their parents out there having kids for all numberof reasons and some of them probably aren't so good, so.
It's always been that way.
I think there's a lot less village support now though, because we don't live in tinylittle enclaves.
We need large systems and large systems are not necessarily fit for this job so much.

(01:00:18):
Not that they don't work, it's just not the same.
It's not the same kind of fabric.
No, no it's not.
Yeah, it's not.
I wanna bring the mood back up.
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call itfate.
I like that one.

(01:00:44):
We've talked about the thought before of having self-talk that becomes self-perpetuatingand manifesting, right?
This is the saying, you can do that unconsciously, essentially.
And if you don't think about it and bring it to the top of mind and understand naming thedemon, right?
It's kind of that old allegory of if you wanted

(01:01:05):
If you want to get rid of the demon, have to know it, say its name.
it's just the awareness of, yeah.
you know, I think, I think those, that, that, that allegory, in a way is tied to people'sinternal internal struggles with their internal demons and, know, having to face them and
just facing, facing it and saying its name, bringing, bringing, you know, to forerunnerconsciousness takes it then the power away from it.

(01:01:33):
Yeah.
in a way, is how I interpret that quote at least.
I don't know, why did it strike you so deeply?
I think for me
I think there's an easy way out often.
And in this context, it would be, why did that happen to you?
Well, it was fate.
That's the easy way out.

(01:01:53):
Mm-hmm.
And not taking ownership or accountability.
ownership accountability and also this like I'm going go back to this radical acceptanceright like.
Maybe you can change fate.
Or maybe there is no fate.
I don't know, just all of this, this is woo that goes on.

(01:02:14):
And like letting your heart get a little closer to the woo and accepting that you mighthave more power than you think.
And if you're willing to walk into the fire, you have a whole bunch more power than mostof those around you.

(01:02:35):
And yeah, something about this marrying of this unconscious conscious, paying moreattention to what's going on.
I don't know, I start losing words here, but yeah.
It's interesting.
Have we talked about telepathy tapes yet?
I don't think we've talked about it online.
Let's save that for tomorrow, because I think we can get into that deep.

(01:03:00):
It's gonna be real hard for me to talk about it because I don't know how to talk about it,but it's incredible.
let, let me think about it because yeah.
I, yeah, I've gotten so many people to listen to it so far.
I've gotten, I don't know, half dozen people, which is pretty good.
Uh, honestly getting people to engage with the podcast.

(01:03:21):
It's hard to do.
Um, yeah.
And, uh, everybody I've let's listen to it on my recommendation has come back and been.
had their mind thoroughly blown and yeah, I'd like to talk a little bit about that it's insome depth, but I don't know what depth now that I'm thinking about it.
know what depth either.
Yeah, it's going to be weird.

(01:03:45):
It'll be weird.
a weird spot to dive off the cliff tomorrow, so to speak.
Yeah, okay.
So here's another quote that found me since we talked about Bloomberg earlier and Mikespecifically comes from him.
It's in relation to some Henry Singleton quotes that were basically like, no, I don'tplan.
I wake up and I figure out like, how I'm going to do that day.

(01:04:07):
So Michael Bloomberg, I never let planning get in the way of doing.
Don't devise a five-year plan.
Central planning didn't work for Stalin or Mao.
It won't work for an entrepreneur either.
I love it.
absolutely love it.
yeah, cause so much planning is based off of forecasting.
again, there's nobody in the forecasters hall of fame.

(01:04:28):
So, yeah.
gonna be disappointed when you don't meet your plan because the world changed on you.
And then you're gonna blame yourself when in fact it was the world and your lousy plan.
And that's why you should focus on goals that are like leading like number of bike rides,not number of pounds lost.
It's, you know, the things you can do to actually influence the outcome, focus on thoseand go with God on the rest because, it's out of your control a lot of times and you, you,

(01:05:02):
you're going to have to just ride the wave and you know, you know, make the turns when youneed to.
I don't know.
I'm a bad.
mixed metaphor there on surfing, but...
And you will call it fate.
And you will call it fate.
no, the, the point of not calling it the part of not calling it fate is like doingaddressing the things you can, right.

(01:05:26):
And, and, and doing the things that are in your control.
And that's, know, as much control as you have, but there is a certain amount of fate andluck and yeah, there, there is, but you gotta be out there swinging when the, know, when,
yeah, otherwise you're never going to get lucky.
So.

(01:05:47):
Yeah.
All right.
Well, let's put it there, Sean.
Dan, it's been fun.
Excellent work.
First, first recording session of the year took us.
think we got back into the groove here.
I'm looking forward to get another rep in tomorrow and continue to build the muscle.
I guess until next time everybody, we'll
I was gonna say something, I lost it.

(01:06:09):
I guess until next time everybody, thank you for joining us.
Shout out to us on Twitter.
us a like, give us a subscribe if you haven't already.
Toodles.
Toodles.