Your Future is Always Normal

Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia. Wow, wow, wow.

Dan: Ah, Mr. Jackson. Oh,

Dean: since you arrived first, maybe you got to welcome me to Cloudlandia.

Dan: I do, I do. But you're in charge of the operation, so. Even early, I'm still a guest.

Dean: Not funny. Well, welcome to Cloudlandia. Okay, now, what a. What a week this is.

Dan: Gone. Yeah, you know, I. I had a thought, and I'll just bounce it off you because I've written it down as a possible future title of one of my quarterly books.

Dean: Okay.

Dan: And the. Here, here's the thought. And I haven't, you know, I. I developed my thoughts through conversations. So this is the kickoff. And I was. This is a thought that was coming to me throughout the previous week when we were at by zoom on abundance. 360. And. And the, the thought is that the future, your future, is always normal. Okay? So that's the statement. And then in the subtitle, it's. It's your past that gets better or worst, Better or worse.

Dean: Oh, that's interesting.

Dan: So what I'm saying is. And I was on a podcast interview, a guest. I was a guest on somebody else's podcast. A person who has sort of mastermind groups, entrepreneurial mastermind groups, actually, in Orlando. He's. He's not too far from you. And he was, he said, can you, can you talk about something. The imposter syndrome, You've probably heard of this being talked about, you know, people who are successful, but they feel like imposters. And he says. And he said, as it relates to entrepreneurs. And I said, yeah, I said, I've actually given quite a, quite a bit of thought to this. And I said, well, first of all, half of them are half of

Dean: real. Imposter syndrome is real, for sure.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: I mean, they should have a syndrome. They're. They're imposters.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: But I said, if I take the other half, who are actually well, achievers, but they're not feeling that way, I think there's two explanations for it. And one of the explanations is that they are living in a world that none of their background really prepared them for. So their childhood, where they grew up, you know, the sort of, the economic. Economic conditions they came out of, you know, whether they were, you know, could have been small town and now they're living in a city and, you know, and they're doing activities that didn't even exist, you know, 20, 30 years ago, using capabilities that didn't exist. And I said, I think they're not. It's not that they're imposters. It's just that they're living in a new reality that they haven't quite wrapped their minds around yet. And it doesn't seem as real to them when they compare it to their old reality of where they came from. So that's one explanation. But I said, I think the other thing is that they've achieved really big goals. And this goes right back to the beginning of our procrastination conversation that launched the podcast that when you imagine a big what in the future goal where things are bigger and better, one of the ways you motivate yourself is to feel now the way you want to feel when you get there.

Dean: That's true.

Dan: That's true. And I said, but the problem is that when you get there, it just feels normal. You know, when you, when you actually get to where you are, it feels normal. And that normal that you feel doesn't compare with the emotional transformation you thought you were going to have when you got there. You know that. Yeah, and we have all sorts of, you know, stories about this. Astronauts who, you know, had nervous breakdowns after they came back from walking on the moon. And, you know, that when they got back here, they had done something that had never happened, that humanity has dreamed about for thousands of years. And they get back and, you know, today feels kind of normal. So it doesn't measure up with what they thought was going to happen to their notion of themselves.

Dean: People.

Dan: When, you know, there will be people who are on the super bowl field today and they're on the winning side and about halfway through next week, huh, Feels normal. And, you know, people win Academy Awards feels normal. People become millionaires. It feels normal. So I said, I think, you know, I said, first of all, discounting the half of people who actually are imposters and they should feel that way, the other half is comparing the present with the past, where it does feel kind of strange, or comparing yourself with the future that when you get there, it doesn't feel the way you thought. And you use the word imposter to sort of explain how you do feel. That's just my thesis here.

Dean: That's an interesting thing because I've been wondering about, and this is kind of related, but do you think there's a role of, you know, you talked for a long time about writing daily what you want in journal, like, and I've done that for a long time too, writing. I often take the temperature of what do I want, Right. And I wonder if there's something about, I don't know, What. I don't know what the right word is. Yearning or does that. Or having, you know, you know, the aspiration for more. I guess, I don't know. Wonder like I'm thinking which they aspire to something that they get and then they feel like. Yeah. That you're there kind of thing. How that. And it. You said it's kind of empty.

Dan: Yeah. Remember, I forget who the sinner was. Peggy Lee or somebody like that. Is that all there is? You know, there is sort of a famous. Is that all there is? You know. You know, and she's talking about various stages and changes in her life and she's left with the same feeling after each of the changes. Is that all there is? And, you know, I mean. Well, let me ask you a question. When you. I mean, when you have journaled and you have written down what you want, what's the continual feeling as you're doing that day to day, day to day.

Dean: I like the. Like I've had. I think that there's very. What I've had a grasp on, I think early on is that this is it. Like, right. There's only now that this. You know, there's no. That was kind of the idea of pushing the accelerator pedal to get to what, you know, aspirationally or whatever, to see what you want, but then to recognize how will I know when I'm there, You know, and that's where that was when the statement I know I'm being successful when came in. And so I thought about. I put up. I did put a lot of thought into carefully choosing those things. Like it's saying that, you know, my number one thing was, I know I'm being successful when I could wake up every day and say, what would I like to do today? And so I look at that. It is. It is great. And it's. And if I look at the shadow of it, if I look at the. The opposite side of it, that. How has. That maybe limited me in some ways or how has that made me avoid certain things that may have been a better outcome for me? And who's to say what better is? I mean, when you get exactly what you want, everybody is. I think we all feel that. That same thing of knowing, you know, but I looked at it and I still feel like, wow, wouldn't. There's something great about being completely in control of your days of knowing. I wake up every day and say, what would I like to do today? Opens up. There's a lot of stuff there. But I look at other people that I am around and I look at the funny thing was I was playing golf with Tony Robbins and we were talking about I know I'm being successful when. And this was in January when were playing and because he had watched this interview that I did with Joe Polish when we were talking about I know I'm being successful. And we did it at Dean Graziosi's studio. We were the first thing that Dean needed something to practice or his crew was needing to break in his new studio years ago. And so Joe and I went over and just off the cuff recorded this, this one hour interview thing.

Dan: So.

Dean: And in any event, we were talking about I know I'm being successful when I wake up every day and say, what would I like to do today? And Tony looked at me and said, dude, I don't have one of those days until March. And this was January.

Dan: Right.

Dean: And it was. It's an interesting thing because I see that in you in a lot of ways that I look at your perhaps the most detailed scheduled out person that I, that I know that's in my life that is like, I know that we've got podcasts scheduled for the year and you've got all of your workshops scheduled for the year. All of your. So there's a different, you know, there's a different element. You're waking up every day with here's, here's what I'm doing today kind of thing. You don't, you've. But. And I don't know that they necessarily are in contrast because you're not waking up and you know, well, today you've got to go like, you know, dig a ditch or something. It's like you're waking up, you're doing things that you enjoy doing, but they're already plan. Everything is all handle all around you and you're in an environment that you really, that you like and you've chosen but just on the day, you just, you don't have that flexibility on the day to if somebody flew into town or something to be able to drop everything and go spend a couple of days in golf with them or something.

Dan: Yeah. I would say that there's been one change. First of all, I, you know, I think you've described, described me rightly. In other words, I think it's very, very accurate. And to a certain extent that's the way I want it, you know?

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. And because I find a certain tension having to make things up on the date that I don't, I don't really like the big change has Been the COVID lockdown period where I got 30% of my time back. Because a lot of my having my days planned and, you know, looking forward at the future required daily travel even within the city and required, you know, length, lengthy travel on a regular basis to go to Chicago and other spots. And all that time got returned this year and I didn't fill it up with anything. When I got the time back, I said, this is a once in a lifetime gift that this year has given me. And I said, I'm going to just take it that I've got 30%. I would say 30% of my day back that's unscheduled. And I'm just going to leave it unscheduled. I'm not going to, I'm not going to fill it up with any anything. And the re. The reason being is I have this idea that when I'm really tightly scheduled, I'm not leaving room for magic.

Dean: Right. Okay. My thought exactly. Right.

Dan: Yeah. So what I've gotten back and I said, I'm just going, I'm not going to, you know, take this time and do what I previously done with my time. I said, I'm going to just say I'm going to have like a 30% slack time in my daily schedule at least if, you know, if I take seven days in a row, some days are different than others. But on the week, if, if you compare it a week of my time now as compared to last year at this time, I've got 30% more slack time. And I said, I'm going to secure that going forward. I'm going to leave 30% slack time in my schedule because I want to, you know, I want to open it up for just being alert and curious. Yeah. About things and sort of leaving it. So this has been a, this has been a great gain for me. I mean, I'm sticking to, sticking to my previous schedule, you know, and there's four things every quarter that are regular activities, quarterly book, my podcast schedule, and my workshop. Workshop schedule. And in addition, we've created the connector calls. Connector calls the in between sessions. And so those are like four things that seem to be good for me and they seem to be good for everybody who's impacted by those other activities. So I do it. But I said I'm not going to suddenly fill up my schedule now that I got some time back with extra activities. I'm going to just stick to those.

Dean: Right.

Dan: And this is great. This is as close to retirement as I'll ever get,

Dean: which is so funny, you know, like, that's what I'm constantly thinking about is that, you know, on the days like I'm. You've really changed, you know, the way I think about that because I don't see ever retiring. I look at you as the, you know, 22 years ahead kind of thing in your. My example of what it's like at, you know, 76, you know, to see what that soon to be 77. Right. And so you see that. That's kind of. I'd look ahead there at. I would say, argue that you are at your peak right now, would you say, so far? I mean, yeah. In every measurable way that you would look in your creativity, your reach economically, the size of the company, the global reach. Everything is. You're certainly not in the wind down or blue chip stage of anything. It's on the way up and that's inspiring. So I don't see that ever changing. And I also have this fondness for looking back at 22 or 25 years ago and what was going on in my mind as I'm thinking about my thinking, you know, looking at my, looking at my days and looking at my schedule and there's. It's so such an insight. Like I look at. Yeah, I'm looking, but I see, you

Dan: know, I mean, reversing perspective here. Like, we're all unique. In other words, we, you know, I mean, we, we get, you know, if you thinking about it as cards, we get a deal, you know, we're dealt a certain set of cards, you know, you know, at the start of life and throughout life, we get new deals and everything like that. And I get a sense, you know, that you're for the game that you want to play.

Dean: You're.

Dan: You're playing your cards, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm just looking at it for. I'm just looking at it from the outside. I said, you know, you seem, every time I encounter you, whether it's individually like we're doing on the podcast or you're on, you know, in person, in workshops or everything else, you, you know, I don't see, you know, anxiety and, you know, distraction and everything. You seem to be present and everything like that from the outside. And I said, you know, I think it's cool and I mean, I think it's cool and you know, it's the toughest skill in. The toughest skill for any individual in this world today to, to actually pull off is being present.

Dean: Mm. That's what I really, I mean, that's really the. Yeah. That's really the great thing. It's funny how, you know, when you look at the rhythm of your days, like I'm looking in a journal now from, from what would be August of 1998. And I'm looking at the things, like I would be asking things like, what do you like in every day? Like it started. You realize how much of things that we do are just repetitive daily things, right? Like you always, you know, when you think about sleep and exercise and reading and watching TV and, and writing in my journal. Now this is interesting because there's no, excuse me, no mention of like the Internet as a, you know, part of an integrated daily part of my routine, you know, because it's not yet at that level. It's just. It's a tool right now. It's like I wouldn't be journaling about my fax machine in 1988. Right. It wasn't the Internet. Wasn't really the Internet in, in 1998. And that's an interesting thought to me. But then, you know, about four hours of work and the. This. It was kind of the rhythm of a day that I like. And I've really gotten my time now to kind of exactly what I really want. Most days are most standard weeks. I have Mondays and Fridays, nothing scheduled and then Nothing scheduled before 1pm and then on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, all of my scheduled things happen between 1pm and 6pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, client calls, podcasts, zoom meetings that I'm initiating or being part of, with the exception of the breakthrough blueprints where, which I have one starting tomorrow, that Those go from 10 o' clock to 6 o' clock on those two days, Monday, Tuesday, tomorrow. But the lead conversion workshops, the email workshops, those all fit in that in that afternoon. So I've really gotten to a point where I've successfully kept almost all of my time free, basically at my discretion.

Dan: Yeah, here's a thought. That what you're doing, you know, with, you know, if I just take the way. Dean, you know, the way that you actually live each day, but then how you have created a structure and a process for future days to a certain extent. Because, you know, my feeling is that mindset drives behavior and behavior drives habits. You know, that. That it starts with mindset and then it becomes conscious behavior. And then if it, you know, if the behavior satisfies the requirements of the mindset, then we try to make it automatic. You know, that. Yeah, we'll push. We'll push it forward. You know, we'll push it forward. Forward in time. And what. What seems. Seems to me. I mean, we're all. And the whole point is that at the heart of the way that you're thinking about, you know, today and the succession of times in the future, it's totally unique to you. Like, nobody else on the planet has the criteria, nobody else has the experiences, nobody else has the capabilities, does it, to design Dean Jackson's day any better than Dean Jackson can. You're 100 times better at designing a Dean Jackson day than any other human being because they have. They have the foggiest idea even where to start.

Dean: Right? That's true for everyone.

Dan: That's exactly true for everyone. And I think that, you know, going back to the start of the conversation, the imposter thing, you know, somehow there's a yearning. You use the word yearning. So I'm going to pick up on that word, that, That it's a weird thing. And it comes from the separation between being an individual on the one hand, and being part of social networks, in other words. And I'm not even talking about. I'm not even talking about things like, you know, the social media or anything. I'm just saying that, you know, 6,000 years ago, people lived in social networks, you know, that there were people. But that there's a sense that at some point in the future, I won't feel that it's just myself. I'll be connected to everybody else, you know, and, you know, I'll have this feeling of being part of humanity in a larger way than I feel feel today. And my feeling is that that's a thought. It's a thought, you know. Yeah, people have all sorts of thoughts, and that's a thought. And, you know, it's an interesting thought to think about. But if you're using that as some sort of standard of measurement, sometime in the future, probably you're going to be. You're not going to feel it.

Dean: Have you.

Dan: Can I give you a great. Can I give you a great example of that?

Dean: Okay.

Dan: There was a story this week because Tom Brady leaves New England after 20 years, goes to, you know, goes to Tampa Bay, and right around the corner, all the people on the New England team are watching the super bowl on television today. And Tom Brady's doing what. What he usually does on super bowl day. He's playing in the game.

Dean: Exactly. Yes.

Dan: Okay. And so last week, after they won the conference championship, beating Green Bay, and they were in the locker room and some of the players broke down crying, and Tom Brady sat down across from Me, he says, what are you crying about? We haven't done anything yet.

Dean: Yeah, that's great, isn't it? I mean, it's so easy.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: For a guy,

Dan: being even able to go to a Super bowl game was almost like the culmination of their dream. And he said, yeah, wow, this is, this is, you know, this is my tenth one. And he says, yeah, we haven't done anything yet.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah, that's amazing. It'll be interesting to see what. How it ends up here. But yeah,

Dan: you know, I think, you

Dean: know, his setting up your way, he

Dan: straight the way he's trained, his sense of being present in relationship to possible future. Future events is at a much higher level than probably anybody else on the field today. Mm.

Dean: Yeah, I imagine he's. Yeah, he's got more experience at it than, than anybody really. Yeah, that's something. I mean it is. I wonder how that relates to when we have these visions for like would your, your schedule now is essentially. How long have you been doing this model of your. Like as long as I've known you, that's kind of been your, your model here. Workshop days, three days. Yeah, well, the month of it started.

Dan: It started when I started using the strategy circle in 1982 as my coaching model for one on one coaching. I won't say 1982, but by 1984 I had come up with a structure that this would be a quarterly thing. We'd have a first meeting and then every quarter we get their original strategy circle done and then every quarter we would review it. And then approaching a year, they would decide whether they wanted to do it for a year. So, you know, I did that for about five years and I was up to about 41 on one clients.

Dean: Okay.

Dan: And they paid up front. The other thing is that everybody paid up front. So I had the business model down pat and I had the quarterly structured down. And then I was just saying, you know, I'm selling my time. You know, I mean, to a certain extent we're always selling our time regardless at what level. Level of achievement we are. And that's when Babs and I said, you know, we've learned enough about the. What's true for everybody that we can put it in a workshop where we can have. We. We thought we could get up to 20 people in a workshop. And you know, and I mean that's how. But that was big, you know, because they weren't paying the rate that they would do if they had me just individually, but they were being they were paying 70%, so. So probably a 1400% gain. If you could do it on a. If you could do it on a workshop basis with 20. Yeah. And I don't think unless we had the Internet, especially the database apps and everything that came along, you know, we could have ever gotten too much of that number in a workshop at once. You can take care of the details with technology. Then it got bigger.

Dean: Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting because that, you know, you've really, you have, you know, replaced. What was you talking about? The 30% time that you, that you got back. They haven't replaced. You've also consciously taken away the television. And, you know, so the television, you know, for many people was something that was a constant. And then you layered on top of that the Internet as another layer, but without taking away from television time. So the total dopamine drip is quite extensive, you know, quite a long time during the day. Now. That's. And, but, so you've, but you've tapped into. You've tapped in.

Dan: I think the, the television time got replaced with reading. So my re. Yeah, I, I had a lifetime habit of reading. And so I would say that probably all the time I freed up from television got replaced immediately with reading. And a lot of it was novels. My number of novels I read. I like novels because they're a beginning, a middle, and an end. Like they're a complete, you know, whereas nonfiction books, oftentimes, they create a lot of openings, but they don't have any closing. And there's.

Dean: Right.

Dan: I mean. And, you know, I mean, on television, what do we like most? We, we probably like stories, you know, that have beginning and middle and an end, you know.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: Yeah. There's something very satisfied by having, you know, an experience. But it's. It starts and it's got a middle and it's got an end. I think that's very satisfying. But, you know, the parts of television that aren't based on stories are kind of. They're kind of anxiety producing because they open something up, but there's no end to it. Mm.

Dean: Yeah. Have you experienced Dan Clubhouse yet?

Dan: Not yet. I got a project because Lee Richter is going to be my guide to it. And I said, I'm going to send you an impact filter. On what? I'll send you a copy of the impact filter.

Dean: Okay.

Dan: But I said, this is, you know, my reason for being interested in it. This, you know, it's a project. I'm going in. And, you know, this is the difference. I've heard enough about it that I think it's different from anything else. And you know, and the best would be that one is I really love it and I really enjoy it. And you know, and, you know, it's intellectually stimulating and I meet. Am introduced to all sorts of people that otherwise I wouldn't be. The worst would be if it started making demands on me, you know, and that I would be. Start giving. Making rights and obligations that.

Dean: Right.

Dan: I don't really feel like. I don't really feel like doing. And you know, and then I write down the success factors. This would be the idea. And then I'm going to send it to her. And she was cool with that. She said that that's great because these have multiplier. Lee's 100% multiplier. You know, she just likes connecting people. She just like.

Dean: She really does.

Dan: Yes, she really loves it. And so I want to. And she said that's cool. She said, she said I. She said I'm on it a lot and I, I'm in the lot of different clubhouses and I'm in a lot of different conversations and everything like that. Well, that's great. Well, you'll be my guide.

Dean: Yeah, Like, I wake up. I've had my experience of it has been that I would, you know, you can scroll through and see the, the rooms that are happening right now, like the conversations that are going on. And there may be, you know, 100 people there may be up to, I think, the biggest room. I've been inside 1400 people in a room. And so it's. It's been a really interesting thing that I've gone in and the, you know, the moderators can see. You can see everybody who's in the room. So I've had, you know, several occasions where I go in, in and then they see that I'm in the room and they'll go, oh, Dean Jackson's here. Let's bring him up and get his opinion on. On this or get. Dean could talk about this. And so, you know, I've gotten up and we've talked about the migration to Cloudlandia and I've talked about the VCR formula and I've talked about, you know, all the. All kinds of different things. And it's a pretty, you know, as I have done that, I have, you know, 2600 followers now on. On Clubhouse just from people being in the room and then say, oh, that guy's interesting. Let's follow him. But it's basically, it's on all the time. Dan, you can literally tap in. I did an interesting thing. I started a room of my own and just on a whim I just said I started a room. I said 10 minute marketing makeovers with or 10 minute marketing hot seats with Dean Jackson and open it up. And then I opened the room and instantly people start gathering in the room. Paris Lampropolis popped in and so, you know, brought Paris up and Paris and I basically just started helping people with their marketing for, for now and then it's over. And so you could do they is

Dan: a Q and A too. I mean, do they ask you?

Dean: Oh, that's exactly what it is. Yes.

Dan: Yeah, because. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's really, it's really, you know, it's intriguing to me but you know, like one of the things I was reflecting on because there was, you know, very valuable new presentations at A360 on longevity. And you know, and Peter, you know, Peter mentioned me, you know, five or six times during the session, you know, because he's the only, I'm the only other person in his life that had set up, you know, like a very, very advanced longevity goal and had been with it long before, long before Peter met me.

Dean: I mean, right.

Dan: I set the goal in 87 and he met me in 2010. So I'd been at it for, you know, I'd been at it for 23 years before he got to me. And you know, and yeah, I mean it had already been in the program. I mean tens of thousands of entrepreneurs had already done the thinking on this and Peter not there but he asked me, he says, what's been the biggest impact for you for having that goal? And I said just that I've got a massive amount of time to get to anything I need to get to get to. And I said I'll hear about something but I don't have any sense of urgency that I have to take advantage of it today.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Dan: No, I'm 77 and you know, I have a sense that everything, you know, and I've got the last book, you know, the $15 trillion prism. Well, that's my big project. I said this is my big project and it, you know, and it's going to take thousands of who's between me and, you know, 2044 and, and I've got, you know, I've got enough who's to work with right now to develop, you know, the, yeah. Intellectual shortcuts and you know, new ways of collaborating and besides technology, technology is going to do all sorts of, you know, Exponential things over the next 20 years or so. So as it comes along, we'll take advantage of it. But, but there's no urgency. I don't feel any sense of urgency that there's something new that I absolutely have to get to. You know, I have to set aside things that I'm doing now to get to this new thing. I don't feel any urgency about that.

Dean: Yeah, that's, I mean that is, that's a, that's so awesome when you start to think like that. Like I look back now, it's funny how we're constantly, I look at the now when you think about the future, we're kind of constantly looking to set up something that's got legs like a 25 year future to something and then. But I also realize that there's a lot of things that you, you can't even have projected in those 25 years. Right. Because looking back, I realized how it's primarily, you know, there's chapters, there's different things that, that create new opportunities if you're alert and curious. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: Oh Yeah. I mean, 20, 20, go back 25 years. It's, you know, it's 1995. Okay. And say that you were predict or you were predicting a sudden one year shift totally to virtual conferencing.

Dean: You couldn't even. Well, virtual conferencing wouldn't even have entered your mind. I mean, that wasn't even, it wasn't even a thing. I mean, email was just getting started in 1995. Right?

Dan: Yeah. I mean, and so you think about that.

Dean: It's like, so, you know, I look at the routines, like the daily routine. You know, back then, when I first moved to Florida, 97, you know, I would wake up and I would go for a walk and then I would go for breakfast and get USA Today and I would read USA Today every day. Just like I would read it from COVID to take my time with it. Like read it from COVID to cover, look in the classifieds, look in, in everything. And that's, that's where I found, that's where I found Homer McDonald for stop your divorce by being alert and curious

Dan: and having that responsive and resourceful. Being responsive and resourceful. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dean: And that's, it's an interesting thing that now of course, the Internet allows that, that you basically do that same thing. I'm fascinated by these daily rhythms because on my Kindle I have a book that Richard Rossi recommended. I forget what it's called, but it basically outlines all these daily routines of creative People from, from, you know, all the way back to the 1700s or whatever was known about their, their daily routine. And it was funny to hear, you know, that sleep was always a part of it. Napping was often a part of, of somebody's daily thing. But certainly there was a long walk involved in the day. There was a period for correspondence, you know, that was a fun thing to hear about. People would do their correspondence and then. And then gathering with friends, you know, for a meal or for, you know, at the end.

Dan: Drinking.

Dean: Yeah, drinking, exactly. That was, that was the thing. So it was interesting to see how the writers, you know, would write for three or four hours a day or the artists or composers. It was the same thing you're doing. I don't know that your capacity for actual creative output is more than three or four hours a day, but

Dan: yeah, I mean, yeah, I think that the, you know, if you think of that, you've got two things to play with. You got the brain that you were born with. You know, you hope you got good early training, you know, I mean, the big thing is that you got, yeah, like, you learned how to read, you learned how to write, and you've, you know, you learned enough math to know a profit from a loss, you know, and, and the. But the other thing is your mind. So I make a distinction between brain and mind. Brain is your inside operating system and mind is your ability to access other people's brains, you know, so.

Dean: Say that again. So brain is your, well, brain.

Dan: Brain is your internal. Your internal constant ability to make sense of your experiences. So you're, you're constantly having experiences and you've got to kind of create, create a sense making in the center of you that whatever happens to you, it kind of makes sense enough to you that you feel confident about tomorrow, you know?

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: You know, I think the big thing is I want to feel confident today. I want to feel confident about tomorrow, and tomorrow I want to feel the same way. Yeah, yeah. About the next day. Yeah. But on the other hand, we notice that, you know, as we learn language and, you know, we learn communicate, that we can benefit enormously from how other people have thought about their experiences and have come up with, you know, have come up with, you know, strategies that are immediately understandable and you don't have to go through all their experience to get the benefit of what they've learned, you know, and that's our mind, I think. And, you know, and the big thing is don't screw up your brain. You know, as you're going through life, don't screw up your brain. And the other thing is, keep expanding the quality and the quantity of other brains that you can have access to.

Dean: Ah, I got it. That's interesting.

Dan: And we're always going back and forth between the two because more and more as I've gotten older, my experience, like people said, you know, in the future you'll be able to, you know, travel virtual reality to exotic places that you've always thought about. And I said, I have been to probably 20 places that were called exotic in my lifetime and come to the conclusion that they're all the same when you get there.

Dean: Exotic. Yes, exactly.

Dan: They're all the same. And you know, a day there is not too much different from a day here.

Dean: You know, a day trip from the exotic four seasons in that same location. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: And on the other hand, I've noticed that being in conversation with more and more interesting human beings keeps getting better. So, yeah, if I have a choice between traveling to a place or traveling to another person's thinking, I'll opt for. I'll travel to other people's thinking.

Dean: Mm, that's. That's really great. I did. How to meet other people and thinking. Being able to see things. I was really thinking, and I've said it before, about the, the capital allocation is really the, the intellectual game. It's the ultimate who. Not how actually is. Is being able to, you know, pick the. Pick the thing that's going to have. That's going to win or that's going to be a. A good idea and, and backing it with your. With your money, with capital without having to do any of the how. You have to do the how you. It's truly about finding the who. If you believe that VR is going to win. It's about finding the right who. Who also believes that has the best chance to, well, execute.

Dan: VR is going to be. VR is going to be a winner for somebody. You know, I mean, my.

Dean: Yeah,

Dan: well, first of all, VR is already a winner for lots of different people in the world. You know, the military, I mean the military, I mean, the stuff that they can do with VR right now would.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Blow people's minds.

Dean: Right.

Dan: But it's crucial for them to be able to rehearse and pre. Plan. Plan.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: Military missions without, you know, with, without actually going there. And so funny. I was like, I've developed a new habit. I'll think of a question and then I'll ask. Google the question. Just punch it in. And I would say only about 25% of the time. Does Google have a good answer for my question?

Dean: Right.

Dan: It gives me little bits and pieces based on the words, but one of them, there's been about three or four articles because the Chinese said they forced a US ship to get out of the South China Sea this week. And I said, yeah, well, we'll see. Anyway, so I asked the question, I said, what would the first 24 hours, this was my question. What would the first 24 hours of a all out war between the US and China look like? Okay. And I just put it in there and you know, and lots of people said, well, this is something that can't happen and everything else. And I said, that's not the question I asked. Question. I says, if there was a first 24 hours.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And the reason is, is because the US has rehearsed probably a thousand times what the first 24 hours would be like. So all the information, all the information on this, it's top secret. That's what, that's what my search did. And I said, and the, the US has a thousand times more experience of the first 24 hours of something than the Chinese do because the Chinese haven actively been in combat since 1979. That's the last time that they were actually in combat. So that's 2141 years. No Chinese military person has actually been in combat while the US Is in combat. Today, tomorrow.

Dean: Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Never stop. Right.

Dan: Constant practice. So my sense is. And then I went back and looked at Desert Storm, you know the, when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Dean: Yes.

Dan: You know, and then there was this build up, you know, it's like a six month buildup, you know, like senior President Bush, George Bush, the father got 20, 26 different countries and they had like a half million military personnel. And then there was the first 24 hours. And basically the US did about us and the allies, the Brits and everybody else, they did about 50 different things on the first in the first 24 hours. And that was, that was 29 years ago. Can you imagine what they could do in the first 24 hours now?

Dean: So I don't think it would even last 24 hours.

Dan: Well, it would be deeply confusing to people who have never been in combat. Mm. Yeah. So the, the big thing, but it was an interesting question. One is that there wasn't good material on, there wasn't good material on Google to really answer the question, you know, and you know, it was pretty well, you know, there would be a meeting of the United Nations. I said United Nations. No, there wouldn't be a meeting. Right. It would be scheduled. It would be scheduled for Friday, but the war would be over on Tuesday, you know.

Dean: Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: So. So it's really, really interesting. And. But more and more, I just find I'll go through the day and I'll think of a question. I'll say, I've got a question. So I go to Google and. And sometimes I hit it right on the nose or somebody who's really thought through this topic. And it's worth it, you know, and. Yeah, and it's worth it. But my sense is that your Clubhouse thing, you're more likely to come across somebody who is in the general conversation of Clubhouse than Google.

Dean: Hmm. That's. That's interesting. I wonder, you know, you can attract. I guess we're just sort of getting the lay of the land with. With Clubhouse right now. But I imagine that.

Dan: I think there's going to be level. There's going to be lots of love at Mr. Clubhouse. And you're going to prove it by being. Having something useful for the other people in the room.

Dean: Yeah, like, I just, I'm looking. It seems to be the. There's, you know, people are gathering in, you know, these known rooms kind of thing, but I think there's all these little. The fact that anybody can start one is a. Is a big. Is a big thing.

Dan: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think you're gonna

Dean: be a big hit on. You're gonna be a big hit on Clubhouse.

Dan: Well, thanks, thanks. Yeah. And that's what I'm afraid of.

Dean: Yeah, right.

Dan: Exactly.

Dean: I feel it too. I feel it, too, Dan. That's exactly.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: You know.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, both of us, I think we put out feelers. I mean, I think both of us, when we go for something, we go for it big, but we. It's got to satisfy lots of requirements in our minds before we do it.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: And, you know, and the fact that you like it is a big plus for me. I mean, I wouldn't have gone any further with the inquiry except for your first descriptions of your experience. And that's when I, you know, I started listening in. Mike Koenigs and Lee Rector and others were talk. Talking about it.

Dean: Yeah. Yeah, you.

Dan: I don't

Dean: say you and I. Anybody who has. Has ideas, great things to contribute and is able to articulate your thoughts on the fly.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: Is. Is gonna thrive in an environment like that or stand out in an environment like that.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: So.

Dan: And I get a feeling anybody who's a ranter gets Cut out really fast.

Dean: Yeah, I agree.

Dan: That's what I like about it. I think that it was so funny because we have this ongoing discussion group here in Toronto. We're just. I think we're closing in on 19 years. And every quarter a book gets recommended, an actual book. And then people send in articles of things of interest during that quarter, and that's constructed into a book of articles. And somebody sent in an article, and it was some guy in London who wrote this really, really ranting article about how young Americans in North Dakota are now the hotspot. The hotspot for Covid the world. North. North Dakota is now a hotspot for Covid in the world. I said, north Dakota. North Dakota. And so, you know, he. I went through it, and it wasn't really about North Dakota. It's just that he thinks that America is the dumbest place on the planet, and Americans are the dumbest human beings on the planet. And, you know, that they're not obeying lockdown orders. They're not putting. Obeying mask orders. So, you know, the article came in, and so what I did is I

Dean: looked up the author.

Dan: You know, I said, you know, this is. First of all, it was from November, the end of November. And when you use a statistic,

Dean: you

Dan: know, that's three months in the past, you really, really got to check out whether there's any point to it. Well, as it turns out that North Dakota is like number 10 in the United States as, you know, as a position. And I look up the author and every one of his other articles are attacks on the United States and on Americans. So I wrote the, you know, our discussion group member, and I said, I just want to tell you something here. First of all, you know, first of all, the statistics are completely out of date. They're three months old, but they're in the headline. And I said, and, you know, New York is number one, New Jersey is number two, Massachusetts, number three. You just go down the list. And then North Dakota is sitting at number 10, which is there. But I said, just put this in perspective. The population and the economy of North Dakota is the same as Mississauga. Right? Wow.

Dean: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's something.

Dan: Yeah. I said, so, you know, I mean, we're not talking about New York, which has, you know, 28 million and, you know, 28 million and everything like that.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: I said, this is. This is probably the first time in history that North Dakotans have been closer than a mile apart from each other. You know.

Dean: Right. They each get a Mile they got. I wonder what the density of North Dakota is actually. Well, you know, they measure it.

Dan: If I, you know, if I take Mississauga there, the geography is a thousand times bigger, but they have right population, you know, so, you know, and. And everything. But I. I said, you know, one thing to do when you come across an article that has some bite in it. Check out the author and, you know, what's the history of the author as yet? I mean, you know, I mean, and you can do that today because all the authors.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Want to be well known. So you check out. And I said, if the guy's a ranter, you know, every article is a rant about something. You're probably not. Your article is probably not going to, you know, be useful to the other people, because rants really are useful.

Dean: This is where that. This is where. When I think about VR, I think about it not just about the goggles or visually, but meaning full immersion in access to. Peter Diamantis used a great term that I loved for it called perfect knowledge, where everything that's knowable is knowable at your fingertips. Like being able to look at some. Well, let's. Alexa, how many square miles in North Dakota?

Dan: Yeah,

Dean: she must. I must have her out of this room to be able to. I don't think she's in here. Alexa, how many square miles in North Dakota? No, she's not in here. She must have. Philip must have taken her. So. But to be able to know. I'm seeing that now that all of that stuff. That's a knowable number. So to be able to make that thing and say, just quickly look at the population of North Dakota and the square miles of North Dakota compared to the population and square mileage of Mississauga. Yeah. You look at how many.

Dan: Well, they're both. They're both between. I just looked at. I looked it up because I wanted

Dean: to

Dan: make a statement that was plausible and answering the letter. And see, you know, they're. They're around 770,000, 780,000. Yeah, both of them. North Dakota and Mississauga.

Dean: Right, right.

Dan: And, you know, and the GDP is about the same because, you know, North Carolina. North Dakota is a big oil and gas state, you know, so. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Mississauga is very dense. Very dense. And, you know, a lot of economic activity. They've got the airport right there. So there's a lot of stuff that's right there, but, you know, it's comparable. Yeah. There, there. The GDP of the GDP of the gps. North Dakota is The same as Lebanon. So if you take a country, you can take American states and position them against countries like California's got the same economy as France. Texas has an economy that's a third bigger than Canada.

Dean: Wow, that's interesting.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah, these are big. I tell them the states. I mean, Florida. Florida is huge.

Dean: Florida's on the move.

Dan: Oh, yeah.

Dean: We're gaining 1500 people. 1500 people a day right now for the next 10 years.

Dan: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Dean: That's pretty exciting.

Dan: Yeah. This is. This is redistribution year. Every 10 years based on the census that take place. It takes place on the decades. So, you know, 2010. 2020. So they just have the census, and there's a redistribution now of seven congressional seats, and Florida gets two of them. So other states will lose congressional seats. So Florida and Texas Both pick up two. Two markets. Right.

Dean: Over the next 10 years, as the Northeast drains into Florida, we're going to bring those seats down here. But I wonder if it'll change the. The political balance.

Dan: Well, it depends on who the states now. So Florida will be told you now have two. Two more congressional seats. So depending on who's running the state, you have a governor who's a Republican, right?

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. And what about the legislature? You know, the two bodies, the Congress, the. The state Congress.

Dean: Pretty red all across. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: Well, then it's a bad. It'll be a bad time for the Democrats because what they'll gerrymander. So this is where gerrymandering comes in. And what they'll do is they'll take an existing Democratic jurisdiction and they'll cut it in half. Okay. And they'll, you know, they'll spread. They. They redo the lines and they'll make sure that the Democratic. The Democratic district, say it's 60, 40 Democratic right now. Mm. What they'll do is they'll divide it into two districts and they'll make the Democratic one 90% Democrats, and the other one is.

Dean: Yeah, yeah.

Dan: They'll pick up a pickup. So probably the. Just because of redistribution, because all the ones who are gaining our Republican states and all the ones who are losing our Democratic states.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: That just. Nothing else concerned. There would be a pickup of seven seats for the Republicans and the seven. And right now it'd be pretty even. There's two seats that are unaccounted for because one person. Is a Republican and the seat hasn't been filled. And a Democrat went to the Biden administration.

Dean: So they're.

Dan: They're shorts. But both of them are prey. Go Republican. I'll be 2,221 to 214. So it's seven. So just automatically it would switch and off your elections. The party with the White House generally loses congressional seats. So anyway. But the US Is so funny because it's everything shot. I mean, that's a constant shifting and shuffling and everything. That's probably one of the most active geographies on the planet in terms of things shifting economically and politically. Yeah.

Dean: Well, but not in Cloudlandia.

Dan: Not in Cloudlandia.

Dean: No borders in Cloudlandia.

Dan: That's. That'd be interesting. That'll be that. That'll be interesting. That'll be interesting to see if. Does Cloudley India have internal borders?

Dean: Well, is this. You know, it's interesting and this will maybe be a good topic for to pick up on our next one.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: You're starting to see now the fracturing even of the deep level that the, you know, I think you're going to have a red Internet experience and a blue Internet experience.

Dan: You know, I mean, that's really a Chinese one. And the rest of the world.

Dean: Yeah, right.

Dan: Yeah. Well. Well, we're. We're used to that in Mainlandia, so maybe some mainland skills will exactly be useful getting to Codlandia. Anyway, That's a great pleasure. I'm on for. I'm on for next week, so.

Dean: Me too. I wouldn't miss it.

Dan: All right, thanks.

Dean: Have a great week. Thanks.

Dan: Have a great. Have a great blueprint.

Dean: Thank you. Bye.

Dan: Bye.