Search Captions & Ask AI

Red-pilled Billionaires, LA Fire Update, Newsom's Price Caps, TikTok Ban, Jobless MBAs

January 18, 2025 / 01:42:52

This episode of the Allin podcast features discussions on various topics including the California wildfires, housing market issues, and the future of TikTok. Guests include David Freeberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Mark Pinkus.

The conversation begins with David Freeberg discussing the impact of the recent wildfires in California, which have resulted in significant destruction and displacement. The group analyzes the government's response, including price gouging regulations and the challenges of rebuilding.

Mark Pinkus shares insights on the housing market, particularly regarding the implications of government regulations on rebuilding efforts. He emphasizes the need for a free market approach to attract construction workers and expedite recovery.

The episode also touches on the potential ban of TikTok in the U.S., with discussions on national security concerns and the implications for American users. The guests debate the balance between security and freedom of expression.

Overall, the episode highlights the complexities of current events in California and the broader implications for society and technology.

TL;DR

The episode discusses California wildfires, housing market issues, and the potential TikTok ban, featuring insights from Freeberg, Palihapitiya, and Pinkus.

Video

00:00:00
all right everybody welcome back to the
00:00:01
Allin podcast the number
00:00:04
one Finance technology business and Maga
00:00:08
podcast in the
00:00:09
world with us again today is the sulate
00:00:13
of science David freeberg living a
00:00:17
modern 1950s aesthetic lifestyle there
00:00:21
this is the uh House of Tomorrow House
00:00:24
of the future world at the original um
00:00:27
1955 Tomorrowland at Disneyland wow and
00:00:30
you have a NASA hat on this is amazing
00:00:32
he's in full geek out mode yeah I didn't
00:00:35
this I told you guys about this haircut
00:00:36
last week because you couldn't blow
00:00:39
yourself that's right properly I told
00:00:42
you this would happen to you it's
00:00:43
exactly what your M said would happen
00:00:46
look at the continuity he told you you
00:00:48
could never match the blow you got last
00:00:50
week and here we are I did my best I
00:00:53
mean it looks ridiculous but stylish in
00:00:55
a way and with us again your chairman
00:00:57
dictator chamath poly hop
00:01:00
he's ready to go to the
00:01:02
inauguration and take his Victory lap
00:01:05
and take an enormous amount of credit
00:01:08
shamad are you looking forward to your
00:01:10
Victory lap I was in Florida earlier
00:01:14
this week I came all the way back so
00:01:16
that I could play poker with my friends
00:01:18
and see my family and children oh nice
00:01:20
and I'll be flying all the way back out
00:01:22
tomorrow morning were you at maral Lago
00:01:24
no I was with my friend in a undisclosed
00:01:28
location with a friend in an undisclosed
00:01:30
location okay sounds great and joining
00:01:33
us for the first time one of my oldest
00:01:37
friends Mr Mark Pinkus or as we like to
00:01:40
say Marcus Pinkus why do you always take
00:01:42
credit for these guests being only your
00:01:45
friends the rest of us are the ones that
00:01:47
call them and are like hey do you want
00:01:48
to come on the show and then you're like
00:01:49
my old think longer than you I don't
00:01:52
know about that is that true back to
00:01:54
like AOL yeah well we met when you were
00:01:58
doing silicon alley right reporter yeah
00:02:00
in the 90s I've been collecting rent
00:02:02
from Mark pinkis for the last year it's
00:02:05
true my landlord you should whistleblow
00:02:07
on freeberg to Gavin's gouging police
00:02:10
and see if you can get
00:02:14
some let your winners
00:02:16
[Music]
00:02:17
ride
00:02:18
[Music]
00:02:21
David we open sources to the fans and
00:02:24
they've just gone crazy with it Queen
00:02:30
we'll get right to that in a minute uh
00:02:32
the price couch continues if our viewers
00:02:34
had to vote on who is most likely to
00:02:36
price couch it's 100% free BR th% but
00:02:39
let's be clear the real gouging is the
00:02:42
predio trust who's charging an amazingly
00:02:45
high rent like over $100 a foot and then
00:02:47
freeberg was actually giving me a pretty
00:02:50
good deal he was getting a pretty good
00:02:51
deal I was paying like 130 a foot or
00:02:53
something 120 130 a foot all in uh for
00:02:56
real estate in the Presidio and we just
00:02:59
weren't using the space but it is the
00:03:00
most expensive real estate it is nuts
00:03:02
quite an office my Lord the prio trust
00:03:05
manages that federal land and they get
00:03:07
to keep all the money and reinvest it
00:03:09
it's probably the only profitable
00:03:10
operation in the federal government I
00:03:13
used to be on the board so I I saw it
00:03:16
close up and they they reinvest in
00:03:18
things like you know restoring natural
00:03:20
habitats cutting down eucalyptus trees
00:03:23
right you know archaeological digs right
00:03:27
right it was really interesting I looked
00:03:29
at one of those those
00:03:31
houses to rent when it was first moving
00:03:34
up to San Francisco and the only problem
00:03:37
with those houses have these gorgeous
00:03:38
houses that were like the General's
00:03:39
houses like three four five bedrooms but
00:03:42
they would have one
00:03:44
bathroom right for four rooms and I like
00:03:47
can you put another bathroom and cannot
00:03:48
change anything these are historic
00:03:50
privileges so you know historic
00:03:52
landmarks marked it freeloader tribe
00:03:57
social network back in the day
00:03:58
support.com and if you wasted some
00:04:01
portion of your youth playing
00:04:03
Farmville he was one of the original app
00:04:06
creators or Zinga poker which famously
00:04:10
he said hey would you like to be an
00:04:11
investor in Zinga poker and I said how
00:04:13
does it work he said oh well you play
00:04:14
for virtual coins and I said Mark this
00:04:17
is the stupidest thing I've ever heard
00:04:18
you've taken all of the money out of the
00:04:22
the the game it's never going to work
00:04:24
and of course he turned it into a
00:04:25
multi-billion dollar company and that
00:04:27
was another $25 million Angel investment
00:04:29
Miss on my part but Mark you were also
00:04:32
like early General social networking you
00:04:34
were involved in Facebook as an investor
00:04:37
Linked In weren't you like ear on yeah I
00:04:41
I think the first social media
00:04:43
investment I made was Napster I sent the
00:04:45
first check Wow first $100,000 I think
00:04:48
of that as the beginning of all this but
00:04:50
then yeah Reed and I put up the first
00:04:52
money for
00:04:54
friender and then we were lucky enough
00:04:57
to invest along with Peter in the first
00:04:59
round Facebook wow the First on on
00:05:02
Twitter so yeah like pick the right body
00:05:05
of water even if your boat doesn't tribe
00:05:08
didn't
00:05:09
work but but you placed five other bats
00:05:12
so you hit a couple of them it works out
00:05:14
just
00:05:16
fine you uh I believe you owned the six
00:05:20
degrees patents the original social
00:05:23
network in the 90s in web 1.0 was a
00:05:26
company called six degrees and uh they
00:05:28
had a bunch of patents and I believe you
00:05:30
bought them and then sold them to
00:05:32
Facebook yeah no we didn't sell them
00:05:34
Reed and I bought them because we were
00:05:37
worried that if Yahoo at the time had
00:05:40
gotten them or even Friendster that they
00:05:42
would have blocked the whole industry so
00:05:44
we bought them we we paid 750k which was
00:05:48
a lot then and we were accused of being
00:05:51
patent trolls and we never got that
00:05:55
opportunity we just sat on them to this
00:05:58
day actually I own half and Microsoft
00:06:00
owns other half are you still close with
00:06:03
with Reed Mark yeah very close how did
00:06:07
you guys reconcile your differences and
00:06:09
political views in this last election
00:06:11
because he was very vocal kamla you
00:06:13
obviously became vocal Trump and very
00:06:17
kind of kind of diametrically different
00:06:20
views on the
00:06:22
future well it's interesting because
00:06:23
Reed and I really started the whole kind
00:06:26
of journey into bigger National politics
00:06:29
together we both sat down and had lunch
00:06:32
with Biden and made wrote big checks uh
00:06:36
a little over a year ago December of
00:06:39
23 and and then you know won't bother
00:06:43
you but I I had my red pill moment and I
00:06:45
went a very different direction which
00:06:47
started off just questioning the
00:06:49
Democrats hold on hold on can you
00:06:51
actually just double click into that
00:06:53
what was your red pill moment was there
00:06:55
one specific thing or was it more of a
00:06:57
trickle of things it was both right it
00:06:59
starts the wall starts crumbling and
00:07:01
then it comes down all at once so for me
00:07:04
it really
00:07:06
started early in 23 I started reading
00:07:10
pirate wires and Mike salana and I
00:07:13
thought he was a little crazy at first
00:07:14
because he would write these articles
00:07:17
one he wrote was about how the Ukrainian
00:07:20
soldiers had swastikas on their helmets
00:07:22
in the New York Times photographers
00:07:24
would ask them to take the saskas off
00:07:26
for photos and I said that can't be
00:07:28
right that can't be true
00:07:30
and then four months later it was in the
00:07:31
New York Times buried in the middle of
00:07:33
the paper and I kept seeing stories like
00:07:36
that that that he would be early on and
00:07:40
so I just started feeling uncomfortable
00:07:42
and Queasy about what was going on with
00:07:44
mainstream media and then in May of last
00:07:48
year of 24 I read some article that
00:07:51
talked about Trump's speech in
00:07:53
Charlottesville and this has been well
00:07:56
covered but but where he said there was
00:07:58
good people on both sides Ides and the
00:08:01
article said it was completely you know
00:08:05
propaganda and not what he actually not
00:08:07
accurately reflecting what he said that
00:08:10
uh that he denounced the Nazis a bunch
00:08:12
of times in his speech and so then I
00:08:14
went and watched that video and that was
00:08:17
my red pill moment I think it was for a
00:08:19
lot of people because it wasn't just the
00:08:22
media spinning it or politicians
00:08:25
spinning it that was like one of the
00:08:27
pillars of why you were supposed to hate
00:08:28
Trump
00:08:30
that speech and and then you
00:08:34
see Biden say that's why he had to run a
00:08:37
second time and you see Obama go to you
00:08:40
even see Biden bring it up again in the
00:08:42
beginning of the DNC and it's one of
00:08:44
their pillars and they clearly know that
00:08:46
they're misrepresenting things so for me
00:08:49
that was just that was beyond
00:08:51
uncomfortable I was just like okay now I
00:08:53
got to go back to First principles and
00:08:55
look at the primary data and listen only
00:08:58
to original speech by people and I just
00:09:01
realized I couldn't trust mainstream
00:09:03
media so I was I became I started
00:09:06
questioning the Democrats as soon as I
00:09:07
started questioning the Democrats I
00:09:09
started getting a lot of Shame and anger
00:09:13
and hatred oh the other thing that
00:09:14
happened those part of this journey is
00:09:16
that my chief of staff parted ways with
00:09:19
me after nine years in April of last
00:09:21
year and he was the main person
00:09:24
protecting me from myself on Twitter and
00:09:26
he was the one who would say stay in
00:09:28
your lane nobody wants to hear what you
00:09:30
think about politics or San Francisco or
00:09:33
anything other than you know your area
00:09:35
of products and investing and with him
00:09:37
gone I just started tweeting whatever I
00:09:40
felt and thought and sometimes I got it
00:09:43
wrong or it was a little too emotional
00:09:45
but first of all it was really fun and
00:09:47
then second of all I found I got
00:09:50
connected to this whole new audience of
00:09:52
people who are these kind of techno
00:09:54
optimists I think you guys probably
00:09:56
talked about
00:09:57
it and
00:09:59
that just brought me down this path that
00:10:02
eventually I came out two days before
00:10:05
the
00:10:07
election publicly for Trump um and it
00:10:10
was only because that's when I
00:10:12
completely got there and I was trying to
00:10:14
just be completely honest and authentic
00:10:17
with myself and on Twitter at the same
00:10:20
time and my daughters turned to me that
00:10:23
Sunday and they said you're you're going
00:10:26
to vote for Trump we know it and I said
00:10:28
yeah you're probably right and they said
00:10:29
well then you have to go say it on
00:10:31
Twitter and my daughter's like really in
00:10:33
this with me yeah so anyway and then it
00:10:36
was on the front page of the New York
00:10:38
Post on the day of the election that I
00:10:41
was uh this not that I'm such news but
00:10:44
maybe it just was their news Peg um that
00:10:47
I was coming out for Trump and but I'll
00:10:51
get back to your re question but what I
00:10:53
love about my New York Times about my
00:10:55
New York friends is that they did not
00:10:58
give a they were all proa and they
00:11:02
texted me and they're just like oh
00:11:04
that's kind of funny but it's one thing
00:11:06
I kind of love about New York they
00:11:08
didn't care back to your question on
00:11:10
Reed what I love about Reed was he was
00:11:14
already getting pings from people saying
00:11:16
what's going on with pinkis he's going
00:11:18
off the rails he's becoming a Trumper
00:11:21
you know it's you guys I'm sure have
00:11:23
gone down got a little bit of that too
00:11:25
about shamas in
00:11:27
freeberg yeah me like what's wrong with
00:11:30
him we got to bring him back into the
00:11:32
fold you know he's he's should we lock
00:11:34
him up is he crazy um and so Reed was
00:11:37
already getting these I had a lot of
00:11:39
anxiety about talking to Reed about it
00:11:42
and finally Reed and I got on
00:11:46
FaceTime and he just said I just want to
00:11:49
start by saying I'm team Mark and I said
00:11:52
I'm team Reed and it gets out a little
00:11:54
you know a a but well no Americans can
00:11:57
get along even if they disagree ically
00:11:59
about a candidate is probably where we
00:12:01
need to get to especially you know now
00:12:03
that Trump's going to be in office in a
00:12:04
couple of days what was it like when you
00:12:07
had for Biden yeah okay well just to
00:12:10
finish the read part sorry but no
00:12:12
problem what what I love about Reed is
00:12:15
that we followed that with a 4-Hour
00:12:16
dinner and he said I never questioned
00:12:20
your principles he said I know you're a
00:12:23
highly principled person and I just want
00:12:25
to understand which principles it is and
00:12:28
I'd like to convince to change your mind
00:12:30
but anyway so was hold on one second
00:12:34
so I you said something almost in
00:12:38
passing but I just want to double click
00:12:41
I think part of what Silicon Valley
00:12:44
actually gets wrong is that we don't
00:12:47
embrace the tism and what I mean by that
00:12:50
is everybody we're all a little socially
00:12:53
uncomfortable we awkward I wouldn't say
00:12:56
that we were the coolest people growing
00:12:58
up and there this virulent form of
00:13:01
blockers you called it Chief of Staff I
00:13:05
think that these folks can be very
00:13:08
detrimental which almost represent this
00:13:11
filter between your true self and
00:13:14
everybody else and there is this game
00:13:16
that's played about being a
00:13:19
gatekeeper I do think that executive
00:13:22
assistants are valuable administrative
00:13:24
assistance are valuable the reason I can
00:13:27
say this is that my EA went on maternity
00:13:30
leave I had and I experimented with a
00:13:32
chief of staff Etc and now I use Jason
00:13:35
service called Athena and I have a guy
00:13:38
that works with me in the
00:13:41
Philippines and it's about 3,000 a month
00:13:44
and I can honestly tell you this guy is
00:13:46
the single most effective administrative
00:13:49
support I've ever had and what there
00:13:52
isn't is all these opinions on what I
00:13:54
can say or do and I think that when you
00:13:57
look at a lot of these big companies if
00:13:58
you look at zuck's current
00:14:00
transformation or what you just spoke
00:14:01
about there are all these
00:14:03
Interlopers that seem to get in the
00:14:05
middle of you and people's perception of
00:14:09
you I don't know if you have any
00:14:10
comments or reactions to that idea yeah
00:14:13
it's part of where I know you guys have
00:14:15
talked about Zuck coming out as Lisa's
00:14:18
based or his seemingly more authentic
00:14:20
self or sharing more about himself and I
00:14:24
can relate to it because I think we all
00:14:27
go through this this struggle as you
00:14:31
start to be more of a known person
00:14:34
inside your company outside your company
00:14:37
and you have people around you taking
00:14:40
the edges off and I think that we're now
00:14:45
in this time that I think we're having
00:14:47
authenticity is having a moment now
00:14:50
which is great for me because Reed said
00:14:53
to me I I've if you Google me you'll see
00:14:55
that there's lots and lots of bad things
00:14:58
written about me and a lot of it is my
00:15:01
high school quote was some people have
00:15:03
tacked and others tell the truth and
00:15:05
I've always been kind of just committed
00:15:07
to being honest even if it's nuanced and
00:15:11
it's not an easy sound bite and Reed
00:15:13
said to me early on you need to pick
00:15:15
what the easy narrative is or the Press
00:15:18
is going to make it up for you and he
00:15:20
was right and they did or my competitors
00:15:23
did so I think that now with long form
00:15:28
podcasts and there's just more and the
00:15:31
fact that we can kind of directly in a
00:15:33
lot of ways Elon was the first one to
00:15:35
directly defend himself you remember
00:15:37
when well he fired his whole do you
00:15:38
remember when he fired his whole PR team
00:15:40
he fired all those people there's just
00:15:42
like there's none of that infrastructure
00:15:44
between him and and everybody else but
00:15:47
do you remember when he would be on
00:15:49
Twitter all the time post PayPal trying
00:15:51
to correct the story and just write long
00:15:55
long diet tribes and then and then when
00:15:57
a New York Times reported said something
00:15:59
negative about a Tesla he just went off
00:16:02
for weeks about them and and it seemed a
00:16:05
little crazy and deranged and then you
00:16:06
started to see that it worked like he
00:16:08
actually and we were told don't defend
00:16:11
yourself if something bad is written
00:16:12
about you you're going to prolong the
00:16:14
press cycle you're going to make the
00:16:17
journalist
00:16:19
angry and so we've we're now Unshackled
00:16:22
I I teach this class at Stanford and I
00:16:24
taught two backtack on Monday and I
00:16:27
looked around and I saw half the plaque
00:16:29
her said you know she her you know he
00:16:33
him his and I got a little Pang of like
00:16:36
oh do I have to watch what I'm saying
00:16:37
I'm like no I don't I'm Unshackled I'm
00:16:40
just gonna this is just me and I'm gonna
00:16:43
be Mark unfiltered and it's the better
00:16:45
version of ourselves so anyway I I'm
00:16:48
glad that Zuck feels like he can be he
00:16:51
can present more of his complete self
00:16:55
out there now and I think we can get
00:16:57
into it later but I have a lot of
00:16:59
thoughts on how the culture is going to
00:17:01
kind of move more towards Bas back to
00:17:03
the other question with Biden that lunch
00:17:06
you had did he seem like he was all
00:17:09
there yeah come on was it in the
00:17:11
afternoon I mean did you have concerns
00:17:13
about that that was sharp as attack that
00:17:16
was thing that broke me I mean I'm not
00:17:18
saying I'm like full mag over here I was
00:17:20
like wait a second are you guys lying
00:17:22
about this like how long is this and how
00:17:25
deep is this cover up I have no horse in
00:17:27
this race I didn't have a horse in the
00:17:29
race so I had nothing to lie about I for
00:17:32
sure don't now I'm really not a Biden
00:17:35
fan or
00:17:37
protector I'll tell you like the exact
00:17:41
my exact observation we we had this
00:17:44
lunch there was like maybe five of us
00:17:47
with Biden and a few of his Finance
00:17:49
people in they had it in the tennis
00:17:52
house which is the way they found that
00:17:55
they can have a fundraising lunch on the
00:17:57
property of the White House they found
00:17:59
some way we'll see if if Trump does it
00:18:01
hole right yeah the loophole and and it
00:18:04
was I was impressed it was a long launch
00:18:06
it must have been hour and a half two
00:18:07
hours and I'll tell you the good and the
00:18:10
bad the good the part I was impressed
00:18:13
was he kept the conversation thread he
00:18:16
was engaged and kept the thread the
00:18:18
whole time when people you say sharp as
00:18:21
attack or kept the thread that's how we
00:18:24
talk about like our 90-year-old
00:18:26
grandparent or something so I'm just
00:18:28
saying the reality to me he he was
00:18:32
not he did not seem mentally debilitated
00:18:37
in the sense of
00:18:39
dementia but we were impressed that he
00:18:42
was able to follow the conversation
00:18:45
thread and then say you know but okay
00:18:48
let me say it differently would you have
00:18:50
had the same bar if it was Jamie Diamond
00:18:53
sitting across from you for 2our
00:18:56
lunch no no so so so yes it was it was
00:19:00
wow your grandfather is holding up
00:19:03
really well like your grandfather was
00:19:05
able to have a whole lunch and hold the
00:19:08
conversation but it wasn't I didn't walk
00:19:11
away saying I I have to admit I did not
00:19:14
walk away saying I think he's mentally
00:19:15
unfit but I did but and I wasn't shocked
00:19:20
but I was like okay this is someone
00:19:22
who's being really handled and managed
00:19:24
by the people around him and he's being
00:19:26
told to show up here say say this but I
00:19:30
will say he was he was not on an obvious
00:19:32
script which I know I think famously he
00:19:35
did some fundraiser at vod's house where
00:19:38
he was reading a prompter the whole time
00:19:40
so wasn't reading a
00:19:42
prompter yeah that at a at a person's
00:19:46
home they brought a teleprompter for him
00:19:48
to speak wow that's you didn't hear that
00:19:50
I didn't actually that's new information
00:19:52
that's yeah crazy but I mean In fairness
00:19:56
like the um there's this issue called
00:19:58
Sun Downing people who are in that age
00:20:01
group they're good in the day and then
00:20:03
the sun goes down and you know their
00:20:06
brains are exhausted and and that's when
00:20:09
you would see it and that's what they
00:20:10
said about the debate but for me that
00:20:12
was the the coronation of comma and like
00:20:15
not actually having a speedrun primary
00:20:17
that to me was just anti-democratic
00:20:20
anti-American and like just what
00:20:22
happened to Meritt and like having a
00:20:24
process here right that's when I felt
00:20:26
like the party just CED
00:20:29
I'm glad you're here let's jump um okay
00:20:31
but let me ask you a question before we
00:20:32
get into the doc we got a lot to talk
00:20:34
about obviously but what do you think
00:20:36
the Democratic party does from here like
00:20:38
is everybody's like this they're lost in
00:20:40
a drift we're not even hearing from them
00:20:43
maybe a little bit of uh push back I
00:20:46
guess at
00:20:47
these Senate hearings right now for
00:20:50
confirmations but what do you think
00:20:52
happens is there any hope for this and
00:20:55
and who would lead them out of this
00:20:56
Shapiro somebody
00:20:59
AOC I think that what my brain my kind
00:21:03
of intelligent front of brain would tell
00:21:06
me the logical thing which I think I
00:21:09
want to say is one lens that I think we
00:21:12
have to be careful not to just apply
00:21:13
logic here because it's parties and and
00:21:16
the Democrats but the logic would say oh
00:21:19
they're going to find based authentic
00:21:22
people to put up against these other
00:21:24
ones like the kind of Federman types
00:21:27
that they're going to put those people
00:21:30
forth who are more Centrist and also are
00:21:34
more trustworthy that they're actually
00:21:36
authentic in their flaws that's what my
00:21:38
brain would tell me I think there'll be
00:21:40
a little of that that the party I
00:21:43
believe is will move more that way I
00:21:46
think that the corporate candidates
00:21:48
aren't going to fly anymore with the
00:21:50
electorate I think that the managed
00:21:53
corporate through sound bites can't do a
00:21:56
long form things like this I think
00:21:59
that's over and we can get into that
00:22:02
later if we want but I think they won't
00:22:05
go as far as they should so so they the
00:22:08
they won't go as far as like what I
00:22:10
think we would intelligently advise them
00:22:12
to do so so that's as much as I can
00:22:16
figure out that they should do that but
00:22:18
they won't interesting well we're
00:22:20
certainly going to find out in the next
00:22:22
year or two what their direction is when
00:22:24
they get to the midterms I suppose oh
00:22:27
one more thing though on it is yeah and
00:22:29
a lot of it depends on really what we
00:22:32
see and if if Doge starts to really get
00:22:36
popular support this whole I think you
00:22:38
guys talked about this last week that
00:22:39
the more that FDR style Trump and people
00:22:44
get popular support it's going to become
00:22:47
a more and more isolating lonely place
00:22:50
in two years to still be like you know
00:22:53
California Gavin everyone saying don't
00:22:56
worry we're going to protect you against
00:22:58
these people if if they're doing things
00:23:00
that are popular to still saying you're
00:23:02
protecting against them I think won't
00:23:04
fly well that's a a great jump off point
00:23:06
because Gavin does seem and Karen bass
00:23:09
seem like their careers are ending and
00:23:10
they're in the last stages of trying to
00:23:13
maybe get a little bit more pragmatic
00:23:16
based is the word people might use for
00:23:17
that just being super candid but let's
00:23:20
get let's get into a little bit of an
00:23:22
update here about the absolute tragedy
00:23:24
occurring in Los Angeles the death toll
00:23:26
is now at 25 uh ,000 structures have
00:23:29
been destroyed it's mostly people's
00:23:31
homes it's 40,000 Acres that's 60 square
00:23:34
miles I think San Francisco is 7 by S
00:23:38
miles right so this is a lot of uh space
00:23:41
it's bigger than all of San Francisco
00:23:44
the Palisades and eaten fires are still
00:23:46
burning and as of Wednesday 80,000
00:23:49
people were under evacuation
00:23:52
orders couple of our friends lost their
00:23:54
homes and uh but they survived but the
00:23:58
story of losing everything are just
00:24:00
tragic every
00:24:02
memory all your personal documents
00:24:04
photos art whatever that you've
00:24:07
collected over a lifetime I just had two
00:24:09
conversations with people and they were
00:24:11
just in shock the estimates right now of
00:24:15
damage are between 135 billion and $150
00:24:19
billion this is some of the most
00:24:21
expensive real estate on the planet it's
00:24:24
10 times more costly than any other
00:24:26
wildfire in history according to reports
00:24:29
uh you might remember the campfire near
00:24:32
Paradise California that's about what 3
00:24:34
hours North of San Francisco Northeast
00:24:37
that one was 12.5 billion just to level
00:24:41
set it
00:24:42
uh and now people are talking about and
00:24:45
we'll talk about here today what the
00:24:47
recovery and rebuild effort might look
00:24:49
like California leadership disad across
00:24:53
the
00:24:54
board Gavin I just
00:24:59
disad Gavin new have you had traffic to
00:25:02
dad.com with all of this yeah right now
00:25:04
dad.com is going to be red director to
00:25:06
Gavin or Karen bass I don't know which
00:25:09
one is more disgraceful I mean it's it's
00:25:12
an incredible troll that you just
00:25:13
redirected every week to whoever you're
00:25:15
mad is that
00:25:17
yeah who would be more disgraceful in
00:25:19
this situation Gavin or Karen bass I
00:25:22
think it's got to be k for just being
00:25:23
out of the country I think I think it
00:25:25
would be quite funny if every week you
00:25:27
actually gave an award redirected the
00:25:29
website to the I give it to this week
00:25:31
and before that it was Jake Paul for
00:25:33
that Tyson fight and the
00:25:36
disad but it's the stakes have gone up
00:25:41
Gavin is now doing executive orders one
00:25:44
of them is to make it illegal to lobal
00:25:47
offers to impacted homeowners for the
00:25:49
next three months I don't know what the
00:25:52
point of that is and the other one is to
00:25:55
eliminate the coastal acts review of
00:25:58
permits for the the
00:26:02
houses that are along PCH I
00:26:05
suppose and he wants
00:26:08
to extend key price gouging protections
00:26:12
quote to help make rebuilding more
00:26:14
affordable gouging is defined as raising
00:26:17
the rent or price of other goods and
00:26:19
services more than 10% from the last
00:26:21
marketed
00:26:23
price but it could be as little as 5%
00:26:25
it's just not clear and then LA mayor
00:26:28
bass created a snitch hotline to report
00:26:31
on any kind of price gouging and rents
00:26:34
which we've started to see people are
00:26:36
now naming and shaming Zillow and red
00:26:40
fin listings where they you can see the
00:26:42
previous history of what they were
00:26:44
asking for for a home or for rent and
00:26:46
obviously the free market is
00:26:49
making rental homes double in price
00:26:52
freeberg we talked a bunch about this
00:26:54
and I know Pinkus you've got we had I
00:26:56
don't know if you're comfortable talking
00:26:57
about it but we had a whole conversation
00:26:58
about your getting dragged by the
00:27:01
coastal
00:27:02
Commission in Northern California
00:27:05
freeberg maybe kick us off here on what
00:27:08
your thoughts are on rebuilding this
00:27:11
area how this will happen especially
00:27:15
with what we brought up last week and I
00:27:18
think when a bit viral is your sort of
00:27:20
talk about putting your thumb on the
00:27:21
scale with insurance I mean this is I
00:27:25
think one of the concerning things here
00:27:27
is
00:27:29
the free market not being allowed to
00:27:31
progress previously with insurance and
00:27:33
then now with the rebuild well
00:27:36
California's got at this point price
00:27:39
controls or a mechanism for
00:27:42
controlling the change in price on
00:27:45
insurance on Housing Services and now
00:27:48
they've got this non-solicitation
00:27:51
rule all three I think are very
00:27:54
challenging to I think an appropriate
00:27:58
Market recovery look the insurance issue
00:28:00
is a longer one if you guys want we
00:28:02
could talk about that I've got a couple
00:28:03
notes I can bring up on the history of
00:28:05
how we got to this point but I think
00:28:06
it's going to be the one of the biggest
00:28:08
burdens going forward and it could
00:28:10
actually lead to a pretty significant
00:28:12
effect in long-term housing prices in
00:28:15
California because of the way that the
00:28:17
insurance Market is structured and
00:28:19
regulated in
00:28:21
California but if you want we can talk
00:28:23
about that or up or down what do you
00:28:25
think ultimately you know tldr like do
00:28:28
you think prices are going to go way up
00:28:30
here do you think this is going to take
00:28:32
five or 10 years to rebuild these homes
00:28:34
I mean we've never seen this many
00:28:36
structures go down at this price point
00:28:39
in a constrained area where just
00:28:42
construction is so expensive and hard so
00:28:44
I think the the governor did a good job
00:28:46
suspending the permitting requirements
00:28:47
for the coastal act for affected homes
00:28:50
and the squa review those are very
00:28:53
important I think
00:28:54
suspensions but he also put in place
00:28:57
this executive order for price gouging
00:28:58
and if you pull up the note Nick so he
00:29:01
basically said California penal code
00:29:03
section
00:29:04
396 which prohibits price gouging during
00:29:07
a declared state of emergency will now
00:29:09
extend indefinitely in this region and
00:29:12
in the language in that Penal Code it
00:29:15
says that businesses cannot raise the
00:29:18
price of essential goods and services by
00:29:20
more than 10% above their pre-emergency
00:29:23
price for a specified period and in this
00:29:26
case his executive order is in
00:29:28
definitely so in on an indefinite basis
00:29:30
you cannot raise the price of goods and
00:29:33
services which generally applies to
00:29:35
consumer goods like food and emergency
00:29:37
supplies but it also applies to building
00:29:39
materials and services related to
00:29:41
housing work so if you want to
00:29:45
attract Builders if you want to attract
00:29:48
contractors if you want to attract
00:29:50
electricians and plumbers to go to the
00:29:52
LA area you have to allow the market to
00:29:55
do its job if I'm a plumber operating in
00:29:58
Sacramento or in Phoenix and I'm like
00:30:00
man I could make some money if I go to
00:30:02
La you will see an influx of service
00:30:05
providers and an influx of goods to
00:30:07
support the rebuilding effort in
00:30:08
Southern California that's the way the
00:30:10
free market should work is there's an
00:30:12
opportunity in the market folks show up
00:30:14
they say great I can make money I'm
00:30:16
going to come here and do this work and
00:30:18
as more folks show up they begin to
00:30:21
compete on price and eventually the cost
00:30:23
kind of normalizes and you end up
00:30:25
finding what is now the new fair market
00:30:27
value between the bid and the ask the
00:30:30
people that are saying hey I'll do the
00:30:31
work they're the ask and hey I need
00:30:33
people to do work that's the bid and you
00:30:35
find a price but the benefit of that is
00:30:37
you increase the supply you increase the
00:30:39
supply of goods you increase the supply
00:30:41
of service providers of contractors
00:30:43
there is a home building dir right now
00:30:45
in the United States so this is an
00:30:46
amazing opportunity because they can now
00:30:48
move to LA build homes we can get a
00:30:51
rapid reconstruction effort underway
00:30:53
except the governor just said we can't
00:30:56
pay people 10% higher than what they
00:30:57
were getting paid
00:30:58
right before this happened on an
00:31:00
indefinite basis and then Karen bass
00:31:02
created a hotline you can go to La 311
00:31:05
and report people if they're trying to
00:31:06
charge too much and then the uh you know
00:31:08
the Stacey will come and investigate you
00:31:10
and determine that you're charging too
00:31:12
much I understand that there's a strong
00:31:14
moral imperative and incentive to say we
00:31:16
got to stop price gouging we don't want
00:31:18
people to get hurt but the second order
00:31:20
effect is you're actually hurting the
00:31:21
market and you're hurting the rebuild
00:31:23
effort because you're reducing the
00:31:24
incentive for folks to come in and fill
00:31:26
the void in the market that is necessary
00:31:28
for us to accelerate the development of
00:31:30
15,000 homes in a very short period of
00:31:32
time the alternative now is people are
00:31:34
going to be sitting around and I already
00:31:36
spoke to a couple friends I'm sure you
00:31:37
guys have that are like I try calling
00:31:39
Architects I try calling contractors
00:31:41
people that live in this area that have
00:31:42
been affected I cannot get anyone to
00:31:44
return my call there is not enough
00:31:46
service providers down there you're
00:31:47
going to end up waiting six seven years
00:31:49
to get your home rebuilt now what do you
00:31:51
do you own a a lot you don't have a home
00:31:53
to live in and then there's this other
00:31:56
thing where we can't take unol offers on
00:31:58
the home that was the other executive
00:31:59
order so if you want to pull that one up
00:32:01
the governor said it is illegal to make
00:32:04
an unsolicited offer on a piece of real
00:32:07
estate in one of these affected zip
00:32:08
codes I don't know what that happened in
00:32:12
Hawaii that makes the governor keep
00:32:14
referencing the Hawaii story as if you
00:32:16
know that there were people that were
00:32:18
taken advantage of and we need to
00:32:19
protect the citizens of LA but I'm
00:32:22
pretty sure that having an increase in
00:32:25
the number of offers coming in for Real
00:32:27
Estate
00:32:29
increases maret increases buy behavior
00:32:33
and that will ultimately
00:32:35
drive and that will ultimately make it
00:32:37
easier by having more liquidity for some
00:32:39
of these folks who owned burn down lots
00:32:41
to be able to sell their lot take their
00:32:43
insurance check move to another
00:32:45
neighborhood and go somewhere else
00:32:46
because they're going to have to
00:32:47
otherwise wait six or seven years to
00:32:48
build a
00:32:50
home yeah I think you're a little bit
00:32:53
off the deep end with some of this stuff
00:32:54
because I think you're not being totally
00:32:56
fair in representing what this EO says
00:33:00
and that's coming from me I mean I am
00:33:03
not a Nome fan okay and I think he is
00:33:06
completely and totally
00:33:09
incompetent but I'll just take the other
00:33:11
side of this which is that I read the EO
00:33:15
and I actually think it's somewhat
00:33:18
reasonable and I didn't connect the dots
00:33:22
with the EO and the real estate market
00:33:24
and the reason is that if you read all
00:33:26
of what he said the EO was hypers
00:33:28
specific to unsolicited offers to a very
00:33:32
specific handful of zip codes and it was
00:33:34
time boxed for three months so he said
00:33:38
making any unsolicited offer to an owner
00:33:41
of real estate property located in the
00:33:44
areas encompassed by and he names a
00:33:46
bunch of zip go I think there was like
00:33:48
one two there's like 12 or 13 of them
00:33:51
okay so unsolicited okay yep to to
00:33:54
acquire any interest in real property
00:33:56
for an amount less than the fair market
00:33:59
value of the
00:34:01
property on January 6th so before the
00:34:06
fire started and before the home bur
00:34:08
down and he said that's prohibited for
00:34:10
three months that's it for three months
00:34:13
and the reason I think he said that is
00:34:15
that if you just scope out a little bit
00:34:18
just from this moment in Los Angeles the
00:34:21
problem is that after natural disasters
00:34:23
there is a spike in fraudulent
00:34:26
activities and there are people that try
00:34:29
to take advantage of that situation to
00:34:31
make money so for example after
00:34:32
hurricanes we saw this in Florida people
00:34:35
poses contractors they come in and they
00:34:38
offer inflated prices they offer poor
00:34:40
quality of work and especially when you
00:34:43
sort of deregulate for that moment where
00:34:45
there's less checks there's less folks
00:34:48
involved because you're trying to speed
00:34:50
up the process you can have a bunch of
00:34:53
pressure tactics that work against the
00:34:55
best interests of the person trying to
00:34:57
build on the Wildfire side there was
00:35:00
this crazy thing Nick I'll s you the
00:35:02
link from KTLA that about these folks
00:35:05
called fire Chasers which are
00:35:07
essentially like you know Wildfire
00:35:08
scammers they're ambulance Chasers but
00:35:11
during fir okay so so so my point is
00:35:13
yeah I don't disagree with his
00:35:15
incompetence okay and I think he is
00:35:17
totally out of touch I think there's a
00:35:20
broken cartel that runs the state that's
00:35:22
going to drive this state into just
00:35:25
complete disrepair he was
00:35:28
NE already you can't say a state that
00:35:32
has $322 billion budget is already
00:35:35
bankrupt it's it's teetering on a path
00:35:38
where we won't be able to return and we
00:35:40
can debate that but my point is I just
00:35:43
think despite all of this he's grossly
00:35:45
negligent Karen bass is grossly
00:35:47
negligent the California cartel is
00:35:50
breaking this state but on this specific
00:35:53
narrow thing I kind of will give him his
00:35:55
flowers I think it was like a decent
00:35:57
smart good thing it's narrowly focused
00:36:01
there's a specific window here that's
00:36:03
time boxed so that the worst behaviors
00:36:06
of other people are roughly managed and
00:36:09
mitigated until we can figure out a
00:36:11
better answer you're saying that
00:36:12
unsolicited offers on real estate can
00:36:15
drive fraud what you talked about if
00:36:18
there is a person that is this does not
00:36:21
prevent Somebody by let's talk about
00:36:23
Services separately because he has a
00:36:24
separate EO on services this does not
00:36:26
prevent anybody whose house burned down
00:36:28
from listing his lot you could sell it
00:36:30
for a dollar that's right so it's not
00:36:32
it's I think it's it's not right and
00:36:34
it's inaccurate to say that this is
00:36:37
perturbing and distorting the free
00:36:38
market the idea that you cannot sell
00:36:41
isn't what is in this CEO the idea is
00:36:43
some person shows up out of the blue and
00:36:46
applies a pressure tactic to you when
00:36:48
you're in a very stressful situation
00:36:51
trying to deal with your insurance
00:36:53
brokers trying to figure out where your
00:36:55
kids are going to go to school they're
00:36:56
just making an offer what's the pressure
00:36:58
tactic it's why can't someone make an
00:37:00
offer on your home you want people to B
00:37:01
up David David here's what's going to
00:37:03
happen there are people that in the
00:37:05
middle of all of this stress are trying
00:37:07
to figure out how much money they can
00:37:08
get somebody shows up and underbids what
00:37:12
the true price Discovery could be in a
00:37:15
few months from now you don't know
00:37:17
whether you have to still pay back your
00:37:19
mortgage there will be people it will be
00:37:21
nonzero that will make a mistake and I
00:37:24
think that it's good to try to stop that
00:37:26
it doesn't absorb him from his
00:37:28
incompetence but this I think was
00:37:30
reasonably good what about the services
00:37:32
piece jamat the fact that you can't
00:37:34
increase pricing on goods and services
00:37:35
by more than 10% for an indefinite
00:37:37
period don't you think that that creates
00:37:39
a disincentive for service providers to
00:37:40
come into the state to come and address
00:37:43
the obviously it does yeah this Grand
00:37:46
ideal of the free market will solve
00:37:49
everything isn't necessarily always true
00:37:52
it's great in theory it reads well in a
00:37:54
textbook but real life is messy right
00:37:57
now we are in the messy part and we are
00:37:59
in the most critical part where the
00:38:01
abuses will be the highest I suspect
00:38:03
that in 6 months and 9 months and 12
00:38:05
months the free market will sort all of
00:38:08
these things out so if there's a
00:38:10
governor who can Implement some checks
00:38:14
and balances to protect these folks who
00:38:16
are probably totally dazed like for
00:38:18
example we know some of our friends I've
00:38:20
spoken to them over the last few days
00:38:22
I've spoken to their
00:38:26
wives
00:38:28
H I'll say I'll say it in in a horrible
00:38:31
way one person said this to me and I'll
00:38:33
just just quote him the amount of people
00:38:36
that have reached out to me if you had
00:38:37
asked me two weeks ago why would so many
00:38:39
people reach out with condolences I
00:38:42
would have thought that one of my
00:38:43
children had died that's what he said to
00:38:44
me and it completely struck me with it's
00:38:48
not on that same level but the amount of
00:38:50
emotional turmoil that these families
00:38:53
are going through probably approaches
00:38:54
that I don't think many of those people
00:38:56
are in a condition to make make good
00:38:57
decisions right now so I almost think a
00:38:59
cooling off period actually benefits
00:39:02
everybody it can allow the free market
00:39:05
to work in a few months from now we're
00:39:06
only talking 90 days no no the uh the
00:39:08
services thing is indefinite that's
00:39:10
that's what I think is a little bit
00:39:11
frustrating let me bring Mark in here
00:39:12
Mark you heard both sides of this
00:39:14
debate if you had a lot in the Pacific
00:39:18
Palisades that burned down and people
00:39:20
started making unsolicited offer listen
00:39:22
you're sophisticated I've known you for
00:39:24
20 plus years uh you're very
00:39:26
sophisticated
00:39:28
obviously but do you think that's a
00:39:31
reasonable thing to do to put a
00:39:33
moratorium on people making these low
00:39:35
bit offers and then we'll get to the
00:39:36
construction piece second but you know
00:39:39
what you offers unsolicited offers yes
00:39:41
unsolicited offers yeah what do what do
00:39:43
you think of that I think what what
00:39:45
bothers me about it there's a
00:39:47
presumption and and maybe chim's right
00:39:50
in it you're getting me to think about
00:39:51
it a little more than I was but but I'm
00:39:54
pretty much where freeberg is that we're
00:39:57
we're kind of treating these people like
00:39:59
children cuz we're what we're saying is
00:40:02
that they're not capable of making good
00:40:06
decisions so we need to protect them
00:40:08
from themselves and we're saying so we
00:40:11
don't want you to know that somebody is
00:40:15
willing to pay X dollar for your
00:40:17
property because you might take it and
00:40:19
you might regret later that you took
00:40:22
that is kind of what chamath is saying
00:40:24
no in a in a very narrow window where
00:40:27
you may not have the best and clearest
00:40:30
ability to make the best decision for
00:40:32
you because you're dealing with so many
00:40:33
other crazy issues in your life and you
00:40:36
could still say no you could say no but
00:40:39
you're presuming there's there's one
00:40:41
side that bothers me that feels like
00:40:43
what we've had from the Democratic party
00:40:45
forever which is that this this big wise
00:40:49
Overlord that's going to protect us from
00:40:51
our selves from our worst natures and
00:40:55
then on the other hand you're bringing
00:40:57
up something chat that I I hadn't
00:41:00
thought about that I'm just thinking
00:41:01
more about now which is well maybe
00:41:03
people could be taken advantage of at
00:41:06
the
00:41:07
margin because they're in they feel like
00:41:10
they're in a dire position but but if
00:41:13
they think they're in a dire position
00:41:14
they might really be in a dire position
00:41:16
so they might really well for example
00:41:19
let's just say that you haven't heard
00:41:20
back from the banks that own your
00:41:22
mortgage about whether there's going to
00:41:25
be a moratorium on mortgage payments
00:41:28
and so now you're trying to juggle
00:41:29
paying for an extra rental and this
00:41:31
house while you're trying to figure out
00:41:32
where to put your kids and somebody
00:41:34
shows up and says hey I will buy this
00:41:36
from you I think that there are a lot of
00:41:38
people who would otherwise be able to
00:41:41
make a much more rational decision who
00:41:43
may make a panic decision in that moment
00:41:46
and I think that if you give people a
00:41:47
90-day cooling off period I think it at
00:41:50
least shines a light on whether all of
00:41:54
this governmental and other
00:41:55
infrastructure can actually do something
00:41:57
for these people I do think that there
00:41:59
is a moment at which you can't govern
00:42:01
these things and all I'm suggesting is a
00:42:04
very narrow window of time where
00:42:07
people's feelings of just like
00:42:08
desperation are at their highest I think
00:42:10
that this is a decent thing to do you
00:42:13
know there is some precedent for the
00:42:15
state doing stuff like this you know in
00:42:17
Most states there is a cooling off
00:42:19
period with marriages and divorces you
00:42:22
you have to wait 3 Days To to file
00:42:25
either way to get married or to get
00:42:26
divorced let's talk about the
00:42:28
construction process here freeberg
00:42:29
because I think that's the most
00:42:31
important one because we're going to
00:42:32
rebuild if you don't pay a premium to
00:42:37
get somebody to leave another Market to
00:42:39
come to this one which is what's going
00:42:40
to be required there are simply not
00:42:42
enough construction people in any state
00:42:44
that's right so now you're competing
00:42:45
with another state that's right this
00:42:47
immediately triggered uh the debate and
00:42:51
D I say courage that Travis had around
00:42:53
this issue with surge pricing for Uber
00:42:56
lift and side car and a bunch of other
00:42:58
folks who were kind of virtue signaling
00:43:00
were like we don't ever want to do
00:43:02
search pricing therefore there were
00:43:04
never cars on the road on Friday and
00:43:06
Saturday nights when people needed them
00:43:08
or
00:43:09
during you know inclement weather
00:43:12
snowstorms
00:43:14
or on New Year's Eve and he said if you
00:43:17
want to increase Supply We Believe Uber
00:43:20
should have availability lift took a
00:43:22
different decision we're GNA have no
00:43:23
search pricing and they just simply
00:43:25
weren't available so maybe
00:43:27
what do you think about that piece
00:43:29
Pinkus you
00:43:31
think that the free market and people
00:43:34
should be able to say you know what I'll
00:43:35
pay you time and a half to come here
00:43:37
I'll pay you double time to work
00:43:38
Saturday and Sundays I'll get a couple
00:43:40
of RVs put them in the back if you want
00:43:42
to have some folks live on the
00:43:44
construction site and if you hit these
00:43:46
dates I'll pay you a bonus for hitting
00:43:47
it doesn't seem like any of that would
00:43:50
be wrong to me for somebody who had the
00:43:53
ability to pay an incentive for somebody
00:43:56
to move from another state would be out
00:43:59
of line here what are your thoughts on
00:44:01
that I agree I mean I'm I'm pretty much
00:44:05
just a free market believer and so I
00:44:09
think other than guardrails like chamat
00:44:12
saying and maybe I like the idea of
00:44:14
cooling off periods it kind of makes
00:44:16
sense but outside of that when it comes
00:44:19
to service providers yeah you have the
00:44:20
opposite problem right now which is like
00:44:22
you're saying you need to incentivize a
00:44:25
huge construction for
00:44:27
to come to LA and the cost for them to
00:44:32
get there to find housing themselves is
00:44:36
going to be even higher or the amount of
00:44:39
distance they're going to have to travel
00:44:40
every day so I think I think this could
00:44:43
have real unintended consequences and
00:44:46
just stop the just stop the wheels from
00:44:50
turning on rebuilding all these homes
00:44:53
which just make it way more complex so I
00:44:57
agree J final thoughts on the rebuild
00:45:00
and the free market in that regard yeah
00:45:03
I think this is where the government
00:45:05
ineptitude is at its
00:45:09
worst I think that we need to dismantle
00:45:11
this regulatory state that makes doing
00:45:15
the right thing impossible so
00:45:18
specifically the thing that Nome did was
00:45:22
essentially create
00:45:25
a Time expectation on when things will
00:45:29
get permitted and I think he said it was
00:45:32
like six months the problem is like this
00:45:34
is what just goes to show you how insane
00:45:37
the state has become even if you get a
00:45:40
permit within 6 months and this is where
00:45:43
I do agree with freeberg like getting
00:45:45
service people in and being able to
00:45:46
build something to spec safely is going
00:45:49
to take three four five six years and
00:45:52
it's going to be insane and the example
00:45:56
of the complete incompetence of the
00:45:57
California state government is if you
00:46:00
contrast and compare this with how the
00:46:03
state was able to respond in the North
00:46:05
Bridge earthquake and the crazy thing
00:46:08
which I thought was incredible was after
00:46:10
the 1994 Northridge Earthquake they
00:46:12
rebuilt I 10 right which is like that is
00:46:16
like a crazy
00:46:17
artery in 66 days guys they rebuilt it
00:46:22
not they permitted it not that they were
00:46:24
trying to get the California Coastal
00:46:26
commission to app on it not a Sierra
00:46:28
Club lawsuit about the Upper Land grous
00:46:31
they rebuilt it so you actually know
00:46:34
what's possible in California if if
00:46:36
Tradesmen are allowed to go to work yeah
00:46:39
they can build incredibly complicated
00:46:41
things with safety with speed this is
00:46:44
where Nome I don't think understands how
00:46:46
the real Market works because if you
00:46:49
looked at that example the real question
00:46:51
you should be asking is well what has
00:46:52
changed well Technology's gotten way
00:46:55
better since then the people are more
00:46:58
skilled there are more people to be able
00:47:00
to do more of these jobs and so why does
00:47:02
it only take six months to just get the
00:47:04
permit when in 120 days you could just
00:47:06
rebuild an entire Highway similarly why
00:47:08
aren't we saying that we expect these
00:47:09
homes built in the next three years get
00:47:11
these kids back in their homes and back
00:47:13
in school you know what they did on that
00:47:16
they offered a
00:47:17
$200,000 per day early build bonus on
00:47:20
that program back then so they basically
00:47:22
the the state declared we need this
00:47:25
freeway reopened and here's the date it
00:47:28
was like 144 days and they're like
00:47:29
you'll get a $200,000 bonus for every
00:47:32
day under 144 that you deliver it soever
00:47:35
w show me an incentive I'll show you an
00:47:37
outcome exactly the really interesting
00:47:40
thing here is there are regulations that
00:47:42
this is a unique
00:47:44
opportunity to put in place Nick if you
00:47:47
can pull it up there was a home that
00:47:48
wasn't burned in the Pacific Palisades
00:47:50
and the architect talked about some of
00:47:53
the design decisions
00:47:55
there you know have having Stone scaping
00:47:57
around your home gravel Etc and using
00:48:01
these new materials and not having
00:48:03
overhangs uh which and then having vents
00:48:06
into your uh addict which is what a lot
00:48:08
of homes have and the Embers get into
00:48:10
the addict there's an overhang and
00:48:12
they're not using and they're they're
00:48:14
all wood built you know none of this is
00:48:16
concrete none of it's brick California
00:48:18
is all wood and so they probably should
00:48:21
add some regulations about building
00:48:24
things that are fireproof because if you
00:48:26
had a 100 homes that were all fireproof
00:48:28
and built to withstand this that would
00:48:31
act as a natural break and if you didn't
00:48:33
have as much vegetation so there's
00:48:34
probably a series of things that should
00:48:36
be added here in terms of regulations
00:48:38
while you're getting rid of some of the
00:48:40
ones that are slowing you down right um
00:48:42
but let's pivot over to oh and then
00:48:44
finally like allowing people to park
00:48:47
their mobile homes in these places to
00:48:49
have housing for construction to your
00:48:50
point mark would be super critical and
00:48:52
they block that kind of stuff so when
00:48:54
you need temporary housing in California
00:48:56
you can't do it
00:48:57
by the way I want to I want to hear what
00:48:59
freeberg has to say about insurance but
00:49:01
let me connect the dots between what you
00:49:02
said and what he's about to say there
00:49:05
are three images I just want to show you
00:49:06
guys and to Bubble this up for everybody
00:49:09
that isn't necessarily living in
00:49:11
California and is consumed with what all
00:49:13
of this means there's a bigger Trend
00:49:16
across the country that I think is just
00:49:18
worth putting out there so Nick do you
00:49:20
want to just show the first chart from
00:49:22
FEMA so this is basically a graph
00:49:27
per locality all over the United States
00:49:29
where FEMA tries to assess the disaster
00:49:32
risk for living in a given area and what
00:49:36
you see here is that there's some risk
00:49:39
in living on the Eastern Seaboard and
00:49:41
there's a lot of risk in it's growing
00:49:43
for living on the western Seaboard and
00:49:45
the two most complicated states that
00:49:49
have to deal with this are clearly
00:49:50
Florida and
00:49:52
California so that's one which is this
00:49:54
is a problem that isn't just focused on
00:49:58
this one little area so then if you
00:50:00
double click a little bit further
00:50:01
there's a company called core logic they
00:50:04
publish a lot of real estate data here's
00:50:06
a chart about the western United States
00:50:08
that just double clicks into Wildfire
00:50:11
risk and I was shocked when I saw this
00:50:13
this is first of all most of California
00:50:17
this is like Nevada this is Arizona this
00:50:20
is parts of Texas this is Washington I
00:50:22
didn't even know the fire risk went up
00:50:25
that high but this is essentially a lot
00:50:28
of the western United States and then
00:50:30
the last chart goes through and it
00:50:32
actually does core logic does an
00:50:34
assessment of the value at risk so in
00:50:38
California it's three4 of a trillion
00:50:41
dollars that are at about 1.26 million
00:50:45
homes that are at moderate or great risk
00:50:49
of fires in Colorado it's about 141
00:50:53
billion in Texas it's 88 billion in
00:50:56
Oregon it's 45 billion in Arizona 36
00:50:59
billion the point is that everything you
00:51:03
said
00:51:04
Jason now needs to get Scaled out
00:51:07
meaning there needs to be a national
00:51:09
level conversation this can't be a bunch
00:51:11
of city planners making code and making
00:51:15
laws in a little municipality yeah
00:51:17
because that problem what that shows you
00:51:19
is we have a multi-trillion doll risk to
00:51:24
a lot of people in the Western United
00:51:27
States specifically around this issue
00:51:29
that has to get dealt with by code all
00:51:32
right really interesting in New York
00:51:34
finally New York has put into place
00:51:37
congestion pricing I've been waiting for
00:51:39
this my entire life here's a math this
00:51:43
went into effect January 5th this
00:51:46
congestion pricing concept exists in
00:51:48
London as everybody probably
00:51:50
knows basically if you're below Central
00:51:53
Park which is six stage straight in
00:51:54
Manhattan and you enter between 5:00
00:51:56
a.m. and 900 p.m. you're going to get
00:52:00
you know on your easy pass a charge of
00:52:02
but $9 cheaper than a bacon egg and
00:52:04
cheese in Manhattan these days if you're
00:52:06
going clubbing in Manhattan between 9:00
00:52:08
p.m. and 5:00 a.m. it's just like two
00:52:10
bucks it's going to increase to $12 in
00:52:12
2028 and $15 in 2031 trucks pay more
00:52:16
taxes pay less the results have been
00:52:20
awesome weight times to get on the
00:52:22
island are down 50% across the board
00:52:25
Lincoln Tunnel down 46% Holland Tunnel
00:52:28
down 63% Williamsburg Bridge down 35%
00:52:31
it's just an awesome effort when I live
00:52:34
there man as a resident the traffic was
00:52:37
nuts you can have emergency services
00:52:39
move a lot faster you get rid of noise
00:52:42
pollution you obviously get rid of air
00:52:44
quality pollution for ice engines uh
00:52:47
it's great for cabs great for
00:52:48
pedestrians and great for bike riders
00:52:51
the only people really complaining are
00:52:55
selfish and entitled people who Drive
00:52:56
their cars into Manhattan that's at
00:52:58
least my position on it opponents are
00:53:01
saying it's a money grab for the transit
00:53:04
authority because the money from this
00:53:05
goes to make public transportation
00:53:08
better what do you think Mark you in
00:53:09
favor of
00:53:10
this yeah I think more generally I feel
00:53:15
like since the pandemic what's been on
00:53:18
my mind a lot living still in San
00:53:20
Francisco I wanted to start a social
00:53:22
network called still here uh it's like
00:53:25
oh you still live here me too some way
00:53:28
for us to like come out of our houses
00:53:31
and notice that you're here and I'm here
00:53:33
but we never leave our homes I walk
00:53:35
around this city at my own risk and I
00:53:39
like the cities I feel like cities have
00:53:42
lost the point like they've lost the
00:53:43
plot like why we've kind of we still
00:53:46
live in cities or value them but I feel
00:53:49
like we have to go back to First
00:53:50
principles and think like why did we
00:53:53
move to cities in the first place and
00:53:54
what was the value supposed to be and is
00:53:57
that still the deal we're getting or is
00:53:59
there it have to be a new deal because
00:54:01
we used to live in a city because it was
00:54:03
economic we were closer to our job and
00:54:06
then we lived in a city because there
00:54:08
was a high density of things that we
00:54:11
wanted cultural people restaurants and
00:54:15
the best cities really were the ones
00:54:17
that are fun to walk around and then we
00:54:19
got to a point where it's not safe or
00:54:22
clean to walk around you don't work in
00:54:24
the city anymore and San Francisco
00:54:26
started to feel like this gigantic like
00:54:28
retirement community it's just all these
00:54:31
people who still live here because their
00:54:32
kids are in school maybe or they grew up
00:54:35
here you know a lot of our friends left
00:54:38
went to Austin and other places and we
00:54:41
started I I don't know about chamat but
00:54:43
I think or Dave but I think our family
00:54:45
has a conversation probably twice a year
00:54:48
of should we move why haven't we moved
00:54:50
what's wrong with us and so there's this
00:54:52
questioning going on around cities and I
00:54:54
think it's a good question and I think
00:54:57
cities need to innovate aggressively to
00:55:01
give to be better they have to compete
00:55:03
with the other options again they have
00:55:05
to make it fun to be there fun to work
00:55:08
there I think it's great that Daniel
00:55:10
lurry is mayor of San Francisco and he's
00:55:13
putting smart people around him and
00:55:16
they're trying to rethink first some of
00:55:18
attacking these core problems but also
00:55:21
how do we make San Francisco fun again
00:55:24
so I love things like congestion pricing
00:55:27
I think now is the time to try every new
00:55:30
innovation that you ever thought of and
00:55:33
see what sticks and and figure out like
00:55:37
how do you take this this tax not
00:55:40
literally I mean New York has a big tax
00:55:42
but this tax on all of us whether it is
00:55:46
that you can't walk across this city
00:55:48
that you don't feel safe or that that
00:55:51
the the good side of it being fun to be
00:55:54
in you know is that the the deal is off
00:55:59
and so I think you know and I also what
00:56:02
I'm hoping Daniel lurry does and other
00:56:04
smart Mayors is that they Benchmark and
00:56:07
they say who's doing it really well
00:56:09
around the world whether it's dealing
00:56:10
with homelessness or things like
00:56:13
congestion
00:56:14
pricing who's who's innovating and doing
00:56:16
it well and why aren't we doing it here
00:56:19
I mean I think you got to run these you
00:56:21
got to reinvent these cities and you
00:56:23
know sorry to sound cliche but I think
00:56:25
you got to kind of take a startup
00:56:27
mentality and say you're not going to
00:56:28
live on your incumbency anymore you've
00:56:31
got
00:56:32
to reinvent this and we can't make
00:56:35
companies come back to work you know
00:56:37
come back to the office I mean the
00:56:38
companies can make their employees but
00:56:40
it'd be really nice if the employees
00:56:42
wanted to be there um you know and you
00:56:45
can't make people live in California so
00:56:48
I'm in favor yeah chamath any thoughts
00:56:51
on Mark's point about making cities fun
00:56:54
again and joyful again sounds like a
00:56:56
pretty pretty good
00:56:57
platform I mean I think he's right um
00:56:59
San Francisco sucks it's trash they
00:57:02
never go there yeah it's terrible and
00:57:06
the reason that you don't like to go
00:57:07
there is it's dirty it's disgusting
00:57:10
there's crime there's
00:57:13
Grime everything just sucks there yeah
00:57:16
freeberg your thoughts uh
00:57:19
on the Gotham City that did he visit you
00:57:22
in the Dave did chat ever come to the
00:57:25
Presidio I have come to your office I've
00:57:28
come to Dave's office I've come to I've
00:57:29
gone to Peter's office there but what I
00:57:32
do is I I don't even go through the city
00:57:34
I go all the way around I drive all
00:57:36
through the East Bay up through Berkeley
00:57:38
and I come I'm just kidding no no no I
00:57:41
just think that the city is very poorly
00:57:43
managed and just the quality of many
00:57:46
cities are poorly managed and I think
00:57:48
that there's a common through line in
00:57:50
these poorly managed cities all the
00:57:53
things that you say there's no will to
00:57:55
do there's no will to keep crime at Bay
00:57:59
there's no will to make you know usable
00:58:01
spaces for people there's no will to
00:58:03
invest in the Arts so what do you expect
00:58:06
right there's more money collected by
00:58:07
these cities but there's just just more
00:58:09
total grift corruption and waste I
00:58:12
really like that you got to this will
00:58:13
point because whether we come back to
00:58:15
the coastal commission or not or talk
00:58:18
about California or San Francisco I
00:58:21
don't think it's really about the red
00:58:23
tape I think it's about the willpower of
00:58:26
of the people who are running the tape
00:58:28
and reading the tape you're 100% right
00:58:30
did you see this thing I have to read
00:58:32
this to you because this is really
00:58:34
stunning I sorry Mark keep going but I
00:58:37
you're still th% right you know because
00:58:39
sure okay maybe maybe in one case Gavin
00:58:43
can override the coastal commission but
00:58:46
it doesn't matter if you cut their red
00:58:48
tape by 90% as long as there's any tape
00:58:51
that they can use the people running
00:58:55
both the St there and the people on the
00:58:57
board have stated on their website that
00:59:00
their policy is managed retreat they
00:59:02
drew a new map of the California
00:59:04
coastline if that's their intention
00:59:07
they're going to look for anything they
00:59:09
can to to stop and obstruct you so it's
00:59:12
it's really not like their hands are
00:59:14
tied because there's so much permitting
00:59:17
you're you're right they' made a
00:59:18
decision and the decision in California
00:59:19
and San Francisco specifically was that
00:59:21
we're going to cater to fentol dealers
00:59:24
and junkies and that those people were
00:59:26
going to get a stipend a hotel room and
00:59:29
be allowed to take a super drug on the
00:59:33
streets thousands of people with no
00:59:36
recourse listen I'm pro drug okay here's
00:59:39
I sent you guys a I sentation but not
00:59:42
for fentol and meth these things are
00:59:43
super drugs yeah let's make it less
00:59:45
about San Francisco let's talk about
00:59:47
middle Ohio and let's talk about Ender
00:59:51
Palmer lucky did this really awesome
00:59:54
shout up really awesome interview Nick I
00:59:56
just sent you the link to it he's
00:59:58
building a new Ohio plant but the
01:00:02
question and answer from the interviewer
01:00:05
is exactly what pink has talked about
01:00:07
which is will the interview
01:00:09
says was this the only state that could
01:00:13
guarantee that timeline that you needed
01:00:15
and here's Palmer's answer was this the
01:00:18
only state that could guarantee that
01:00:20
timeline I think that they were the
01:00:21
state that gave us the best shot of
01:00:23
hitting that timeline look we've really
01:00:25
Eng well with jobs Ohio with a lot of
01:00:27
the politicians here uh not just at the
01:00:29
state level but the local level you know
01:00:31
like you said we're hiring 4,000 people
01:00:32
here in direct jobs a lot more jobs than
01:00:35
that in a direct or sorry an indirect
01:00:37
capacity it's the largest single job
01:00:39
creation event in Ohio history it was a
01:00:42
state that told us we have the workforce
01:00:44
we have a million people who are capable
01:00:46
of working in this facility within a
01:00:47
45-minute drive we're willing to work
01:00:49
with you on higher education to help
01:00:51
train people so they can come in and
01:00:53
they can work with you uh our customer
01:00:55
in the the United Air for United States
01:00:57
Air Force obviously it's a huge presence
01:00:59
here in the form of right Patterson Air
01:01:00
Force Base so really all the stars align
01:01:03
to make Ohio a great place for us to do
01:01:05
it and to do it fast and speaking
01:01:06
candidly as someone who is from
01:01:08
California there's some states that are
01:01:10
really good at uh pushing you out and
01:01:13
slowing you down and there's others that
01:01:14
are great at pulling you in and speeding
01:01:16
you up and that's what Ohio was
01:01:19
fantastic yeah states are competing for
01:01:22
elite
01:01:23
companies and there's a willpower that's
01:01:27
that there's an
01:01:28
intention and you know that if they want
01:01:31
to make it happen they'll make it happen
01:01:32
just like Gavin just did right you Gavin
01:01:35
could have theoretically I don't know
01:01:38
signed an executive order to override
01:01:39
the coastal Commission on lot even his
01:01:42
diesel plant like I don't know why he
01:01:44
didn't just force that through but if we
01:01:47
had diesel maybe there'd be more water
01:01:49
to fight the fire now so I think the
01:01:51
important thing is to note that cities
01:01:53
have a right to be what they want to
01:01:57
be you guys might find this surprising
01:02:00
but I'm not necessarily of the belief
01:02:02
that every city should necessarily cater
01:02:05
to progress and acceleration and
01:02:08
enterpris and
01:02:11
industrialization look when you go to
01:02:12
Pino every summer chth you would
01:02:15
probably you know stop going and would
01:02:18
be disappointed if you found out that
01:02:20
they were building a giant glass tower
01:02:22
apartment complex and a giant office
01:02:24
building right by the Portofino Port
01:02:27
like that's just not the character of
01:02:29
what that City wants to be and I do
01:02:31
remember when I first moved to San
01:02:33
Francisco 25 years ago it was it felt
01:02:37
like a smaller European like City it
01:02:39
wasn't overrun with technology companies
01:02:41
at the time and it was a the charm and
01:02:44
the quaint nature and the smaller
01:02:45
buildings of San Francisco that made it
01:02:47
a beautiful fantastic town I think that
01:02:50
part of the challenge of San Francisco
01:02:52
has been this diametrically kind of
01:02:54
opposed Viewpoint of progress from the
01:02:56
technology sector and a desire to keep
01:02:59
San Francisco a small City by the bay
01:03:02
and that that frustration has manifested
01:03:04
with a lot of kind of ugliness over the
01:03:06
the last couple decades in addition to
01:03:07
obviously all the silly stupid policies
01:03:09
that just make no sense whatsoever
01:03:12
they're rooted in people thinking that
01:03:13
this is a good solution in the short
01:03:15
term but it creates extraordinary damage
01:03:16
and harm in the long term separate but I
01:03:19
do think that cities have a right to be
01:03:20
what they want to be and I think that
01:03:22
Dave I think that's just I just want to
01:03:24
interject as a fellow San Franciscan for
01:03:26
a long time um just as long is that
01:03:30
that's the normal tension that's been
01:03:31
here all along and that kind of makes
01:03:33
the city culture great and there's you
01:03:36
want to have this
01:03:38
creative uh Melting Pot here but there's
01:03:41
this other side that I think has come
01:03:44
into play in the last 15 20 years or I
01:03:47
don't 10 15 years which is this
01:03:50
progressivism side which we saw Chessa
01:03:53
you know with and I think it's it's
01:03:55
different virus that's the ugly
01:03:58
silliness I meant I was saying but like
01:04:00
let's put that aside let's put San
01:04:01
Francisco aside I do think that a city
01:04:04
can and should be what it wants to be
01:04:05
does it want to attract and build in
01:04:07
Industry does it want to attract and
01:04:09
build enterprising companies or does it
01:04:12
want to be a small quain town does it
01:04:14
want to stay you know with no h that's a
01:04:18
false trade-off the problem is that
01:04:21
people in government at every level
01:04:23
sells the former doesn't doesn't
01:04:26
actually even give them that nor the
01:04:28
ladder what they give them is a
01:04:30
dysfunctional hellscape instead well
01:04:32
Cino doesn't do that right because it
01:04:34
doesn't make those promises it's not
01:04:36
asking to elect people that are trying
01:04:37
to do it not every City's making that
01:04:40
though why are we lying to everybody and
01:04:42
why are people falling for these lies
01:04:44
over and over and over again there's
01:04:45
there's a moral Clarity in telling the
01:04:47
truth bino doesn't try to do that but I
01:04:49
don't think the point is you're saying
01:04:50
that the cities that that promise that
01:04:52
and don't deliver that your San
01:04:53
Francisco promises it right London
01:04:55
promises it New York promises it these
01:04:58
things are chaotic messes mhm and it's
01:05:01
not the trade-off of oh well Parris has
01:05:03
found a way to stay quaint that was
01:05:04
never on the ballot some person comes up
01:05:07
and says I'm going to spend x billion
01:05:09
dollars a year then another person shows
01:05:11
up is is actually I'm going to spend it
01:05:12
a totally different way they both claim
01:05:15
to have measurements of how it's going
01:05:17
to be great and my point is none of them
01:05:20
are rooted in the real world nobody
01:05:21
knows how to actually run a business all
01:05:23
the money gets wasted and nothing
01:05:25
happens it neither stays quaint nor does
01:05:27
it
01:05:28
Advance if you were uh living in Los
01:05:31
Angeles you had the opportunity to have
01:05:32
Rick Caruso who built so many
01:05:36
amazing experiences and uh shops for the
01:05:41
citizens there and you picked Karen bass
01:05:43
I looked on her Wikipedia page looking
01:05:46
for any kind of operational position she
01:05:49
ever felt it's you want to read her
01:05:51
resume it's tragic I mean just it's
01:05:54
tragic she I would like I said last week
01:05:56
not send her to get my lunch because you
01:05:58
know that order would be totally screwed
01:06:00
up she is so dis so unqualified and you
01:06:03
had this perfect person Rick Caruso who
01:06:07
literally you can't script this he built
01:06:09
the Pacific Palisades
01:06:12
Village when the days before there was
01:06:15
going to be a fire do you know what he
01:06:17
did he hired water trucks to park on
01:06:21
those streets you can find the picture
01:06:23
Nick pull it up and he hired
01:06:25
firefighters and people to protect the
01:06:29
village that he
01:06:30
built Karen bass was in Ghana partying
01:06:35
taking meetings I don't know what the
01:06:37
connection between Los Angeles and their
01:06:39
citizens and what they need to get done
01:06:41
and Ghana after she promised she would
01:06:43
not do this Global you know uh Globe
01:06:46
trotting which she apparently has a
01:06:47
track record of
01:06:49
doing she left and stayed there knowing
01:06:52
this was all coming Rick ruso who you
01:06:55
didn't vote for
01:06:57
mayor he did the right thing vote these
01:07:00
people out recall Karen bass you can do
01:07:03
it we recall Chessa Boudin you remember
01:07:05
on this show David Sachs is a a
01:07:08
republican entrepreneur venture
01:07:11
capitalist good friend of mine I'll
01:07:13
introduce you guys if you haven't met
01:07:14
him he started a recall chesa Boudin
01:07:17
movement I hired a journalist to cover
01:07:20
the victims of crime in San Francisco
01:07:22
Chessa Boudin was out in 18 months you
01:07:24
can recall these people they're
01:07:27
unqualified take action start a recall
01:07:30
they'll tell you oh it's not a good
01:07:31
thing for continuity whatever these
01:07:33
people are not qualified they are not
01:07:35
thinking in your best interest you have
01:07:37
no choice citizens of Los Angeles but to
01:07:40
get these people out immediately every
01:07:42
day they stay in office they are going
01:07:45
to cause more damage to your family your
01:07:48
property and your city we call them now
01:07:52
didn't James Woods post a petition on
01:07:55
change.org that I saw on Twitter it was
01:07:57
already I signed it though I don't live
01:07:59
there and I think it was already over
01:08:01
like 90,000 you know names I mean you
01:08:03
you you have power the people of
01:08:06
California don't understand how much
01:08:07
power they have when Gavin new I just
01:08:09
told people on Twitter jamou every time
01:08:11
Gavin tweets or Karen best Tweets just
01:08:13
reply with the word resign hundreds of
01:08:15
people are doing it now shame these
01:08:17
people into resigning it's a very mature
01:08:19
way for you to affect you you know what
01:08:21
it worked in Brooklyn shame worked I
01:08:24
don't know why people think they have no
01:08:25
power you can literally just go in there
01:08:27
and do things and one of the things you
01:08:29
can do is recall them okay do we have
01:08:31
anything else except your pical left on
01:08:33
the docket all right Tik tok's future is
01:08:35
in question right now the ban is about
01:08:38
to happen unless the pairing company
01:08:40
bite dance divest by January 19th which
01:08:43
is this Sunday Tik Tok will be banned in
01:08:46
America Google and apple are going to be
01:08:48
forced to remove Tik Tok from their app
01:08:50
stores and Oracle Tik tok's cloud
01:08:52
provider has to stop providing hosting
01:08:54
services and cut ties assuming bite
01:08:56
dance doesn't come up with a last minute
01:08:58
deal tick Talk's only hope is the
01:09:01
Supreme Court blocking the law what do
01:09:04
you think Mark do you think it's Chinese
01:09:06
spyware do you think they should be
01:09:07
forced to divest what do you think their
01:09:10
repercussions will be here's what's so
01:09:12
hard for me about this on the one hand
01:09:15
part of it seems so obvious from a both
01:09:18
not just National Security point of view
01:09:20
but also just fairness like it's insane
01:09:25
if you think about it that there's a
01:09:26
Chinese company that's arguing in court
01:09:30
for protections under our Constitution
01:09:34
and freedom of speech when none of our
01:09:38
companies have those kinds of Rights in
01:09:41
China much less the right to even
01:09:42
operate there if they're not majority
01:09:44
controlled or in line like you guys
01:09:47
talked about with censorship or whatever
01:09:49
else so on the one hand it seems like a
01:09:51
no-brainer to me that on this case but
01:09:55
what you're starting to see come up in
01:09:57
the last couple days I'm even hearing it
01:09:59
from one of my daughters who's a major
01:10:02
Tik tocker is the law of unintended
01:10:05
consequences here is that we could see
01:10:08
this band especially if they don't get
01:10:10
to a deal with somebody and then the 170
01:10:14
million Americans many younger Americans
01:10:18
who rely on this all a sudden feel like
01:10:20
this is censoring them and it's taking
01:10:23
away their freedom of expression
01:10:25
question and it could backfire in a lot
01:10:28
of ways and we're already seeing memes
01:10:30
where they're going on to these other
01:10:32
apps like there's this chines book red
01:10:35
book which is even worse right I think
01:10:37
that one is owned by the Chinese
01:10:38
government and so we're driving them
01:10:41
there and so so I'm the best outcome I
01:10:44
think would be forced to divest and sell
01:10:46
to another American company but if that
01:10:51
doesn't happen I I'm kind of nervous
01:10:54
about a a real backlash I'm delighted
01:10:58
jamath that our kids are gonna go out
01:10:59
and play and have friendships and stop
01:11:02
scrolling on T talk what you describe
01:11:04
sound sounds awesome I literally get on
01:11:08
their iPads and phones when I sometimes
01:11:11
allow them to have phones and just
01:11:12
delete the app and then they go get it
01:11:14
back of course of course K are right
01:11:16
around it what do you think Cham what do
01:11:18
you think's GNA happen here I mentioned
01:11:19
this
01:11:20
to president Trump and I and I really
01:11:23
think this is true the reason why there
01:11:25
was so much bipartisan support for the
01:11:27
bill as it worked through Congress is
01:11:29
because I think that they were briefed
01:11:31
on just how severe the security
01:11:34
violations of this app are because I
01:11:36
don't think we've seen anything in
01:11:38
modern history that is that that is this
01:11:41
controversial yet be so almost unanimous
01:11:45
yeah so I think that that's an important
01:11:47
data point there is something happening
01:11:49
in the app that they've been briefed
01:11:51
on that makes them take this posture
01:11:56
and when I listened to the Supreme Court
01:11:58
arguments I didn't hear a very
01:12:00
compelling reason why this ban should be
01:12:03
overturned so I do agree with Mark that
01:12:06
we have to find a suitable
01:12:09
home and I think that we'll probably
01:12:11
find one and I think that it probably
01:12:13
happens under the Trump
01:12:15
presidency and whoever gets their hands
01:12:17
on it gets their hands on an incredible
01:12:20
asset that they will be able to buy
01:12:22
extremely cheaply because there is no
01:12:24
way that is a fair market value here
01:12:27
deal for that asset because whoever is
01:12:29
the buyer is in the total cat bird seat
01:12:31
and in order to get a deal done with the
01:12:32
federal government I think you're just
01:12:35
going to get a basically like a buy at
01:12:36
now price that's very cheap the other
01:12:38
thing that I'll say though on a totally
01:12:39
separate tangent so when I started
01:12:41
hunting around Tik tok's realtime
01:12:44
recommendation algorithm was open source
01:12:46
the learning method yep Nick do you want
01:12:49
to just throw it up here it's called
01:12:50
monolith this is an incredible paper the
01:12:53
cleverness of what these guys have built
01:12:55
cannot be
01:12:57
underestimated and what's incredible is
01:12:59
what they describe in this paper which I
01:13:01
think frankly a lot of social apps would
01:13:04
benefit from
01:13:05
understanding is exactly how they've
01:13:07
built it to essentially not take this
01:13:10
more monolithic training approach for
01:13:11
recommendations but how do you do it in
01:13:13
real time how do you make it
01:13:15
collisionless it's
01:13:17
incredible this paper is a tour to force
01:13:21
and it just makes me realize that
01:13:24
despite the
01:13:27
political maneuvering of this hot potato
01:13:29
there are some folks that have been
01:13:30
working in that app or in you know the
01:13:33
parent company that are truly
01:13:35
technically talented and it's a it's a
01:13:37
bit of a shame that they're going to get
01:13:38
sort of throw the baby out with the bath
01:13:40
water so to speak so people should know
01:13:43
that there's some technological
01:13:45
innovations inside of bike dance and Tik
01:13:47
Tok that are just truly amazing feats of
01:13:50
computer science this is an example it
01:13:53
doesn't though change the fact that I
01:13:54
think that enough of Congress and the
01:13:57
rest of the security apparatus know that
01:13:58
this is a mechanism to spy I think you
01:14:00
both nailed it isn't China saying though
01:14:02
that they're going to if this does get
01:14:05
divested they're going to keep either
01:14:07
bite dance or Chinese government saying
01:14:09
we're not going to give over the
01:14:10
algorithm or are you saying it's open
01:14:12
source it doesn't matter well this was
01:14:14
an example of just sort of like
01:14:15
describing the methodology it's not
01:14:17
functionally open source yet but I think
01:14:19
that open sourcing it doesn't solve the
01:14:21
problem and the reason is so let's just
01:14:23
say that you're Pegasus was able to
01:14:25
reverse engineer or build penetration
01:14:28
attacks into WhatsApp that were
01:14:31
imperceptible to everybody until it
01:14:33
happened to Jeff Bezos to other people
01:14:35
right where you get these state
01:14:37
sponsored attacks on your
01:14:39
phone and all of a sudden you're dealing
01:14:41
with this attack Vector that then you
01:14:45
call the FBI and they take your phone
01:14:47
and they help you deal with it's
01:14:48
happened to a bunch of people that's
01:14:50
happened to me
01:14:52
twice so
01:14:55
the fact that these things can happen
01:14:57
and then the attack vectors get
01:14:59
incrementally more and more
01:15:00
sophisticated it used to be that there
01:15:02
was a PDF payload then there can just be
01:15:05
an image payload now it's any payload
01:15:08
right and you don't even have to click
01:15:09
to open it and all of a sudden they just
01:15:11
roots your phone so these are extremely
01:15:14
sophisticated mechanisms that are
01:15:17
enabled by a very few very talented
01:15:19
people talented I'll put in
01:15:21
quotes but when those talented people
01:15:23
work on the wrong side you have to act
01:15:25
so open sourcing it won't solve this
01:15:27
these these exploits are known to a few
01:15:31
and I think that if it's known to the
01:15:33
NSA this is probably what was disclosed
01:15:35
to folks under confidentiality that
01:15:37
caused them to get to this conclusion I
01:15:38
think people just need to wake up and
01:15:40
realize the Chinese government does not
01:15:42
have Americans best interest at hard I
01:15:44
mean the there there is no concept of
01:15:47
reciprocity as you mentioned Mark that's
01:15:50
the number one reason to do this number
01:15:52
two what you pointed out your mouth with
01:15:53
security and if you think about the two
01:15:55
biggest imports from China right now
01:15:58
it's Fentanyl and Tik Tock here's what I
01:16:00
will say want to make us addicted they
01:16:02
want to impact our society they want to
01:16:05
divide us this is an a massive scops
01:16:09
that's going on it is a scops and it is
01:16:11
a spyware and it's been proven they
01:16:13
spied on journalists these are Bad
01:16:15
actors it has to go I was super excited
01:16:17
when I saw that there was the potential
01:16:20
that X would take over Tik Tok and the
01:16:23
reason I say that is I do think that if
01:16:26
you can take the video content of Tik
01:16:30
Tok and the graph of
01:16:33
creators but have a different app and a
01:16:36
different substrate be the delivery
01:16:38
mechanism where you know that it's much
01:16:39
safer and it's governed by an American
01:16:42
that to me would be the compromise so I
01:16:45
think the app should go away but if you
01:16:48
can somehow give creators a path to sort
01:16:50
of like restart their content creating
01:16:53
capabilities on X I think that that's
01:16:55
actually a pretty good one you guys
01:16:56
notice in the app freeberg that the left
01:16:59
hand tab um because you have following
01:17:01
shop and for you they added a leftand
01:17:04
tab all the way over that stem and it's
01:17:07
just science technology engineering and
01:17:09
math content I've not noticed that yeah
01:17:13
take a look I don't know if it's just
01:17:14
mine and they're microt targeting me
01:17:15
because they know I'm such a fan of stem
01:17:17
but I think it's for everybody any
01:17:20
thoughts uh Dave as we wrap on the Tik
01:17:22
Tok seems like they're going to strike
01:17:25
deal Chuck Schumer today is calling for
01:17:26
a delay in the ban I'm sure by the time
01:17:29
this episode airs something will have
01:17:30
been worked out to create some space for
01:17:32
them to get a deal done but I think they
01:17:34
want to get a deal done and keep Tick
01:17:35
Tock active in the US seems like both
01:17:37
the Dems and the Republicans are pushing
01:17:39
for it so this kind of also leads to
01:17:41
what I think will
01:17:43
be the grand deal with China which I
01:17:46
think will happen in the first six
01:17:47
months of the Trump Administration I'm
01:17:48
obviously speculating but it feels like
01:17:51
there's going to be some workout here
01:17:54
China is like in a lot of economic
01:17:57
distress I don't know if you guys have
01:17:58
followed much on the stories of the
01:18:00
deflationary challenges that China is
01:18:03
dealing with Chinese bonds are trading
01:18:04
at a below 2% yield now which is kind of
01:18:08
unprecedented and there's this real
01:18:10
concern that China is in a very
01:18:12
significant economic deflationary spiral
01:18:14
so they're in a very weakened position
01:18:16
economically at the moment the United
01:18:18
States seems to be in a position of
01:18:21
strength and I would imagine just given
01:18:24
the rhetoric
01:18:25
that this Administration may try to work
01:18:27
out again some deal that's going to
01:18:29
provide access to the Chinese market in
01:18:31
exchange for the US minimizing the
01:18:33
Tariff effect on Chinese um importers to
01:18:35
the US so there could be I think
01:18:38
something you know that eases the the
01:18:41
tension with China and creates you know
01:18:43
Mutual economic value in the first six
01:18:47
months of the administration we'll see I
01:18:49
mean it's a great Point Trump is a great
01:18:51
negotiator it's probably his greatest
01:18:52
strength and he's great at saber
01:18:53
rattling and we're strong they're weak
01:18:56
right now a grand deal could be an
01:18:58
awesome outcome I think this was my one
01:19:00
of my this was my contrarian prediction
01:19:02
I think um oh no this was my stock this
01:19:04
was my stock prediction yeah this was
01:19:05
like my I picked the Chinese tech stocks
01:19:07
yeah same I I've been loading up on
01:19:11
Alibaba a couple Chinese names with the
01:19:15
same bet hey guys here's a chart for
01:19:17
you companies are not hiring as many
01:19:21
mbas this is a recent spike in in
01:19:24
unemployment among mbas from Top
01:19:27
Business Schools like Harvard MIT and
01:19:30
Stanford I'm not sure I think Pinkus did
01:19:32
you go to Harvard
01:19:34
FIA guilty guilty so and you've also
01:19:39
stopped working so you're represented
01:19:40
here on the chart yeah you still have a
01:19:42
job I think you still work what what are
01:19:45
your thoughts on on this are NB out of
01:19:47
Vogue are they opting out what's your
01:19:49
theory here well so yes I went there I I
01:19:52
would say that
01:19:55
that my all the learning that's helped
01:19:58
me in my career
01:20:00
started later after I got out my first
01:20:03
product management job was really when I
01:20:05
started learning things that are useful
01:20:08
to me today I think being there I
01:20:11
learned a lot about like how to sell to
01:20:12
Corporate America and some how do they
01:20:15
think kind of things and then I've gone
01:20:19
back to HBS for decades trying to
01:20:21
recruit from there and in the beginning
01:20:24
they would tell me the kids would when I
01:20:26
had support.com and it was going to go
01:20:28
public they said I'd have to be a vice
01:20:30
president and own 3% of the company to
01:20:32
take a job with a startup like you and
01:20:34
this was just before the company went
01:20:36
public there was a little bit of a
01:20:38
Renaissance period where some HBS people
01:20:40
were excited to join Zinga probably
01:20:42
because they thought it was going public
01:20:44
but they were a little more risk on at
01:20:45
that point and now
01:20:48
everyone's open to jobs my take is that
01:20:52
there's this fundamental imbalance that
01:20:56
people go and get an MBA because they're
01:20:59
drisking their career you go to HBS or
01:21:02
Stamford and you're guaranteed this High
01:21:05
salary and this kind of great job for
01:21:08
life so the reason to go there is to
01:21:11
take the risk off that's in fundamental
01:21:15
opposition to where we are in our
01:21:17
economy in my opinion today or where the
01:21:19
most interesting sectors are those kinds
01:21:21
of jobs have dried up and the kinds of
01:21:24
jobs that I think should be interesting
01:21:27
to mbas are more like go find a
01:21:31
ycombinator company and join a founding
01:21:33
team as the business person or whatever
01:21:37
and these people are smart and qualified
01:21:39
but there's this mismatch that they are
01:21:42
fundamentally risk averse and so they're
01:21:44
not so when it says they haven't found
01:21:47
jobs part of it is I think they're going
01:21:50
they're going to have to fall further or
01:21:52
this might happen so that a part of it
01:21:55
they have maybe debt or they have to pay
01:21:57
back this expensive degree but I think
01:22:00
that they've got to get to a point like
01:22:02
I was when I started my first company
01:22:04
preloader I happily had very little to
01:22:06
no opportunity cost because I had
01:22:08
torched my career by that point torched
01:22:10
my resume I was fired or asked to leave
01:22:14
every job and so there was kind of no
01:22:16
turning back so uh can you imagine being
01:22:20
Mark P's boss I mean that's almost as
01:22:22
hard as being trats
01:22:24
yeah I always say I'm a great team
01:22:26
player as long as I'm running the team
01:22:28
so right great quarterback yeah but yeah
01:22:31
so I had no opportunity cost when I
01:22:34
started my first company which looked
01:22:36
like it didn't have a chance in hell you
01:22:38
know of ever making it so you probably
01:22:40
thought so too then about my company but
01:22:43
so now the question is maybe what's
01:22:45
going to happen is we're g to get a new
01:22:47
equilibrium where these the
01:22:49
opportunities for these people start to
01:22:50
come down the guaranteed opportunities
01:22:53
and a good thing cons firms right they
01:22:55
all go to McKenzie Boston Consulting
01:22:57
Group whatever even I just the class I
01:22:59
taught on Monday at Stanford they said
01:23:02
everyone wants a job at meta or Google
01:23:04
and that's the get-rich quick place and
01:23:07
it's I don't even think that's
01:23:08
necessarily true anymore and they can't
01:23:10
get those jobs because those companies
01:23:12
are now trying to get rid of middle
01:23:14
management so those jobs have dried up
01:23:17
you know part of what's in this data
01:23:19
probably also is a lot of these people
01:23:22
aren't taking jobs they're not finding
01:23:25
jobs that meet this High expectation for
01:23:28
right pay and opportunity so I think
01:23:30
it's a I think it's a good thing it also
01:23:33
probably is going to reduce the demand
01:23:35
to go into these MBA programs because if
01:23:38
you're thinking well that's not going to
01:23:40
be my riskof trade and I'm I'm not going
01:23:43
to be guaranteed 100% so why go in the
01:23:45
first place and I would advise people
01:23:48
today you know to depending on what
01:23:50
industry I'm biased but I'd say go get a
01:23:53
product management job some where and
01:23:55
make enough that you can afford to live
01:23:57
on it and that's going to be the
01:23:59
beginning of Learning doing these chth
01:24:02
what what are these things called when
01:24:03
these NB graduate they raise a bunch of
01:24:05
money to go buy some real business SE
01:24:07
fun yeah that's that's not happening
01:24:09
anymore they yeah that was like the
01:24:11
thing none of them made money none of
01:24:12
them made money turns out these NBAs
01:24:14
don't know what they're doing oh yeah so
01:24:16
when they take over the business run by
01:24:17
a family and some matriarch or patriarch
01:24:20
for 50 years to get it to 25 million
01:24:24
there's that there's that one deal out
01:24:25
of Stanford GSB the guy founded assurion
01:24:29
which is like you know 10 B it's
01:24:31
billions that guy would have founded
01:24:33
that company outside of Stanford he
01:24:35
could have gone to timbuk 2.com
01:24:37
University disad State and he would have
01:24:39
been
01:24:41
fine that speaks that speaks to more
01:24:44
about the cleverness of that one
01:24:45
individual not the 99,000 other sh deals
01:24:48
that been let me say something that
01:24:49
builds on what Pinkus was saying which
01:24:52
is I think that this is a interesting
01:24:54
window into the future of AI in the
01:24:57
sense that I think what companies are
01:25:00
internalizing slowly that the first
01:25:03
place that AI disintermediate is
01:25:06
actually middle management you thought
01:25:08
that it was the customer support person
01:25:11
maybe you thought it was the engineer
01:25:13
maybe you thought it was the designer
01:25:14
maybe you thought it was the product
01:25:15
manager I think those are less true I
01:25:18
think it's the middle manager it's the
01:25:20
functionary that basically is acting as
01:25:24
as essentially
01:25:25
cartilage inside of this
01:25:27
organization has less and less to do in
01:25:31
a place where AI enabled systems are
01:25:34
making a lot of decisions on behalf of
01:25:38
businesses and if you take a step back
01:25:40
how did that evolve well it started
01:25:43
because of what I mentioned a couple
01:25:45
weeks ago what the software industrial
01:25:48
complex will really be known for after
01:25:50
it is dismantled and
01:25:52
gone is that it
01:25:55
created all of these really
01:25:57
dysfunctional or charts in a company
01:26:01
meaning when you are a system of record
01:26:03
that sells something let's make it up
01:26:06
hey I'm the best general ledger
01:26:08
software okay and a CEO says great
01:26:11
Implement that and then all of a sudden
01:26:13
it's like well you're going to need a
01:26:15
CFO okay but then the CFO comes to you
01:26:17
and says well you actually need ahead of
01:26:19
fpna ahead of this ahead of that ahead
01:26:22
of the other thing then the CEO says
01:26:24
okay then those people hire and what
01:26:26
happens is the software sprawl is really
01:26:29
what created those jobs somebody else
01:26:31
says here's a customer relationship
01:26:33
management thing okay great so then you
01:26:36
hire a CMO and a cro those people build
01:26:39
infrastructure so my premise about this
01:26:43
is if you look inside of any or chart of
01:26:45
any company you can map those jobs to
01:26:49
some clunky old piece of software that
01:26:51
was sold to them maybe it was 10 years
01:26:53
ago maybe it was 20 years ago but that's
01:26:56
why orgs are this bulky and now when you
01:26:59
have all of these new nextg businesses
01:27:02
that are ripping all of that software
01:27:03
out the middle management layers that
01:27:06
used to manage that software are no
01:27:07
longer necessary that's why you're not
01:27:09
hiring mbas and I think that this trend
01:27:11
is only going to grow so I don't think
01:27:14
that this is a commentary on the people
01:27:16
the people are probably quite smart but
01:27:19
I do think that this is a warning sign
01:27:20
that people should not go and pursue
01:27:22
these degrees because I think as P said
01:27:25
you're not taking the trade of least
01:27:27
volatility you're actually taking on a
01:27:29
lot more volatility than you probably
01:27:30
thought you shouldn't be taking on by
01:27:33
going to a place like Harvard or
01:27:34
Stanford freeberg any thoughts as we
01:27:36
wrap here about this NBA chart the
01:27:39
collapse of the MBA program could be the
01:27:41
beginning of the unwinding of the um
01:27:44
higher education
01:27:46
Market why s
01:27:49
more I think this is the easiest one to
01:27:52
discard first in an age of AI and
01:27:56
Automation and self-learning and I think
01:28:00
that I I mean I've been thinking a lot
01:28:02
about I've I've have young kids right so
01:28:05
my kid my oldest kid is seven years old
01:28:08
I had to think about that for a sec um
01:28:10
so many kids now and um isn't it great
01:28:14
by the way I go through this all I don't
01:28:16
know I have to go through I have to feel
01:28:17
like what's my kids birthday Jam has a
01:28:19
busload of children when you have when
01:28:20
you have I just had a fifth think five
01:28:24
and you're at four days no I have five I
01:28:27
can't I have to really think about all
01:28:28
the birthdays fourth on the way but yeah
01:28:30
I would say I I think a lot about
01:28:33
whether or not it makes sense for my
01:28:35
kids to go to undergrad and I think like
01:28:38
about going to classes as an undergrad I
01:28:40
certainly there's the social experience
01:28:42
and I I learned a lot in you know kind
01:28:45
of working at a lab when I was there and
01:28:47
doing other stuff but those were like on
01:28:49
the job experiences I do think that the
01:28:52
social experience and
01:28:54
practical experience can be gotten
01:28:57
outside of the college infrastructure
01:29:00
this Ed educational infrastructure oh I
01:29:03
I cannot tell you guys how much time I I
01:29:05
just had a great idea I just had the
01:29:07
best idea ever the Allin MBA let's start
01:29:10
our own NBA I don't think I think that's
01:29:12
the whole point is people should get
01:29:14
back to kind of an apprenticeship type
01:29:16
model or a self-learning model
01:29:17
everyone's got their own personal tutor
01:29:19
now that's what I think people aren't
01:29:20
realizing is anything you want to learn
01:29:23
with
01:29:25
have you guys heard about what Johnny I
01:29:26
has done with his kids I'm pretty sure
01:29:29
they skip college and they just went to
01:29:32
work directly with him and his design
01:29:35
firm exactly and like I'm taking him out
01:29:37
to lunch because I want to interview him
01:29:38
about it I think
01:29:41
exactly by the way your daughters and my
01:29:43
daughters want to start a podcast
01:29:45
together Pinkus do you know what they
01:29:47
want to name it oh no I don't I don't
01:29:50
know if I should say it they I don't
01:29:52
know I didn't hear the name I think Jam
01:29:54
daughters in on this as well I think it
01:29:56
was another friend's child who came up
01:29:59
with the name they wanted to call it the
01:30:00
nepo
01:30:03
Pod Jamal's got a couple kid I'm here
01:30:06
for it no I think freeberg nailed it on
01:30:09
this one because I just had arouche
01:30:12
Selvin who's the pm at Google doing deep
01:30:15
research on this week in startups
01:30:17
yesterday and this product is nuts and
01:30:21
they designed it to basically be one of
01:30:23
these like million doll or $5 million
01:30:25
reports you pay for from these
01:30:27
consulting firms that MBA is right and
01:30:30
it does a better job it's more accurate
01:30:34
it's done in 5 to 10 minutes this thing
01:30:36
fires off have you used deep research
01:30:38
yet
01:30:39
Mark no I keep hearing you talking about
01:30:42
it and I'm such an idiot about this
01:30:44
stuff it's on the desktop only you can't
01:30:46
use the mobile and then Gemini how to
01:30:49
use it and it's only and you have to pay
01:30:52
20 bucks for it and then grock 2.0 is
01:30:54
doing something similar when you put
01:30:55
your query in it decides like all the
01:30:57
second level queries that would be asked
01:31:00
then it checks its work so it's firing
01:31:03
off a spider that goes and crawls 150
01:31:06
pages in real time then it asks
01:31:08
questions about the data then it says
01:31:09
what's missing from this so all the
01:31:11
questions you would get from your
01:31:12
manager if you were working at Boston
01:31:14
Consultant Group where they tell some
01:31:16
young MBA hey you missed this you miss
01:31:18
this can you double check this can you
01:31:20
find double click on this it goes and
01:31:22
does those followup question questions
01:31:25
so and now you can do a Cron job where
01:31:27
you can say take my research and every
01:31:30
week do a update on it and fill in
01:31:33
information and tell me the differences
01:31:35
so instead of just buying a Boston
01:31:36
Consulting or Mackenzie or whatever
01:31:38
report you build it and then have it
01:31:42
auto and the Deep research is coming out
01:31:43
this it's going to automatically refresh
01:31:45
it in your Google Docs and then update
01:31:47
you on what's been
01:31:48
changed and so and grock is doing it as
01:31:51
well except grock has all the tweets so
01:31:53
when you grock now did you see now at
01:31:55
the top of the page it says and I think
01:31:57
it's only in the grock app uh the
01:31:59
dedicated app they just launched last
01:32:00
week it shows you all the tweets and it
01:32:03
shows you all the web pages that it
01:32:05
indexed for that query so this is like
01:32:09
putting somebody on a week-long research
01:32:11
project and like I said it takes between
01:32:13
5 and 10 minutes to do this and it costs
01:32:15
a massive amount of server capacity to
01:32:18
do these real time you know two 300
01:32:20
queries are occurring behind your one
01:32:23
it's nuts I don't know if you guys have
01:32:25
been using advanced voice on chat GPT
01:32:28
much or do you guys any the voice and So
01:32:31
lately anytime I kind of have come
01:32:32
across an interesting topic I end up
01:32:35
finding that I just talk to chat GPT for
01:32:37
like an hour or two and I'll be like in
01:32:39
my car like when I'm driving to work or
01:32:41
going to a meeting or I go for like a
01:32:44
walk down to the coffee shop I'm like
01:32:47
okay so tell me about like what happened
01:32:49
during the Ice Age with respect to how
01:32:51
quickly sea levels receded and I start
01:32:54
to gather and like it's it's basically
01:32:56
like your own personal tutor I finally
01:32:58
have a best friend
01:33:00
Mark and I think that basically you end
01:33:03
up seeing a future where if people are
01:33:07
put into almost like the real world
01:33:09
becomes the lab environment that is
01:33:11
created in a very short window and small
01:33:14
amount of space in a college environment
01:33:16
where you're like in some like
01:33:18
applied scape that applied scape
01:33:22
basically becomes the real world and
01:33:24
you've got your college in your ear
01:33:26
you've basically got your tutors your
01:33:27
educational experience your capabilities
01:33:29
that you're learning and you learn more
01:33:31
in real time and I think that that's
01:33:33
what AI is going to take us to which is
01:33:35
basically going to destroy much of the
01:33:36
value of higher education and I think
01:33:38
that this MBA piece is probably just the
01:33:40
first step of many that's going to
01:33:43
ultimately erode the value ofation did
01:33:46
you guys see that Fleshlight that can
01:33:48
actually be synced to a video you're
01:33:50
watching at CES that's pretty crazy no
01:33:55
can we go to the UFOs instead of sex
01:33:57
toys we get it show us the video show us
01:34:00
the
01:34:01
video it's also did you get one of
01:34:04
course he's about to show us from his
01:34:06
hidden folder I saw it on X it was like
01:34:09
a it was like a summary of like the top
01:34:11
10 things from CES and it was a
01:34:14
flashlight that that would gyate based
01:34:17
on the actual contortions in the videos
01:34:20
which one's guest rooms tonight I'm a
01:34:22
little nervous f interesting Pinkus you
01:34:24
you get to see two different things here
01:34:26
when AI comes up as a topic freeberg
01:34:29
finally has a best friend and chth
01:34:31
finally has a lover who will do exactly
01:34:33
what he tells it to it's absolutely
01:34:36
perfect so Mark lately we've been
01:34:38
talking we've been talking to all the
01:34:40
guests about UFOs and UAP welcome to
01:34:42
conspiracy you have a point of view on
01:34:45
UFO UAP phenomena I
01:34:49
do and I guess everyone's everyone else
01:34:52
say too so I won't be that weird an
01:34:54
outlier so first of all just say I don't
01:34:57
believe in uaps UFOs and I don't not
01:35:00
believe in them and I'm just curious
01:35:03
about it and I've I've had this theory
01:35:05
that something is going to happen that
01:35:07
we're going to break our current
01:35:10
understanding of physics theory and our
01:35:12
our physics laws and so I've been
01:35:14
looking for that moment and one of those
01:35:17
is around the uaps so I've been more and
01:35:20
more Curious and digging more and more
01:35:23
and I started working with a friend who
01:35:25
made the movie Icarus on the idea of
01:35:28
like a Netflix docu series I thought it
01:35:30
should be funny and have somebody like a
01:35:33
Larry David kind of character narrating
01:35:35
it but he said maybe maybe he came back
01:35:38
to me he he's making a documentary about
01:35:40
the fentol crisis and how it China
01:35:43
documented how China has dumped it here
01:35:46
and he said you've got to meet with me
01:35:48
and this guy I came while he was working
01:35:51
on that he was interviewing a former DOD
01:35:53
contractor who had worked for them for
01:35:56
decades and said you know I've got a lot
01:35:58
on fentol but I have this whole other
01:36:00
thing to show you about these uaps and
01:36:04
he he'll just tell you his claim his
01:36:06
claim so they came and met with me and
01:36:09
we had to meet outside and put our
01:36:11
phones in Fairway bags faay bags faay
01:36:14
bags so so uh it was a good setup if
01:36:18
nothing else and he said he claimed that
01:36:21
in doing running these War games for the
01:36:25
defense department it inadvertently was
01:36:28
summoning these uaps these drones and he
01:36:32
had tons and tons of video of it and
01:36:34
classified them I'm just telling you
01:36:36
what he told me let me guess the Drone
01:36:38
all the Drone videos look up they were
01:36:40
shot on an mm 1968 camera wait wait wait
01:36:44
hold on hold on Jason Mark just explain
01:36:45
this so so the United States is is
01:36:49
simulating war games yeah and what is it
01:36:52
doing exactly that's causing these
01:36:54
drones to show up he did not tell me
01:36:57
what were the the games what were the
01:37:00
exact triggers that but he said
01:37:03
different things would trigger a
01:37:05
different one and he classified them and
01:37:08
he said some of them were aggressive
01:37:10
from an electronics and commun would
01:37:13
take out electronics and Communications
01:37:15
wow and he so he was interested and my
01:37:19
friend was interested in saying okay can
01:37:21
you put up a couple people um a million
01:37:25
and a half dollars to recreate this and
01:37:27
film this and I thought about it I even
01:37:32
had him go meet with
01:37:33
Reed and and didn't move quickly and
01:37:36
then he went dark on us and stopped
01:37:40
responding and then some friends of mine
01:37:43
went to a gathering at and what they it
01:37:49
was on multiple things related to this
01:37:51
and they said that this guy was there
01:37:53
and that he summoned one of these they
01:37:56
kind of said it looked like a large
01:37:58
drone and my friends showed me some
01:38:01
pictures that they took which were
01:38:02
really it was at night they were really
01:38:03
gra come on stop come on stop I'm not
01:38:06
making this up I'm just telling you just
01:38:08
one piece of advice with this
01:38:09
documentary film stuff you know how to
01:38:11
make a hundred million dollar in
01:38:12
documentary films right Pinkus yes start
01:38:15
with a billion start with a billion
01:38:17
you're the mark in all of this you're
01:38:19
just a mark this guy needs a million
01:38:21
dollars to finish his house or something
01:38:23
a canyon fair and you're the way to do
01:38:26
it I didn't the Mark I didn't find it
01:38:29
okay good so all I'm saying is that I
01:38:32
think that there's a possibility that
01:38:34
there is some kind of drone that's
01:38:37
getting that that is showing up and and
01:38:41
I'm not saying it's even from you know
01:38:43
from nonhuman making I believe it I
01:38:46
believe it I am looking I'll be honest
01:38:48
because I am looking for a reason to
01:38:50
believe in this I I'll be honest like I
01:38:52
know my bias
01:38:54
I am very sympathetic when I hear these
01:38:56
stories I listen way too long you know
01:39:00
to the podcast on this stuff I watch are
01:39:02
you donating to Alex Jones no but are
01:39:05
you a subscriber no but I I okay how
01:39:08
about
01:39:09
this are we convinced that there has
01:39:12
been absolutely
01:39:14
zero unidentified object inside some
01:39:19
Vault Buri deep somewhere
01:39:23
either the us or national state
01:39:25
government somewhere are we guaranteed
01:39:27
that the odds of that are zero and I say
01:39:30
no it's not let's do our fir uh what is
01:39:33
it fmy
01:39:34
paradox freeberg fmy paradox why aren't
01:39:37
the if there if there are aliens why
01:39:39
haven't we seen them quick around the
01:39:42
I'm not I'm not saying done my point on
01:39:43
this there is a UAP that is that has
01:39:46
been unidentified that is sitting inside
01:39:48
some Vault somewhere in in a state
01:39:50
government in the world so your position
01:39:53
is the aliens have come no stop saying
01:39:57
you but you you you you make the whole
01:39:59
thing seem ridiculous when you say
01:40:00
aliens I'm not saying that I'm saying
01:40:02
okay visitors from another planet no
01:40:04
stop with the visitors just let's just
01:40:06
put it this way a
01:40:08
vehicle that doesn't have to have
01:40:10
anything inside it a vehicle could be
01:40:12
autonomous and
01:40:13
unmanned okay is are the odds exactly
01:40:16
zero
01:40:19
no but with billions of planets it would
01:40:23
you know logic would make you think that
01:40:25
one has come already right that's with
01:40:28
there billions of inhabitable planets
01:40:30
and species out there there must have
01:40:32
somebody must be ahead of us but the
01:40:34
other conclusion of ferm's paradox is we
01:40:37
statistically are the highest a society
01:40:40
has ever gotten and we have yet to send
01:40:44
our probes out to the rest of the
01:40:45
universe although we have send probes
01:40:47
freeberg to Uranus all right everybody
01:40:51
thanks for tuning in this is all
01:40:53
disad
01:40:57
disad I need I need a I need
01:41:00
um young Spielberg to make us a a jingle
01:41:03
for disad
01:41:05
a.com Mark Pinkus you're amazing thank
01:41:08
you for fitting right in with your
01:41:10
besties uh and top bro on the baby
01:41:13
congrats congrat looking forward to
01:41:15
seeing you this weekend all right and we
01:41:17
will see oh and by the way just
01:41:18
programming note we're all going to be
01:41:21
at at the inauguration various parties
01:41:23
uh this weekend and we will be doing
01:41:26
some live episodes of the Allin podcast
01:41:29
probably on Sunday Monday time frame and
01:41:31
we will see you on the live stream go to
01:41:35
youtube.com subscribe to the Allin
01:41:37
podcast put on the notifications the
01:41:38
bell and then follow us on x.com the
01:41:41
Allin podcast and then again subscribe
01:41:44
and then just turn on notifications
01:41:45
you'll get a notification when we go
01:41:47
live on those two platforms we'll see
01:41:49
you all next time byebye love you boys
01:41:51
byebye
01:41:53
will let your winners
01:41:55
ride
01:42:00
Rainman we open sourced it to the fans
01:42:02
and they've just gone crazy with it love
01:42:05
queen
01:42:06
[Music]
01:42:12
of
01:42:14
[Music]
01:42:15
Besties my dog Tak
01:42:18
driveways man oh man myit
01:42:23
we should all just get a room and just
01:42:25
have one big huge orgy cuz they're all
01:42:27
this useless it's like this like sexual
01:42:28
tension that they just need to release
01:42:36
somehow we need to get
01:42:38
merch
01:42:41
[Music]
01:42:45
all I'm going
01:42:48
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 65
    Most intense
  • 60
    Most dramatic
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • Mark's Red Pill Moment
    Mark shares his pivotal moment of questioning mainstream media narratives.
    “I couldn't trust mainstream media anymore.”
    @ 09m 03s
    January 18, 2025
  • Authenticity in the Spotlight
    Mark discusses the growing importance of authenticity in today's culture.
    “I think we're now in this time that authenticity is having a moment now.”
    @ 14m 50s
    January 18, 2025
  • Tragedy in Los Angeles
    The death toll has reached 25, with 40,000 acres destroyed and thousands evacuated.
    “It's bigger than all of San Francisco.”
    @ 23m 34s
    January 18, 2025
  • Price Gouging Concerns
    California's governor has implemented measures to prevent price gouging during the recovery.
    “The governor just said we can't pay people 10% higher than what they were getting paid.”
    @ 30m 56s
    January 18, 2025
  • Cooling Off Periods
    A proposed 90-day cooling off period could help people make more rational decisions.
    “I think that if you give people a 90-day cooling off period...”
    @ 41m 46s
    January 18, 2025
  • Rebuilding Challenges
    The rebuilding process faces significant hurdles due to regulatory inefficiencies and workforce shortages.
    “I think this could have real unintended consequences...”
    @ 44m 46s
    January 18, 2025
  • The Challenge of San Francisco
    San Francisco faces a tension between technological progress and maintaining its unique character.
    “Cities have a right to be what they want to be.”
    @ 01h 03m 20s
    January 18, 2025
  • The TikTok Ban Dilemma
    The potential ban on TikTok raises concerns about censorship and freedom of expression.
    “This is a massive scope that's going on; it is spyware and it's been proven.”
    @ 01h 16m 11s
    January 18, 2025
  • Opportunity Cost in Entrepreneurship
    Starting a business can be liberating when you have nothing to lose.
    “I had no opportunity cost when I started my first company.”
    @ 01h 22m 31s
    January 18, 2025
  • The Collapse of MBA Programs
    The decline of MBA programs may signal a shift in higher education's value in an AI-driven world.
    “This MBA piece is probably just the first step of many that's going to erode the value of education.”
    @ 01h 33m 38s
    January 18, 2025
  • The Need for Connection
    A humorous take on the group's tension and need for intimacy.
    “We should all just get a room and just...”
    @ 01h 42m 23s
    January 18, 2025
  • Tension in the Air
    A candid observation about the group's unspoken feelings.
    “It's like this sexual tension that they just need to release.”
    @ 01h 42m 27s
    January 18, 2025

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Modern Aesthetic00:17
  • Authenticity Moment14:50
  • Surge Pricing43:17
  • Rebuilding Issues44:46
  • Incentives Matter47:39
  • Recall Movements1:07:08
  • MBA Decline1:33:38
  • Dog Love1:42:15

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

Related Episodes

Podcast thumbnail
GPT-4o launches, Glue demo, Ohalo breakthrough, Druck's Argentina bet, did Google kill Perplexity?
Podcast thumbnail
E23: Radical DAs, breaking down FB/Google vs. Australia, sustained fear post-vaccine & fan questions
Podcast thumbnail
E133: Market melt-up, IPO update, AI startups overheat, Reddit revolts & more with Brad Gerstner
Podcast thumbnail
IPOs and SPACs are Back, Mag 7 Showdown, Zuck on Tilt, Apple's Fumble, GENIUS Act passes Senate
Podcast thumbnail
AI Psychosis, America's Broken Social Fabric, Trump Takes Over DC Police, Is VC Broken?
Podcast thumbnail
E117: Did Stripe miss its window? Plus: VC market update, AI comes for SaaS, Trump's savvy move
Podcast thumbnail
"Founder Mode," DOJ alleges Russian podcast op, Kamala flips proposals, Tech loses Section 230?
Podcast thumbnail
E41: Vaccine policy, Big Tech, DeepMind's latest breakthrough, wealth creation, opportunity & more
Podcast thumbnail
DOJ targets Nvidia, Meme stock comeback, Trump fundraiser in SF, Apple/OpenAI, Texas stock market
Podcast thumbnail
E130: DeSantis's Twitter Spaces, debt ceiling, Nvidia rips, state of VC, startup failure & more