SECOND OPINION WITH DR DEW
Episode 004: Business Nerd Confronts Viral Youtube Comedy Failure
Published: 2026-01-06
Runtime: 1:12:42

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[0:00] Hello everybody. Welcome back to Second

[0:02] Opinion with Dr. Dub. I am Dr. Dwayne

[0:05] Layman, Doctor of Business

[0:06] Administration with a focus in public

[0:09] policy. And today we've got a live one

[0:11] here. This is Steven He. You might know

[0:14] him from the Asian Dad uh comedy sketch

[0:17] series. And what we're going to do is

[0:19] we've got a much shorter video than what

[0:22] I've been putting out. Um this one here

[0:25] is about 6 minutes. Um we're going to

[0:27] have a very quick overview. This is from

[0:30] the Driven podcast. Um, so we're going

[0:34] to go and first we're going to watch his

[0:36] story. We're going to do a little bit of

[0:38] a summary and then I'm going to walk

[0:40] away with the lessons. Now, what I'm

[0:42] actually going to cover here is uh this

[0:44] is called How Not to Lose Your Ars in

[0:48] Business or what the heck does a

[0:50] business nerd know about comedy. Now, I

[0:53] just want to state up front here, little

[0:55] disclosure. Um, my education cost

[0:59] roughly $160,000 total from no degree

[1:02] all the way up through doctorates. So,

[1:04] that got the bachelor's, that got the

[1:06] MBA, they got the DBA. Um, but you're

[1:10] like, that's a lot of money. What are

[1:12] you going to get out of it? Uh, what

[1:13] you're going to get out of it is not

[1:15] losing multiple six figures by talking

[1:18] to someone like me. Not me. I don't

[1:20] consult. Uh but we're going to go over

[1:23] some lessons here and then you can

[1:25] probably apply a lot of these lessons to

[1:26] your life. Uh and think of of ways where

[1:30] um you might have gone down a bad road

[1:32] and some of these things might get your

[1:34] juices thinking. And if those don't

[1:36] work, I've got some thoughts after the

[1:38] end of one really good takeaway. You

[1:40] know my mantra, uh if you read a book,

[1:42] you watch a movie, uh documentary, you

[1:45] take a class, have two solid takeaways.

[1:48] I've got three for you here. Um, two of

[1:51] them kind of run together, but I think

[1:53] they're the solid takeaways, even if you

[1:54] don't catch all the other stuff, which I

[1:55] think is interesting. But before we get

[1:57] started, let's go ahead and listen to

[1:59] the story here. And I promise I've got

[2:01] the the the volumes actually kind of set

[2:04] this time. And we're also not going to

[2:06] do a 4hour split video this time. I

[2:09] promise you, we're actually going to get

[2:10] through this one. All right, here we go.

[2:13] Let's let's hear Stephen He uh and his

[2:15] story about possibly the worst

[2:18] experience uh that he has ever had in

[2:20] business.

[2:22] >> What was the kind of like in retrospect

[2:25] you made?

[2:25] >> Oh yeah, that's a big one. THAT'S A BIG

[2:27] ONE.

[2:28] >> AND HOW MUCH?

[2:30] >> It cost me multiple figures. Wow.

[2:33] Wow. It was and a big lesson possibly

[2:36] the single biggest in content creation.

[2:39] I'm still about it.

[2:40] >> I'm just going to say I love the fact

[2:42] that you can lose multiple six figures

[2:45] and you're like, you know what, it was a

[2:47] lesson. Uh, I did want to interject here

[2:49] because, you know, I do, if you want to

[2:51] watch the video in its entirety, uh,

[2:53] start to finish, please go to their

[2:54] podcast, please subscribe, uh, please

[2:56] watch it. But, and this is just a clip,

[2:58] I think, of their their entire

[2:59] interview. Uh, but there's the the old

[3:01] lesson of the um either GE uh sorry, it

[3:05] might have been IBM there. These stories

[3:07] run together um where somebody made a $9

[3:09] million mistake and the board asked the

[3:12] president uh are you going to fire the

[3:13] person responsible? And he said, "Why am

[3:15] I going to fire them? I just spent $9

[3:17] million training them." So, but I love I

[3:21] love his attitude here.

[3:23] a lot of people. This was a show that I

[3:26] had put two years of work into and a lot

[3:29] of my personal

[3:32] and um you can get an NBA crash entire

[3:35] channel by over

[3:38] it was an absolute disaster

[3:41] of business at the time. But I feel like

[3:42] I had to go through

[3:44] >> and I love the fact there that he he

[3:47] correctly identifies this was a business

[3:49] problem. Um, this is sort of what I

[3:52] didn't know this when I started watching

[3:53] this. I just saw uh the title which was

[3:56] um changed my mindset and my channel

[3:59] dropped and I saw Stephen He like I know

[4:01] that his channel dropped 80%.

[4:04] Like the guy's famous, you know, he's

[4:06] YouTube famous, internet famous, Tik Tok

[4:08] famous, Instagram famous, the guy's

[4:09] famous. Uh what happened here? Um but I

[4:12] love the fact he even identifies it's

[4:14] not just a lesson, it was a business

[4:15] lesson. Um and I think from listening to

[4:18] him, he took the right lessons away. I

[4:20] think he talked to somebody uh with some

[4:22] business background, somebody in

[4:23] business, somebody uh who's sort of done

[4:25] this before. So, he took something good

[4:27] away from this.

[4:29] >> So, I was on a huge I was making

[4:32] sketches and they were above 10.

[4:36] >> I could only dream

[4:38] that I had to go 10 millime

[4:45] my whole money behind it's going to

[4:46] become huge. And so I did it. I spent

[4:48] two years of my time and I made the show

[4:50] that on paper to everything.

[4:53] I had nine of the biggest Asian

[4:55] creators. I had bigger than I've ever

[4:57] done. I had all these increas

[5:02] thought would bring success. And two

[5:03] years later

[5:05] we uploaded

[5:07] >> and just think you got all the talent.

[5:10] You're you're thinking you might be the

[5:12] next Kings of Comedy. By the way, if you

[5:13] haven't seen Kings of Comedy, uh one of

[5:16] the greatest comedy uh uh compilations

[5:19] of of of comedians ever assembled. Um so

[5:22] yeah, you're you're bringing all this

[5:24] together, man. You you you've got the

[5:26] energy, you've got the views, you're

[5:28] ready to go, everything seems fine and

[5:31] >> it% of my dragged up to about 20% of

[5:36] what we did at the time.

[5:37] >> So it was just the loss of it. Yeah.

[5:40] Yeah. Hang the idiot, not just himself.

[5:44] >> Well, I spent the next six months

[5:45] studying. I can tell you why.

[5:47] >> I can tell you why.

[5:49] >> He did the right thing here. Um he

[5:52] didn't go on, you know, and just just

[5:54] take a few weeks off or disappear for a

[5:56] couple years. He sat down for 6 months.

[5:59] Um it sounds like he went through a mini

[6:02] MBA. Uh and it might be one of the

[6:04] reasons that he really, you know, once

[6:06] this happens, you're really you're just

[6:08] you're going, "What the hell?"

[6:10] um like th this is your livelihood.

[6:11] You're you're just seeing your rising

[6:13] star ju just crater. So yeah, I can

[6:17] understand. I'm sure he probably reached

[6:19] out to a lot of people to try to figure

[6:21] out what the heck. I mean, just imagine

[6:24] he did this, it doesn't do well. He's

[6:26] already crushed and then he sees

[6:27] everything else go down and the the

[6:29] psychological toll and his motivation to

[6:31] do his other work that he's used to.

[6:33] Math's just got to be hard because he's,

[6:34] you know, he's still got to make money.

[6:35] He's still got to keep going. Um, and

[6:37] he's seeing those drop off 80%.

[6:40] Um, yeah. Yeah. 6 months at least.

[6:44] >> I was really disappointed that the next

[6:46] it was the only thing focusing how the

[6:48] hell this happen

[6:50] the way I thought postmortem

[6:52] >> and I think I do. What that show was not

[6:56] a sketch. It was 12 minutes each. It was

[6:58] a scripted narative. It had different

[7:00] characters. It was a different genre. It

[7:02] was still not a sketch like a minute

[7:04] sketch. I did not have my favorite

[7:06] characters in it. I do my favorite

[7:08] classification

[7:10] a little too after after I saw the

[7:14] plummet.

[7:14] >> I asked people and I looked at

[7:19] >> he talked to people. Granted, this would

[7:22] have helped two years prior, but he

[7:24] talked to people and and he got some

[7:27] honest answers. This is the key. A lot

[7:29] of people they go in their own heads.

[7:31] they just they lock up um you know and

[7:34] and they hide. They're it's embarrassing

[7:36] to to lose money, to lose fame, to lose

[7:39] space. It's very embarrassing. Um and it

[7:42] takes a strong person to reach out when

[7:44] they failed and and try to figure out

[7:47] what went wrong and not just cave in on

[7:50] themselves, uh blame themselves. Um you

[7:53] know, just because you can also just

[7:54] think, well, the market changed. I'm I'm

[7:56] just I I did all this right when I'm you

[7:59] know my 15 minutes of fame is over. Um

[8:01] he's doing the right thing here.

[8:03] >> The audience asked us all and I think

[8:05] the greatest perspective that made me

[8:08] understand that that performance

[8:09] performance was

[8:11] >> the audience subscribed for sketch

[8:15] that's why there

[8:17] and I thought that was entirely

[8:19] different expecting the same result. So

[8:21] the metaphor the story we're coming up

[8:23] with so much it makes it instantly clear

[8:25] that it makes me look stupid is I don't

[8:28] I gadget

[8:30] >> no I'm just I I get this off of face my

[8:33] hair here but it it doesn't mean you're

[8:34] stupid. This has happened to so many

[8:37] creators. It's happened to it's happened

[8:40] to directors. You know a hot shot

[8:41] director comes out with a movie and the

[8:44] next five movies just just uh what

[8:47] what's the what's the Gen Z? They're

[8:49] mid, right? Okay. Um, you know, it's

[8:52] sometimes you're hot, sometimes you're

[8:54] not. Uh, not everyone has a hot hand.

[8:56] You know, that's sort of a a myth. You

[8:58] know, like basketball, they've got a hot

[9:00] hand. Um, and and you can you can beat

[9:03] yourself up and you can think I I it was

[9:05] my fault. Um, yeah, it's your fault, but

[9:08] you know, it's it's it's something to

[9:09] blame, but it doesn't mean you're

[9:10] stupid. But let's go back a bit here

[9:13] that I came up with that just makes it

[9:14] instantly clear. It makes me look really

[9:16] stupid is I am I make

[9:21] computer

[9:28] and then one day I open my door with 100

[9:30] million people outside my door and go

[9:31] guess what we sell avocado toast now.

[9:34] >> And then I turn around why was my sales

[9:36] down.

[9:37] >> That's the perspective I learned.

[9:39] >> Yeah. I I made a completely new that

[9:41] wasn't did not process did not have fan

[9:43] base but I don't I expected to have the

[9:46] same as the mess up

[9:50] insightful I think a lot of creators

[9:52] want to branch out you know they're

[9:53] getting maybe burnt out on the same is

[9:56] there for doing that again

[9:59] >> and just to just to note here this is

[10:01] one of the hard things about being a

[10:02] musician if you're going to be a

[10:04] musician because you love making music

[10:05] you love singing songs realize that when

[10:08] you go on tour and if you have a hit. If

[10:10] you're lucky enough to even be a one-

[10:11] hit wonder, you will be singing that if

[10:14] you if you want to keep making money and

[10:16] going on tour and playing locations and

[10:18] they're going to get smaller maybe over

[10:20] time if you're, you know, not Aerosmith

[10:22] or or Foo Fighters, you're going to have

[10:24] to sing that same song for the rest of

[10:27] your life. And if you're not ready for

[10:28] the grind that is music, um you know

[10:31] that that's there are bands that just

[10:33] could not take the grind and they just

[10:35] they sputter and burn out. That's

[10:37] exactly what he's talking about here

[10:38] with with any type of greater

[10:40] >> that you could have tweaked that you

[10:41] thought would give you a better chance

[10:42] of success.

[10:44] 100%

[10:46] lessons.

[10:47] >> Would I change anything? Absolutely not.

[10:49] Because because of what makes me and I

[10:51] wear those great

[10:56] but going forward

[10:59] going forward should I do anything like

[11:00] that?

[11:04] I would do 10% and this I learned from

[11:07] so many companies from like Microsoft

[11:09] remember

[11:12] from practically the biggest business

[11:16] process of jumping and realiz

[11:18] >> now granted um when the the the

[11:22] >> the iPod came out that was a pretty big

[11:25] turn. This was a computer company and

[11:27] they they released a music player. um

[11:31] when their previous product, the Newton,

[11:33] if any of you remember the Apple Newton,

[11:35] was an absolute abject failure. And so

[11:39] they were setting themselves up for yet

[11:41] another failure. Um you know, and it was

[11:44] really Steve Jobs just, you know, just

[11:47] pile drove that through with design uh

[11:51] was the only reason that really took

[11:52] off. Had it been uh done under uh the

[11:55] CEO from Pepsi, probably wouldn't have

[11:57] gone.

[11:58] be be gentle on yourself because some

[12:01] gummies have taken wild pivots um that

[12:03] did work out and change the world. It

[12:06] just is rare. It just is super rare.

[12:09] >> Nobody buys avocado

[12:12] toast. If I want to take another um

[12:14] market then I have to still be me and

[12:18] deliver the heat the experience

[12:21] and then give them uh like a 10%

[12:24] addition taking away something and

[12:26] that'll take many many many tries it

[12:28] might different I might add 10% in

[12:32] runtime I might add it in cast I might

[12:33] add it in and none of them work but if

[12:36] I'm lucky one will work and that's why I

[12:37] further further and if you look at a

[12:39] path where if you turn 10% each time

[12:40] you're going to end up productm That's

[12:43] the way I look at the new market.

[12:46] >> Oh,

[12:48] we're going to go back. Yeah, crash

[12:50] crashed his entire entire channel. Just

[12:54] just just ruined it. So, let's switch

[12:57] over here. So, I have some notes on this

[12:59] and um how all of this was avoidable,

[13:02] the lessons that he could have taken

[13:04] away. I don't know the exact lessons he

[13:06] got or who he talked to. Um but we

[13:08] certainly have some here. So, let's

[13:10] review his situation. Again, we're

[13:12] putting up a couple AI notes. Doing it a

[13:15] little bit different this time. Um,

[13:17] actually, if we go down here, you see

[13:19] I'm actually doing a little APA 7. I

[13:20] wanted to uh site some of the sources

[13:22] because I'm going to be looking at some

[13:23] academic sources. Um, you know, kind of

[13:26] taking a real business school look at

[13:27] this and then turning those into life

[13:29] lessons. So, taking taking some of it

[13:32] out of my expertise with his story, um,

[13:34] and and seeing, you know, how you can

[13:37] avoid these things in your life. So,

[13:39] let's uh let's have AI do a reading. And

[13:42] yes, I did fix the volume this time.

[13:47] >> Steven, he says his worst financial

[13:50] decision in retrospect was sinking two

[13:52] years of work and multiple six figures

[13:54] of personal money into a high production

[13:57] show that flopped and then appeared to

[13:59] drag his whole channel down by roughly

[14:00] 80% in performance. His diagnosis after

[14:04] months of postmortem,

[14:05] >> yep,

[14:06] >> is that the show wasn't the short punchy

[14:08] sketch format his audience had

[14:10] repeatedly subscribed for. So, he

[14:12] effectively launched a new product while

[14:14] expecting old product results.

[14:16] >> Right?

[14:17] >> In context, the core lesson is about

[14:19] audience contract and format

[14:20] consistency. Platforms and viewers both

[14:24] learn what you are and sudden genre

[14:26] shifts can get treated like you've

[14:27] stopped delivering the thing people came

[14:29] for. analysis. The channel crash, he

[14:33] describes, is likely a mix of lower

[14:35] click retention on the new format, plus

[14:37] the platform relearning who to serve the

[14:39] videos to once the established

[14:41] >> Yeah, that's the thing, too. Once you're

[14:44] you start messing too hard with that

[14:46] algorithm, um, the algorithm can drop

[14:48] you like a bad habit. The nightmare of

[14:51] everyone on YouTube, the absolute

[14:52] nightmare is that the algorithm just

[14:55] doesn't love you anymore. And so you can

[14:57] go from number one uh hero to zero

[15:01] pretty quickly. That is absolutely true.

[15:03] >> Pattern breaks. His practical fix is a

[15:06] 10% pivot strategy. Keep the

[15:08] recognizable Steven He experience then

[15:11] iterate small additions runtime cast

[15:14] structure and only lean harder into the

[15:17] direction that proves it can hold the

[15:18] audience.

[15:20] >> Now I'm going to disagree a little bit

[15:22] on the 10%. Um, I think the 10% is

[15:26] actually a little high. A 10% pivot is

[15:30] massive. Um, a 10% pivot can represent a

[15:36] completely new product. Um, it would,

[15:39] you know, it it's you can 10% yourself

[15:43] out of business. Um, you know, it was it

[15:46] was far more than 10% for Netflix to go

[15:49] from sending DVDs to streaming. um you

[15:52] know that that that's a much larger

[15:54] pivot. That's one of those ones where

[15:55] you could destroy your business like the

[15:57] iPod or take off and you know go to the

[16:00] moon as they say. Um but 10%'s rather

[16:03] large for if you're for instance if

[16:06] you're an athlete um you are not looking

[16:09] to do 10% pivots um or or stretching

[16:13] yourself 10%. You don't go to the gym

[16:15] and just keep adding 10%. That's not big

[16:20] when you're small, but once you're

[16:22] you're getting up there in weights, 10%

[16:25] is a large increase um over time. It's

[16:29] you're you're going if you keep 10%ing,

[16:32] you are going um at at a at a at a a

[16:36] scale of logarithmic change away. Uh

[16:39] that 10% gets larger each time you pivot

[16:42] away. And so you're pivoting further and

[16:44] faster as you go. Um, and there's a

[16:46] reason I would say a 3% pivot. Max 1 to

[16:50] 3% is actually what you want to pivot.

[16:52] Um, not only for this, but I think the

[16:56] viewers of Stephen He um, probably don't

[16:59] watch every single video of his. Um, you

[17:01] know, with that short form format, he's

[17:02] one of those that comes up occasionally

[17:04] in the stream, maybe even playing some

[17:06] old ones. I would say most of the

[17:08] viewers probably u, you know, the the

[17:11] fans that absolutely loved and liked

[17:13] every single one. Yes, they may have

[17:14] seen um north of 85% uh but a lot of

[17:18] others may have only seen 30% of his

[17:20] videos. So, if you're pivoting 10% a

[17:23] month or even, you know, 10% a video or

[17:25] just 10% a month by the time the next

[17:27] video rolls around for that 30% viewer,

[17:30] you're you're way way past where they're

[17:33] used to. Um and so I would say much

[17:36] smaller than 10%. Let's go into some of

[17:38] the lessons here. So, I'm going to break

[17:40] this up. Here's what we've got. We've

[17:42] got and I don't know sizes apparently.

[17:49] Hey, all fixed. There we go. Um, we have

[17:52] a couple specials here. So, we're going

[17:54] to do MBA lessons. We're going to do

[17:56] some psychology lessons. We're going to

[17:58] do some sociology lessons. We're going

[18:00] to hit some behavioral economics. I just

[18:02] wanted to hit that early. We didn't

[18:04] really have to. I thought I'd throw it

[18:05] in there. And then uh my special corner

[18:07] of of my takeaways once you kind of know

[18:10] these things um and kind of giving

[18:12] somebody going to that ground truth and

[18:14] and the I think the things you could

[18:15] take away that were also key lessons

[18:17] here that would lead you to these other

[18:19] things. Um you don't have to be an MBA

[18:21] to figure some of the stuff out if you

[18:23] just take a few few key things and maybe

[18:25] learn one tiny little lesson. Um he went

[18:29] away for 6 months to do a postmortem.

[18:31] I'm going to tell you a better way to do

[18:32] that and avoid the situation entirely or

[18:34] at least know what you're getting into

[18:36] as you're getting into that situation.

[18:37] So, let's start with the MBA lessons

[18:40] that does not pop down in a way I like.

[18:43] So, we'll start here with some brand fit

[18:45] and we'll get the AI reading a little

[18:48] bit of this and then I'm going to cut in

[18:50] after each one of these. So, uh this is

[18:52] called brand extension fit typicality

[18:54] and and I'm versing this. This is not

[18:56] these authors brand dilution. A lot of

[18:58] you might know brand dilution. Uh, think

[19:00] of Chanel selling phones. Um, think of

[19:03] Ben and Jerry's suddenly selling pizza.

[19:05] You're diluting the brand. You're trying

[19:07] too many things. You're going in too

[19:08] many areas. You're trying to pop this on

[19:10] to you're just slapping your name off on

[19:14] anything. Um, it would be as though, you

[19:17] know, suddenly um Apple were to buy, you

[19:20] know, cuz we're he brought up Apple. So,

[19:22] it'd be like Apple buying um uh one of

[19:24] those those uh uh mug companies uh that

[19:27] sell water bottles and suddenly they

[19:29] started releasing Apple water bottles

[19:31] and they had Apple shoes and Apple this

[19:33] and I think that was a if you guys heard

[19:35] the rumors about an Apple car. Um brand

[19:38] delution. Too many too many things. Uh

[19:41] Samsung kind of gets away with that. Um

[19:44] they there's everything from Samsung

[19:46] hospitals to Samsung funeral homes in

[19:48] South Korea. Uh, but Samsung tries to be

[19:51] everything to everyone all the time. And

[19:54] you know, suddenly you'd have an Apple

[19:55] washer and dryer. I'm sure there'd be

[19:56] people that buy it. Um, you can you can

[19:58] see sitting Well, I I actually did move

[20:01] it from the from the last I have an

[20:02] Apple Vision Pro sitting over here. Uh,

[20:05] I mean, it's it's on brand. It's let's

[20:07] just say it's on. I like it. But, um,

[20:10] you start getting into too many things

[20:12] and people start asking what what are

[20:14] you? Are you just some multinational

[20:16] conglomerate? At this point, you're a

[20:17] proctor in camp. Um, you know, Proctor

[20:20] and Gamble does not sell Proctor and

[20:21] Gamble products. They sell brands. They

[20:23] sell things like Tide or Dawn or and

[20:26] those might not even be their brands.

[20:27] I'm just saying they you don't you don't

[20:30] sell the the conglomerate things. Um,

[20:33] Google has a problem with this. They

[20:34] Google likes to slap Google on

[20:36] everything. And the Google brand um is

[20:38] getting away from where they call, you

[20:39] know, googling something as a verb. And

[20:41] I think they're in danger of of putting

[20:43] that. But let's go through this here.

[20:44] Here's where he made the mistake of what

[20:47] his brand was.

[20:49] Definition. Consumers tend to evaluate a

[20:52] new offering more positively when it

[20:54] feels like a credible extension of what

[20:57] the parent brand already stands for.

[20:58] That is high perceived fit typicality.

[21:02] Low fit increases confusion and weakens

[21:04] attitude transfer.

[21:05] >> Yep.

[21:06] >> How to use it properly? Treat a new

[21:08] format like a brand extension. Preserve

[21:11] core cues the audience associates with

[21:13] the parent brand. Signature characters,

[21:15] punchlines, pacing. Pilot test with

[21:18] smaller releases and expand only after

[21:20] you see evidence of fit. Views,

[21:22] retention, satisfaction.

[21:24] >> Test, test, test.

[21:25] >> How it was used improperly here. In the

[21:28] transcript, he assumed 10 m people show

[21:30] up every upload, then delivered a

[21:33] substantially different product.

[21:35] 12minute narrative versus 3minut sketch,

[21:37] different characters, missing signature

[21:40] punchlines as a major launch, i.e. a low

[21:43] fit extension introduced at maximum

[21:45] scale. See, he was the same person, uh,

[21:48] but his comedy was completely different.

[21:50] Um, it's it's like if suddenly, um,

[21:54] Andrew Dice Clay decided that he was

[21:57] going to do a clean a clean type of

[22:00] comedy um, and he was going to start

[22:02] doing the hot pocket jokes or dad jokes

[22:05] or things like that. It's not his brand.

[22:07] I'm not saying it wouldn't have been a

[22:08] smart choice uh, maybe to extend his

[22:10] career, but it wasn't his brand. And so

[22:13] when you get used to how someone is when

[22:16] they when they show up and they act

[22:17] completely differently, it's going to

[22:18] throw you off. You know, it's it's this

[22:20] is true in life as well. If you

[22:21] completely change your brand, um you

[22:24] know, you can throw off, you know, um

[22:26] you show up to work one day with a toup

[22:29] pay just out of the blue, people are

[22:31] going to act weird around you because

[22:33] they don't they're not really sure

[22:34] what's going on till they figure out

[22:35] what's going on. Um suddenly you have a

[22:37] French accent and you're from Alabama.

[22:40] they're they're going to have questions.

[22:44] Um and and so that that's really what

[22:46] this is speaking to is that um he was

[22:48] stretching too far too fast, changing

[22:50] too many of the core things that made

[22:52] him identifiable immediately to his

[22:54] audiences. Um you know people form

[22:57] heruristics in their heads and so you

[23:00] know they everyone puts things into

[23:02] buckets and so his comedy was this is

[23:04] what his comedy is. This is how long it

[23:06] is. This is what he does. This is the

[23:08] punchline. Um these are the these are

[23:11] the the you know emotional damage was

[23:14] one of his his signature lines. Uh

[23:16] little did he know that not using things

[23:18] like that is about to give him emotional

[23:21] damage. Um sad to say like you don't you

[23:24] don't like to see people who are

[23:25] enthusiastic and want to try and do

[23:27] things just be like it's it's hard to

[23:29] watch the world crush somebody's dreams

[23:31] like that. Um it's just amazing. He's

[23:34] got this this uh stamina and and

[23:37] motivation and positive attitude. I'm

[23:39] sure it didn't feel that way when he

[23:40] took the six months to look at what the

[23:42] heck happened. Um but yeah, that that's

[23:45] absolutely Let's go to the next one. And

[23:48] you guys will recognize this from my

[23:49] last three videos. I think in every

[23:51] single video I've talked about exploring

[23:54] versus exploiting. If you haven't,

[23:56] you're free to take the 5 and 1/2 hours

[23:59] to watch the last three

[24:03] videos, but sorry I don't cut these

[24:05] things out here, so it's going to be a

[24:07] little live. Um,

[24:09] explore versus exploit. And what we have

[24:12] here is Steven was exploring

[24:16] and he went from from 0% exploration to

[24:20] 100% exploration. Um, so let's let's

[24:24] have the AI cover this and then we'll

[24:25] talk about it a little bit.

[24:28] >> Definition. Organizations and creators

[24:30] must balance exploitation, refining what

[24:33] already works and exploration,

[24:35] experimenting with novel options.

[24:38] Overweaiting exploration can impose

[24:40] shortrun costs and destabilize

[24:42] performance.

[24:43] How to use it properly? Run exploration

[24:46] as a portfolio. Yes,

[24:47] >> keep the reliable core format shipping

[24:50] exploitation while allocating bounded

[24:52] reverse.

[24:53] >> I'm going stop there. So, it's one of

[24:54] the things that I I think

[24:57] he he said he would make 10% changes. I

[25:00] don't I think you can make even smaller

[25:03] changes. You can start you can very

[25:05] slowly evolve the core product, but if

[25:07] you wanted to go to episodic,

[25:09] run small tests of that completely

[25:12] separate from what you're doing. Um, the

[25:16] idea for instance, Apple has, to my to

[25:20] my knowledge, I could be completely

[25:21] wrong, Apple has never sold a computer

[25:24] in a regular store. I don't mean like a

[25:26] computer store, but they you can't you

[25:29] can't go uh and buy a full iMac

[25:33] somewhere. They that they may have

[25:34] changed, but back in the day, um, you

[25:36] didn't go to Target to buy those things.

[25:39] You can go buy iPads and all that stuff

[25:41] now, and I'm sure they have the MacBooks

[25:42] back here. Um but when they started

[25:45] selling the iPod, they realized um they

[25:48] really wanted to be directly in front of

[25:49] people and so they need a different

[25:51] sales strategy than um you had the

[25:55] computers which were selling with the

[25:57] think different. The iPod though was

[26:00] marketed completely separately. you had

[26:03] these vignettes of of silhouettes on

[26:07] colorful backgrounds and then the white

[26:09] cables of the the headphones uh always

[26:13] with somebody and on their hip was the

[26:15] iPod. So they they didn't just add a

[26:19] product, they create a separate product

[26:21] category and they treated it as a

[26:23] different category. And so I'm I'm a

[26:27] little different off here. run the

[26:28] experiments as a portfolio outside of

[26:31] the cash cow. I always tell people, do

[26:35] not kill your cash cow. Leave the cow

[26:38] alone. Don't try to get more out of it

[26:40] or less out of it. If the if the cow is

[26:43] already producing record amounts of

[26:45] milk, don't mess with it. Go get a

[26:48] different cow. Go try goats. Go do

[26:51] something else. Do not mess with your

[26:52] cow. And then you have the freedom and

[26:54] runway to then explore. You can have

[26:58] failures over here and you're not

[27:00] endangering your cash cow.

[27:02] >> Experiments exploration which is

[27:05] basically the academic version of his

[27:06] later 10% pivot

[27:08] >> sort of. Yeah.

[27:09] >> How it was used improperly here. He

[27:11] shifted heavily into exploration. Two

[27:13] years of build major release without

[27:16] protecting the exploitation engine that

[27:18] maintained channel momentum.

[27:20] >> The bet was not staged and the

[27:21] opportunity cost was enormous. Not just

[27:24] that, if you really think about this, I

[27:26] mean,

[27:28] and I I know one of these other topics

[27:29] can get to it, but when you're two years

[27:32] into a into a build, that might be the

[27:35] time if you're uh you want a sneak peek.

[27:39] You don't want to you don't want to have

[27:40] this two-year buildup in complete

[27:42] secrecy and just drop it on people. Um,

[27:45] now you can have a buildup so that the

[27:48] expectations exceed what you're going to

[27:50] release. Um, so for instance, people

[27:52] were very excited about the rumors again

[27:54] with the Vision Pro. Um, very excited,

[27:57] very excited, very excited. And then

[27:58] when they mentioned it and hinted it and

[28:00] then it came out and they're excited,

[28:02] it's getting ready. And then the the

[28:04] audience heard the price like $3,500,

[28:07] $3,600.

[28:09] Theo

[28:11] from the audience was you just felt like

[28:14] the the the the recoil because Apple

[28:19] already sells very expensive products

[28:21] and people just just fell out. People

[28:24] just fell out like I'm sorry you said

[28:27] what? Um and you turned excitement into

[28:30] disappointment. But I think in his case,

[28:33] um, having a buildup, having having some

[28:35] things, maybe some behind-the-scenes

[28:37] things, testing them out, doing short

[28:39] runs, not going for an entire episodic,

[28:42] not going for 12 minutes, maybe doing a

[28:44] little five minutes here. It would be

[28:46] like if slightly like

[28:49] double length and comp compilations of

[28:52] chit. Those of you who have who have

[28:54] been on on YouTube and and the and

[28:56] Instagram and all this, you'll see chit

[28:58] has been everywhere. and they took a

[29:01] dumb joke that took off with a joke

[29:03] about a purse and just blew up. Um, and

[29:07] it, you know, little sketch comedy

[29:09] group, just a little sketch comedy

[29:11] group. Um, and now they're sort of doing

[29:13] a little bit of character building and

[29:15] they're they're expanding, but they're

[29:17] not they're always calling back to the

[29:20] previous content so that you feel

[29:22] connected with what they're doing. And

[29:24] so they're slowly moving into episodes

[29:27] when it was these sketches that were

[29:29] sort of like spaced out and you were

[29:31] like, "Okay, it's the same it's the same

[29:33] world. It's the same people and there's

[29:35] a little bit more stories and there's a

[29:36] few more things and then they started

[29:38] connecting a few of the pieces very

[29:40] slowly." Um, and I think they've done

[29:42] that very well. Um, I don't know what

[29:44] their view numbers are. It's it's

[29:46] certainly they're they're they're off of

[29:48] the initial hype uh uh cycle. So, you

[29:52] know, their views now are going to be a

[29:54] little less they're going to be a little

[29:55] more organic and less viral. Uh, but

[29:58] yeah, it's it's very hard to make that

[30:00] transition and build up for two years

[30:03] and multiples of six figures, you know,

[30:06] that that's a lot that's a lot to ask

[30:08] from explore exploit. You need to you

[30:10] make the explore smaller, more frequent,

[30:13] and keep keep the exploit going strong.

[30:16] Let's go into some It's probably going

[30:18] to do this to me again. No, it did not.

[30:20] psychology lessons. So, uh, we're gonna

[30:24] How does this affect someone? I'm not

[30:27] imputing this to to to Stephen himself,

[30:30] but how can this affect somebody um with

[30:33] the audio? You know, what what could he

[30:35] have thought about his audience

[30:37] specifically um in in in this happening?

[30:42] >> Definition. People interpret new

[30:44] information using pre-existing mental

[30:46] frameworks, schemas.

[30:48] >> Yep. When content strongly mismatches an

[30:50] activated schema, comprehension and

[30:52] evaluation can suffer because the

[30:54] audience has to re-encode what this is

[30:56] in real time.

[30:57] >> Yep.

[30:58] >> How to use it properly? Activate the

[31:00] audience's existing creator schema,

[31:03] thumbnail, title cues, familiar

[31:05] structure, recurring comedic beats. Then

[31:08] introduce novelty gradually so the new

[31:10] elements can be assimilated instead of

[31:11] forcing a hard reclassification.

[31:14] How it was used improperly here. He

[31:16] trained an audience schema for a short,

[31:18] punchy sketch and then delivered

[31:20] episodic narrative comedy with different

[31:22] pacing and fewer familiar cues, making

[31:24] viewers do extra cognitive work before

[31:26] they even get to is this funny?

[31:29] >> Yeah. And so there you've got these

[31:31] these setup expectations

[31:34] uh when when you start creating

[31:36] heristics in your audience. Um you know,

[31:39] it's like Jim Gaffin and the Hot Pocket

[31:42] Joke. He knows that his go-to joke is

[31:46] hot. All he has to do is the hot pockets

[31:49] and he's got you and he can bring you

[31:51] in. He's also known for dad jokes and

[31:54] things like that. If he suddenly

[31:56] switched to Andrew Dice Clay,

[32:00] he's not known for having a a a really

[32:03] blue sketch. So even putting in a couple

[32:07] words or or something would be massive

[32:09] for his audience because they have to

[32:11] figure out like

[32:13] you want to know if he's losing his mind

[32:15] on on stage. You like is he okay? Is is

[32:19] is he having an episode? Is he about to

[32:21] like drop down and foam with them out

[32:23] like what is going on? And it shocks

[32:26] people when you don't meet their

[32:28] expectations. And if you start

[32:30] stretching and introducing new things,

[32:33] the one thing you can do is you can

[32:35] train your audience or your customers to

[32:38] expect little surprises. You the new

[32:41] things are coming. Going back to Apple.

[32:45] Oh yeah, one more thing.

[32:49] Steve Jobs trained audiences and it was

[32:53] if there was one or there wasn't one.

[32:55] And it sort of went on the the

[32:58] gamblers's addiction of random rewards

[33:00] that you didn't always get one more

[33:02] thing, but when you got it, it was like,

[33:06] and I was even an Apple fanboy then, but

[33:09] people lost their minds at one more

[33:11] thing. People dropped everything. It

[33:14] It's one of those They talk about food

[33:16] being slap your mama. So good. It was

[33:18] one of some slap your mama stebs has one

[33:22] more thing. And and so you can you can

[33:25] build that into your audience as well to

[33:27] expect something new. That's sort of

[33:29] what for instance the the the the Chit

[33:32] show has kind of I don't know the

[33:34] official new I just call it the chit

[33:35] show. Chit always has something new and

[33:39] you know something's going to twist and

[33:41] you know something's going to be wild

[33:42] and they keep going in a different

[33:44] direction each time. Every time it's a

[33:47] different direction

[33:49] and so you're you're used to it. You're

[33:50] waiting for it, but you're not getting

[33:52] tired of it when you overdo it. And I

[33:56] again, I hate dogging people, but you

[33:58] people get sort of tired of it in mite

[34:00] Shyamalan kind of way where you're

[34:02] you're becoming formulaic and you're

[34:04] just it's always the every presentation

[34:08] is one more thing. It it doesn't hold.

[34:12] Then you're now you're this is when

[34:14] you're killing the cash cow. Um, so

[34:17] let's go on to processing fluency.

[34:21] And I've got to scroll two windows here

[34:23] because where I have it reading from and

[34:25] where you're reading from are two

[34:26] separate things.

[34:29] Definition. Stimuli that are easier to

[34:31] process. More fluent familiar structure,

[34:34] prototypical cues, repeated patterns

[34:36] tend to feel more pleasant and earn more

[34:38] favorable judgments. How to use it

[34:41] properly? Keep fluency anchors stable.

[34:44] Recognizable characters, signature

[34:46] punchline cadence, predictable payoff,

[34:48] and add novelty in small increments so

[34:51] the audience's processing stays easy

[34:53] while you evolve the product. How it was

[34:56] used improperly here. He increased

[34:58] novelty and complexity, longer

[35:00] narrative, new cast dynamics, different

[35:03] genre conventions while removing fluency

[35:06] anchors, favorite characters, famous

[35:08] punchlines. So higher production value

[35:11] didn't translate into higher enjoyment.

[35:14] Yeah, it's it would be as though I said,

[35:16] you know, I really want to grow this

[35:18] channel. So, uh I'm really gonna I'm

[35:21] really going to put put a lot of uh u of

[35:25] youth words into it. And suddenly, this

[35:28] is the Skibbidity 67 hour with Doctor D.

[35:33] All of you are going to go, "What the

[35:36] hell is wrong with him?" And you'd be

[35:39] you'd be right. I actually know what

[35:40] those words mean. That doesn't make it

[35:42] better. That's not it's not how I

[35:44] normally talk to you. It's the one

[35:46] reason I I'll give you a good fluency

[35:48] anchor here. Do you know what a good

[35:49] fluency anchor is? I've I'm I'm four

[35:53] episodes in. Um but I I've done shows

[35:56] before and for you know one of the

[35:58] things I used to do I I always think of

[36:00] my clothing. So in any media that I've

[36:02] ever done uh it was always clothing. I

[36:04] used to do a lot of outside. So I would

[36:07] always be wearing sunglasses and I

[36:08] realized I'm always wearing sunglasses.

[36:10] So when I started making my first inside

[36:12] videos, I realized and I I did a

[36:14] recording and I looked at it and I go

[36:19] something something's wrong here. Like

[36:22] that's it's something's wrong. Well,

[36:25] first okay, the sound it's quieter and

[36:28] I'm like you're looking at my eyes.

[36:31] Nobody ever sees my eyes. I'm always

[36:34] wearing I'm always outside. I always

[36:35] have dark glasses. Suddenly I can see my

[36:38] eyes. It doesn't look like the other

[36:40] videos. And it's the one reason why in

[36:42] this video I left my hoodie on. So, I

[36:45] have a shirt. I have a shirt that I wore

[36:48] to work today. It's a little wrinkly,

[36:50] but it's it's cotton. It's supposed to

[36:52] be a little wrinkly. I specifically

[36:55] left on my hoodie. I don't even have my

[36:58] window open like I have for for everyone

[37:00] else, but I have my hoodie on. I might

[37:02] shock you guys if suddenly I show up and

[37:04] I've got a suit and tie on or I'm

[37:06] wearing a fedora. Uh, I think it was a

[37:09] little a little odd. I forgot to wear my

[37:11] glasses and then I wondered why I had a

[37:13] headache after the last four hours of

[37:15] reading from a computer screen, which I

[37:17] can I can read without the glasses.

[37:20] That's not the point. It's that if I'm

[37:22] going to establish something for uh

[37:25] people to get used to. It's what they're

[37:27] going to expect. It's why when you you

[37:29] view certain creators, they will wear

[37:32] the same clothes or the same type of

[37:33] clothes or they will have the same

[37:35] backgrounds or they will uh start doing,

[37:37] you know, at some point I may change the

[37:39] background. I may want want this to look

[37:41] a little better. It's going to throw you

[37:44] off and you won't know why. It's because

[37:46] if you become a viewer of anything, all

[37:50] of these things start forming heristics

[37:53] in your brain of what to expect. When I

[37:56] start watching Dr. do. I'm expecting a

[38:00] little red tint because I've got an LED

[38:02] up here. I've got the hoodie. I've got

[38:04] the glasses. I've got a not quite dark

[38:06] background that just looks like just

[38:08] sitting in his home office. These are

[38:10] things that you're getting used to. If

[38:11] suddenly, for instance, I come back and

[38:13] this video that you see down here in the

[38:16] bottom right is suddenly up and to the

[38:20] left and it's it's just going to throw

[38:22] you off. You're going to be used to

[38:23] seeing videos in a certain way. And

[38:26] unless I make changes very slowly to

[38:28] that or you know if if you're a dying

[38:32] business or the views just never pick

[38:34] up. You you do you do a a YouTube for a

[38:37] year and you're just not getting over

[38:39] like 10 viewers which can happen. Like

[38:41] hey not this this one may not do any

[38:44] better. Who knows? At some point things

[38:46] take off a little slower. Um you know

[38:49] it's like they say it's it's hard going

[38:50] from one to 100. It's harder going from

[38:52] 100 to a th00and. It's harder. Uh but it

[38:54] gets easier. The the 1 to 100 is harder

[38:57] than the 100 to a,000 is harder than the

[39:00] th00and to the 10,000. Um but things

[39:02] just don't happen. And so you can try to

[39:05] juice up what you're doing. If you're

[39:06] running a small home business and things

[39:08] aren't taking off, you're you can throw

[39:10] in a a curveball. Stephen, he was

[39:14] getting 10 million views per video.

[39:19] you can't go up like at that point your

[39:22] competition really is Mr. Beast. Um, and

[39:26] so you are you're on a knife's edge of

[39:28] when you go too far it will fall off,

[39:32] not take off like exceeding 10 million

[39:36] that you know that's that's harder. It's

[39:38] it's it's you're you're asking for for

[39:41] something that's already pressing up

[39:42] against the ceiling to to do something

[39:45] different. Um, and that's where the

[39:47] these fluency anchors really start to

[39:49] matter. Like for the few people that are

[39:51] watching my videos right now, um, it's

[39:52] it's not a big thing. Of course, people

[39:54] later will if they like this, they will

[39:56] go back and watch the videos that

[39:58] they're watching. Now, I've done that

[39:59] before. Um, you know, it's like the old

[40:01] MKBHD. You go see like this little kid

[40:04] reviewing phones. And it's a very it's

[40:06] very different. It's not the kind of

[40:07] channel you would want to watch. You

[40:09] want to watch MKBHD. Now, when you watch

[40:12] this kid, you're like, "Oh, I wouldn't

[40:14] have watched that.

[40:16] But it changed slowly over time and he

[40:18] learned

[40:20] with Stephen. He he was there and his

[40:23] his fluency anchors were were were were

[40:26] set in stone. And because he didn't

[40:29] already make multiple types of videos,

[40:31] he was kind of locked in. So, one of the

[40:33] things he could have done was not do

[40:34] that from the beginning. Even though he

[40:35] saw videos taking off, he could have

[40:37] kept the odd video out a little bit just

[40:40] to keep keep the door from closing on

[40:42] him. just to just to keep that there and

[40:45] say, "No, I'm I'm not allowing that door

[40:47] to close and becoming uh siloed into

[40:50] this one thing." So, that's one thing he

[40:51] could have done a little bit, but it's

[40:53] very hard to do. Once you see something

[40:54] working, you lean into it.

[40:57] Now, let's go into some sociology here.

[41:03] We're going to move much faster. So, I'm

[41:05] going to let most of this read because I

[41:07] really want to get to the end on what

[41:08] I've got here. I really did want to keep

[41:10] this to a single hour. I I will not be

[41:13] able to do five days a week if I do more

[41:15] more than an hour.

[41:18] >> Definition preferences and what counts

[41:21] as good valuable are shaped within

[41:23] social fields. Cultural capital

[41:26] recognized competence style legitimacy

[41:28] helps actors succeed in a field and

[41:31] audiences interpret works using field

[41:33] specific.

[41:33] >> By the way, when they say actors, they

[41:36] don't mean like stage actors or film

[41:38] actors. that they mean people people in

[41:40] the world acting

[41:42] >> codes.

[41:44] How to use it properly?

[41:46] If you want to move into an adjacent

[41:48] field, for example, from sketch comedy

[41:50] to episodic narrative, you typically

[41:52] accumulate legitimacy and translation

[41:55] bridges over time, collabs, hybrid

[41:58] formats, and repeated signaling that

[42:00] teaches the audience the new code.

[42:02] >> That's the exploration

[42:03] >> how it was used improperly. Here he

[42:05] attempted a rapid repositioning without

[42:07] first building the audience's shared

[42:09] interpretive code for the new field. So

[42:11] viewers applied the wrong code expecting

[42:14] the sketch field and judged the work as

[42:16] a mismatch rather than an evolution.

[42:18] >> Yeah. And he he mentioned that he felt

[42:21] it made him feel stupid. Um I think if

[42:24] you kind of look at it, it's not only

[42:26] that it he audience may have felt duped

[42:29] and that was certainly not his

[42:31] intention. If that was his intention,

[42:33] yeah, he should feel stupid, but I don't

[42:35] think that was his intention. So, the

[42:37] the audience came in, it's it's like if

[42:39] you suddenly uh came in, I think there

[42:42] was a um if you watch the movie Man in

[42:45] the Moon with Andy Kaufman, um and

[42:47] people wanted him to play his character

[42:49] from Taxi. Um, and he got mad and so he

[42:53] just had a had a book play on a record

[42:56] or he read a book or something something

[42:58] like that because he wanted to do

[43:00] something different and it actually made

[43:02] the audience angry because anger always

[43:07] and this is one of what you're going to

[43:08] hear me say this a lot. Anger and rage

[43:11] and all of those negative emotions

[43:14] always come from unmet expectations. And

[43:17] anytime you uh lean into setting an

[43:22] expectation with somebody, and this

[43:24] could be your romantic partner, this

[43:26] could be your co-workers or your boss or

[43:28] your children. When you set an

[43:30] expectation and break it, there's where

[43:34] the negative when they have an

[43:35] expectation and that expectation is not

[43:38] met, you break trust. You you make anger

[43:41] and things. And so this is exactly what

[43:42] this is is going into uh with field

[43:45] theory here is in the world um you are

[43:50] creating these social fields and

[43:52] cultural capital over time that is

[43:55] giving you those things as uh being

[43:57] recognized of having competence and a

[43:59] style and being legitimate. A comedian

[44:02] has established they are legitimately

[44:04] funny. And so you if you break that

[44:07] expectation,

[44:08] you break all of that too. you're no

[44:10] longer funny or stylish or competent.

[44:13] Um, so that's that's really what that's

[44:15] going to Let's go to the next one here.

[44:17] This is this is really good stuff.

[44:21] >> Definition audiences are gratification.

[44:24] >> They choose media to satisfy specific

[44:25] needs. For example, quick diversion,

[44:28] mood management.

[44:29] >> So quick here just like this is about

[44:32] the these two sociology is about the

[44:34] audience. Um, you know, audiences are

[44:39] coming to YouTube and Instagram shorts

[44:41] for a reason. They want a specific thing

[44:44] back. And so, that's what it's actually

[44:45] listing. So, let's go back over this

[44:47] >> definition. Audiences are active. They

[44:50] choose media to satisfy specific needs.

[44:53] For example, quick diversion, mood

[44:55] management, social sharing, identity

[44:57] reinforcement.

[44:58] Media compete with other ways to meet

[45:00] those needs. How to use it properly?

[45:04] Identify the core gratifications your

[45:06] audience reliably seeks from you. Then

[45:09] ensure any new format still delivers

[45:11] them or clearly signals a new

[45:13] gratification to a new segment before

[45:15] scaling the change.

[45:16] >> Y how it was used improperly here. The

[45:20] audience subscribed for a specific

[45:21] gratification 3inut comedy sketch per

[45:25] his own postmortem. But the new show

[45:28] offered a different gratification

[45:29] profile episodic narrative. He expected

[45:32] the same need satisfaction with a

[45:34] different delivery system.

[45:37] >> And that speaks to some of those

[45:39] gratification points. So, if you know

[45:41] what your audience wants to do with the

[45:44] product that you're giving them, for

[45:45] instance, sending someone a a a 30

[45:49] second sketch or a three minute sketch,

[45:53] you know, or a short or a GIF, you know,

[45:56] it it's it's part of that social sharing

[45:58] and identity reinforcement of inroups

[46:01] with your friends. You both like these

[46:03] jokes. You you share this type of of

[46:05] content with each other. What is your

[46:07] audience supposed to do with a with a

[46:10] 12minute episode? You know, it's a

[46:13] narrative. It's people acting. You're

[46:15] not riffing like like comedy is very

[46:17] much riffing like I am. Like I knew what

[46:19] the notes are. I knew the basic points

[46:20] and the beats. And I've done this

[46:22] before. I've actually this I've sort of

[46:24] been down this road many times. This is

[46:26] a new show, but it's not new to me. And

[46:28] so I sort of know the beats of what to

[46:30] hit that work for me. It doesn't mean

[46:32] I'm good at it. It just means I know how

[46:33] to hit those. Um, and when you go to

[46:36] acting and you've got a script, you're

[46:37] gonna act very differently than than

[46:39] read, you know, memorizing a script or

[46:41] anything like that. So, it it I can do

[46:45] this very well. I can get get up and rip

[46:47] all day long. But, as you've seen the on

[46:49] the few times I've read, I'm not a good

[46:52] live narrator. Um, I would not be a good

[46:55] actor on stage. I would not be good

[46:58] giving a a presentation. I can I can

[47:01] speak in front and I'll have my notes,

[47:04] but I will mostly riff that. That's

[47:06] that's what I do. And what he did was he

[47:08] took an audience that ex expected that

[47:10] and his whole demeanor changed and

[47:13] suddenly his identity which was tied to

[47:15] their identity through a little bit of

[47:17] parasocial changed and they couldn't

[47:20] share and they didn't get the quick

[47:22] diversion. Now they've got this they got

[47:24] Netflix they've got a Netflix episode

[47:27] here. They've got a they've got an

[47:28] episode of the Brady Bunch, you know,

[47:30] that's you know, 12 minutes without

[47:31] commercials. Um, you know, that that's

[47:33] what they're dealing with. And so, you

[47:35] know, it's it's handing that, you know,

[47:37] it's like, "Oh, my cheesecake is here.

[47:39] My cheesecake is here. My cheesecake is

[47:40] here." And you sit down and it's like th

[47:44] this this looks good, but I didn't want

[47:48] fish. I I want cheesecake. I'm sure the

[47:51] fish is wonderful, but I I have my heart

[47:56] set on this. and that when they see his

[47:57] video, that's that's what's happening

[47:59] here. Um, and their needs that are not

[48:01] being met and that's where the

[48:02] frustration and that's also for those

[48:04] even though the algorithm did change.

[48:07] It's also why the audience didn't

[48:08] respond because once they got burned,

[48:11] they didn't want to click another video

[48:12] like uh I had a bad experience last

[48:15] time. I don't want to repeat that.

[48:17] Scroll past. And so the algorithm is

[48:20] also the the even if it's just a few

[48:22] extra people scrolling past, the

[48:24] algorithm is feeling those people scroll

[48:26] past. Um and that can happen in in life

[48:29] too. That can happen to a small

[48:30] business. One bad hiccup, one bad

[48:32] experience, you know, putting in mixing

[48:35] up your baking powder and baking soda in

[48:38] your recipe and suddenly it's just a

[48:40] constant drop off. And then if you're

[48:42] using something like Yelp or Google Maps

[48:44] and they see the traffic drop off, you

[48:46] just start falling in the rankings. like

[48:47] it doesn't take a lot uh in in in

[48:50] today's world. All right, let's go to

[48:53] the sunk cost. Now, most of you know

[48:55] what a sunk cost fallacy is. It's it's

[48:57] pretty common, but let's go over it

[48:59] anyways and and kind of go into his uh

[49:01] the issues he was dealing with. Now,

[49:04] >> definition, people show a greater

[49:06] tendency to persist with an endeavor

[49:08] after investing time/money/effort

[49:11] even when those past costs are

[49:12] unreoverable and should be irrelevant to

[49:14] the forward-looking choice.

[49:16] how to use it properly. Stage

[49:19] investments, cheap tests first. Set

[49:22] explicit kill criteria before spending

[49:24] big and make go/nowgo decisions using

[49:27] marginal expected value, future cost,

[49:30] benefits, not past spend.

[49:32] >> Why do you think I don't edit these

[49:34] videos?

[49:36] Why do you think I've got basically a

[49:38] three camera setup? You know, I'm

[49:40] sitting here. I've got I got a little

[49:41] bit of software. This none of this is

[49:42] new to me. I don't have fancy

[49:44] transitions. I have the camera. I have

[49:48] YouTube. I have my notes. Why do you

[49:51] think I have it set up? This Why also do

[49:53] you think I have the the notes prepared?

[49:55] I don't have like a a PowerPoint. um

[49:57] this low low production value over here

[50:01] because until there's an audience um and

[50:05] any type of monetization that would come

[50:08] of this um me going out and I've done

[50:12] this before um I've actually created

[50:15] green screens way back in the day I used

[50:18] to back before

[50:21] podcasts exist um there was real audio

[50:26] and shock wave and I and a few others

[50:29] would uh belong to a sort of game

[50:31] collective where um if I don't know if

[50:34] any of you would possibly remember what

[50:36] Planet Fortress was way back in the day.

[50:39] Um you could have your own website if

[50:42] you were kind of known in the community.

[50:43] They'd give you a website and most

[50:45] people would create a website, write

[50:47] about the the type of game that they

[50:49] followed. kind of like this is like um

[50:53] it's like the the the the old west

[50:55] version of of Twitch or something like

[50:58] that. There was no there was no YouTube

[51:01] and I started getting into video and so

[51:03] this is on dialup. People had to

[51:05] download and watch these videos. Um but

[51:07] I had I had a a computer with a nice uh

[51:10] uh card to do uh video work. It did

[51:14] enough processing that I could set up a

[51:15] green screen. And so I actually got a

[51:17] board with lights behind it that would

[51:19] glow behind me that would actually do an

[51:21] outline and on top of it I would put the

[51:24] game behind me. And so I was someone who

[51:27] liked to review maps of games. So map is

[51:29] basically a world that players go into

[51:31] and play and they would often play the

[51:33] same ones. So I would go into these maps

[51:36] and I would take screenshots of

[51:38] different places and it was sort of a

[51:39] capture the flag. So you had one a team

[51:42] would have a defense and an offense and

[51:44] the defense is protecting and the

[51:45] offense is trying to get through. And so

[51:47] I would take different positions and

[51:50] talk about where you'd want to put your

[51:52] player and where you'd want to do

[51:53] things. I would stand up against the

[51:55] screen. I put a lot into it and it was

[51:57] fun. And back in the day I I got to say

[52:00] I was probably the most except for like

[52:02] you know I uh uh Justin TV or or

[52:06] something like that. I was the most

[52:08] popular video guy online

[52:12] there w that wasn't a lot of people

[52:14] number of people actually watching these

[52:15] was like 3,000 like it wasn't a lot of

[52:18] people and there was no money in this

[52:21] and yet you know this is before G4 TV

[52:24] even existed when they tried to do this

[52:26] and make make a TV version of internet

[52:29] video before YouTube took off. So this

[52:32] really goes into having all that

[52:35] experience yet I'm on a

[52:39] one two three camera setup. That is why

[52:44] everything is this is this new show is

[52:46] exploration not exploitation.

[52:51] The equivalent of what Stephen he did is

[52:55] let's say I really believe I'm doing so

[52:58] good at business being being a being a

[53:02] guy who uses his business mind and so

[53:05] I'm going to do this because I'm using

[53:07] my business mind and I'm going to quit

[53:09] my day job. That's basically what he

[53:13] did. You don't want to do Don't kill

[53:16] your cash cow. Have a little common

[53:18] sense. That's why we're talking about

[53:21] sunk cost fallacy here. And that's

[53:24] that's where

[53:26] getting into a two-year project when

[53:28] you've never even tried it once.

[53:31] Throw together a 12minute sketch that's

[53:34] dumb, has no real script, has no real

[53:36] sets. Make it look overly dumb. Lean

[53:38] into the dumbness of it. Lean into lean

[53:41] into behind the scenes of your normal

[53:43] sketch. Do your normal sketch and then

[53:45] break character. like and you're just,

[53:47] you know, he could have done something

[53:48] like that where he's like, what is it?

[53:50] Line and then like your line is

[53:53] emotional damage. Oh yeah. And then he

[53:55] comes back in like he could have played

[53:56] that and tried the longer sketches and

[53:59] done a few things. And if that failed

[54:01] and all he lost was a few views and

[54:03] they're like, "Oh, he's he's silly." And

[54:06] he just went back. No harm, no foul. You

[54:08] know, he could have done things like

[54:09] that. getting in two years, multiple six

[54:13] figures,

[54:14] man. He He could have done it with $50

[54:17] and a couple friends that didn't mind

[54:19] being on camera and being a little

[54:21] famous and they could have hidden behind

[54:23] cameras or something like that. He this

[54:26] could have been workshopped so much. And

[54:28] this is true in all of business. Before

[54:30] you go and and spend your life savings

[54:33] selling Mary Kay or Tupperware or an

[54:36] MLM, here's an idea. before you get into

[54:40] your MLM, try try something. Go to the

[54:42] store, buy the thing you want to sell or

[54:45] the whatever. And then just try to sell

[54:48] it to strangers. Not your friends, not

[54:50] your family, not your workplace. Try to

[54:52] actually f go to strangers, knock on all

[54:55] your neighbors doors, ask them like,

[54:56] "Hey, I was thinking about selling this.

[54:58] Would you want to buy this from me?"

[55:00] That sounds painful, doesn't it?

[55:03] Well, that's what you're getting into.

[55:05] You know, workshop these, try them out.

[55:08] If you're good at it, great. Go forward.

[55:11] Start start taking more explor uh

[55:13] exploratory steps at it and then you're

[55:15] going to build something up. Um but

[55:17] don't think that you're going to be the

[55:19] schwarma king of DC. Like I love my

[55:23] schwarma in DC. You give me my falafel

[55:25] and my schwarma. But I'm like, you know,

[55:28] I made some at home and um yeah, I just

[55:32] I I do this little thing with sour cream

[55:34] and I did this thing and I go out there

[55:36] and I don't know anything else about

[55:38] that business and I just sell sell my

[55:41] house, sell my car and I'm going to have

[55:43] a food truck. What do you think's going

[55:46] to happen?

[55:48] Exactly. Pro I'm probably not going to

[55:50] be on on, you know, Shark Tank with with

[55:54] Dr. introduce schwarma recipe like

[55:56] that's not that's not going to be a

[55:58] thing that's going to I'm going to I'm

[56:00] going to fail I'm going to fail badly um

[56:03] because there's so much more to it I

[56:04] didn't you know I could you could try

[56:06] those things out go to a state fair it's

[56:08] like ah hey I don't see any schwarm say

[56:10] you guys mind if I try to try like I'm

[56:12] going to do a one day booth can I do

[56:13] like a one day booth and I'm going to

[56:16] make them ahead of time sell them till

[56:18] I'm out fold up my table and my my my

[56:22] umbrella and I'm going to go

[56:24] You can workshop about anything in this

[56:27] world. Um, do not sell it all and go

[56:31] out. That's why they they say, you know,

[56:33] uh, uh, they'll, it's kind of a myth,

[56:34] but lottery winners going broke. It's

[56:36] usually because they take their entire

[56:37] millions and then invest all of it in

[56:39] something really dumb. That's a failure.

[56:40] They do this, but with their entire

[56:43] lottery winnings, and then they're

[56:44] actually in bankruptcy. Like, that's

[56:46] what happens. So, let's go a little

[56:48] further. We've got prospect theory. This

[56:50] is our last one here. Prospect theory is

[56:52] a little different, but it's about it's

[56:54] about how you think about these things.

[56:56] One of my favorites. I'm a huge fan of

[56:58] Conoran Tverki as well as Richard

[57:01] Thaylor and Sunstein. Sunstein, I love

[57:03] your work as well.

[57:06] >> Definition. People evaluate the outcomes

[57:09] relative to a reference point. Losses

[57:12] typically feel larger than equivalent

[57:13] gains and decision weights can distort

[57:15] how people respond to risk.

[57:17] >> Fear,

[57:17] >> especially around gains versus losses.

[57:20] How to use it properly? Choose a

[57:22] reference point that reflects learning,

[57:24] not a 10m views baseline.

[57:26] >> Cap downside with small bets and avoid

[57:29] all or nothing moves that turn normal

[57:31] variance into psychologically perceived

[57:33] catastrophe.

[57:34] >> Yeah.

[57:35] >> How it was used improperly here. His

[57:38] reference point was sustained viral

[57:39] performance every upload. So the

[57:42] underperformance was experienced as a

[57:44] major loss. The initial big swing

[57:46] strategy implicitly overweighted the

[57:48] upside while underweing the probability

[57:50] of audience algorithm rejection.

[57:55] >> If your child is not a straight A

[57:58] honoral student, I'm not saying they

[58:01] shouldn't apply to Harvard. I think

[58:04] everyone should. If you've got the money

[58:05] for the tuition,

[58:08] you you shoot that basketball. You you

[58:10] go for it. Go long, slugger. go along.

[58:16] Do not put every hope and dream and

[58:18] don't don't say, "Okay, well, where did

[58:20] you apply?" I applied to Harvard. Where

[58:22] else? Oh, nowhere else. I'm getting into

[58:24] Harvard. Oh, boy. The pain of that loss.

[58:29] That person may never go to college.

[58:32] There are plenty of great colleges. In

[58:34] fact, it's detrimental to most people to

[58:37] go to an Ivy League college. Um they're

[58:41] so used to being the big fish in their

[58:43] school, the smart one, the the winner of

[58:46] debates and speeches and valadictorian.

[58:48] They are now going into a pool of people

[58:52] who are except for a few of those

[58:54] people, everyone else will be smarter

[58:56] and they've already been there for

[58:58] several years. They are getting in to

[59:00] the deep end that they're not prepared

[59:02] for. And so even if you get in like the

[59:06] again not meeting expectations, you

[59:09] expect I'm a winner and I go here

[59:12] because I'm a winner, but I go here and

[59:16] my professor just gave me a C and told

[59:19] me that I do not spend enough time

[59:21] reading and do not ever show up in his

[59:23] class again until I've actually read the

[59:25] entire book and understood it. And then

[59:28] also the other reference books that I've

[59:29] got those as well.

[59:32] Suddenly they're not a winner. And the

[59:33] pain of that loss can be soul crushing

[59:37] because the expectation was set. It's

[59:39] not the oh oh we should feel sorry for

[59:43] the the Harvard kids. It's hard to

[59:45] explain. I do. I do feel sorry for those

[59:48] kids because their expectations have

[59:50] been set so high. the emotional pain of

[59:55] just being

[59:56] crushed

[59:58] and suddenly feeling that imposttor

[1:00:00] syndrome of I really do not belong here.

[1:00:04] You know how if you if you know and you

[1:00:08] have you're honest with your child and

[1:00:10] you're like hey you're a great student

[1:00:12] but I really think you should take a

[1:00:14] couple years at community college

[1:00:16] explore what you want to do first. if

[1:00:18] you still want to go, you know, you

[1:00:21] still got the application. I don't know.

[1:00:22] Maybe Harvard says no the second year.

[1:00:24] If so, I mean, you can. I guess I guess,

[1:00:29] you know, take your shot and and suffer

[1:00:31] the slings and arrows of great

[1:00:33] misfortune, but

[1:00:36] it's it's not the it's not the prize you

[1:00:38] think it is. Um, if if your expectations

[1:00:42] are that you're always going to be

[1:00:44] number one, um, same with these other

[1:00:47] big swings. take a big swing, but do it

[1:00:49] in such a way that you're not crushing

[1:00:51] all of your expectations and you put all

[1:00:52] of your dreams into this one tiny little

[1:00:54] basket. So, now we're coming to Dr. D's

[1:00:58] special corner. And by the way, under

[1:01:00] here, just cuz I'm going to flip

[1:01:02] through, I actually do have,

[1:01:05] if any of you, you can you can rewind

[1:01:07] this, that's going to be the YouTube we

[1:01:09] just watched. And there are the actual

[1:01:12] papers that you can go and look them up

[1:01:15] yourself. Some of them are actually not

[1:01:17] too bad to read. I would suggest just

[1:01:19] read the abstract. You don't have to

[1:01:21] read the just read the abstract. You're

[1:01:22] like, "Oh, that's interesting." You can

[1:01:24] actually learn what they really tested

[1:01:25] for, what they really wrote about.

[1:01:27] Always fun to do. You don't have to be

[1:01:29] an academic. Like, it's like it's like

[1:01:32] getting a free college course without

[1:01:34] having to read the book. It's like you

[1:01:36] read the abstract. It's supposed to be

[1:01:38] written for regular humans to read,

[1:01:39] unlike the rest of the paper, which is

[1:01:41] not read written for regular humans to

[1:01:42] read. Um, and then if you still have

[1:01:44] questions about it, just ask AI. Simple

[1:01:46] as that. Dr. D special corner. Okay.

[1:01:51] What are the lessons that Stephen He had

[1:01:54] that you need as well? Have friends who

[1:01:56] are willing to be honest and tell you

[1:01:59] no. For instance, take a look at Elon

[1:02:02] Musk and his idiotic Twitter ideas.

[1:02:04] There is a reason that every single

[1:02:06] brand decided to leave and he has

[1:02:09] destroyed everything that was

[1:02:12] potentially good about it and and lost

[1:02:14] so many you know there's people there

[1:02:15] now for the AI u but he didn't have to

[1:02:18] he alienated a brand when the social

[1:02:20] narrative was that they were like okay

[1:02:24] we okay everyone calm down

[1:02:28] he actually might be able to fix it and

[1:02:30] then instead he did all of the worst

[1:02:32] things and then up. So, everyone around

[1:02:35] and the reason he did that is everyone

[1:02:38] around him kisses his ass and nobody can

[1:02:40] tell him no. Um, and now he couldn't get

[1:02:43] a friend to tell him no. Get a friend

[1:02:46] that can tell you no. If you have nobody

[1:02:49] around you who has told you no in a

[1:02:51] while, I feel sorry for you. You are

[1:02:54] going to live a life of pain and misery

[1:02:57] when you hit a brick wall. And they're

[1:02:59] just going to keep coaching you on and

[1:03:01] coaching on. They're going to be such

[1:03:02] sick offense until you crash headlong

[1:03:05] into a wall. You know,

[1:03:08] some people in this world could have

[1:03:10] been told no.

[1:03:12] Pete, did anyone? Someone should have

[1:03:14] said, "Hey, buddy,

[1:03:17] maybe you shouldn't do that." Do you

[1:03:20] think he had anyone around him in his

[1:03:23] crew that said no? Of course he didn't.

[1:03:27] That's just a story that happens again

[1:03:29] and again and again. But it does play

[1:03:30] out on the smaller scale with the rest

[1:03:32] of us. Have people around you who don't

[1:03:35] need to have buttholes around you, but

[1:03:38] you can have people who are honest with

[1:03:40] you. And they may not be like, "No,

[1:03:42] that's stupid." They might not say that

[1:03:43] to you, but they're like, "I I don't I

[1:03:46] don't get your idea." Like, "It's it's

[1:03:48] not connecting with me. It's not it's I

[1:03:50] don't I don't get it." You know, have

[1:03:52] those people around. Number two, and you

[1:03:54] can do this in your entire life with any

[1:03:56] project you want to do. You can even do

[1:03:58] this before you cook dinner with a new

[1:04:00] recipe. Do a premortem. Steven did a

[1:04:04] great job here. He did a postmortem. And

[1:04:07] there's nothing wrong with doing a

[1:04:10] postmortem.

[1:04:11] He goes

[1:04:13] spent six months, talked to people,

[1:04:18] did reading, reviewed.

[1:04:22] The key is what I got up here

[1:04:26] that you know how long these notes

[1:04:27] actually took me a little AI making sure

[1:04:30] I got it got the actual sources and

[1:04:32] actually documented those for me and

[1:04:34] then cleaning up the formatting and all

[1:04:35] of that. You know how long this this

[1:04:37] whole thing took me? 10 minutes.

[1:04:40] 10 minutes.

[1:04:42] What a premortem does. So post-mortem,

[1:04:46] afteraction, postmortem doesn't mean

[1:04:48] anything bad happened, but if you want

[1:04:49] to review an afteraction report, um,

[1:04:52] same thing if if if a hospital has a

[1:04:54] mass casualty event, they're going to do

[1:04:56] a post. What do we do right? What do we

[1:04:57] do wrong? What can we do better next

[1:04:59] time? Uh, police, same thing. What do we

[1:05:01] do right? What do we do wrong? What can

[1:05:02] we do better next time? A lot of times

[1:05:04] when it's public, people aren't very

[1:05:06] free to speak, unfortunately. So, they

[1:05:08] kind of suck when they do them. uh in in

[1:05:10] in government unfortunately um people

[1:05:13] don't like to be people don't like to

[1:05:15] admit what they really did wrong. Um I I

[1:05:18] could name a certain um large national

[1:05:21] organization that recently did a

[1:05:24] post-mortem on their performance. Uh I

[1:05:28] believe the year was 2024 and overall

[1:05:31] most people believe that they just

[1:05:33] couldn't be honest with themselves. And

[1:05:36] that's a problem. If you're going to do

[1:05:38] a post-mortem, be honest with yourself.

[1:05:41] Because if you're going to do a

[1:05:42] premortem, you need to be you you got to

[1:05:45] get rid of the stars in your eyes when

[1:05:46] you do these. A premortem says, "Okay,

[1:05:49] let's assume it it it fails spectac

[1:05:52] everything go it spectacularly fails."

[1:05:55] Let's pretend that. Now, let's go over

[1:05:58] why. Okay, it failed. Okay. Okay. Well,

[1:06:01] if it fails, then maybe

[1:06:06] on every day we filmed, someone else was

[1:06:08] sick and so it pushed our schedule. Or,

[1:06:11] oh, what if the audience doesn't

[1:06:12] respond? Well, and then what you can do

[1:06:15] is once you've done those things like

[1:06:17] what what this this would have been a

[1:06:18] premortem. If we just would have said,

[1:06:21] oh, it's horrible and it wrecked the

[1:06:22] whole channel. Why would that have

[1:06:23] happened? And then we explain this say,

[1:06:25] okay, well, there's a big format change

[1:06:28] that could fail with the audience.

[1:06:30] there's no connection to the characters

[1:06:31] that could fill with the audience. And

[1:06:33] what they might have done is said,

[1:06:34] "Okay, let's start adding a few. Let's

[1:06:37] start let's take the time down. Let's

[1:06:39] take the budget down. Let's take the

[1:06:41] characters down. Let's connect some more

[1:06:44] of the jokes and and rain this thing

[1:06:46] back in." That's what would have

[1:06:48] happened. Um, and if Stephen had done

[1:06:51] that little bit and had instead of 6

[1:06:54] months after two years before had taken

[1:06:56] had this idea and said, "I'm going to

[1:06:58] take 6 months talk to professional

[1:07:00] friends about this who are going to be

[1:07:02] able to tell me no or who are neutral

[1:07:03] and are not my friends. I'm going to

[1:07:05] talk to professionals." Um, like this

[1:07:08] was 100% avoidable by just talking it

[1:07:11] out, writing some notes, having a

[1:07:13] meeting. Ah, whiteboards everywhere. I

[1:07:15] said his the cost to him for this was

[1:07:19] more than my entire doctorate of

[1:07:21] business administration.

[1:07:23] It would have been it would have taken

[1:07:24] more time. It would have been cheaper

[1:07:26] for Steven to pay for a doctorate of

[1:07:30] business administration

[1:07:33] and then know than to have this failure.

[1:07:37] when you start scaling things like that,

[1:07:41] a phone call, you know, it it would have

[1:07:44] at least served a phone call. And if

[1:07:46] someone's like, if someone is if you go

[1:07:48] into one of those meetings, you're like,

[1:07:49] "Okay, I know a friend. He does

[1:07:50] business. Let's talk about it." It's

[1:07:51] like, "Oh, yeah, you're great. You're

[1:07:53] the" And you get a hype, man. Okay, that

[1:07:56] conversation's throw that conversation

[1:07:58] in the trash. Treat it like the ice

[1:08:00] cream it is. It was fun. It tasted good,

[1:08:03] but it's absolutely worthless to what

[1:08:06] you need. and g talk to somebody that

[1:08:09] that has a level head does not you win

[1:08:11] lose or draw. It's not gonna affect

[1:08:13] them. You you could completely lose your

[1:08:15] career does not matter to them. Um and

[1:08:17] is just willing to give you advice and

[1:08:19] and talk straight and also kind of

[1:08:21] understand your industry a little bit

[1:08:22] like that would also help. So you know

[1:08:24] you like Stephen said he talked to other

[1:08:26] creators. This would be the time to to

[1:08:28] do that that premortem. I'm like you

[1:08:31] know I don't really I don't know what's

[1:08:34] wrong but I'm feeling something's wrong.

[1:08:35] What do you think? That's a good way to

[1:08:36] do it. I It feels like something's off.

[1:08:40] What do you think is off? Like I feel

[1:08:42] it. You're giving them permission. What

[1:08:44] do you think's off about this? Do this

[1:08:46] with your friends. The next time you

[1:08:48] have an idea that's big and you want to

[1:08:49] try something, just just tell us like,

[1:08:53] "Hey, Sally, is this

[1:08:56] something? I don't know. Something feels

[1:08:58] off. What do you What do you think's off

[1:09:00] about it?" And they're going to go,

[1:09:01] "Well, is it the this or is it the

[1:09:03] this?" and they're starting to be honest

[1:09:05] with you. And it's not that they're

[1:09:08] dogging your idea, but everyone's going

[1:09:10] to do things differently and think some

[1:09:12] things are going to strike them, but

[1:09:15] they don't want to upset you. They don't

[1:09:16] want to offend you by by telling you

[1:09:19] necessarily no, but you can encourage

[1:09:20] that from people.

[1:09:22] And the last one before we wrap this up,

[1:09:27] sunk cost success magnets. Now, I'm just

[1:09:30] going to kind of read here because I

[1:09:31] think I did an okay job. Just like Mark

[1:09:34] Zuckerberg, you have this one really

[1:09:36] good idea, the Facebook, and you float

[1:09:40] through buying up other people's good

[1:09:41] ideas like Instagram and WhatsApp.

[1:09:45] But whether it's the Facebook phone or

[1:09:47] the metaverse or llama AI, you never

[1:09:50] catch lightning in a bottle again. Your

[1:09:52] mistake, you think you're raw genius

[1:09:55] produced the million billion dollar idea

[1:09:57] when in reality, you're just in the

[1:09:59] right place at the right time and really

[1:10:02] lucky.

[1:10:03] and you happen to be good enough to

[1:10:05] carry it out. I'm not going to put put

[1:10:08] poo poo the talent just because

[1:10:10] someone's lucky. It's still requires

[1:10:12] talent to execute. So that doesn't mean

[1:10:15] you're like a genius idea guy.

[1:10:20] I think everyone likes to quote Edison.

[1:10:22] Found a thousand different ways to not

[1:10:25] make a light bulb. Oh, that's just

[1:10:26] persistent. You just But nobody likes to

[1:10:28] talk about his failed attempt to run DC

[1:10:30] current nationally. Now, his company

[1:10:32] electrocuted a damn elephant to scare

[1:10:34] Americans away from AC, which was which

[1:10:36] is in nearly every home in the world

[1:10:38] now. I think there's some DC and like

[1:10:41] small villages um on on unac solar or

[1:10:46] wind. I think even wind has to be I'm

[1:10:49] not even sure about that. But the

[1:10:50] world's AC everywhere regardless of the

[1:10:53] different plugs and different countries

[1:10:54] in Europe and all that, they're all AC.

[1:10:57] the electro an elephant because his his

[1:11:00] head was so far up his ego and people

[1:11:03] won't tell people no because Edison's

[1:11:05] the genius. Zuckerberg's the genius.

[1:11:08] Musk is the genius. Whoever the hell

[1:11:11] block ran Blockbuster was geniuses. You

[1:11:13] can't tell them no or that they're

[1:11:15] making a mistake at Blackberry.

[1:11:19] You can't tell people no and they're

[1:11:21] making a state mistake and you've got

[1:11:22] this weird goofy AI pin that blows up on

[1:11:25] people's chest and they also go out of

[1:11:27] business. Like it happens again and

[1:11:30] again and again. What helps? Have people

[1:11:34] who will tell you no. And don't assume

[1:11:37] everyone else is dumb.

[1:11:40] Who says, you know, you might be a

[1:11:42] psychotic monster for electrocuting

[1:11:44] elephants

[1:11:45] or Elon Musk would take the advice. He

[1:11:49] could let that sunk cost him. Anyways,

[1:11:53] that's my time. I almost made it to an

[1:11:56] hour. It was shorter. It's guys, it's

[1:11:59] technically a shorter show. That's an

[1:12:01] improvement. And I was 10%, right? No

[1:12:04] big changes. 10%.

[1:12:06] That's not too bad. Normally a a a six

[1:12:09] minutee video would have been a a

[1:12:11] six-hour follow-up for me. I think we

[1:12:13] covered some interesting stuff here.

[1:12:14] Little more academic, but I think I

[1:12:17] think the two big takeaways have people

[1:12:19] around you who will be honest with you

[1:12:21] and think about things

[1:12:25] failing before they fail. And then you

[1:12:27] have to think about things and also

[1:12:29] sweep up the mess. Anyways, Dr. Doo

[1:12:32] here. I appreciate you all. Thank you

[1:12:35] for watching and I will see you next

[1:12:37] time. Bye now.

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Transcript by: Second Opinion