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0:00
Today on upstream, we're releasing a
0:02
conversation from the 2024 Hill
0:04
and Valley Forum between Palantir's
0:06
CEO Alex Karp and Congressman
0:08
Ritchie Torres. They discuss higher
0:10
education, Palantir's culture, contrarianism,
0:13
and more. Keep an eye out
0:15
for the 2025 Hill and Valley Forum,
0:17
which will take place on Wednesday, April
0:19
30th. You can learn more in the
0:21
description. Please enjoy the episode. invite
0:38
Dr. Alex
0:41
Karp, the
0:43
CEO of
0:46
Palatier Technologies,
0:48
and Congressman
0:51
Ritchie Torres,
0:53
for tonight's
0:56
first informal
0:59
discussion. Let's
1:02
give them a
1:04
more hand. So
1:11
thank you for giving me the
1:13
honor to interview you. So I
1:15
think when I think of Alex
1:17
Karp, you know, the word that
1:19
comes to mind is fearlessness. You're
1:22
fearless in a world of fear,
1:24
you project moral clarity in a
1:26
world of moral confusion, and you
1:28
know, I believe that the greatest
1:30
threat to our democracy is not
1:32
the far left or the far
1:34
right, but it's the center that
1:36
lives in fear of the extremes.
1:39
Right, we see so-called leaders in
1:41
higher education in corporate America in
1:43
American politics that live in fear
1:45
of students and faculty and employees.
1:47
And what I find striking about
1:49
you is that you refuse to
1:51
live in fear. You speak with
1:53
moral clarity. And so I'm curious,
1:55
what, you know, why do you
1:57
speak out when others choose to
2:00
remain silent? Where does that come
2:02
from? Well, first of all, I'm
2:04
usually honored to be here and
2:06
very honored to be on stage
2:08
with you. And I remember, you
2:10
know, I met you the first
2:12
time a couple weeks ago and,
2:15
you know, I know, I read,
2:17
I've read it over here about
2:19
you and, you know, you speaking
2:21
out on lots of subjects, especially
2:23
anti-Semitism. But, you know, I've done
2:25
a lot of meetings, I do
2:27
a lot of meetings. And I
2:30
remember you were telling me
2:32
about, you told the story
2:34
about, you know, you have
2:36
two brothers, both of whom
2:38
are in and out, I
2:40
think, are still in prison.
2:42
And then you went to
2:44
the person who put them
2:46
in jail and said, hey,
2:48
you owe me, you got
2:50
to help me get my
2:52
election started. And we may
2:54
have to switch, actually. It's
2:56
like sharing an illicit substance.
2:58
And you know, I left
3:00
that meeting really super
3:02
motivated because I think
3:04
a lot of the
3:06
people on both sides
3:09
look past and don't
3:11
have enough empathy with
3:13
the average person. And
3:15
so I'm hugely honored
3:17
to be here because
3:19
what I saw in
3:22
that statement was you
3:24
actually care about people
3:26
like... your brothers and
3:28
literal brothers and what
3:30
actually happens to them, not
3:32
some theoretical agenda that you
3:35
might have learned by heart
3:37
at an elite school but
3:39
may not believe in or
3:42
absorb the consequences of. And
3:44
I thought that was one
3:47
of the more motivating interactions
3:49
I've had and hugely honored
3:51
to be on stage. Is
3:54
it really loud or is it
3:56
just me? It's like, I feel
3:58
like, you know, what? One of
4:00
the, one of, I think
4:02
it's like almost like out
4:05
of a movie. And you
4:07
know, it's interesting, one of
4:09
the ways you test for
4:11
dyslexia, if you have someone
4:13
who doesn't speak English, is
4:15
you give them something to
4:18
draw and then you give
4:20
them ambient noise and then
4:22
they stop drawing. So I'm
4:24
hugely dyslexic and I might
4:26
go on, go off. golf
4:28
even more of course. You
4:30
know, I don't really see myself
4:33
as courageous. He's referring to, you
4:35
know, we were the first people
4:38
in defense tech, we were the
4:40
first people in Silicon Valley to
4:42
push back against being, you know,
4:45
people who thought we shouldn't support
4:47
the government. I was the first
4:50
person in Ukraine, I've been openly
4:52
pro-Israel, I lambast people who attack
4:54
minorities of all kind, but in
4:57
this case especially, Jewish people and
4:59
I built with together
5:01
with my co-founders one
5:04
of whom is here
5:06
and Palantarians not just
5:08
Palantier but you know
5:11
almost every defense tech
5:13
company that's succeeding is
5:16
somehow succeeding with Palantarians
5:18
and I think there's
5:21
a link between disruptive
5:23
products and clarity inside
5:26
your culture and clarity
5:28
outside your culture. And
5:30
so that if you want
5:32
to actually build something that
5:34
will change the world for
5:36
the better, whether that's fighting
5:38
terrorism with civil liberties, targeting
5:40
our adversaries in software, and
5:42
or building a successful commercial
5:44
business, the standard playbook is
5:46
you kind of build a
5:48
thin product. You take the
5:50
product and then you hire
5:53
sales people and you wonder
5:55
around the world pretending you
5:57
believe in things you don't
5:59
believe in. And I don't
6:01
think that actually works very well.
6:03
And I will not work
6:05
in an enterprise, and you will
6:07
not attract and retain the best
6:10
engineers. Certainly not in year 20.
6:12
Right now, Palantir is one of
6:15
the most competitive environments in the
6:17
world for the best talent. You
6:19
know, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, had,
6:22
I'm pro Stanford, but their degree
6:24
was more valuable than a
6:26
Palantir degree. It's not now. And
6:29
that's simply because. We are honest
6:31
on the inside and honest on
6:33
the outside. And a lot
6:35
of these things that people advocate
6:38
for like taking over Colombia's university
6:40
and discriminating against people who are
6:43
Jewish are either done by
6:45
people who have fallen into the
6:47
pit of the thin religion that
6:49
they identify with their narrowly defined
6:52
identity or by people who
6:54
don't believe in it. And if
6:56
you subscribe to those ideologies, you
6:59
will never attract the best and
7:01
the brightest and the most interesting
7:03
people. In fact, you know,
7:05
I have a lot of relationships
7:08
here that are quite powerful. And
7:10
in most cases, it's because truly
7:13
interesting talented people don't want
7:15
to hear some thin BS that
7:17
they do not believe. And if
7:19
they did, of course, we all
7:22
have to listen to things
7:24
that we think are in name.
7:26
That's part of how you survive
7:29
you survive in this world. But
7:31
it's quite refreshing to hear something
7:34
that is obviously not a name.
7:36
And then you build great relationships.
7:38
So I don't know. For me,
7:41
a lot of things that people
7:43
call courageous. It's more like, why
7:46
does a painter use this color
7:48
as opposed to that color? I
7:50
don't know. I just, yeah. You
7:53
know, so speaking of lack
7:55
of courage, I want to ask
7:57
you about really the leadership crisis
8:00
in higher education. What do you
8:02
make of the crisis of
8:04
anti-Semitism unfolding on college campuses, do
8:06
you see it as a symptomatic
8:09
of a deeper rot in our
8:11
society? I don't think it's
8:13
a deeper rot in our society.
8:16
I do think it's a deeper
8:18
rot in our elite educational institutions.
8:20
And I don't, I think
8:22
I personally believe, one of the
8:25
more fascinating things about the obvious...
8:28
dysfunction of and hate in
8:30
our larger in our especially
8:32
elite schools is if you
8:35
if you leave the tethering
8:37
of what our founding father
8:39
set up and broadly speaking
8:41
liberalism you would think you
8:43
would fall down a story
8:45
or two but you actually
8:47
fall back to what amounts
8:49
to a pagan religion and
8:52
they believe this religion. It's
8:54
like it is not the
8:56
case and one of the
8:58
more interesting things about that
9:00
religion is that you can
9:02
simultaneously dedicate yourself to the
9:04
eradication of prejudice and prevent
9:06
people who come from a
9:08
group that's been discriminated against
9:11
for 3,000 years from entering
9:13
the building and you don't
9:15
see a contradiction. So you
9:17
can ask what is it
9:19
about that religion that reduces
9:21
their cognitive capacities to the
9:23
point? where the obvious contradiction
9:25
of being an institution dedicated
9:27
to the eradication of basic
9:30
human impulses, which includes prejudice
9:32
of all kinds, which everybody
9:34
in this room would celebrate
9:36
and simultaneously embracing the most
9:38
apparent and radical discrimination you've
9:40
ever seen. If you asked
9:42
a university professor, what would
9:44
you do if a group
9:46
experiences? Most non-gun-wielding intellectuals of
9:49
which I am a member
9:51
would say I'd go get
9:53
a gun. But not in
9:55
this case. And so that
9:57
what we and I also
9:59
think we in this room
10:01
in other places, we bear
10:03
responsibility. But the main responsibility
10:05
we bear is to call
10:08
out. I'm not saying you
10:10
have to agree with me
10:12
or you on Israel or
10:14
me and you on Ukraine
10:16
or whatever. But this is
10:18
basic dysfunction. And it believing
10:20
in this religion is a
10:22
straight path to a society
10:24
that will not work to
10:27
tech companies that cannot be
10:29
built to a GDP which
10:31
declines to a military which
10:33
cannot work to adversaries which
10:35
to eat us up slowly
10:37
and then destroy us. And
10:39
to the extent you agree
10:41
with that, especially like I've
10:44
historically, I have a PhD
10:46
from a German university, I
10:48
come from a progressive family.
10:50
I've been a donor to
10:52
many, certainly almost every progressive
10:54
in this room. I am
10:56
a large supporter of Biden.
10:58
We have to speak up.
11:00
This isn't a weird way,
11:03
our battle. This is happening
11:05
on our watch. Those universities
11:07
claim to be progressive. They
11:09
are not progressive. And we
11:11
should not allow this to
11:13
happen in our need, which
11:15
is to fact what is
11:17
happening. And it is absolutely
11:19
wrong and disgusting to allow
11:22
over discrimination at institutions we
11:24
pay for of any kind.
11:26
And we have to stand
11:28
up, especially those of us
11:30
who have PhDs who are
11:32
part of that environment, who
11:34
know that environment on the
11:36
inside, like I do. That's
11:38
our battle. And especially if
11:41
you have been sick, you
11:43
know, had some kind of
11:45
success. it's time to use
11:47
it. And that, and those
11:49
voices may be too small,
11:51
but I, I think I
11:53
do. think we're at a
11:55
crescendo event with especially what's
11:57
happening in elite universities if
12:00
only because all of us
12:02
know their value because we
12:04
participated in some way at
12:06
those universities and the best
12:08
things that have happened to
12:10
our country i.e. Silicon Valley
12:12
as an example is only
12:14
possible because of elite educational
12:17
institutions broadly defined including the
12:19
small colleges, university technical training
12:21
that happened in our country
12:23
that was also and is
12:25
the magnet of this world.
12:27
Like if you look at
12:29
the tech community and the
12:31
people who are hosting this
12:33
conference, we are either disproportionately
12:36
from abroad or have spent
12:38
a lot of our lives
12:40
abroad and we are very
12:42
appreciative of this country and
12:44
its educational institutions. I've heard
12:46
you use a phrase repeatedly
12:48
non-playbook players. Can you elaborate?
12:50
on that concept. I often
12:52
get, especially in Europe, because
12:55
I spend a lot, I
12:57
speak German, I did a
12:59
PhD there, and to a
13:01
lesser extent in France, but
13:03
often abroad, like in Germany,
13:05
the question is what went
13:07
wrong and how can we
13:09
fix it? Maybe they have
13:11
almost no GDP growth, there's
13:14
no basically a minimal text
13:16
scene. If you took a
13:18
table here. any random table
13:20
that text seen at the
13:22
table be larger than all
13:24
of Germany. And one of
13:26
the things that we have
13:28
as a resource here is
13:30
we generate people who can
13:33
act without a playbook. Like
13:35
to build an important institution,
13:37
a tech company, one that's
13:39
disruptive as an example, you
13:41
have to build things where
13:43
there is no one that
13:45
can teach you how to
13:47
teach you how to build
13:50
it how to build it.
13:52
And that is a rare
13:54
asset that we have disproportionately
13:56
in this country. that really
13:58
no one else has at
14:00
scale? You know obviously we're
14:02
here at the Hill and
14:04
Valley Forum and I think
14:06
it's fair to say that
14:09
there's been an acrimonious marriage
14:11
between Capitol Hill and Silicon
14:13
Valley. You know each side
14:15
sees itself as a battered
14:17
partner of the other. We
14:19
speak foreign languages. You know
14:21
how do we make that
14:23
dysfunctional marriage work for the
14:25
good of the country? Well,
14:29
you know, I guess I
14:31
would normally say makeup sex,
14:33
but it's... Well, you know,
14:36
sometimes dysfunctional relationships are more
14:38
fun. You know, not every
14:40
dysfunctional relationship is bad. And
14:43
I think the relationship is
14:45
a lot better. I mean,
14:47
look, I have a lot
14:50
of complaints, but I think
14:52
it's structurally a lot better
14:54
than in most countries. My
14:56
experience with legislators is quite
14:59
positive actually. You have to
15:01
establish that you are aligned
15:03
broadly with America and many
15:06
people in the House and
15:08
Senator actually technical experts. You
15:10
have in our case a
15:13
lot of people who work
15:15
in the staff, some senators
15:17
and congressmen and congressmen are
15:20
X. military or have dedicated
15:22
themselves to the military. And
15:24
you know, there are a
15:27
number of people in the
15:29
Senate especially, but also in
15:31
the House, if and when
15:34
they fire me a palager
15:36
and they randomly called and
15:38
said, do you want to
15:41
have a beer? I'd be
15:43
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list. So you know the world
19:09
is changing rapidly at a pace
19:11
and on a scale that we've
19:14
never seen before, especially with AI.
19:16
We could just start over the
19:18
internet. Do the whole thing from
19:20
the beginning? Yeah. Do you have
19:23
confidence in the federal government's ability
19:25
to adapt to a world of
19:27
exponential change? You know, you can
19:30
always compare things in absolute or
19:32
relative terms. Of course, the U.S.
19:34
government could do better. But if
19:37
you compare the U.S. government to
19:39
any other government, our product is
19:41
used basically everywhere in the Western
19:44
world. With some restrictions we've self-imposed.
19:46
We never sold to adversaries, obviously
19:48
not to China, Iran, Russia. If
19:50
you compare the U.S. government as
19:53
procurement to any country... of relevant
19:55
even comparable size. We're much more
19:57
meritocratic. The U.S. government has ways
20:00
of procuring things when it really
20:02
wants it. And yet we obviously
20:04
need to do better. We obviously
20:07
need ways of verifying what things
20:09
are working. You know, obviously the
20:11
U.S. government buys a lot of
20:14
things that it shouldn't buy. And,
20:16
you know, if we're looking at
20:18
a tightening budget, and in general,
20:21
if we want to outperform China,
20:23
we're going to have to actually
20:25
purchase things that are built by
20:27
things that, you know, that America
20:30
does well, primarily software. And those
20:32
things have to be proven on
20:34
the battlefield or proven commercially. There
20:37
is no watching a PowerPoint and
20:39
buying the best software. You have
20:41
to actually test it. That's what
20:44
Israel does. It's what our DOD
20:46
does in part, but not always.
20:48
And then you have to be
20:51
able to scale it quicker. One
20:53
of the big challenges, a lot
20:55
of the challenges are just software
20:57
challenges the way institutions are run.
21:00
Institutions love lots of hierarchy. Software
21:02
likes meritocracy. Institutions like the idea.
21:04
You'll have multiple people providing the
21:07
same product. By and large and
21:09
software, there's one person, one company
21:11
that provides one product. Large institutions
21:14
of the U.S. government doesn't like
21:16
that. Software is built by people
21:18
that tend to be... very focused
21:21
on saying things that are annoying,
21:23
obnoxious, unpleasant, and true. Large institutions
21:25
don't always like to interact with
21:28
people like that. Software, Silicon Valley
21:30
is built on attracting and retaining
21:32
people who are between one in
21:34
a million and one in a
21:37
hundred thousand, whatever they do. But
21:39
they may, you know, they may
21:41
be one in a hundred thousand
21:44
bad at explaining to a general
21:46
or someone... how they would actually
21:48
implement the system. You know, it's
21:51
a huge cultural shock and a
21:53
lot of what has to change
21:55
is not even stuff that has
21:58
to be mandated. It's just like...
22:00
you have to learn to like
22:02
or at least work with the
22:04
people that produce the most valuable
22:07
thing. And for us in this
22:09
country that is deployable and usable
22:11
technology, especially technologies, hardware and software
22:14
that are powered by companies that
22:16
are younger and built all across
22:18
America disproportionately in Silicon Valley. And
22:21
that's like if you, you know,
22:23
when you're building a business. you
22:25
really do grow to like the
22:28
people who perform very quickly or
22:30
you will not have a business.
22:32
And you know at Palantir as
22:35
an example I manage the most
22:37
interesting difficult and in times off
22:39
kilter people you could ever imagine
22:41
and we have built some of
22:44
the more interesting products in the
22:46
world. and it would not be
22:48
possible without those people and you
22:51
can't just say well that person's
22:53
annoying that person has views I
22:55
don't like that person can't integrate
22:58
yeah but they build the best
23:00
products in the world and that
23:02
that's a cultural shift and we
23:05
have to make we have to
23:07
go through that because otherwise like
23:09
China and Russia have a huge
23:11
advantage Russia is very good at
23:14
manufacturing China is very good at
23:16
engineering their leaders are engineers They're
23:18
not very good at organizing and
23:21
building a tech scene. And in
23:23
our business, there are no Chinese
23:25
or Russian competitors, not one. Just
23:28
think about that. We have no
23:30
competition from those countries. Not at
23:32
all. I mean, not even like
23:35
fake competition. Nowhere in US commercial
23:37
at any adversarial country. I've never
23:39
even heard of someone saying we're
23:42
choosing between Palangir and the Russian
23:44
or Chinese product. And believe me,
23:46
I've heard about people choosing between
23:48
us and like 108 software, my
23:51
uncle makes it, and they throw
23:53
his great steak dinner. Like, that
23:55
is like, this is a absolute
23:58
disproportionate, in fact... The Delta is
24:00
so disproportionate, most Americans don't really
24:02
believe it. Because they're like, okay,
24:05
well, the trains and the schools
24:07
work better in China and Russia,
24:09
their leaders seem very bright. Why
24:12
would their software suck? And it's
24:14
very hard to explain, actually, why
24:16
we are so good at producing
24:18
innovative tech companies that disrupt. But
24:21
there are some obvious things that
24:23
we have, no one else has.
24:25
The best immigrants, the best schools,
24:28
we had the best schools, the
24:30
best ways of fairness, meritocracy, these
24:32
kind of weird simple ideas. And
24:35
I lived half my life abroad
24:37
trying to get something to work
24:39
fair in a fair fashion at
24:42
the German university. Like in Germany,
24:44
I was always fighting as naive
24:46
as I was to hire the
24:48
most qualified person. And people would
24:51
say, but why would you hire
24:53
the most qualified person? No one
24:55
hires the most qualified person. That
24:58
person never gets a job. I'm
25:00
like, okay, I guess I'm just
25:02
American, but we in America, we
25:05
occasionally hire the most qualified person.
25:07
And like these things, metastasize and
25:09
give you a structural advantage that
25:12
is truly unique. And our basic
25:14
job as tech leaders and leaders
25:16
who care and in Congress, people
25:19
who care and people who are
25:21
actually courageous. is to actually just
25:23
make sure these things get implemented
25:25
in the US economy and in
25:28
our war fighters. So a question
25:30
about US-China competition, who's winning the
25:32
tech arms race? And even if
25:35
you assume that the United States
25:37
will out innovate China, do you
25:39
worry as I do that China
25:42
could be more effective? at integrating
25:44
emerging technologies into their government into
25:46
their military industrial complex? Well, look,
25:49
I mean, I think it's obvious
25:51
we're somewhat ahead. We're not so
25:53
far ahead that we couldn't... screw
25:55
it up. I, you know, of
25:58
course, what I'm supposed to say
26:00
and I believe is we have
26:02
to move quicker, we have to
26:05
spend more. I do think like
26:07
making sure we figure out how
26:09
to reform our elite institutions so
26:12
that they're not completely destructive, dysfunctional
26:14
and anti the the progressive values
26:16
that represent America broadly defined is
26:19
a really big issue for our
26:21
country and you might be surprised.
26:23
how if we fail at that,
26:26
the other things kind of don't
26:28
work as well. So I mean,
26:30
obviously, my self-interest is that we
26:32
should spend more, we should spend
26:35
better, it should be meritocratic, that's
26:37
hugely advanced for a pound here,
26:39
but if we can get a
26:42
way to come together, left people
26:44
on the, who are of decent
26:46
values, right, left, and center, and
26:49
say these are the lines, we
26:51
shouldn't cross them, I think that's
26:53
much more important than anything else.
27:05
You know, there are commentators who
27:07
worry about generative AI, large language
27:10
models. You know, there are those
27:12
who fear that we're becoming like
27:14
Dr. Frankenstein. We're creating a monster
27:16
that we can either fully understand
27:19
or fully control. And I get
27:21
the sense that despite the fear
27:23
of the unknown, you feel like
27:26
we should embrace what you've described
27:28
as this up-and-heimer moment. So can
27:30
you talk about that? Look, there
27:32
are two issues. One is that
27:35
it is the key to keeping
27:37
our GDP. growing the GDP of
27:39
America and that is actually important.
27:41
If you look at France, the
27:44
country, I spend a lot of
27:46
time in it and admire, between
27:48
61 and 91, their GDP grew
27:50
roughly like ours, maybe a little
27:53
less, we were 164 percent, they
27:55
were like 184 percent, and then
27:57
in the last 30 years it's
27:59
been, I think it's been significant.
28:02
significantly less, but you kind of
28:04
have a feeling like America's GDP
28:06
story led by tech will shift
28:08
and you know our we haven't
28:11
announced last quarter but the quarter
28:13
before pound here grew 70% and
28:15
No one thinks that's because of
28:17
our sales so it's because you
28:20
know you just have massive absorption
28:22
of technology You can now build
28:24
a Japanese manufacturing plant in the
28:26
U.S. with AI. You can manage
28:29
American workers as if they were
28:31
Japanese engineers in the U.S. You
28:33
can power hospitals with low mortgage
28:35
margins and do it ethically and
28:38
make sure that discrimination is not
28:40
part of the selection process of
28:42
who's the patient and verify it.
28:44
It is just a myriad of
28:47
use cases that change the productivity
28:49
of U.S. institutions. And then you
28:51
get to, again... What is the
28:53
central advantage America could have over
28:56
its adversaries? Advantage is defined not
28:58
by what you can do, but
29:00
what they can't do. You always
29:02
have to ask, is this something
29:05
that we can do, they suck
29:07
at? In every aspect of competition.
29:09
And so I do think there
29:11
are real dangers, but it'd be
29:14
very good, you know, we should
29:16
embrace what we have in this
29:18
country, figure out how to regulate
29:20
it, in a way that makes
29:23
sense. There's been a lot of
29:25
effective discussions here. and run like
29:27
hell so that our competition doesn't
29:29
beat us. And again, I don't
29:32
have to remind people in this
29:34
room, but it is, you'd be,
29:36
you know, we assume that the
29:38
world embraced liberalism broadly defined because
29:41
it was a better idea, but
29:43
I think it embraced liberalism because
29:45
people looked at the US and
29:48
thought, well, that's a better way
29:50
of organizing. my life for my
29:52
citizens and that was backed by
29:54
US power. That would not have
29:57
happened simply based on winning ideas
29:59
alone. It was idea, right ideas,
30:01
charismatic ideas and superiority on the
30:03
battlefield. And you need that combination.
30:06
That is the combination that allows
30:08
people to see the value and
30:10
things that are obviously valuable. It's
30:12
not ipso facto that they absorb
30:15
those ideas. I guess final question.
30:17
You founded Palance here 20 years
30:19
ago in a post-9-11 worlds. You
30:21
know, what are your hopes and
30:24
ambitions for the next 20 years?
30:29
I mean, look, the
30:31
world peace, but believing
30:33
world peace aside, you
30:35
know, I do see,
30:37
I do think the
30:39
Palantier project and a
30:41
success is a harbinger
30:43
for other people doing
30:46
things that would make
30:48
the world a better,
30:50
fair, more equitable, decent
30:52
place. And so in
30:54
that narrow sense, when
30:56
we meet again in
30:58
10 years, I think
31:00
we will be 10
31:02
to 20 times bigger.
31:04
20 years from now,
31:06
I'll still be considered
31:08
a young member of
31:11
Congress, but I think
31:13
we're done. So thank
31:15
you. You'll be a
31:17
seasoned member of something.
31:19
Yeah. Thank you for
31:21
your time. Please leave
31:23
a review in the
31:25
Apple Store.
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