Vibe Check And Going Live

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Great job. You want to go get a drink or some boba or something?

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Another live stream, another day.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I'm ready to leave. I'm done. I'm done with this week.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:12

I'm done with this week. It's been a week. It's been a week and a day. Yeah? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

I feel like I haven't seen you in forever.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

You haven't?

SPEAKER_03 0:18

That's crazy. Isn't that nuts? It's been what, a week?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

A week.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

So I guess we gotta start with vibe check.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

What happened? Vibration inquiry. Hold on. Are we actually live?

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Are we live? Are we playing right now?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Are we actually live? Is it oh we are?

SPEAKER_03 0:36

I think we're live. Okay, we're still figuring out. We're live.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

There was a chance that we weren't. Because it it just looked for it looked suspicious. It looked sus as the kids are you know, the kids are all playing Among Us now.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Are they?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah, and they're saying that.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

I thought that was I thought this Among Us is gone. They're saying that was like so five days.

The Toe Procedure Saga Returns

SPEAKER_01 0:51

They thank the bus driver. Yeah. Um, so this week was rough to quote Scooby-Doo. Um Scooby-Doo. I had my toe chopped off again.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Oh no. Yeah, ready. We're gonna have to go to the house. It's a whole foot update.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

So for those, for those longtime listeners, first-time callers, who've been with us for a minute, you will recall a year ago I had my toes chopped off.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Because I had inground toenails. And the only way you can deal with that is by chopping them off. And it was the success on three, no, on two of the three borders. Okay. So I had a two-thirds success. One third failed. So uh wait, so wait, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

So a toe.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah, give a toe, you have a big toe.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

The three borders. So, like two sides, just not the front or the back or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So, yeah, if you think about, if you think about your toe, right? Yeah, okay, think look at take okay, everyone take your thumb. Here's an activity you can do right now, live, uh, or on your listening device. Take a look at your thumbs. Look at your thumbs, and look what's to the left and the right of your thumbnail. I see them. Those are your you know, your cuticles. Uh, on your toes, those are the you they refer to them as the borders, okay?

SPEAKER_03 2:05

I feel like this is gonna get really gross, really fast.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

It's really not, it's not gross at all, actually. So I'm really worried for it. It's more sympathetic than anything. It's not gross. So just imagine, if you will, your nail, instead of just growing the way a nail should grow, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Out towards the open area, the non-border.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Right. Well, even it's still gonna grow out towards the non-border, but the problem is it curves inward, so it grows into the skin.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

I don't like that at all.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

It really doesn't look bad, it just hurts. Yeah, yeah, it just hurts a lot. And uh, like I said, I had them chopped, and then that's the gross part, is actually so I realized. How do I tell this story? I realized when I had the procedure done this week, as I laid on the operating table to have it done again, I started having flashbacks and anxiety attacks to the previous time I had the procedure done.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

You have PTSD.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

I had PTSD. Like I had married managed to bury the memory and completely suppress the fact that I had had this procedure done because last time I had it done, and I learned things this week. I did learn things this week. The last time I had it done, it hurt. And it's not supposed to hurt, guys. So just in case you're ever gonna have an ingrown toenail removed, it should not hurt. And I mean, you should not feel anything. See, I assume As they're doing the procedure. I assumed I was being a baby.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I was like, it does hurt. And they're like, no, no, it doesn't hurt. You just feel pressure. I'm like, okay, I guess pressure hurts, but okay, okay. So this week I learned um I have an extra nerve ending in my toe.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

Just that you you got a bonus one.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah, basically they're DNA. When they do the procedure, they'll do two injections of a numbing.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Uh they'll do two shots of numbing. And that's the most painful part of the entire procedure. For sure. It should be. It should be. Unless you go to who I went to the previous time. In which case, they didn't numb the toe all the way. And because I have an extra nerve ending, I need a third shot in the top of the toe. So, uh listen, this okay. How long okay?

SPEAKER_03 4:12

So a different doctor this time.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Different doctor, and there's a story behind that too. I posted about it in the Discord. Did you read that?

SPEAKER_02 4:18

No, I have not read it yet.

The AI Scheduler From Hell

SPEAKER_01 4:19

I'm so behind. It's just an update. I'm gonna read the entire podcast gonna be talking about this toe procedure. So check this out. Check this out. Do you know how I found this doctor, Michael? Michael Angelino?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Tell me it's Craigslist. I really want it to be Craigslist.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

No, I went to I went to the United Healthcare app, which is my insurance provider.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

And I looked up. I wanted to get it done quickly because I knew I I felt pain.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

I noticed it started hurting. I looked at it, I'm like, this is gonna hurt a lot. Every week I let this go, it's gonna get worse. So I had to find someone quick. I called the doctor who did it prior. Yeah, they no longer do it. Shocking. They sucked. Uh so then I started to look, okay, who can I find who's new? So I go through United Healthcare, I say, I want a toe, an ingrown toenail procedure. It gives me a list of doctors. First doctor I call, I get, hello, you are about to speak to an AI voice agent.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Oh, oh, I did see.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

We will record this call for posterity. I'm like, all right, that's fine. Whatever. This is the future. I talked about my acceptance of this on a previous pod. We're we're good to go. So then a very human-sounding woman starts talking to me, and she's like, hey, how's it going? I'm like, good, how are you? She's like, great. I'm like, I'm I'm being cordial to the thing. Why, why am I doing this? It's like, it's it's human enough that it's making me act human. So she's like, What can I what can I do for you? I'm like, I am looking to have uh one border of my toenail uh or my toenail removed, border surgery, uh, just one toenail, and I'd like it done as quickly as possible. And she's like, Great, we have two doctors. There's Tom and there's Jerry. Who would you like to go see?

SPEAKER_03 5:54

There was not Tom and Jerry. Tell me it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Uh, one of them was Tom, I don't remember what the other one was. And I was like, I have no preference. Whoever can see me this soonest. She's like, okay, that's fine. I'm looking at Tom's calendar right now, and it looks like Tom can see you at three. Whoa. And I'm like, it's 2 45, lady. I can't get there by 3. And she's like, okay, let me see when his next availability is. And it's it's April 10th, by the way. She's like, huh, he can see you on May 31st at 4 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

You just said he had 3 or May 31st?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yes, I was like, lady, robot, excuse me. Is there anything between the hours of 3 p.m. today and over a month from now where Dr. Tom Cat can see me?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

And she's like, let me take a look at that for you. And this is when it starts to fall apart. She's like, You still there? Like, yeah, you just said, let me take a look at that for you. Where would I have gone? It's like, oh no, I'm just checking for you. Okay. She's like, Tom has availability on May 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and she just continues to count. And I'm like, oh, this is not good. You got her in bad loop. This is falling apart very, very quickly. So then I say, stop. Is there anything in April? Otherwise, can Dr. Jerry do the procedure? And then she says, okay, let me look at that for you. Are you still there? I'm like, I'm still here. I'm waiting for you to tell me the thing. She's like, okay, let me look into that for you. Have a nice day. I'm like, wait, have a nice day? Are we done? Is this over? And then she's like, let me look into that for you. So I then I start just talking to her like an AI. Yeah. Like prompting her. I need you to look at Dr. Jerry's schedule between the hours of tomorrow and Friday and tell me, are there any openings? And then she just keeps saying, have a nice day over and over again. And then I proceed to hang up the phone and call until I get a human being. I start calling every doctor on the list until I get a human being. Oh my goodness. And and this is this is the shining silver lining of this entire story. So not only did I have a great procedure this week, but the first human that picked up was so nice. Yeah. She got me an appointment for the next day, cancellation, went in, new doctor. Doctor was great, private practice. She's like, Do you want to have the procedure done? I'm like, yes. She starts working on me and she sees I'm in pain. She's like, Are you in pain? I said, Yeah. And she's like, it should just be pressure. I'm like, it's not pressure, it's pain, but I know from last time. And then she's like, You have an extra nerve ending in your toe. This happens all the time. Let me numb you up. She numbs me up. Oh my god. Procedure doesn't hurt. She does a phenomenal job. And then I tell her afterwards, I'm like, look, you did great. You're wonderful. Thank you. Also, just want to let you know, I picked you because you didn't have an AI answer the phone. And she's like, and we never will. They suck. They're the worst. I'm like, this is my favorite place on earth. Wow. So, you know, just the moral of the story. This is a great story. Don't don't trust the robots. Because they apparently they do suck. And they're not going to help you.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

So that's what a journey you've been on.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah, yeah. Now I can't walk around the house, as you saw, but Yeah, you're lumping around. This will be so like a hurt dog. The first time they do it, they cut the toe and they don't do anything else.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

They just cut the whole nail off.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

They don't cut the whole nail off, they cut the border off, right? Just the border. Okay. A little vertical slice of nail to the root, right? To the matrix. So it doesn't grow. Mine grew back, which was the problem. They put a poison on it this time, which actually like kills the root.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

This is crazy. It is crazy. The stuff they do to stop is.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

I kind of love it, right? Like I'm so interested in this stuff. And uh the reason the reason it's gonna take longer to heal on a little more invalid is the poison makes it more invasive.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

But that should cause it to stop growing back.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

It will not grow back.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah. So I mean, I my my podiatrist brother-in-law says it's still mine, but this is really the best you can do at this point. So we'll see. So it's been a long week, just recovery-wise. It's been a long week work-wise. Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Those two things add up.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

I am run ragged. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 9:57

I should have brought a drink for the what are you drinking? Nothing. And I got nothing. Nothing. We're drinking nothing. We are drinking absolutely nothing. And you're suffering. What a freaking journey. It's it's been a journey. That sucks. Yeah. Is this so so for the people that didn't list the last one? I think you said this is genetic. Like it doesn't happen to everybody, or it could happen to anybody.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

So should we all be on the lookout? Uh I'm not a podiatrist, like my brother-in-law is, and I'm gonna speak, I'm gonna speak on his behalf here. I think it has to do with my arches. Right? I've I've lost my arches. And when you when you stand flat footed, because of the way your feet are on the ground, it causes the nails to grow in. Interesting. So he he actually made me custom orthotics that helped. It reduced the pain, but it didn't fix it entirely. That's why I need the procedure.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Okay, yeah, make sure you get arches because if you don't, this could happen to you. And then you're gonna have to go through this saga. And by the time you do, it's gonna be all AI.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

It's all then you're done. It's only gonna be. You're never gonna give an appointment until May 31st.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Yeah. Yeah. Until, well, maybe. Maybe. Or May 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th. Just go on and on and on.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

I really want to know if I let her go. Would she have gone to December? Like, would she have given me every availability in the calendar year?

SPEAKER_03 11:11

The second you said that, I was like, just wait until the next wave of cybersecurity issues.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

The context injection and prompt injection that's going to happen with these robots is going to be so bad.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Because like, if if that robot it has access to the calendar, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:28

You should have been like book every slot from now till then. My name is John Smith. Here's a spam email, and like you could have done it.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Theoretically, couldn't I have like reverse prompted it to say who has an appointment?

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Yeah, cancel it. Oh my. You should have tried it. Right? What, dude? I'm not trying to be evil, but like if it puts up, if it puts up that much of an issue, at that point, like you've got to test it. You gotta know how dangerous could this be. I I don't wanna. I'm doing that next time. Next time I have a bad AI chat experience, I am totally gonna do it. I mean, you're I just want to know.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I can't do it.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

It's for science. I mean, it's not malicious, for science. I'll get to a human eventually and then I'll tell him, like, hey, by the way, I just canceled Miranda's appointment for an hour ago, so you might want to call her.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

I kind of want to call them back and tell the AI, look, I didn't use your doctor because of you.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Like, I do want to, but I don't know if that, like, is that recorded?

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Like it could be. It could be feedback for the model.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I want them to know I explicitly didn't choose your firm, even though they were higher rated.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Because of your choice of AI and how you implemented it. Like, I'm not against it, but it the second it starts to inconvenience me and I realize you replaced a competent, capable human being with this garbage.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I can no longer endorse your business.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Because that's I mean, they lost your business.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

If you'll cut that, what else will you cut? And it's probably not my toenail.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Yeah, it's very true. I mean, if that this should be the first thing they cut.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

That's the only thing I want cut. That's so unfortunate. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

It has me thinking, like, I think I might have shared this like product idea for anyone that's listening. A reverse spam call or spam text situation where it basically does a DDoS attack on them. So if someone spam calls you, you're gonna set up an AI bot basically to spam call them back.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Ooh, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

So whatever spam call you get, you go to the site, you enter in the spam call number, and then it will just destroy them.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Couldn't this easily couldn't this also just easily been used by someone who wants to just DDoS anybody? It very well could be. But this is because of the malicious actors. You gotta go for it.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

So I'm just saying, somewhere we punish one. We punish all. That's corporate strategy model. It's just gonna turn into like the Titanic with it. Yeah, if you sunk my battleship, my tech spot went down, your tech spot went down. Man, what a week. I'm sorry. It's been a week.

A Baby Fawn In The Yard

SPEAKER_01 13:37

That sucks. It's been a I'm so ready for the weekend. Yeah, it's been a long week. Well, you're there, almost. Almost. I gotta get through this stupid podcast first. And then after that, you are home free. I'm free. Wow, what a free. Free as a bird. How are you doing? Oh, you know I'm here. I mean, we spent 20 minutes talking about me. I mean, we can at least spend like a minute talking about me.

Security Risks And AI Loops

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Alright, I'll tell you at least one story. This has nothing to do with how I'm doing. The week was fine.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That was basically.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

But something crazy happened today. No way. Something absolutely wild that's never happened. I've said it before. I live in nature.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

You do live in nature.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

So it's not uncommon. You know, you see deer, you see tortoises, you see bunnies, you see all this stuff. Could have been aliens, but no. I get home, I have an appointment this morning, I go uh I go hang out with somebody, I come back, and I let the dog out. I go outside, and the dog is like full on, like paws hot mode. I'm like, oh no. There's something in here. And it's like it's she's about to take off because the dog knows. If you because if you take a second longer, I'm gonna grab her. So she knows, she just takes off. I'm like, oh no. There's this brown blob sitting next to our fence on the ground. It's like the size of like a hawk. And I'm like, it's gotta be a hawk. Maybe it killed a snake in the yard or something, it's eating it, but it's not getting out. And so dog runs up, starts barking at the thing. And I'm like, uh-oh, what's going on? So I start to get closer, I try to call the dog off. She's in full harm mode. When you say blob, what do you mean blob? It just looks like a brown thing of fur or feathers or something on the ground, like nestled in the water. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

It looks like a living being. I was like, but it's an aliens. Yeah, it could be. Okay. So I'm like, oh boy, I have no idea what that is. So the dog starts running over, barking out. I'm like, oh no. Like, let me get my dog off this thing so it doesn't like kill it or whatever it is. I get over there. It's a fawn. It's a baby deer. It's a baby. A little baby deer just trying to get out of the fence, and I just hear this thing rustling through the woods on the side of the fence. It's mama. And it was mama, just like, what the heck is going on? Now there's a dog, like something's attacking it. So luckily, I was able to get the dog off, because luckily it was the nice dog. So she she puts her little head on it and like pins it to the ground. And so I run over, I pick it up and like put it on the other side of the fence. But it was crazy, it was like the. So she just picked up raw-handed pickup baby dick. My dog had fully pinned, had the fawn fully pinned on the ground, wasn't hurting it. So I was like, okay. So I went over, I pick her up, I go over to the other side of the fence, put her down. Wow. She had both run off. I didn't get a pick. What the hell? I didn't want to like it.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

You live in the year 2026, and the first thing you don't do is take a picture? Picture it didn't happen. Remember that? Wow. That was the thing. You know what that means? You're a good human being. That's a test. Is it? It's your reaction. Like, is my reaction to help the thing or to take a picture of it? There needs to be a name for that, by the way. Yeah. Like a personality test. Like, you see a baby fawn that's in danger. What do you do? Like, what's your first thing you do? It's like I take my phone, take a picture of the baby fawn, put it on Instagram, then I help it out.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

I search it in ChatGPT. Yeah, I go up.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

No, I just jumped to action. I took that little fawn, I put it down. Keep talking. Oh, okay. Yeah, you're getting up. Watch out for the toast. So yeah, it was absolutely crazy. I haven't had something happen like that. Like, I've I've grabbed snakes out of my yards. I've I've told my team before. Like, one time my neighbor called me and she's like, hey, I got a I got a snake in my chicken coop. Can you help me get the snake? And so I left stand-up to go get a snake out of my neighbor's chicken coop. Like, this is all normal stuff. But the baby fawn was so cute. It was so unexpected. And you can give fawns heart attack, a heart attack if you like surprise them or if they get too excited. What? So wait. I don't think that happened because I picked her up, I put her outside, they both ran off together. I searched for 30 minutes. They did. But it could have been that moment of shock. No. You can okay when you shoot. If you have a heart attack, it's like. But when you shoot a deer, they keep running. That's different, though. Yeah, I guess that's a bit.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

The blood is still pumping.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

I guess that's true. When you have a heart attack, the blood stops pumping. That's true. But they both they both were gone. Right. I searched the woods for them. I didn't find fine. That's great. So I think we're okay. What a happy story. What a crazy time.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

That's a what a what a week. What a time to be alive. It happened literally like three hours ago. You got to see Bambi. I got to see a toe get cut off. Like, man, what a week. Just the world we live in. Just the world we live in. How about that? An AI's gonna kill us all. Not by choice. It's gonna be an accident, actually. It's gonna get stuck in a loop.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yeah. And then then, yeah, what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

How much nuclear radiation should I release in the environment? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Should we send a nuke to this country? Countdown?

SPEAKER_03 17:53

Two, five, four, three, two, one. None. One, two, three, four. You're like, wait, what am what are we talking about? It's nuke time. So yeah, I feel like those moments cannot be interrupted by AI. You know? Like, I grabbed that little baby. It was warm. I could feel its heart eating. I know it says a pet. It's as a baby in the back of the house. Hell fun. Just put it right back out in the nature, and who knows? Maybe I'll see you again.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

It's gonna show up one day. And just you're gonna look out in the woods and you're gonna see this like big honking deer with horns. It's gonna lock eyes with you and it's gonna nod. It's got the deer antlers, the massive buck. It's gonna nod and like spit a berry at you and be like, thanks, man. And then walk away slowly.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Well, people feed the deer in our neighborhood, so they you can get pretty close. Oh, I bet. I can get like within five feet of a deer, and it will just stay there. If you get too close, it starts taking off. It's crazy. It's crazy how close you get. It's crazy. So that was my human nature. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

That's really nice. Yeah. That's genuinely nice. It was awesome. Yeah, and I I mean, I do wish I could have seen it. You should have took a picture afterwards.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

I know. Well, what's unfortunate is I was like right in the zone of my house where the cameras couldn't catch anything. So they didn't get it either. I was, I was kind of looking back. I was like, how cool would have been if like the ring camera got it.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Well, here's your mission now. I mean, you know they're around you. So next time you see the mama and the baby, take a picture and put it to the Discord.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

That's true. If I do see them, I will.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Thank you. Absolutely will do that. I want to see. And I think, you know, that's a if you have not joined our Discord yet, what the heck is wrong with you? Come on. Come on. What the heck? Get in there.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

We were gonna switch platforms and we never did because we just can't. It's very difficult. It's very difficult.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

It's very to find something that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Actually, I did find something. Yeah? Better than stoat? I it is better than stoat.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

Stoat was pretty rad.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Stoat. Stoat was pretty rad. I love the word stoat.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

It's such a fun little it was the mascot of the Olympics this year, the winter Olympics. I know.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Stoat. If you've ever played a video game called Inscription, never played it. You are missing out, but the one of the main characters is a stoat.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Very cool little stoat, too.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

It's such a cool, what is it? It's like an otter thing, right?

Making Time To Learn New Tools

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Stoatal misplay, as he likes to say. Yeah, it's like it's like an otter type creature. It's so weird. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah. Who doesn't?

SPEAKER_03 20:08

So you want to talk about something for real today?

SPEAKER_01 20:10

No. You want to talk about something about work and stuff like that. I want to talk about, I want to go back to Tubein Gym.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Tubein Gym was another shameless plug. If you haven't seen any of our streams, or if you're a podcast-only listener, you need to go to YouTube. Watch our live stream. We did Roller Coaster Tycoon, where I, former theme park product manager, was trying to rebuild the theme park. And it turned out pretty good. It turned out pretty good. We were profitable at the end. We had TubeBin Gym, roaming the streets. We had everybody that was commenting, naming other people in the crew. We were giving out free hats, free t-shirts, free balloons.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

It was awesome. I need to make that poll to figure out what we play next. Is it hospital or is Jurassic Park?

SPEAKER_03 20:46

I kind of want Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

I know you do.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

If you're listening to this, do Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

I know you want Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

But I do have a topic today.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Okay, let's get into it. All right. I can see you're eager.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

I am very eager.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

You want to get straight to business. I mean, we spent 30 minutes on your toes.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

I figured we got to do something else.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

You're in a rush. I I get it.

unknown 21:04

No, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

All right, my topic today. I was actually talking to someone today about it. Since I left Universal, obviously I've had more time to play with things, new technology, different ways of doing things. I've just had more time on my hands, which has been really nice. It's been nice. And it had me thinking about going back to AI. Like, I use a lot of tools now that I look back and I'm like, man, if I had this when I was at Universal and I was using it, I would have saved myself so much time. And it got me thinking about like, when you're working a normal nine to five, how do you find time to try new tools, to learn new skills? Like, what are the ways to do that? So that way you can advance your career, find a way of doing something better, and then be able to take it back to your team or just help with your career in some way.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

I love this. This is one of my goals for this quarter.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

I'm doing it right now. Well what is the goal? Uh my goal is actually to improve the way that we review and approve content. Oh, and my idea was to actually Go and create an agentic review system that checks for first uh messaging consistency. So whatever you've written or created, it needs to align with the existing copy blocks as close as possible. Okay. Then I'm gonna do a brevity pass. Is there any redundancy? Can I shrink this? Can I make it shorter? And then just a final just clarity pass. And then I might even do a translation pass after that. And finalize it. To to your question, to our our challenge we're talking about today. Um, you know what I actually started with? Because I knew I was gonna need an AI to do this. So I started with an AI. I actually went into Claude and said, hey, okay, here's my problem.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Do you have Claude subscriptions with your company?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

No. Okay. No, I just have a free one. I went into it and I basically said, like, here's what I'm trying to do. What's the best tool for this? And Claude gave me, it was like, you should check out Writer. Uh Claude can kind of do this. You should look at Jasper. And I looked at all three of them, and and oddly enough, none of them really felt right because their websites were bad. And I just I can't tell what you do because your website's so convoluted when it comes to this specific kind of agentic writing thing. It's like, I don't, if you can't make that clear on your website, how are you gonna make my text clear? Yeah. Right? So then I just did a quick Google, like just a Google search for agentic writing review process. And you know what popped up? Freaking Confluence. It has one? Well, it has Rovo, which is their own AI agent. Interesting. And then I was like, well, I already have a subscription to this in my company. So I start looking at Confluence. I open up Rovo, and it's literally got like everything I'm looking to do. The answer was staring me in the face this whole time. And you know what didn't help me? The AI, a recurring trend. It just keeps happening this week. So yeah, no, it's really funny, but Okay, quick side story. I had to set a goal in order to do this, though.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

This is my goal for the quarter. I'm gonna get paid if I do or don't do this, right? So to your point, this isn't something that just like, oh, I've got time, I'm gonna do this. Like, I do actually carve out time in my life to do this for my job.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned like a quick Google search. I've like almost abandoned Google because I'm all AI. Like, AI does the Google things that I used to do. And look what it did for me. Yeah, exactly. But I had a similar situation. I was running into a technical issue and I was like, I was banging my head against it. I was like, I've spent 20 minutes talking to AI about this and it can't figure it out. Yeah, I'm like, you've got to be doing something wrong. I'm literally talking to AI like it's a person. Like, you are doing something wrong. I'm like, I'm gonna Google it really quick. I went and Googled it, I found the answer in the first link.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I this is what I'm saying. What is going on? Why is it a thing now? I kind of love it actually. I kind of love it because I never got to the point where I was so brain brain rot like you on the AI, where it's like I went to this thing to try and see if it could help me with an AI task. And it failed spectacularly. So my training, which is well, go search for it in the search engine, yeah, immediately yielded the result that I needed. That's so interesting. Oh, suck at AI.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

Well, that's awesome that you're doing that. I think right now is a time where, like, you remember, like we had the SaaS boom, software as a service. Yeah, you can pay the cloud subscription, you have the cloud, you have obviously the internet boom before that.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

So dot com.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Anytime those things happen, you need to be looking at what is out there that I could leverage that either might be the new thing of the future or could help me with my day-to-day. And so I think with anything you're doing, that's your first trigger to be like, I've been doing it the same way for five years.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

I should look if there's some new better way to do it, because these X, Y, Z are my pain points, these are the inefficiencies. Is there anything that solves that today? You should always be looking for those things. Anytime you find a process, anytime you find a workflow that is old, that hasn't been touched in a while, that you've never questioned, that is the perfect trigger.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

I agree. And just you got me thinking about the different booms that we've gone through. If if I could exist during any boom in my prime, it'd be the fax machine boom.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

You think so?

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Dude, can you imagine a better time? Like, that's the speed at which you work. I gotta send a message to corporate. I gotta fax this.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Like, sorry guys, I gotta walk this over.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Excuse me. I can't send this via Slack that doesn't exist. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

I gotta go make a fax. All right, like that's that's the peak.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

I gotta get it to headquarters quick.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

I think that was peak corporate. Because it really at that time, we still held the power.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Now the robots do.

Building AI Agents For Content Review

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Now the robots have taken it all from us. If we had just stopped with fax, I think the world would be a much better place.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yeah, but I love what you did. Um, and I think this is actually a perfect opportunity for AI, and maybe I'll I'll help you with something too. Right now, you know, in coding, and anybody that's listening to this who's a programmer, what do you set up to catch syntax errors? You set up a linter, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Did you I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

A lint, you set up your lint rules, you have your lint set up, and then you're able to catch things that don't fit your style guide for code. Do they call it spaces? It is a linter.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Well, they couldn't just call it a lint trap like your washing machine.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Oh, that would have been so much better. No. Engineers aren't that smart. What then? This is why you're in marketing. But you're doing the same thing with writing, right? Where you have a style guide for the company. You have a tone, you have a way of writing that you know fits the brand style. And same in code, like do you use tabs or do you use spaces? The lint will catch that.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

We're lost as a society. We're lost, we're done. It's over.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

The lint trap is so good.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

It's over. It literally has existed since the the drying machine. The linter. My god.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Instead of linting rules.

unknown 27:39

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

I don't even know what the etymology of that word, but how is it used in that context? But what I was gonna say is you have the perfect opportunity to set up that multi-agent system where you can have something review your style and tone according to the rules that you set in place. Then you can have something that's doing the conciseness check and all that. I think you also should develop something because I think this is important for everything we've been talking about. You should develop a contrarian agent to challenge it and be like, you your responsibility is to act as a harsh reviewer of whatever AI just wrote. So how do I do that? So you can do probably rovo. I don't know what it how it looks, if it's a workflow or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

There's yeah, there's agent workflows you can build.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

You would give a contrarian set of instructions to say, you are the final reviewer, and I need you to be harsh. Here are the guidelines, and I want you to question everything and go back to those agents and say, Hey, can't you make that line shorter? Can't you do this? And that way when it gets to you, it'll be perfect.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

That's so interesting. So is is the is the contrarian agent, and now this is just becoming a uh helping me with my job. Is the contrarian agent criticizing the other AI prompts? So you know how or is it criticizing their output?

SPEAKER_03 28:51

It's criticizing the output, but then giving feedback to the feedback to the agents back and forth with the agent. Weird. I didn't okay why that's important is for exactly what we're talking about right now. AI gets things wrong. Yeah. And if you force it As evidenced by everything, yeah, and if you force it to go back and you give it that feedback loop and you're not doing it, the output will be better by the time the review gets to you.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

How many times should I do this?

SPEAKER_03 29:15

I mean, you can do it as much as you want, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

If I told the AI, do it until it's perfect.

SPEAKER_03 29:21

You have to define what perfect is.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

No, I don't. You it might come back to you? No with the crazy I don't.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

It might actually come back to you with like the craziest sequence of a blog you've ever seen where it's like one-word sentences and somehow it all makes sense. Like it just might blow your mind.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Craps out Shakespearean marketing messages.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

You might be like, holy cow, did that just happen?

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Then I I will I will take off my hat, I'll put it on my desk, I'll take off my gun and my badge. Yeah, I'm out.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Well, think about the cooperative workflow you have with your AI tool now. It's like you are the human in the loop. If you can set up a contrarian agent to basically I don't like that description at all, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Human in the loop? I don't like it. That's a very common thing, not just this. Very uncomfortable by that thought, but continue, please.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

I think it's still important that you have that, which is why you should be the final, final review. But at least make the agents work for what they're gonna give you.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

If I'm at the end of the loop, then doesn't that actually also mean I'm at the beginning?

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Time is a square circle.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

But I'm but seriously, doesn't that mean I'm also the beginning? It could be.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

We're having an existential crisis.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Gosh. Freaking lint trap. So I carved out time. You did, to take this project on. And I I set an expectation with my management. Said, hey, this is gonna take up 30 per 33% of my sort of goals-oriented work this quarter is to go build this thing. And I'm gonna I'm gonna research it, I'm gonna implement it, and it's gonna be running by the end of the quarter. And I'm I'm fairly confident I can still do it. I actually haven't like been able to build anything yet, but you're getting there. There's plenty of researching. Yeah. I've done my other goals. So I'm, you know, I'm prioritizing. But I had to set, I've thought about this for a while.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Right? To your point, when you're in corporate and you're working, there is not a lot of opportunity for you to search, find, ideate, fault find, refine, re-architect, right? Like it's always focused on net new. Right. What new thing can I go build, create that's gonna bring in new sales, new leads, new pipeline, new goal, whatever. So it was it was more of a I felt pain in this process and thought, could AI help fix this process and then basically set a goal for myself. I will do this thing. Come hell or high water, or I don't get paid a portion of my bonus to do it.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

And that's how I made that happen.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

That's a great goal.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

I like that. And I think that that's a great tip too, is because if you just say, oh, I'm gonna go find a better way to do it, but there's no like accountability or no visibility of what you're doing, like you may fall behind in your goals because someone or your manager doesn't understand what you're doing and why it's important.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

I may get higher priority work that just knocks this out of the stack, right? And I miss a portion of my bonus, but that's that's life, right? Like that's the job and that's the agreement I made with myself when I took this on.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

That's a pro move right there. Like, go to your manager and say, Hey, I want to challenge myself to find a way to make our this process 10% more efficient, and like just tell them that. And then you look at the gains and you're like, this would save us if it's 10%. We have a team of five, it would save us like 40 hours a month. Right. Like, how awesome would that be to have that time back? I'm sure your manager would be like, let's do it. That sounds awesome. It's gonna save them time because you have to review all the stuff and do anyway. It's a win-win for them because then they're like, okay, you're setting it as a goal that you have to hit to get your bonus. So you really are accountable for this result.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

My goal is to make everyone's life better, right? And that's that is how I got that approved, and that's how I get time to work on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

Yeah, because the other way, if you're just trying to do it on the side, frankly, it's never gonna get done. It's always gonna get pushed off, and you're not gonna have any accountability behind it. And I think that's actually a general like life tip, too, is if you have a goal, don't just keep it to yourself and don't talk about it. Like the first thing you should do, if you have a goal that's ambitious and you're trying to hit, you should tell someone, you know, yeah, and you should verbalize it to be like, you are gonna hold me accountable, or I'm gonna say this to you. So then I'm gonna feel like I need to be accountable because I told Anthony that I'm gonna hit this goal. And you will be way more successful with your goals if you share it with people because they're gonna expect it from you and they're probably gonna talk to you next time and they're gonna be like, hey, I know we talked a month ago. Are you any further on your track to your goal? Like they're gonna ask you those questions, and it's gonna be really embarrassing if you're not.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Well, and I also don't just tell your management, tell your team. Yeah, tell your peers. I told everyone, I said, Hey, I'm looking at this. If anyone has any experience or ideas, that's awesome. I am open. I'm an empty slate right now. So fill my brain with ideas, I'm gonna go pursue this. And if you want to help me, that's also great because I am totally open to any expertise coming in and actually helping me achieve this as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

That's cool. It creates a great environment, too.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Right. I'm not a solo Han solo worker. I I am a team. That's what we should have named our first cleanup guy. Han solo. Han solo. He works on one bin. He's just got that one foot. He's got that one bin. That's all he ever does. Ben Solo. Ben Solo. Which is the name of Han and Leia's son, aka Kylo Ren, the worst trilogy ever made. In the existence of movies. Unbelievable how bad those movies were.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

If you want to talk this more, go into the Discord, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Star Wars is the worst. Why does it exist? I'll continue to watch everything they make. Yep. Continue.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

I haven't watched all the spinoffs, but I'm going to. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Andor.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Really good. Andor. That's what we keep hearing. We haven't done it yet, but we're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

It's so much better than Star Wars period. Dang.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Like it like I almost statement.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

I feel bad for Andor in a way because it's tied to Star Wars. It's that good. It's that good. Wow. Like, you know, had they just made Andor its own thing, people would be like just putting it on the highest pedestal of film television. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

But instead they made Jar Jar Banks.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Jar Jar lives at the same time as Cassie and Andor. So sadly.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Sadly.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

The same timeline.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

You know what? Uh, you know what? Jar Jar didn't do. What's that? He never had time to think about new projects and goals that he wanted to achieve for himself and then spent all his time in the Senate going like, oh, Misak wanna make big boom boom.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Very athletic, though. Some really impressive flips.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

They're gungins. That's that's like saying, oh yeah, really talented. You can breathe. Yeah, oh yeah. Really, really talented breathing capability there.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Hey, listen, Jar Jar had the luck of a million, whatever they are.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

No, the force was with him. The force works in a mysterious way. It does. I hate Star Wars, by the way. Hate it.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Anytime I'm lucky with anything, I'm just gonna say now, the force is with me.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

The force was with you, right? And then and then you could boil it down to the fact that it really just the midi chlorines. There's these tiny little things inside of everyone that's really what it sometimes decide to un universally work together to move a greater mean, you know? Like makes so much sense, George Lucas. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

But going back to what you were talking about, let's go, let's let's go back to the word thing. The goal thing, the sharing with your team is awesome because it creates that culture.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

It creates that culture where everyone wants to pitch and they're like, oh wow, maybe I could do this. Yeah. And like that creates an awesome learning culture where everyone is trying to find ways to do things better. And I think it's a really good way to do it. I think you can also do this for things that are maybe not an efficiency goal, but you could even be like, hey, I want to get this certificate. I want to become a certified scrum master or product owner. And you can go to your boss and be like, hey, that's my goal. Like that's gonna be one of my goals for this quarter, is to get my certification and whatever I do. I think that's a great goal, and it goes into your learning capability. So I think you should absolutely find like different things that are certifications, outside learning. Maybe it's even to get like your MBA. Like maybe you can tell your manager, like, hey, I'm doing the tuition uh re and enrollment program or whatever it is, whatever they do, reimbursement. Um, and I'm getting going to get my MBA. So for the next year, I'm gonna be going to night classes, getting my MBA to hopefully get me to that next promotion or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I love that. I again what you did was you made sure to tell the manager you were doing this. You're creating an accountability body.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Yeah.

Pitching Goals So Managers Say Yes

SPEAKER_01 37:12

So I actually want to uh read something that came from the chat. So let's go. It's a question we need to answer. Hypothetically, if management isn't interested in the goal, ver goals verbalized, how do you revise?

SPEAKER_03 37:25

That is a great question. It's a tough one.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

It's a tough one. Because I have actually had that happen. I have it happen almost every time I go through the goals process. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

Yeah, I I remember I had a learning goal where I said, Hey, we're learning a new language. You remember this. I've told this story about a bad manager. And I went and I basically said, Hey, we're learning this new language. I'm gonna do a programming challenge every week. Like it'll take 15, 20 minutes for everyone that wants to participate. You don't have to, but I'll send it to our team of 15 people or whatever it was. And I was like, it'll take them 15, 20 minutes. We'll just do it together and then we'll have some fun, you know, talking at stand-up about how it's gonna go. I sent that email, I immediately get called by my manager to come to his office. I'm like, oh boy, here we go. He basically starts a conversation on why are you doing this? And I'm like, I didn't even know how to respond to that. I was like, I I did it because I thought it would help us in learning this new language outside of the code base we're now working on, so we could have some external learning. He's like, don't do that, focus on the work. And that right there is like a prime example of a bad manager. So it a lot of the times it could be that your manager is just not a good manager and they're not gonna support your goals. And unfortunately, that's might be the case for you, because it definitely was for me.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

So for me, I'm very fortunate. Uh, when when my management pushes back on my goals, it's always to help better refine them towards, well, okay, firstly, what is your day job? Like, what are you what are you paid to do day in, day out? And then it is what are you looking to achieve with this goal and what value is it going to bring to the org? So, what I would say to the the the question asker, if you presented a goal to management or a project or an idea and it got rejected, because this happens to me all the time. This isn't just goals, it's with everything. I am the most rejected man on the planet, and I have learned to take rejection and turn it into a superpower. What you need to do is evaluate the why, right? And this is we talked about good books. Starting with why is the book that I recommended on that podcast because you need to go back to your goal and say, why was this rejected? And when you answer that question, ask why four more times. Yep. Why will this be rejected? Why will this be rejected? You need to boil it down to what is the value that that goal is going to bring? What is the outcome and value that goal will bring to your organization, to yourself, to your management, to the product, to the company, whatever. And that is your new goal.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

And then you achieve that goal by going and doing the original thing you wrote down. That's the trick.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

That is that is a great, great trick.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

I also think it's there's a way of phrasing it, like you said. And I was talking about at the beginning for this person that commented. I think if you can phrase it of, hey, how would you like it if I told you that there's a way that our team could save 10 hours a person a month? You think the manager's gonna be like, no, I'm good. I don't want to. Not interesting.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

I was hoping you guys would go a little slower this month.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Your manager's probably gonna be intrigued to be like, oh yeah, like tell me more about that. And then you can be like, hey, this processor, this way of doing things, I I saw a tool that I really think could speed this up by two or three times. We we have Karen, we have Shelby, we have John. They do this four times a day. And it takes them an hour each, every time. So if you could, you know, use this new tool and reduce that time, you would be able to get so much more efficiency out of our team. I guarantee if you were to phrase it like that, they're gonna be interested in hearing more. And then they might give you feedback to say, hey, that sounds great, but I'm also a little worried that the team's got too much on their plate right now just to hit our goals. Like, do you think we could do both? And that's when you come in with a plan to be like, here's my plan of how I think I can do both.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

And I would say you need to be very clear about your language. Like, if you say, Here's my plan, how I think we can get it, you've already started off with a hypothetical. Yeah, maybe, maybe if I'm feeling up for it, right? Like it, you gotta approach it with as much data and certainty as you can, right? Like the way I did this with my AI goal was I said, I've already researched how folks have done this. I know that it's gotta be agentic, it's gotta be, there's a process where each agent goes through, it reviews a thing, it spits out a thing, that feeds it into the next thing, it spits out a thing. So, like I know broadly what I'm going to build. Right. I need to find the right tool that will allow me to build this and maybe even multiple tools, do a little A and B testing, shop it, implement it, go. Right? Like there was no maybe, there's no I think. Yeah, it was all here's what I am going to do.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

The question is, am I gonna do it this quarter? Yeah. And I hope to God so because I like getting paid. But you know, you have to you have to speak one affirmatively and also speak with data. Have a fully baked plan, even if it's not. Broad strokes. Yeah. You know, we uh, if you're a developer, we learn to code through pseudocode. Yep, right? You would build a pseudocode framework before you'd ever go write a real line of JavaScript, and then you'd regret every decision you ever made in your life led up to that point because you're writing JavaScript. You wish I I could just wish pseudocode was real code. Yeah, but it's not.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

It's getting there with AI.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Oh thank God for that. Uh, but I will say it's all about how you approach it, and I think that will make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Yeah, I like that a lot. I actually I think you're also, I mean, your manager, if they're a good manager, they're going to be smarter than you, they're gonna have more visibility than you, and they're going to help guide you and mentor you. And if they challenge a goal and you don't know the answer, you don't have to fake that either. You can be, you can then break it down to say, actually, that's a really good point. How about this? And our next one-on-one, I'm gonna do some research between now and then, and I'm gonna see if I can prove this out or not. And by doing that, you set a timeline, you're gonna come back to your manager, they're gonna say, Oh wow, this person always comes back with what they said they were going to do. And even better, they actually prove to me that it could be possible. So I think a good manager will support that. And they'll be like, hey, if you could figure out a way to do this by our next one-on-one, then I'm all in.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

It puts the ball back in your court, it also gives you the control. Yeah, right? You're saying, hey, I'm gonna go do this, I'll bring it back to the next one. Yep. You're not letting them make a decision for you at that point. Yeah, it's a little bit of negotiation jujitsu. Don't say that. Negotiation jujitsu. See, mine's violent. Everyone loves violence.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

I like the manipulation, the key part of the deal. Yeah, well, I've make sure right when you're bringing this to your manager, you Immediately stand up and tell them, hey, I'm not sitting down until you agree. Or show up before they're back and sit down.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

I'm replacing you with an AI.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Sit in their seat. And then when they show up to the meeting, be like, listen, we're talking about goals.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

I'm replacing you with an AI. That's it. I hope you like this last episode with Michael, because he will be replaced.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

Listen, you can replace me. I'm going to open the book. My whole life is written in markdown files.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

I'm gonna go stream roller coaster tycoon with an AI.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

That actually would be really entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Can we do that? Is that possible? We actually can do that. Can we teach an AI to build a Jurassic Park?

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Absolutely. I think so. It can use your it can use your computer like a human, but it's a little slow. So I think we'd have to like time lapse. Okay. All right. But it still would be interesting. We should totally do that.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Yeah. Who could build a better park? An AI or you?

SPEAKER_03 44:48

Yeah. Yeah, it should be. Ooh. We already have my experiment.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

We have the entire thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

So we're gonna set them up with the same exact goal, the same thing. That would be really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Who could do it faster? They would destroy it. It's gonna build just like non-stop toilets. Because it secretly notices like every time we build a toilet, 10 more people come.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

It's gonna run with 50 experiments.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

So if I build like a hundred toilets, then I will get the goal achieved.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

But going back to this person's question, that is a really good question. And unfortunately, like your manager just might not support you. And like that's a reality you might have to face of being like, hey, I tried, and you know, I just didn't get the traction I was hoping for, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

And it totally could happen that way. And then at that point, you might want to be looking for a different manager or looking to do things in your free time to help you know excel your career.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

It's definitely time to look for a pattern, right? If that manager is always very negative and resistant to uh new ideas, goals, things that you're thinking about. Probably not a great manager, right?

SPEAKER_03 45:45

I would say also a lot of companies, and I can speak from experience on this, they have generic goals for everybody that don't really make any sense to you, and you're like, I don't really see anything there. Always make sure, even if it's a zero percent of your goal, you put in things to help grow your career. Yes. Even if it's a zero percent and those other goals are 25% and 30% and 50% of your quarter, whatever, still have zero percent goals to be like, I am going to challenge myself. Because I think that's how you learn, that's how you grow is when you put those things in the system, you are then able to, you know, visualize those things with your manager to say, I'm working on these things. I know they're not the main goals, but it's still something I want to do for myself. Then you have an accountability buddy.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

That's a great one.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

I love that. Yeah. So what else is there? Did we solve it?

SPEAKER_03 46:27

I I think we did. I think we solved it. I think the the long and the short of it is if you have a goal in mind or you need to find time to, you know, try something new, look for that trigger. If you've been doing something the same, always. If you feel stagnant and you want to go get a certification, if you want to get a degree, if you want to try something new, if you want to see how AI would help with your work, make sure that you notice those triggers and work and then you're like, okay, let me first make sure my manager is on board with whatever I think I can do. And let me frame it in a way where it's benefit first. How would you like to save 10 hours of our team's time every single week? Then go into this is how I think we could do it. This is our plan. You know, first week we're gonna, you know, adapt this new rovo tool in conflicts. Second week, we're gonna run this marketing uh case study or whatever through that tool. We're gonna analyze the output as a team, and then we're gonna see if that saved us time compared to the last time we did it. All those things are super important where you have accountability to the results as well.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Yeah. And I think the one thing we haven't actually talked about in this entire thing is the very beginning. The very, very beginning, before you even have a goal in mind. Look for a pain point. Yeah. Right? If you're in the mindset of, hey, how do I make something better? You start with, well, what sucks?

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

Like look around you. I guarantee you something sucks. Yeah. And make that your goal is how do I make this suck less?

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Yeah. It's I it's a pleasure that I can say this and it's a convenience that I have right now, but everything I do, I basically ask myself, how can I do this with AI before I do it?

SPEAKER_01 47:57

So gross. Just because I'm curious. So grossed out by everything you say.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

Like a lot of times, my toe will be, you know, bri merging between the border and starting to curl down, and I'll say, How can I fix this with AI? And it tells me just to amputate it.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

That's right below the knee.

When Management Rejects Your Goal

SPEAKER_03 48:14

I think we know how to fix your says I don't condone violence, and I usually wouldn't recommend this, but in your case, it's severe enough where I think we just take it off. And then I ask, is there any adverse effects? Yeah, you may lose balance and never be normal again, but you'll get a cool cane.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

You get the side effects. Or I mean, you get one of those very neat uh prosthetic legs. Yeah. The curved ones, you know, the blade runners. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:34

I mean you could 3D print yourself a toe. Imagine all the attachments.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Okay, you are selling me on the attachments point here. I don't know when I would ever use a screwdriver built into my toe, but you know. Never say never.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

Oh, I think we solved it.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

So you know, if it's a low molding on the wall that I gotta screw back in, I mean having a toe screwdriver would be helpful.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

Just wait, wait, wait, wait. Does it have batteries?

SPEAKER_01 49:00

I think we'd probably give you like a little remote where you can like reverse or yeah, you just pop your toe in it, you kick the kickboard, and then you're like Did you ever watch uh a cartoon show by the name of Inspector Gadget? Of course. Why was that man such a buffoon?

SPEAKER_03 49:16

Well, what was the wait, what was the catchphrase? Go go inspector gadget.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

No, that's the Power Rangers. It's go go gadget and helicopter hat, and that's what it was. And then he go crash to a wall. Yep. Right? And then Penny and the dog would always show up and actually do all of the work and get none of the credit.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

That's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Was Inspector Gadget just preparing us for the corporate reality that we would face as adults? Of being a manager. Hey, a child and a dog are the actual intelligence here. You're facing a faceless enemy that might actually just be a robotic hand tied to a chair. Um, and your boss is a buffoon who has every technology in the world built into his body and will use none of it effectively.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

Yep. Will always make a buffoon of himself.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Every single time. But you go go gadget. Inspector Gadget is the AI. Inspector Gadget is the AI. The claw, the claw is is corporate execs everywhere. And Penny and the dog, they're us, they're you and me. They're the workers. Uh you can choose you want to be, but they're us. I want to be the dog. Okay, I'll be Penny then. Uh we are the workers. We have to get everything done. And then every time we think, oh, we need to use Inspector Gadget for this task, he just makes it harder for us. And the real lesson was kill that guy. Just kill the AI. Get rid of him. If you just cut him. Just get rid of Inspector Gadget. Then you can go directly to Dr. Claw and solve the problem yourself.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

You know, I think the moral of everything we talked about today is let's get a fax machine. Let's just go back to the facts. Let's go back to the facts.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

I think that would really make us all just a little bit happier and the world a brighter place. I agree.

SPEAKER_03 51:07

Well, good stuff. Great work. Yeah. I think we did it again, Anthony.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

I Michael, every time, every time we show up, progress gets made. A little bit better, the world's a little bit better place.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

One day we'll stream correctly. I mean, uh We almost got it.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

We almost got it.

SPEAKER_03 51:22

We just had to question once or twice whether we were actually streaming, but now we've got it figured out.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

It is my lack of confidence that is truly our downfall.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

To quote, your faith in your friends is yours.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

It's Emperor Palpatine. Is that who it is? Uh Anakin Skywalker, Emperor is like, your confidence is your downfall.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

He's like, Your faith in your friends is yours.

SPEAKER_03 51:44

You've been watching too much Star Wars.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

I've watched no Star Wars. Never even seen it. Not even familiar with it. What the heck is Star Wars?

SPEAKER_03 51:53

You're a Star Trek guy, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 51:55

No. Makes so much more sense. I didn't like Star Trek as a kid. Don't like it as an adult, really.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

You're just defending people today.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

I know. I know. I really.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

This aggressive speak.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

I'm in pain.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

I'm out too much. Yeah, you are. You are you are definitely reflecting.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Hurt people, hurt people.

SPEAKER_03 52:11

Yeah, that's true. Hurt people do hurt people.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

Right, right. That's the that's the whole thing. And I'm I'm hurting every single star fan. Doesn't matter what star. Or strack. Space. Space. Space. Screw space. Hey, did you see uh did you see Project Hail Mary?

unknown 52:26

No.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

What's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_03 52:28

One of these days I will.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

You well, you're not gonna be able to see it in theaters much longer.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

Well, that's okay. That's what I want. I can't go to theaters. I want to, but I just can't.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

See, this is what the the audio listeners miss miss out me looking dead down the camera as the soul leaves my body. That's what they really miss. Well, I think that does it. I think I think that wraps everything up. Great work. Nice and neatly.

SPEAKER_03 52:51

Now it's time to call the weekend.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Yeah. You're telling me. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's go. Let's install the weekend upgrade. I'm gonna download some more RAM into my weekend.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

And I'm gonna speed, I'm gonna speedrun this thing.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

Don't speedrun your weekend, please. Slow run it.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

It's not my choice anymore. Life has decided every weekend is a speedrun event now.

Patreon And Community Callouts

SPEAKER_03 53:09

Uh speaking of other things, also, we have been dropping exclusive content on Patreon.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

Yes, we sure have.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

And things that we probably would never talk about on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Absolutely never.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

So if you want to hear some of that and like the real reo bind corporate, like that's what we get into.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

I mean, I drop things that I wouldn't ever say just to people in general in the last exclusive content. I would never say this to anybody.

SPEAKER_03 53:33

You really wouldn't. I like Except for me.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

If you really want unfiltered Anthony, there's only one place to get it, and it's on the Patreon. For a dollar a month. That's pretty awesome. It's pretty cheap. Ten dollars a month means you love us. So Yeah, we'd like you love.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

We love love.

Finding Pain Points And Wrapping Up

SPEAKER_01 53:47

You can help us out by going to the Patreon. You can get there by going to the link in your show notes. You can join our community. It's the Discord Corporate Fam. You can do that by going to the link in your show notes. You can buy a t-shirt, a baby onesie, a sticker, a mug. And the mugs are great. You can do that by going to the link in your show notes.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

Yep. If you're expecting, please buy the baby onesie.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

If you are a human, buy the baby onesie. Hey, what if they want to uh what if they want to leave a review? What would they do there? How would they do that?

SPEAKER_03 54:13

In your podcast provider, you can just hit the little five stars. You don't have to say anything. Just put five stars.

SPEAKER_01 54:17

Just put five stars.

SPEAKER_03 54:18

Well, we do this YouTube thing now, so you gotta say like, subscribe. That's right. Hit the bell for notification.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

I please cringy stuff. Leave a comment on this video. Just leave a comment that says I left a comment on this video and all I got was this stupid shirt. Like, doesn't matter what you do.

SPEAKER_03 54:32

We should make it your corporate goals. If you're listening to this right now, your corporate goals for this quarter is to leave a comment, like, comment, subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Join the Discord, buy a baby onesie. Those are your goals. If you do all three of those things.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

That'll be Q2.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

We don't get paid on any of the onesies sold, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

It's just for your enjoyment.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

It's literally a zero, zero profit merch shop that we operate. Yeah, and I mean that's that's all we got for you. That's it. That's it. It's a blast. I had a great time, as always. Hey, thanks for joining me, my friend, as we go through this journey every week. Thank you, the listener, for listening, watching, viewing, participating in the chat. We appreciate you. We hope to see and hear from you very soon. You know what to do for all of the things. Until next time, I'm Anthony. And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_03 55:17

And here.