It's like, I took one. Look at you. It's like how much longer do you want to live as a New York, five, because you can be an Idaho 9. It was one plane ticket, baby. And so, I feel like every city should have to make their pitch as to why a 20 something year old should move there and live. There that a 25 year old, I might create a whole new show around just this pitch. I see you, like, I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to travel. Never looking back.
Big Ben. We're here. You you own this segment? You take it away. All
right, here we go. We're reviewing the news. We're letting the boys,
react, by the way. I like the thing you started doing where you're like, fellows, love of Allah. I think that's kinda like, on the first episode of the news of the boys, react. I feel like you kind of nailed the catchy thing. Like that was pretty natural by you. Good good. Good move by you.
But then on that episode you were like, we're not the palace where the boys
and I was like wow, we are but but but the way you did fellas, oh well, I thought that
That was really nice. Those there is a
new Instagram, the founders Instagram are back with a new app. It's called artifact. It's being described as Tick-Tock for text. Is this the next big thing?
Sam, did you see this thing?
So the page says, I'm trying to pull it up the page. Does it really say what it is?
Okay. They in the news, they kind of talk a little bit more. So I heard Tick-Tock for text and I was like, okay, what is that basically? It means two things. Number one, Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram was like when I saw
Ah Tick Tock and how the feed works for you. Just open the app you're already in. You don't have to follow a bunch of people. You just start swiping and it just learns what you like. He's like oh this is the way everything should work this way I can't believe Twitter doesn't work this way. I can't believe. Why are we still trying to do this like manual? Follow interesting people thing when I should just this, the app should just give you what you're interested in through machine learning. So he goes, that's number one. Number two, what they're doing is they're instead of what Tick Tock, get four videos. These guys are trying to do
With news actually not just text but news so they're trying to serve you text-based news based on your interest and that's where that's where he lost me. I don't think people want to read a bunch of news in the same way that they're willing to like swipe through mindless videos for entertainment. And so I think that's where it has this problem that a lot of Silicon Valley ideas have which is they try to sell you, what you should do, instead of what you want to do, and it sounds Noble and high in
Mighty and when they go to dinner parties and they say, this is what we're going to do everybody, you know, Pat's him on the back, but I think that this is not going to work for new, so I'm out.
So, here's the thing that I'm
wondering, by the way, you like, how I went Shark Tank on it and now, I'm in or out. That's maybe a new. That might be a new part of this. I'm out. I'm
out. I don't know if you could see it, but you gotta, like, hold your hands like an upside down V, you know how, like I've been watching Andrew tape videos because it's just hilarious. Now that he's in jail and it's kind of funny. He always holds
His hands like in a V when he's sitting down, and that's like how the alphas is. So you gotta, like, if you're gonna say, you're out, you got to like, sit with like your yeah. Yeah. There you go. You gotta like, so that's, yeah, there it is. That's how Alphas according to Andrew
tape. Let me try that again. And for that reason, I'm out. Yeah, they're low level snap to it. My wrist felt a little something there that.
Yeah. So here's the thing. They bit this guy. Kevin Systrom killed it right. You know this little fella, he created Instagram. Awesome. Been out of the game. That's Ring rust.
My friend when you have time watch it. Absolutely. I've watched enough fighting to know that ring rust is real for a lot of people. So I wonder like is he actually in touch with what people want is he hungry is him in his partner, you know, they're billionaires flying on planes with Ashton Kutcher. Does he actually know what people want? But I don't know about you but I study a lot of
Japanese like he's like Ashton Ashton. I see. You got Tick Tock over. Wouldn't you rather that those were all just news articles?
I the I love studying like how the Chinese and particularly the Japanese do things. The Japanese, these news apps and Japan ours were told it works wonderfully. Now what works in Japan? It don't necessarily work here totally different cultures there's a term for that I'm not going to pretend to even know what that term is but it's like basically when things work in Japan and vice versa in America it doesn't always translate to each of those cultures because they're so different.
But it works there, maybe it could work here. In
fact, I think the parent company of B dance of Tik Tok by dance. They have another app which is basically this, it's an algorithmic news app called I did I pronounce like toti Hotel? I don't know how you say it's Josh. How I don't know what the name of it is but this is what it does and it's super super popular. So maybe maybe
yeah, that's right answer baby. But I don't know.
It's just
I think it's hard to be.
Be a billionaire, who's been out of the game and to start something from scratch. I think that
I gotta give us a director's note here, so, I was watching something somewhere and basically was watching first, take the, you know, like the, I don't know if you ever watch these ESPN shows where it's like, two guys doing this. They react to the news. These shows only work if you disagree. So, basically on all of these by default, you got to take one side. And then I gotta argue the other regardless of how I actually feel. So if I'm out, you got to be in. And I think it's
Good case to be in to say yeah this actually already Works in China Japan. So just of this a it good content comes from disagreement, not agreement.
I was a hard. Maybe you are a hard? No that's kind of a disagreement,
that's far enough, that's far enough. All
right, all right, what else we got? Ben. All right, next one. I think everyone is talking about tech layoffs, more than 150,000 Tech workers. Have already been laid off in the last six months. That includes 12,000 Google 18,000 Amazon 11,000 meta 10,000. Mike
So Soft. So fellas. Any advice for our fallen comrades comrades. I hate that these people use the word comrades. I saw the dude. We're not comrade these guys made sit like they're trying to do the Soviet Union bullshit bro. You made six hundred thousand dollars a year in Cash. Plus another two hundred fifty thousand dollars in stock bonuses and you had free pizza every single day we are. Now you can
drink milk like get
out of here. Yeah we are not comrades. Like you know like like you know comrades don't like eat grape upon.
We are not that. So I hate when people say comrades and plus, we're not even Conrad Conrad. I don't know, a person who works at Google
whenever Sam lacked motivation, he would just go meet a lazy, Google engineer and just build it just get their W2 salary out of them. And then he was like, fuel ignited back to the lab.
I am, dude, I remember I went to the Facebook campus once, and I remember I overheard people complain that the line for the like Facebook's campus for those who haven't gone. It's basically,
Ali, like a be like, oh, it's like a mall. It's like a mall but everything's free. I'm not joking. I wrote an article about this. Actually, if you look up like sampar Facebook office, they had a vending machine. But instead of candy bars, it was like
computers. Yeah. IPhone charger. You get like a computer to MacBook charger. If you just like push, if you push D3 you would just get a fuge Macbook charger. Yeah, it was all free incredible
and then they had like a dentist, they had a barber, they had a dude. I swear to God they had a wood making
Like a wood shop, like you can go and like,
there's a van, you could just go and get a hand job. If you're not bothering, you it's crazy. Do they have everything
there? They, you can go and leave your car and your oil would get changed when you came back from work. I remember seeing all this stuff and I just thought, like, oh, this is it, we made it and then I realized that the tenure at Facebook is like 18 months and so I was like, oh okay, this isn't actually all the good. So anyway, long story short, these people in comrades, okay? But
What are they going to do? I actually don't know. Like is 100,000 150,000 layoffs. I'm not, I'm not well-versed in nothing. Like the macroeconomy. What's going to happen to them? I don't know. Do I think they're going to start companies? No, I don't.
Some will, some will and I think that's that's good. I think it's good to Reese. I think it's good for these companies to trim the fat. They got way too much fat when I went. And we're getting acquired by twitch twitch had, I think two thousand employees at the time and they made me like do go through a round of
Views during the Expedition process like meet the team and whatever, and they would ask me questions, for 55 minutes. And then the last five minutes, they would say, do you have any questions for us? And I just said, how many employees does twitch have and then they would say 2000. And then I'd say how many people do, you think twist should have? And this was my IQ test for them, and I was trying to see if I should not even IQ test was an honesty test, who here has the courage to say a number less than 2000. And
Only one, most were just taken aback by the question because they knew what I was implying because they, you know, if they said, if they said more, I just started laughing uncontrollably. If they said, 2000 is the right number? I would raise the people's eyebrow and be like, oh, really? You just happen to have the perfect match of resources to to needs like isn't that? Isn't that fortunate that you guys are just playing it perfectly? Wow, you guys are amazing leaders. And if they were honest and said, you know,
If we wanted to just keep doing what we're doing, we probably only need 250, amazing people. And for us to do some of the new initiatives new bets. I think maybe another another hundred people would be would be right, I would stand and give them I'll give them a standing ovation in a job interview which is awkward because they're just sitting down in front of me. Only one person was honest in that, out of the seven, that I talked to that day, the rest were liars. And so, so yeah. These companies have had it coming. They need to trim the fat.
That if you got laid off, it's okay. I'm sure you will bounce back. You. You've had a very, very cushy situation for a very long time. Hopefully you built up a little safety, net for yourself and go do something interesting. I think this is a healthy recycling and flushing of the system, this is the juice cleanse for Silicon Valley, right? This is the detox cleanse for Silicon Valley. It needs to be, it needs needed to happen,
dude, juice cleanses of the stupidest thing. It's not like it's not like the juice is like a pipe cleaner.
My influencers.
Tell me differently.
Dude, I hate when people talk about this. Like it's not like you're just like you have like gunk in your veins and like the juice goes through like a pipe cleaner, just pulling the gunk, cleaning your veins. I always hated that idea of a cleanse but in this case yeah I think that is actually true. Fuck were agreeing again but dude a lot of the end. A lot of these companies are really generous like they're giving six months lie or six months Severance and if you have been there for a while, you get even more. So I actually think that
You know, now it's not good opportunity to turn shit into gold and take, you know, two months to freaking chill, which sorry they kind of already where I bet but take some time to like, actually chill and then get after it. And, you know, there's the I've been thinking about job hunting. I call it job hunting because a lot of people think of, like all I'm outcome, I hope. Hopefully I'll find a job and I'm like, no, no, no Now's the Time that job hunt, you know, you make like a list of 10 companies, where you're going to work. You find the highwomen.
Hiring manager and you hunt them down and you get that job, you know, it's a hunt. It's not like a, you know, I'll just apply to these hundred companies on indeed and whole
slash their tires. You put your resume inside the tire when they go to find it. That's all they know you wanted
it. Yeah, so now is that time and I always perform best when I have my backing. So all, you know, we use that phrase burn the burn, the ships or burn the boats, you know, you now is maybe a good time so hopefully people will find opportunity in it, but let's get one string. One thing straight.
We're not comrades. Okay, give me a break. I hate that stuff. I didn't cut the words Conrad X, so that's what that's it. Comrades and solidarity, I never want to hear that word solidarity again. All right, listen up. One of the greatest things I ever did at my old company. The hustle was, I hired this woman named Step Smith step is amazing. She is so good at breaking down companies and help me predict trends of which businesses are going to blow up. She's so good. In fact that Andreessen Horowitz one of the most famous venture capital
The world, they stole her from me and they poached it from me. That's okay. I still love Steph and now she's the host of their podcast called the, a 16z podcast. It's their long-standing and chart-topping, podcast, and it's awesome. And step is the host step comes on. MFM my first million all the time. You guys love her, she's a fan favorite and she's one of my favorite people, and so you should check this out. So, each week, the a 16z podcast gives you Insider access to the people and ideas at the edge of innovation.
Steps that sound with luminaries like apples co-founder, Steve Wozniak, Neal Stephenson and all types of amazing people. So check it out. It's called a 16z podcast. That's all one word. A 16z podcast. Check it out. More behind-the-scenes. Someone else wrote the question, which they actually wrote, a, any advice for our fallen brothers and sisters by like to think it was Sam, who is just setting himself up for like I'm gonna I'm gonna set up this question, tear it down, don't say so,
Solidarity. Don't say comrade if you make over a hundred thousand dollars a year, you don't you don't get solidarity. Okay, these next ones rapid fire. OK
Doomsday Clock the Doomsday Clock. Got moved to 90 Seconds To
Midnight. This is largely due to fears that the Ukraine war could escalate into a nuclear conflict. Doomsday Clock is all these nuclear scientists who just tell us how close the world is to ending. That was, are we all gonna die?
No,
I did. I honestly I'd never even heard of this. Doomsday. Clock been? You're the historian around here? Is this a common thing? Is this something I should have known about? And does this happen all the time, or how big of a deal? Is this
bed? And it's not ruling, by the way, it's not like a clock, right? It's more like a meter. Is this like Smokey, the Bear? Like like what's the threat of like a bonfire. So it is
Wildfire,
you know, like there's Smokey the Bears like today's like a day where like there could be a fire. Clock is a bad thing. Because Chloe, yeah. So he's hit.
At midnight, it started during during the Cold War and is basically a bunch of nuclear scientists got together and wanted to tell everyone how close the world was to ending. So everyone would take the threat of nuclear war and nuclear disarmament very seriously. The problem with the with the clock is it started at, I think like three minutes to midnight and so like every time something happens, they're like, oh,
we're actually really close, we're two minutes to
midnight and and the clock moves back and forth a little bit. So,
but we're at like the
50-yard line. Basically
that's also a dumb analogy,
why that's a distance
because
yeah because
the what they were trying to do is like give people the feeling of impending doom, right? Like that's only a matter of
time. What do you do like a weightlifting analogy?
I want like a like a like a like a temperature. Bob you know, like the temperature can go up and down I just think. Look you want the Smokey the Bear thing. I was thinking about this since like humans started existing if this was like a
A book it would be like a thousand pages and the period that we're in now would be like a paragraph on the thousand page and I just I just think I am not so important that this one paragraph is going to be more important than the rest of the Thousand pages. So I almost always refuse to believe that anything doomsday related is going to happen while I'm here. So, no, I'm not worried about this at all. All right. Well, that was a, that was a good analogy. By the way, the book thing you're welcome, that's a free one. Alright, chat GB.
You
can pass a bunch of tests. Now it can pass the u.s. medical licensing exam and it passed a test from the Wharton MBA program. At University of Pennsylvania, are you annoyed that you didn't have the chance to use, chat GPT to cheat in high school and or
college? Hey, hey Ben, how come you didn't read the the actual headline, that's written in the doc, I'm curious. Well, what's wrong with that one? It says, chat GPT is Jackie. Beauty is Asian. It says how good it is at taking these tests. And I gotta say,
I had my human chat gbt. I was a prolific cheater throughout School, fifth grade reading program, I ordered I organized a Syndicate. I realized that if I was not going to read 32 books and win but I had 10 friends. And if we each read three books that we could get to the 30 bookmark and all win, we would all just take the test for each other. That's what we did. I won the teacher called my mom. Let her know that I had cheated, my mom couldn't have been prouder. The second thing that happened, you know, math test. They used to
Gives a TI-83 calculator and my buddy used to be smarter than me and take the test before me. And then he would just type in all of the answers into the TI-83 calculator, under the Y, equals sine button, and I used to, just simply open that up and fill in the answers and go on my way. So I don't need chat. G, PT 3. I was ahead of the curve on this and, you know, cheaters gonna cheat,
dude. We used to take, you know, how you're allowed to have like a water bottle in school. We used to take the labels off like the Dasani bottles and right.
Write the answers and the cheat sheet on the back of the label and then put the label back on and that was where the answers were. So, I don't know, man. That deserves an a just for that. But am I jealous that they have this? Yeah, sure. But I'm not jealous that I'm in school again, nerds. So we went out one. I have a wife. Yeah, by the way, Shawn, I didn't read the headline because it only got
To be on the test at Wharton. So I'm not sure if it's a nice nice. I have nothing with this. I've noticed you got. All right, Justin Bieber, sold his share of his back, catalog for 200 million dollars to an investor smart move.
Yeah. Definitely. Why did he do it? You know, has he had income coming in like
why? I think somebody said his tour got cancelled, but that I mean, is he really live in toward a tour at this point? I don't know if I may, I would just assume it's a, it was a good offer and he had to make a decision. He decided, yes, let's go with that
dude, dr. Dre did the same thing and people like, why would you do that? And someone said, well listen to this. So he got it, he recently got divorced and so he owes his wife, you know, half of what he had. He probably made 500 million,
Dollars off of Beats, half of that went to his wife. And then there was another article that said in the divorce it was released that they were spending three million dollars a month. So on travel clothes so that's 36 million
dollars. Neil Patel status.
Yeah man. Holy moly so he actually probably needed the money. Is it smart? Yeah he he better go write some hits now. Man. You better get dancing? But yeah you know look dude he's told it do the work that he did from 13 to like 30. He sold for 200 million dollars, It's pretty
dope. And by the way he's still just
His share. The, the like he owns only a small part in his agent, had been the the label owns it, and the, whoever there's like four other parties involved in this. So, he just sold his share, which means his total back, catalog has got to be worth close to a billion dollars, good move. In fact, I'm just going to say this. Now, if I ever sell something for 200 million dollars and people come to be questioning, if this was a good move, you getting a slap, you're getting a slap from me and like
Do you need an explanation as to why I took this two hundred million dollar check? Like, I mean, how dare you, you better have 900 million dollars. If you can ask me a question like that. If you ask me that question, I will say, please show me 900 million dollars. Before I answer this question, otherwise you getting a slap and so yeah, I do not question this also Bieber makes good decisions. He follows me on Twitter, that's really, really does. He really two dots make a line baby? That's two data points of Bieber, making good decisions and
Two dots don't make a line but
it
doesn't because it Rhymes and sounds great. Doesn't mean that it actually works. You
need to pull any two points. Can be connected by a lot to dots Michael. I'm alright, really doesn't really follow you on Twitter, by the
way, he does your damn. I'm did U DM. Never have been sort of
crafting the right button. Couple dozen years now how many people did they follow? How many other people did? He follow 280,000.
Oh,
There's the line.
Does he follow you all the best and if you follow any of the bends on this call,
no, dude. By the way you made the announcement on one pod that you want a woman to reach out to you because you have a great deed to see idea that you want to help promote woman. I have had like 15 women reach out to me. Half of them think that I'm you because our Webster how
we only have four female listeners. So they must have told
them fall, by the way. We're not saying that anymore.
I want to talk with me, I'll bring it up next pot, we're not. We shouldn't say that anymore, I'm gonna explain why. But for now
do that joke is killer okay?
No it's not and I'll explain why later. But listen, I've had about 15 women and like seven of them, like, have a million followers on Instagram and like, their profiles are such are such that when I'm scrolling through them. And Sarah, my wife is sitting next me, she's like, what are you looking at? Because it's like the hottest Instagram models. I like bikini models and things like that. So, like, I don't know what you're getting.
Matt, but it probably worked. I don't know what your daughter go. Yeah, so I had so many people reach out to me.
Well, set will send them to me, right? Why are they reach out to you? Because my Instagram's like private and like locked? Yeah, that's not gonna be. That's not going to work. Yes, I'm still. I'm still, there's definitely some good Outreach. I'm talking to two people who I think are the right. How many people
I didn't count maybe 2025 something like that. I had a lot of serious people reached out. I had
a lot and there and yeah, they're trying to reach you or they think that I'm you, it's pretty funny. But anyway, that's that I have just one last one last one, which is a new study shows how much money you need to make to be in the top. 1% income earner in every state 850 thousand dollars in California. New York Connecticut is tops actually surprised me with nine hundred, thirty thousand dollars the bottom
Is West Virginia with three hundred seventy thousand dollars per year to be in the top. 1%, this question is specifically for Sam, Sam. What do you have to say to my comrades? Who are not in the top 1%? I actually am going to do a big thing about this next episode, that shows that you can be in the 1% of New York and make that income and still not be able to retire because that's how much it costs to live there. Yeah, dude, Missouri. I think that's crazy.
And dollars is so much money. It's much money so a hundred thousand dollars. By the way is 456 thousand dollars post tax and if you assume that you spend 15 or 20 thousand dollars a month, which is very reasonable.
And that means you're saving like 200 Grand a year. Use got it, you got to make that for 20 years in order to actually be able to retire which is even crazier than a hundred thousand dollars stat. If you're making that much money in New York, I'm getting a remote job ASAP and move into. You know, what statues are. Full West Virginia or Florida. I'd rather if I'm just making a W2 income, I'd rather live like a king in Florida. Then live like a plebe in New York and being the rat race. So, get out. That's what I, that's what I would do.
Yeah, people always talk about.
You know the big city and all that stuff. But big fish, small pond. Yeah. That is a what we call a small pain syndrome. You want to have small pain syndrome that that is a much better way to live now. Of course, there's no, there's no man to that. You could go live, you could be in the top 1% in Thailand with. Probably like I do 120 Grand. So, you know, there's no way there's no into that, but it definitely just shows how much of a ripoff California and New York are. And I think I say this, you live in New York after year. And I live in California the
All year. So you know who are
we to say?
But like Charlottesville, pretty nice Boise. So this is bad.
Now, this time of
year. Yeah, lovely. This time of year, the Land of Lincoln, it's beautiful.
Honestly, like place like California. You're like, wow, that's a lot. But then you scroll down here, like South Carolina, 500,000, men like Idaho, five, hundred and eight thousand, really, like you gotta like, why why would that be? Why would that be so high? And they're not, they're not bringing enough assets to the table.
As you'd like to say you gotta have some attributes at least California's got the oceans, it's got the, whether it's got this, you know, the scenery, it's got the celebrities, got whatever you want, Silicon Valley Hollywood gotta have some attributes. If you're going to be getting be demanding, this level of income to be in the top one, bro. Have you been
a floor? A Bama in Georgia. You know what? That is. Laura Bama are, sorry for Bama in Alabama, duh. So we're Alabama and in the Florida Line meets, this is where we would go for our eyelid grew up in Missouri. All Missouri people. Go to Florida.
Spring break. You go to Flora Bama? It's the line. Some TV show, right? Yeah. It's the redneck Riviera my friend is the trashiest place on Earth. It is so fun. You could eat popcorn shrimp all day for four dollars. For a Bama is the place to go. You get those Alabama prices while being on the basically, the Florida coast. It's alright. It's alright. I
actually think there should be a Pitch competition, like Shark Tank. That's just cities or states, just doing what you just did. Like you ever want to wake up and have shrimp
Because we have we do that here, right? Like, you tired of not having shrimp before 10 a.m., because that's not a problem into the router for the redneck Riviera fried popcorn, shrimp grouper for dinner,
it's the best, man. Lord is the place to be. You don't have to own socks. It's the best man. No shirt. No shoes, no problem. I'm all about the floor Bama.
It's like, yeah, I took one. Look at you. It's like, how much longer do you want to live as a New York? Five, because you can be an Idaho 9.
It was one plane ticket baby and so, I feel like every city should have to make their pitch as to, why a 20 something year old should move there and live there that a 25 year old, I might create a whole new show around. Just this. Just this pitch.
Yeah, man. We need some, we need a Alaska to sponsor this pot. Alright. I think that's it, right? That's it.
I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to travel.
Looking back.
