0:00

All right, we're just gonna do it.

0:02

We're gonna talk about the slurry of

0:04

what's on my mind, and I think all

0:06

of it, I don't even know if I

0:09

should attempt to find an intersection

0:11

point, but if there is one,

0:13

it's intersecting at money. Let

0:15

me take a sip of this cold tea,

0:17

and the tea has changed, folks. I'm

0:20

in Florida. We've traveled the world

0:22

and made it down here to Florida,

0:24

and I no longer have a sick

0:26

tea set up, and I... just bought

0:29

some bags from the local Publix. If

0:31

you're familiar with Florida, they

0:33

probably have Publix everywhere. They

0:35

don't have it where I live,

0:38

but in Florida it seems like

0:40

there's literally a Publix on every

0:42

block. They have a horrible tea

0:44

section, by the way. Publix, you

0:46

should be ashamed of yourself. Publix

0:48

is the wannabe Wagmans, and it

0:50

just, it's not even close. They

0:52

can't even do it. But I

0:54

am grateful for Pub. from a

0:57

like a garbage tea bag in an

0:59

Airbnb mug and there's just

1:01

swill at the bottom at this

1:03

point. It tastes like anyway. If

1:06

you hear there's somebody

1:08

mowing the lawn right next to

1:10

me and I actually kind of

1:12

like it because without it I

1:14

feel like all the neighbors can

1:16

hear me talking if I'm recording

1:18

a podcast so I hope you

1:21

like the noise. I'm using... speech

1:23

denoise feature on audio hijack. And

1:25

so if it sounds any bit

1:27

good, thank speech denoiser. I'm also

1:30

on a new mic that I

1:32

just bought to try out. It's

1:34

the DJI mic. It's actually like

1:37

the old version because it's cheaper

1:39

on Amazon. It's that lapel with

1:41

the like fuzzy wind screen muff

1:43

thing, troll hair that you see

1:46

like a bunch of YouTubeers

1:48

wearing. I'm thinking this could be

1:50

like a really cool mobile podcasting setup.

1:52

If I can get it to work, if

1:54

I can get the audio to sound good

1:57

enough, this will be actually kind of sick

1:59

to have this. this tiny little thing

2:01

instead of my MV7 that I

2:03

travel with. All right, so we're

2:06

gonna talk about stuff. We gotta

2:08

talk about fear and competition and

2:10

money and stability and AI and

2:12

everything because these are all things

2:15

that have been swirling around my

2:17

brain. So yeah, so specifically, I

2:19

have this feeling. of instability and

2:21

kind of dread and I wonder

2:24

how much this is fed by

2:26

like AI being even more on

2:28

the scene right now but it

2:30

just seems like it seems like

2:33

a lot of friends of mine

2:35

and people just in this industry

2:37

and community it's like salaries seem

2:39

like they're going down and jobs

2:42

seem like they're evaporating and even

2:44

and it was like yeah okay

2:46

Don't be beholden to the job,

2:49

go be an entrepreneur. And I

2:51

feel like it's also very hard

2:53

to do that now because the

2:55

playbook that I knew may all,

2:58

it's a changing world and yeah,

3:00

what does it mean to adapt?

3:02

Am I capable of adapting? Let's

3:04

say I'm gonna try not to

3:07

like, well, yeah, if it all

3:09

evaporates, if my business evaporates, which

3:11

it could. What am I gonna

3:13

do? And so some of this

3:16

comes with like, I've been thinking

3:18

a lot about competition and competitiveness

3:20

and please don't wake up Knox.

3:22

Oh buddy, please don't wake up.

3:25

All right, I've been thinking about

3:27

competition, competitiveness. Oh no, the baby

3:29

is awake. This is disaster. This

3:31

is absolute disaster. Okay. Alright, so

3:34

where does like, where does, like,

3:36

where does, competitive, nah, I don't

3:38

even know what angle to take.

3:41

All I know is what I've

3:43

realized more and more these days

3:45

is that I have this fear

3:47

of instability and this fear of

3:50

not being able to feed my

3:52

family is the word, this feeding

3:54

family word that gets thrown around.

3:56

I've, I always actually didn't like

3:59

it, and I think I still

4:01

don't, but I find myself using

4:03

it in my head of like,

4:05

if If you are, like part

4:08

of being competitive is like, I

4:10

think, I think the root of

4:12

competition, there's a root of competition

4:14

that is like a fear. There's

4:17

like fear mixed with desire, you

4:19

know. It's this combination of fear

4:21

and desire. And then that turns

4:23

into like aggression in some form,

4:26

you know, like on the football

4:28

field, I imagine that this is,

4:30

you're afraid of losing. what you've

4:32

been working towards, I guess, and

4:35

that's the desire. I don't know.

4:37

I'm not gonna attempt to make

4:39

this make sense. Football just seems

4:42

topical because of the Super Bowl.

4:44

Also, I think in Florida, the

4:46

Super Bowl is not as watched.

4:48

At least around here, it definitely

4:51

seems like football is not what

4:53

it is in Buffalo. Buffalo is

4:55

like, when there's a bills game

4:57

on, there is no one in

5:00

the streets. Only people in their

5:02

garage is yelling. there's a football

5:04

game going on. Anyway, so yeah,

5:06

where were we? Competitiveness feeding your

5:09

family. So I've realized that, so

5:11

I always find myself in these

5:13

places, and I often talk about

5:15

them on here, of being, of

5:18

like, you know, the, like when

5:20

you're playing Smash Bros. and there's

5:22

like, like, you try to unlock

5:24

you get to unlock a new

5:27

character and it says another phone

5:29

approaching or a new foe is

5:31

approaching. And that's just what it

5:34

feels like in business for me.

5:36

There's always another foe approaching. What's

5:38

the foe this time? And it's

5:40

the cycle of fear and then

5:43

aggression and it's the slurry of

5:45

fear desire and aggression and it's

5:47

emotional and it's a roller coaster

5:49

and it's a lot to deal

5:52

with. But what I've been reflecting

5:54

on like this time, it's like...

5:56

I have this fear of not

5:58

being able to feed my family

6:01

because what I picture is like,

6:03

this is why it's hard, it's

6:05

like you're supposed to be, you're

6:07

supposed to not care when people

6:10

compete with you, you know, you're

6:12

supposed to not care. And it's

6:14

supposed to be like friendly competition.

6:16

Yeah, like if you're playing a

6:19

game, it's friendly competition. If you're

6:21

playing like, like, whatever, a sports

6:23

ball game. You, because you, well,

6:25

even that in a sense, but...

6:28

Whatever. You're not a professional player.

6:30

You're playing a freaking game, a

6:32

dodge ball, friendly competition. You still

6:35

want to win. You want to

6:37

beat your friends. But it's fine

6:39

if you don't, and you're fine

6:41

if they win, whatever. The problem

6:44

with business competition is it feels

6:46

like when someone is competing with

6:48

you, they're taking food out of

6:50

your family's mouth. This fundamentally changes

6:53

everything. And this is why. And

6:55

this is why. This is why

6:57

money changes everything, because now it

6:59

turns into your livelihood, it turns

7:02

into the hopes you have for

7:04

your life, the dreams you have

7:06

for your life, and also the

7:08

stability in your life, the ability

7:11

to literally feed your family and

7:13

house your family and take care

7:15

of their basic needs, all could

7:17

be taken away by someone else

7:20

in the form of competition. So

7:22

naturally, it's way more loaded. than

7:24

a friendly game of dodgeball. It's

7:27

a different type of competition. It's

7:29

like, oh, I. I just love

7:31

the competition. No, it's not like

7:33

that. It's literally like competition is

7:36

somebody coming to take food out

7:38

of your family's mouth. And that's

7:40

something that's been like sitting with

7:42

me a lot lately that there's

7:45

this feeling of like it's so

7:47

visceral for me. Now that I

7:49

have a family, it's so visceral.

7:51

It's like when I feel that

7:54

like someone is coming to take

7:56

food out of my family's mouth,

7:58

it fills me with like dread.

8:00

and rage at the same time.

8:03

It's just like weird thing. It's

8:05

not as motivating as like, I

8:07

want to beat that person because

8:09

I want to be better or

8:12

something. It's like, not that. It's

8:14

like fear and dread and whatever.

8:16

Anyway, but let's just talk about

8:19

that phrase for a minute that

8:21

like feeding my family because I

8:23

find myself using it in my

8:25

head, but I for a long

8:28

time have despised it and I

8:30

think I still do on principle.

8:32

Not despised it. That's way too

8:34

strong. I've always just felt like,

8:37

I've had mixed feelings about it.

8:39

I remember somebody a while ago

8:41

using that term a lot, like,

8:43

feed my family. And here are

8:46

some things I thought. This was

8:48

before I had a family. I

8:50

thought, okay, what you mean, you

8:52

use this line as justification for

8:55

wanting money, needing money, making money,

8:57

that kind of thing. That's what

8:59

you do. And that doesn't feel

9:01

fair to me because I don't

9:04

feel fair to me because I

9:06

don't have... like the need for

9:08

money or I can't judge or

9:10

you're you getting money is more

9:13

noble than me getting money like

9:15

that's no because I think there

9:17

is there is some amount of

9:20

that in there especially when it's

9:22

used like publicly I very much

9:24

feel like it is sort of

9:26

this like needing and wanting money

9:29

it's a shelter that you hide

9:31

behind to be like noble yeah

9:33

and But again, there's a lot

9:35

of truth in it. There's a

9:38

lot of truth in it. But

9:40

this is at least what I

9:42

remember feeling, was like, hey, you

9:44

get to be all noble when

9:47

you make money because you're quote

9:49

unquote feeding your family. And I

9:51

just am not, I guess, because

9:53

what am I just like self-indulgent

9:56

and greedy if I want money?

9:58

So the other thing is the

10:00

people that I would hear it

10:02

from are so far above the

10:05

actual food part. to provide for

10:07

your family like in like well

10:09

no you could never work a

10:12

day in your life again and

10:14

your family will be fed at

10:16

least the people that I remember

10:18

hearing this from it's like yeah

10:21

you're saying feed your family but

10:23

what you mean is buy the

10:25

shit that you are that you

10:27

want to keep you buying you

10:30

know it's like okay we're let's

10:32

not pretend that we're talking about

10:34

like basic humanitarian needs and sheltering

10:36

and feeding your family. We're talking

10:39

about a much higher level version

10:41

of that. I understand that there's

10:43

like similarities, but we're talking about

10:45

sending your kid to the private

10:48

school that you want to send

10:50

them to or you know affording

10:52

the the really big house with

10:54

the guest room or something that

10:57

you want to afford or taking

10:59

those vacations every year that you

11:01

want to do or buying that

11:03

you know second property or that

11:06

Florida house or that lake house

11:08

or whatever and having your grandkids

11:10

all hang out there, whatever it

11:13

is, you know, these are all

11:15

things that go through my mind

11:17

when I think about feeding my

11:19

family. It's not about food. It's

11:22

about those, the life that I

11:24

want to provide for my family,

11:26

and the life that I want

11:28

to have. So anyway, the point

11:31

is is that there is no

11:33

point. That's a loaded term, but

11:35

it is something I've been feeling

11:37

a lot in trying to analyze

11:40

this concept of like. feeding my

11:42

family. And so instability, that feeling

11:44

of dread and fear and that

11:46

unstable feeling I think comes with

11:49

any entrepreneurial endeavor, no. It comes

11:51

with anything, like having a job.

11:53

You can feel very unstable in

11:55

your job, especially you could feel

11:58

very unstable if you don't have

12:00

a job. And entrepreneurship always feels,

12:02

you know, kind of feast or

12:05

famine to me. It always feels

12:07

like what I have, I have

12:09

to protect, you know, because it'll

12:11

just slip away. And yeah, I

12:14

don't know if that's unique to

12:16

me or if it's shared among

12:18

other people, but when you... competition,

12:20

but also a changing environment like

12:23

AI is changing everything right now

12:25

and it's making me feel unstable.

12:27

I'm using it and moving faster

12:29

because of it, but it's making

12:32

me feel unstable because there's something

12:34

in the air in general. I

12:36

talked about this on that podcast

12:38

with Justin. their panel podcast with

12:41

Taylor and Justin and Brian is

12:43

his name hopefully sorry Brian if

12:45

it's not it's his name anyway

12:47

yeah talked about like yeah web

12:50

development right now and where it's

12:52

at and what it's like and

12:54

it's definitely like different and a

12:56

lot of my even entrepreneurial friends

12:59

their income is going down revenue

13:01

is going down. Well, Adam, well,

13:03

then it was public about this

13:06

on Hacker News, or Hacker News,

13:08

what, Hacker's Incorporated, that, like, Tailwind

13:10

U.I. Revenue hit, like, a peak.

13:12

It's peaked, you know, for now.

13:15

And it's like, you know, he's

13:17

still well, well, well, well, well,

13:19

well, well, well into the black.

13:21

But, you know, it is trending

13:24

down, and I've had this with

13:26

some of my things and just

13:28

seen it in the broader. community

13:30

jobs are super hard to get

13:33

whatever and it's like there's this

13:35

instability in the air and when

13:37

there's instability and fear Everybody's going

13:39

to run around trying to grab

13:42

food off the shelves. And what

13:44

do we do? I don't know.

13:46

And what is the new world?

13:48

Like, do I have to adapt

13:51

in a big way? Do I

13:53

have to not be a developer

13:55

anymore? Do I have to re-identify

13:58

as something else if I want

14:00

to remain a successful entrepreneur in

14:02

tech? Like, do I have to

14:04

become an AI guru? Do I

14:07

have to, like, who's making money

14:09

right now? I don't think open

14:11

source is the place to make

14:13

money right now, personally. It never

14:16

really was, but now it's definitely

14:18

not, in my opinion. And so

14:20

where do you go? Like, who

14:22

are the people making money? And

14:25

it always feels like there's this

14:27

dark underground of web and internet

14:29

marketing that... it's like makes money

14:31

and maybe like that's the place

14:34

not like the bootstrap sass like

14:36

do it the right way I

14:38

mean the grimy like affiliate networking

14:40

folks I used to work for

14:43

an affiliate networking company and it

14:45

was just this crazy thing where

14:47

you just like because the whole

14:50

world was about making money where

14:52

like if you go to like

14:54

this world like Laerville and Laircon

14:56

like you randomly find out people

14:59

are geniuses and like have all

15:01

these sweet side projects and cool

15:03

tools and techniques and whatever. When

15:05

I when I was in affiliate

15:08

marketing it was like you just

15:10

randomly find out that people at

15:12

the conferences and co-workers of yours

15:14

have these side hustles that just

15:17

make handover fist like for weird

15:19

stuff like crazy like link you

15:21

know like uh like what pyramid

15:23

scheme type they like buying valuable

15:26

domains for the link juice and

15:28

pointing them at other properties with

15:30

commissions and whatever and they just

15:32

have these like little affiliate empires

15:35

and easily making you know 50

15:37

to 100 grand a year just

15:39

on a bunch of sites that

15:41

aggregate data and have affiliate links

15:44

and anyway so that whole world

15:46

is like maybe maybe that's a

15:48

world. I hate that world. I

15:51

hate that world. I don't know.

15:53

But what are builders to do

15:55

now? If the AIs can do

15:57

the building, what are we to

16:00

do? I'm just going to keep

16:02

building, of course. But it's at

16:04

least like my brain goes to

16:06

these places for a minute. And

16:09

I imagine yours does, too. If

16:11

it doesn't, I think it should.

16:13

and you as a web developer,

16:15

I don't know, I don't want

16:18

to be the doomsday guy, but

16:20

I feel like you're going to

16:22

get left behind if you're not

16:24

at least using cursor, like a

16:27

lot. Yeah, even like I feel

16:29

like I have to give up.

16:31

I think there's something changing. I

16:33

think we're going to see a

16:36

shift away from the ethos of

16:38

the craftsmen. like the people that

16:40

I idolized like Adam and Taylor

16:43

and Jeffrey to an extent because

16:45

of the code that they wrote

16:47

and the way that they wrote

16:49

code and DHH like the quality

16:52

the care the craftsmanship is just

16:54

beautiful it's hard to do it's

16:56

it's something that I sort of

16:58

strive for and maybe this is

17:01

just a blip and I'm delusional

17:03

but I feel like that is

17:05

going away. Because AI is not

17:07

a craftsman. It writes slop. So

17:10

the way that I've been writing

17:12

code is like trying to just

17:14

have AI generate this slop and

17:16

put it in a bucket and

17:19

hide it somewhere. Like keep a

17:21

function, like a pure function that's

17:23

well-named and has a defined input

17:25

and output, but let AI write

17:28

whenever they need to write to

17:30

make my desired input outputs match,

17:32

you know, and then let it

17:34

do its horrible like AI. coding

17:37

that just is generally like the

17:39

worst and you know. It's not

17:41

the way that I would write

17:44

code. Yeah. So yeah, I think,

17:46

I mean, you know, in some

17:48

ways, it's easier to be tidy.

17:50

Maybe what I need to do

17:53

is just turn myself into an

17:55

AI craftsman. Maybe that's the thing,

17:57

is like, how to become an

17:59

AI craftsman, how to use AI

18:02

and still maintain, use it to

18:04

do an even, to like, produce

18:06

even higher quality code. And I

18:08

think what that is, is when

18:11

you ride the AI like a

18:13

bowl. Not when you let it

18:15

ride you. Does that, is that

18:17

a weird euphemism or something? No,

18:20

but when you like, when you

18:22

tame the AI, when you tell

18:24

it, like, I need you, when

18:26

you, the more specific you are

18:29

with AI, the better off your

18:31

code is obviously, but like you

18:33

figure out what you needed to

18:36

do, and then you have it

18:38

basically just save you all the

18:40

keystrokes, I think is like a,

18:42

is at least like the nicest

18:45

way to use AI at this

18:47

point, but it's powerful. Now go

18:49

apply this change to the entire

18:51

code base, you know, like that's

18:54

something you could do. And that

18:56

is a powerful thing because now

18:58

you can keep stuff really clean

19:00

and tidy. But anyway, we're getting

19:03

off topic. I don't know what

19:05

to think about AI, but I

19:07

think it's coming for us. And

19:09

what are we going to do

19:12

about it? I'm not sure. How

19:14

long do we have? I don't

19:16

know. We will see. But we

19:18

will. But we, yeah. I don't

19:21

know, this has just been a

19:23

meandering thing. I didn't even talk

19:25

about what I wanted to talk

19:27

to you about, which is thrift.

19:30

Let's just do it, or on

19:32

a tear. The thrift and the

19:34

value of thrift, it's something that

19:37

I've been thinking about a little

19:39

more, is because in this moment,

19:41

this is why it's relevant. In

19:43

these moments where I feel this

19:46

sort of fear and true now

19:48

than ever, and that is that

19:50

you have control. over, basically it's

19:52

mustachianism, but let me just give

19:55

it to you my own way.

19:57

You have control over your life

19:59

stuff. You have control

20:01

over your tastes, and you can

20:04

choose to have expensive tastes, and

20:06

you can also choose to have

20:08

inexpensive tastes, because quality of experience

20:11

does not directly map to price

20:13

tag. So you can build your

20:15

life in such a way that

20:18

the things that you appreciate and

20:20

enjoy don't cost a lot of

20:22

money. And you can control. You

20:24

can control your expenses, basically, as

20:27

what I'm saying, which is great

20:29

news, because if you're afraid of

20:31

losing it all, really what you're

20:34

afraid of is ratcheting down your

20:36

lifestyle, but if you keep your

20:38

lifestyle small, if you keep it

20:40

at a level, like, I've always,

20:43

this has always been a fun

20:45

thing for me to think that

20:47

you can just become wealthy and

20:50

become richer today by never using

20:52

Dordash again, you know, or... never

20:54

taking out a car loan again,

20:57

or not taking that trip or

20:59

something, whatever. You know what I'm

21:01

saying? There's always like a 10

21:03

times cheaper alternative to basically everything

21:06

in your life. And if you

21:08

just start choosing that tenth of

21:10

the price option for everything, magical

21:13

things will happen, and then you're

21:15

well protected. You're much better insulated

21:17

for an unstable future. And that's

21:20

something that I'm trying to get

21:22

back to, is the power of

21:24

thrift, and basically the mental, the

21:26

mentality of, of like, enough. Defining

21:29

enough, what is enough? Also, reading

21:31

yourself of notions of like, having

21:33

to live up to a certain

21:36

level of something. Also, reading yourself

21:38

of, of, Yeah, basically the grass

21:40

being greener in any sense. And

21:43

I think that a big cure

21:45

for this is like really... really

21:47

like reflecting on things that you

21:49

enjoy or how to enjoy your

21:52

life where you are right now

21:54

in your current circumstances and how

21:56

you can improve your life in

21:59

non-monetary ways like you could well

22:01

whatever I don't know so the

22:03

current thing that I'm doing is

22:05

meal prep like I'm day one

22:08

of meal prep I've known forever

22:10

that this is such an obviously

22:12

good thing And if you're good

22:15

at life, you do meal prep,

22:17

I think, and if you suck

22:19

at life like me, no, if

22:22

you're just not good at life,

22:24

you know, let's not be too

22:26

hard on ourselves. If you're just

22:28

bad at life, you don't do

22:31

meal prep. It's just insane. It's

22:33

always been insane to me, but

22:35

it's something that I've always done,

22:38

that every day is a question

22:40

mark of where you're gonna get

22:42

your food from. Isn't that insane?

22:45

Of course you're gonna make you're

22:47

gonna make bad decisions. If any

22:49

given time you make a decision

22:51

of like whether to experience pleasure

22:54

or pain, you know, what's the

22:56

chances of your normal person? Say

22:58

it's 50-50 chance. All right, well,

23:01

if you're, if you've got like

23:03

three meals a day minimum, three

23:05

meals a day, two days a

23:08

minimum, like that's two opportunities times,

23:10

you know, three, okay, that's like

23:12

a thousand opportunities in a year

23:14

to. make a bad choice. And

23:17

if you're like a normal person

23:19

and it'll be 50-50 for you,

23:21

that's 500 bad decisions that you

23:24

made for your body and your

23:26

wallet. Meal prep is something that

23:28

it feels like you could just

23:31

massively reduce that number by deciding

23:33

up front that you're going to

23:35

purchase like inexpensive but healthy materials

23:37

and make all the decisions for

23:40

your week. And then you just

23:42

eat those things. And I am

23:44

very much a Hunter Gather type

23:47

a forager. I'm a forager so

23:49

if it is in the fridge

23:51

and I can pop it in

23:53

the microwave I will do that.

23:56

And if that, if that becomes

23:58

a good decision for me, that's

24:00

great news. So anyway, meal prep

24:03

is an obvious thing I've needed

24:05

to do. Rolled up my sleeves,

24:07

did it yesterday, it's time with

24:10

the family, make a big thing

24:12

out of it, you know, it's

24:14

a win, win, win, win, win,

24:16

win. And all it does is

24:19

save me money, make me healthier,

24:21

and make me happier. You know,

24:23

those types of things. My lifestyle

24:26

desires are smaller so that it

24:28

is easier for me to be

24:30

financially free and in a way

24:33

that I have control over because

24:35

it feels when I'm in that

24:37

area of disparity, it feels like

24:39

I don't have control over entrepreneurial

24:42

growth. Entrepreneal growth is very, very

24:44

hard and it doesn't always feel

24:46

like it's something I have control

24:49

over. Even though I think that's

24:51

a delusion sometimes, but I think

24:53

often it feels that way. We're

24:56

reducing expenses and lowering my lifestyle.

24:58

does always feel like something I

25:00

have control over. And that's a

25:02

good thing. So maybe there's something

25:05

in this giant long spew for

25:07

you. Is this Mike even still

25:09

on? I'll be seeing you. Hello,

25:12

hello? It's still on. Yep, okay.

25:14

Bye.