00:00:00 ◼ ► We waited so I remember when we were about to record the first episode of series one I said to introduce ourselves [TS]
00:00:12 ◼ ► and like say who we are you know in case people have no idea who we are which is incredibly likely [TS]
00:00:19 ◼ ► and you know you said no and you made a very compelling case for not introducing ourselves in episode one. [TS]
00:00:26 ◼ ► So we did so we did and now that episode nine tain you're saying we should introduce ourselves. [TS]
00:00:35 ◼ ► but I have a reason for that which is today we have been featured on the i Tunes store so there is a greater likelihood [TS]
00:00:43 ◼ ► that there are people who are listening to this episode as their first episode who really have no idea who we are who [TS]
00:00:50 ◼ ► just clicked on a gray high button at the top of i Tunes and I'm listening for the first time. [TS]
00:00:55 ◼ ► Hello welcome if that's you alone so I think that this is a this is a good chance to maybe do a little bit of an [TS]
00:01:01 ◼ ► introduction. I guess how would you describe your job to people what is it that you do. [TS]
00:01:09 ◼ ► When you when you said that way we had to introduce ourselves I specifically said that you have to go first. [TS]
00:01:15 ◼ ► Like I was trying to cut you off there trying to get rid of whatever your plan is nine and there is no plan. [TS]
00:01:21 ◼ ► There is just I just don't want to sit and either talk about myself for like twenty five minutes [TS]
00:01:26 ◼ ► and I have you say I'm great I'm at You Tube videos or I don't want to talk about myself for like eight seconds [TS]
00:01:32 ◼ ► and then have you talk for three hours about you know their childhood was like I want to use that line I want to know. [TS]
00:01:46 ◼ ► and I guess the most concise way to describe what I do now for a living is that I make informative youtube videos that [TS]
00:01:55 ◼ ► people watch is that the way I would describe what I do but I always find it a little bit. [TS]
00:02:03 ◼ ► and I find it very awkward in some social situations sometimes those kind of why I actually want to know how do you [TS]
00:02:14 ◼ ► Like I'm a person who doesn't know you at all if it's a stranger like someone cutting my hair or something [TS]
00:02:20 ◼ ► and they ask why I usually say I make You Tube videos because everyone knows what huge it is [TS]
00:02:26 ◼ ► and then if they ask what kind of You Tube videos I say kind of science the educational ones. [TS]
00:02:35 ◼ ► Sometimes they're about math so chemistry and stuff sometime in the just about cool stuff. [TS]
00:02:41 ◼ ► And then after that I kind of see where it goes from there but I just say I make You Tube videos [TS]
00:02:58 ◼ ► and then you know like anyone I'll talk about myself for ever if they want me to I remember I was going through US [TS]
00:03:09 ◼ ► Customs because they want immigration I should say because they always ask lots of questions about yourself [TS]
00:03:15 ◼ ► and then like I have to and it's really nice like you know they're like What do you do You Tube videos [TS]
00:03:19 ◼ ► or what kind of videos and they ask like where you've been and what you doing in the country [TS]
00:03:28 ◼ ► If it was like that sometimes and then and then it all ends very abruptly they like Ike [TS]
00:03:34 ◼ ► But recently I was I was going through it and this guy was like What do you do on that You Tube videos [TS]
00:03:46 ◼ ► and then he starts asking me all these technical questions and then he asked me about like Go Pro cameras [TS]
00:04:00 ◼ ► My friend showing me all his kayaking videos and ask me for tips on how he was filming them [TS]
00:04:05 ◼ ► and what he should do to put the minute we were led by these by the end of that I'm sure the people behind in the queue [TS]
00:04:11 ◼ ► but I musta been there for a good five ten minutes just watching videos on these I find this we are so different I [TS]
00:04:24 ◼ ► I always want to get through that customs gate as fast as possible let me on the other side of this gate [TS]
00:04:30 ◼ ► when I'm on the I'm on the airplane side I'm not on the you are in the countryside I feel like there's only one good [TS]
00:04:38 ◼ ► and there are many ways this can go wrong if the customs guy doesn't like you or if they just you know they're bored [TS]
00:04:49 ◼ ► and if a guy was talking to me for it for a very long time I would just assume that he was stalling while the big beefy [TS]
00:04:57 ◼ ► guys with guns are going to come out and take me away to some other place I thought I was in the to the special. [TS]
00:05:02 ◼ ► That's exactly it. No one's ever stuck with a show kayaking videos on their phone. These people are never chit chatty. [TS]
00:05:08 ◼ ► The only thing I can assume is they're just all like so I would be I would be very nervous I would be very sweaty [TS]
00:05:14 ◼ ► and twitchy at a point like that and then of course they would feel the need to interrogate people [TS]
00:05:18 ◼ ► and it was that was why I love talking to you because I know I think I'm a really paranoid wearing person [TS]
00:05:27 ◼ ► and worrying I think that that is the appropriate response to the situation of going through customs. [TS]
00:05:33 ◼ ► and only one good thing come out in that region the only time I was a little bit worried getting into the U.S. [TS]
00:05:39 ◼ ► Was not that long ago I made a video about how a lot mathematically how the N.S.A. [TS]
00:05:45 ◼ ► Was cracking into people's e-mails just about like the mathematics behind it was no political agenda it was just a [TS]
00:05:50 ◼ ► geeky video but that was the first time it occurred to me maybe making that video has put my name on some watch list [TS]
00:05:56 ◼ ► and next time I go to the counter that is going to say. Now we don't want troublemakers like you a lot you know. [TS]
00:06:04 ◼ ► You're not patriotic or anything and that we're going to but nothing happen. Getting back to what you do. [TS]
00:06:09 ◼ ► So when you say I make in these informative videos where does conversation usually go from there. [TS]
00:06:15 ◼ ► Well I'm realizing that I might be taking the wrong strategy here because I know in person I don't really like to talk [TS]
00:06:22 ◼ ► about what I do I feel like I would I would much rather move past this part of the conversation [TS]
00:06:30 ◼ ► Maybe people can sense that because it seems to me that people are always very interested in what I do [TS]
00:06:35 ◼ ► and I end up trying to give the answers or answers that are sort of true but not exactly true [TS]
00:06:42 ◼ ► and then trying to move the conversation right along with them people are much more interested the way I would actually [TS]
00:06:53 ◼ ► when you're like like safety videos like what should you do in an earthquake or how to have how to brush your teeth [TS]
00:07:09 ◼ ► but less helpful I would say my videos are definitely less helpful than that. I'm not conveying any useful advice. [TS]
00:07:19 ◼ ► I mean I guess I guess usually my videos are about I don't know geography I guess is a large part of what my videos are [TS]
00:07:26 ◼ ► but they're not on any particular set topic they're just there to sort of explaining something that I think is interesting [TS]
00:07:36 ◼ ► and then you couldn't do this because it would it would sound too much like bragging but I thought I was you. [TS]
00:07:43 ◼ ► If I was describing what you do I would probably add a few words to your description I would say he makes like like [TS]
00:08:00 ◼ ► It's like something that's worthy or something you have to watch in a workshop at your new job. [TS]
00:08:05 ◼ ► Yeah I guess it's funny as we're doing this this this little section here now I realize I've never just I've never been [TS]
00:08:20 ◼ ► I guess that most of the time I find myself that I like social gatherings is trying to avoid the issue which as you [TS]
00:08:33 ◼ ► Go for as long as you possibly can without asking the other person what it is they do. [TS]
00:08:43 ◼ ► But I use this to my advantage in social situations where I don't really want to talk about my job [TS]
00:08:48 ◼ ► and so I will refuse to ask what the other person does for a living. Forcing them to make the first move. [TS]
00:08:59 ◼ ► and then I can say I kind of stumbled through a terrible explanation that doesn't hopefully sound very interesting. [TS]
00:09:04 ◼ ► And then immediately end with. And what do you do for a living. And hopefully that avoids any follow up questions. [TS]
00:09:13 ◼ ► Why do you not want to tell people what you did you know you do a good thing and you're successful at it. [TS]
00:09:24 ◼ ► when you do something that is on the Internet in public that everybody can see it sometimes leads to strange situations. [TS]
00:09:35 ◼ ► and I was much more upfront about what do you do while I make You Tube videos for a living. [TS]
00:09:40 ◼ ► There were a couple of well let's gather everybody around the computer and watch your youtube videos right now [TS]
00:09:52 ◼ ► I dodged a bullet at a family reunion once with that there was a live Cather all of these people who you don't know. [TS]
00:10:02 ◼ ► but there are going to be maybe thirty people who want to watch now what you do for a living. [TS]
00:10:12 ◼ ► Something like that so that's that's one reason why I think I have toned down necessarily talking about what I do with [TS]
00:10:21 ◼ ► Oh really tell me your Web site let me let me look at at at your work life is it's very very strange I think being a [TS]
00:10:35 ◼ ► but don't you don't you have sometimes if people ask to see your You Tube video I mean by then are probably are a shine [TS]
00:10:41 ◼ ► about five videos of my greyhounds they're probably sick. Yeah but I'm going to spend it. [TS]
00:10:47 ◼ ► I think I think maybe I should try adopting your strategy which is to sound really into my own job [TS]
00:10:58 ◼ ► Oh let me show you some of my videos people will be like oh wait let me get a refill on my drink first [TS]
00:11:02 ◼ ► or I wander off to the kitchen and then they won't want to see a lot maybe that's a better strategy of my own [TS]
00:11:10 ◼ ► and I have like in a folder that I can get to quickly because it comes in really handy when [TS]
00:11:15 ◼ ► when you have to talk about your work because because the problem is you work doesn't you know you can say I'm a bit [TS]
00:11:21 ◼ ► boring and geeky when you start talking about science and things about chemicals and mathematics [TS]
00:11:30 ◼ ► Yeah that's true but the picture on my phone is when we went and filmed inside the Bank of England gold bullion vote [TS]
00:11:36 ◼ ► and the professor and I are standing in front of like all the billions and billions of pounds worth of gold. [TS]
00:11:55 ◼ ► You've got it all cued up on your phone you're ready to just flash it right in there. [TS]
00:12:02 ◼ ► and it's only if the conversation gets to a certain level of interrogation that I that I pull out the photo in my [TS]
00:12:07 ◼ ► But but I certainly wouldn't show someone one of my videos at a party I think that would be pretty dull for them [TS]
00:12:14 ◼ ► but I find that I find if I say handy What are the other things is that if we're running a podcast because on this [TS]
00:12:26 ◼ ► and so I do have this forum in a sense where I talk quite publicly about what I do [TS]
00:12:32 ◼ ► or the behind the scenes of how videos went or what I was thinking about when making them [TS]
00:12:36 ◼ ► and you do the same thing you talk about some stories behind your work so we have this hello internet podcast which is [TS]
00:12:42 ◼ ► sometimes about work sometimes it's about nothing very much at all sometimes we're just following up on things that [TS]
00:12:48 ◼ ► have happened before. We do seem I spent a lot of time talking about flags these days. [TS]
00:12:52 ◼ ► Well that was just one episode on a very surface that I might add it was that it was an episode and just a follow up [TS]
00:12:59 ◼ ► but that wasn't a real episode we have to do some more flag future yet I think the four new listeners who have made it [TS]
00:13:07 ◼ ► If you haven't if you if you've made it this far you probably haven't figured out where the stop button is quite [TS]
00:13:23 ◼ ► and is a very active forum where people participate and it's very much a back and forth with the audience [TS]
00:13:29 ◼ ► but I do think that the little bit of a running joke is that the show is really really should be called to do the [TS]
00:13:42 ◼ ► So sometimes we do wonder on a little bit but we do sometimes get to the actual topics at the show [TS]
00:13:48 ◼ ► but that's that's what this part of I guess I don't know how would you describe the five years I feel like I just you [TS]
00:13:53 ◼ ► know I think it's just it is it's just take videos talking. But not necessarily about You Tube videos all the time. [TS]
00:14:06 ◼ ► This episode is brought to you by Squarespace the all in one platform the makes it fast [TS]
00:14:10 ◼ ► and easy to create your own personal website portfolio or online store for free trial [TS]
00:14:15 ◼ ► and ten percent off go to squarespace dot com and use the offer code hello internet. [TS]
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00:14:47 ◼ ► And on top of that Squarespace has just a ton of great tools to help you build a website. [TS]
00:14:56 ◼ ► If you're making a business website Squarespace has a very fun cool little tool that will help you pick a good looking [TS]
00:15:02 ◼ ► logo and pick the colors and then automatically generated across your whole website [TS]
00:15:12 ◼ ► and extras that Squarespace has to try to make creating a website just as simple and easy as possible [TS]
00:15:18 ◼ ► and they really succeed at that without a doubt Squarespace is the company that I always recommend to people if they're [TS]
00:15:24 ◼ ► looking to start a website so you can start a trial with no credit card required and build your Web site today [TS]
00:15:31 ◼ ► and only when you decide to actually pay for the service then do you require a credit card. [TS]
00:15:42 ◼ ► and to let Squarespace know that you heard about them through us which definitely helps the show. [TS]
00:15:47 ◼ ► So once again that offer code is. Hello Internet. All one word and we want to thank Squarespace for their support. [TS]
00:16:00 ◼ ► and I think we should break from tradition just because you know where is that maybe a couple of new people are listening. [TS]
00:16:10 ◼ ► We haven't got a lot of follow up from previous episodes thankfully because we we cleared the decks with the last [TS]
00:16:16 ◼ ► episode's epic follow up two hours of yellow up there is there is zero follow up now [TS]
00:16:21 ◼ ► and I don't know if I just want you to know that the word humble brag which has been something we've talked about a bit [TS]
00:16:26 ◼ ► lately has apparently made it into the dictionary the is the Oxford English Dictionary [TS]
00:16:35 ◼ ► Once a year they have their they have their marketing stunt where they say here are five new words we put in the [TS]
00:16:40 ◼ ► dictionary. That's not a marketing stunt Brady that's that's them updating the language. Yeah whatever. [TS]
00:16:49 ◼ ► Some people thought maybe it was because maybe they were reacting to it being on the podcast. [TS]
00:16:56 ◼ ► We talked about it two weeks ago and then this week they decide it's time to put it in the dictionary. [TS]
00:17:01 ◼ ► I'm absolutely sure that's how that works. That's too much of a coincidence I think it must be us. [TS]
00:17:05 ◼ ► I think we can be much more much more confident about it when Brady typing the synonym for hunt [TS]
00:17:14 ◼ ► Then I think we can claim much more credit but all in all because they at least all they at least update [TS]
00:17:20 ◼ ► or add to the definition of free voting that will be that will be my crowning glory. [TS]
00:17:29 ◼ ► when that happens I had a little thing on Twitter a couple of days ago where I was I was trying to get people to come [TS]
00:17:38 ◼ ► Could they make an entire humble brag into I'm not yeah I'm not going to harp on it [TS]
00:17:43 ◼ ► but what it did do is highlighted to me yet again that a lot of people haven't grasped what a humble brag is [TS]
00:17:53 ◼ ► and listen to the last episode where Gray complains for a little bit too long about people not understanding it. [TS]
00:18:00 ◼ ► You must understand the humble brag is there must be the self deprecation. Was it too long. [TS]
00:18:07 ◼ ► There were no actually it was raised in the concise that was unfair it was concise. [TS]
00:18:11 ◼ ► I'm trying to look it up now to see what Oxford it was the Oxford English Dictionary I want to see what they wrote for [TS]
00:18:17 ◼ ► the humble brag definition. Yeah let me just because of quickly that's a good idea actually. [TS]
00:18:22 ◼ ► I'll look at this I like this already OK so according to the Oxford English Dictionary it is an ostensibly modest [TS]
00:18:30 ◼ ► or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud. [TS]
00:18:39 ◼ ► I think that is almost exactly our definition I do think that things are going from the show. [TS]
00:18:48 ◼ ► Everybody even the use of ostensibly there which I think is is the real key word for yes right. [TS]
00:18:59 ◼ ► That's why we can say that I used deprecating So together we joined forces to create that definition which was then [TS]
00:19:06 ◼ ► just shamelessly stolen by the Oxford English Dictionary in the space of a few days [TS]
00:19:11 ◼ ► and put into the dictionary Oxford English Dictionary. Thumbs up for me I like that a good definition yes. [TS]
00:19:18 ◼ ► Thank you go into that dictionary thing for which I may be speaking of lists of words. [TS]
00:19:23 ◼ ► One other little piece of follow up last episode we talked about the list I was creating of swear words [TS]
00:19:32 ◼ ► and words that cause problems problems in the You Tube comments that I was sort of using his watch words that I could [TS]
00:19:44 ◼ ► You were you were making basically a blacklist for words that people can't say in the comments. [TS]
00:19:50 ◼ ► I don't want to call it a blacklist I want to call it more a flag list because if those those words can be used [TS]
00:20:00 ◼ ► Something I'm quite happy to talk about because the person involved has talked about it. [TS]
00:20:21 ◼ ► Haiti Haiti has spoken in videos about he said Don't worry everyone I know got shaky hands. My health is fine. [TS]
00:20:27 ◼ ► Stop worrying about it. But sometimes people make really inappropriate comments about it. [TS]
00:20:33 ◼ ► So for example I have in some cases put the word like Parkinson's or shaky into the into the on to the list [TS]
00:20:46 ◼ ► but if they are using the word shaky I think maybe I should have a quick look to make sure they haven't said his hands [TS]
00:20:53 ◼ ► are shaky and then go on into some diatribe about a bunch of inappropriate things. [TS]
00:20:59 ◼ ► So so it's not it's not blacklist it's you tell me what it is it's just a list of words for me to keep an eye on. [TS]
00:21:09 ◼ ► and tons of comments it is probably the best name for it is the enormous amount of work for Brady list of checking over [TS]
00:21:18 ◼ ► You must have how many how many do you have a day to approve or check out how how much work is it for you. [TS]
00:21:28 ◼ ► It's not it's not that because the list isn't that long. Which brings me to the follow up. Yeah. [TS]
00:21:33 ◼ ► Someone has him out in the list which I don't know if we're supposed to have this or not [TS]
00:21:39 ◼ ► but it's from a famous company and it's then a list of words that aren't allowed to be used in its kind of materials [TS]
00:21:49 ◼ ► and codes and things like that it's a it's a technology company and and it was sent in as a spreadsheet [TS]
00:22:00 ◼ ► Waiting of how bad it is and there's a big discussion of the word and there's actions to be taken if the word is found. [TS]
00:22:07 ◼ ► Under what circumstances is OK under what circumstances is it to be eliminated. And Anna is completely fascinating. [TS]
00:22:24 ◼ ► The file sizes is one point four megabytes and it has a few thousand words on it. If I scroll down. [TS]
00:22:31 ◼ ► If I scroll down to the bottom of the spreadsheet on my computer here it's almost seven thousand words long words that [TS]
00:22:40 ◼ ► this company wants to check up on the last word on the list is the zipper sniffers which is offensive I guess it is [TS]
00:22:49 ◼ ► but if it was funny because word studding was that funny looking through it was part part of this is boy I did not know [TS]
00:23:00 ◼ ► and I'm learning so many new words from this list where there are not a lot of rude words [TS]
00:23:05 ◼ ► but words I have no idea what they mean and then I have to scroll over to the side and it doesn't. [TS]
00:23:12 ◼ ► It's irritating because this company does not it does not tell you what the word means it just tells you the action to [TS]
00:23:19 ◼ ► be taken under particular context and I'm looking at some of these I think. I don't I don't know what that word means. [TS]
00:23:27 ◼ ► Sometimes it tells you it doesn't tell you like the definition it would just say ah this word is a profanity we don't [TS]
00:23:46 ◼ ► and like like a C G P Great video scripts worth of discussion on the word for example. [TS]
00:24:04 ◼ ► So you know regions or places where you know of the contentious places like the Falkland Islands and things. [TS]
00:24:15 ◼ ► and there's a whole little description about what's on the list you know the Protectorate of Germany some of what was [TS]
00:24:22 ◼ ► When you see an occupied the arms are not in fourteen they became commonly known as Western Samoa. [TS]
00:24:30 ◼ ► So this is so for countries or places where people could be offended by what you call. These are on the list as well. [TS]
00:24:40 ◼ ► when I first started looking at the list another thing I noticed where there were lots of numbers on the list [TS]
00:24:45 ◼ ► and sometimes it was a number that like you know despair was a rude word like boobies or something like that. [TS]
00:24:54 ◼ ► But there are other ones that are to do with you know laws or codes that are used for drug use [TS]
00:24:59 ◼ ► and things like that so this is clearly a list that has been made over a long time [TS]
00:25:09 ◼ ► How many years worth of compilations of every possible piece of feedback they've ever gotten from any of their products [TS]
00:25:17 ◼ ► where someone says oh I don't like your use of this word in this situation and then someone goes [TS]
00:25:21 ◼ ► and adds another road to this enormous spreadsheet about what they should do under under particular circumstances. [TS]
00:25:27 ◼ ► Guess what I just found on the list was you find Holland Hollands How do you know about Holland it is to be left [TS]
00:25:43 ◼ ► and that is all the commonly used to refer to the country of the Netherlands Holland is actually only refers to the [TS]
00:25:51 ◼ ► The two provinces in this region are called North Holland and supplement the official names of the country [TS]
00:26:03 ◼ ► Yeah that's much better than my video that I should have just posted a video saying that you should have would have [TS]
00:26:16 ◼ ► Thank you thank you to the person who sent this to I won't name just in case we're not supposed to have it. [TS]
00:26:22 ◼ ► and just as a tease I would totally love to be able to post this so that everybody listening could look at it because [TS]
00:26:32 ◼ ► but this thank you to whoever sent it in before we crack on can I can I have a Brady's paper cut this way. [TS]
00:26:45 ◼ ► It's more of a paper grace because I don't want to I don't want to create the impression I get too upset about it [TS]
00:26:53 ◼ ► Oh wow OK what do I do that annoys you here you know the world is not limited to me [TS]
00:26:58 ◼ ► but I do that yeah I don't want to I don't want to come across and I want to come across the wrong way. [TS]
00:27:07 ◼ ► and I actually don't know what these things are code which probably adds is probably going to add to the grade A robot [TS]
00:27:13 ◼ ► versus very the caveman element of this I don't like it when people send e-mails with these attachments and that [TS]
00:27:25 ◼ ► Automatically Oh these are these appointment things that seems that seems inappropriate to me and I don't like it [TS]
00:27:33 ◼ ► but if you and I were it at you know you know fifteen years ago where we had a coffee shop [TS]
00:27:44 ◼ ► and see a movie on Tuesday night you wouldn't then reach over and grab the my diary and turn to the page of Tuesday [TS]
00:27:51 ◼ ► and hand write the appointment and that would be my responsibility. That's my My Space And my thing to write in. [TS]
00:28:00 ◼ ► No way Sensi when you agree to make them or do something they send you these attachments and it's like you click on [TS]
00:28:08 ◼ ► and stuff being written in your calendar you can write after which graph I was thinking I've never done that [TS]
00:28:26 ◼ ► and then there's a little location on it to say who else is participating in this and I type in your name [TS]
00:28:34 ◼ ► but I guess the computer just emails you automatically because I realize you have complained about this before [TS]
00:28:40 ◼ ► and I haven't paid much attention sorry it's OK I'm happy I'm happy I'm happy to ignore you [TS]
00:28:46 ◼ ► and you're not the only person who sends them and now I realize you didn't even realize you're sending them. [TS]
00:29:00 ◼ ► Comfortable with can I ask you something you can't why do you click it I mean you must you must know that by now that a [TS]
00:29:06 ◼ ► little card icon I don't automatically I don't click them anymore I know of any of them once [TS]
00:29:15 ◼ ► OK so you're not you're not complaining that it writes in your cat you're complaining that it exists. [TS]
00:29:20 ◼ ► That's what I say another reason I do sometimes click them and you're not guilty of this [TS]
00:29:24 ◼ ► but sometimes you have to click them to get the information that you made about the appointment. [TS]
00:29:28 ◼ ► Well that's just poor emailing skills on the part of the other person so you know if you need the phone number of the [TS]
00:29:33 ◼ ► code for a conference call the where the meetings happening you've got to click on this thing [TS]
00:29:40 ◼ ► That's my space stay out of that as I would usually give footie which took root to witchcraft explicit computer [TS]
00:30:00 ◼ ► If in such a way so that I very rarely have to take a meeting of any kind which I think is a big difference between [TS]
00:30:10 ◼ ► So this is not any kind of issue for me it is very very rare that I have to schedule some kind of meeting at a [TS]
00:30:19 ◼ ► So this is not a big issue for me I don't I don't see very many of those cards because I don't schedule very many I can [TS]
00:30:25 ◼ ► vouch for that getting you to commit to make anyway would do many things buddy not true I'm sorry [TS]
00:30:43 ◼ ► I'm going to take offense at that and then there will be another row in that spreadsheet of what to do. [TS]
00:30:50 ◼ ► I'm going to shut this I'm going to shut this list down because it's too tempting for me just to drop in words from all [TS]
00:30:55 ◼ ► the way through the front. Fair enough you do you do would you want to have no control over your computer screen. [TS]
00:31:00 ◼ ► I have no voodoo witchcraft to force you to shut down the I don't know because you're so much more technically savvy [TS]
00:31:05 ◼ ► than they are I don't know that even just making the Skype call hasn't given you access to things I don't want you. [TS]
00:31:10 ◼ ► Are you going through my files right now where you think it's magic when you leave the camera on [TS]
00:31:14 ◼ ► and I can still see what you're doing. Forget to turn it off. How do you see that. You left your camera on it. [TS]
00:31:29 ◼ ► No I can see right now you are you remember to turn on a camera that starts good so I don't have to put my shirt back [TS]
00:31:44 ◼ ► We'd like to thank the good people at Harry's now you probably know who Harry's are by now they're the people that make [TS]
00:31:54 ◼ ► and they say they're all about giving you a great shaving experience and I'm one hundred percent on board with anyone. [TS]
00:32:00 ◼ ► Who wants to improve any experience I'm having. Now these races are much better than the ones I see on T.V. [TS]
00:32:04 ◼ ► Like in these ads for Gillette that look like these ridiculous props from a Transformers movie. [TS]
00:32:14 ◼ ► They come to this kind of understated elegant packaging and the handles for the races themselves a kind of nice [TS]
00:32:20 ◼ ► and white he well balanced which I think it's important to raise a bit but what do I know. [TS]
00:32:31 ◼ ► and favor the Winston which is the one that has a sort of silvery alum in Him handle very nice matches my bathroom well [TS]
00:32:44 ◼ ► Also with the Winston I think you can have your initials engraved into it which is a nice touch. [TS]
00:32:53 ◼ ► and my share names Heron so I'm sorted all of this aside the most important thing with Harry's I think is the cost. [TS]
00:32:59 ◼ ► They're all that keeping it affordable and the replacement blades come in at less than two dollars H. [TS]
00:33:05 ◼ ► and They're really good blades made in Germany you know they're good if they're made in Germany. [TS]
00:33:13 ◼ ► and if you said you used to buy the lovely products and decide to go ahead and buy one. [TS]
00:33:22 ◼ ► Which with products this shape is a pretty big chunk of the process as far as I know they're only delivering in the [TS]
00:33:27 ◼ ► United States and Canada and U.S. Military locations if you're listening from there. [TS]
00:33:33 ◼ ► But hopefully that will be changing soon because I might be hitting Cymru fields here in the U.K. [TS]
00:33:41 ◼ ► So you get that discount and the people Harry's know you came from here at our pod cast [TS]
00:33:47 ◼ ► and by the way for people who are based on previous ads have already bought from Harry's [TS]
00:33:55 ◼ ► Who would've ever thought I'd end up doing a job where people send me photos from their bathrooms. [TS]
00:34:05 ◼ ► It was excellent as always it's been hugely successful deservedly so congratulations. [TS]
00:34:11 ◼ ► but I was hoping maybe we talk some more about it I mean it's fifty minutes long though I mean you've you covered most [TS]
00:34:18 ◼ ► of the bases I'd imagine but there are probably a few things I'm sure I'll have a few questions about [TS]
00:34:29 ◼ ► and I'm sure there are lots of things you'd like to say about it but for those who haven't seen it. [TS]
00:34:33 ◼ ► This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart and has been on my mind for I was I was trying to place [TS]
00:34:42 ◼ ► when this started and I can actually put it pretty consistently at about a decade ago when I was in college [TS]
00:34:53 ◼ ► To what extent is automation and computer technology going to replace the need for human labor [TS]
00:35:19 ◼ ► You should sort of what you call I mean you can have an excellent auto humans need not apply. [TS]
00:35:27 ◼ ► He should've Kota if you're going to be really click Baity should've put you should have called it eight ways that [TS]
00:35:32 ◼ ► robots will take your jobs. Yes yes I had a really Buzz Feed it up there. You missed a trick there. [TS]
00:35:38 ◼ ► It could have been a list video imagine how many more of you that would have gotten the sad thing is it almost [TS]
00:35:43 ◼ ► certainly would have gotten more definite words it would have stood him pretty well I say I think of my area a million [TS]
00:35:48 ◼ ► already I have to say I was pleasantly surprised I had no expectations for this one so I'm pretty happy about it. [TS]
00:36:00 ◼ ► Do we even start talking about what I wrote I don't completely agree. That's going to be my position. [TS]
00:36:06 ◼ ► OK Well let me let let's start with a start with my my position is basically that this is a really big deal coming down [TS]
00:36:20 ◼ ► and how much humans are going to be finding it very difficult to compete with machines. [TS]
00:36:26 ◼ ► That's that's my my basic thesis I think the most interesting place maybe to start this discussion is talking about the [TS]
00:36:37 ◼ ► self driving cars is that to me that is that is the one thing where I look at this and I really think. [TS]
00:36:49 ◼ ► and it really is a place where people are going to see this in their daily life in a way that lots of other kinds of [TS]
00:36:58 ◼ ► So I spent tons of time researching and looking up different kinds of automation and contacting companies [TS]
00:37:13 ◼ ► and I've gotten some interesting anonymous e-mails from people who work in automating systems talking about what [TS]
00:37:22 ◼ ► But the self driving car which I really think people should call an auto I'm going to try to make that a thing. [TS]
00:37:27 ◼ ► Speaking of Oxford English Dictionary are you listening I would very much like a lot of it to be your new word to mean [TS]
00:37:34 ◼ ► Was that your point was if you borrowed that from someone else you say using it calling out [TS]
00:37:40 ◼ ► As far as I know I'm I'm going to call myself coining this as we have discussed many times on the podcast. [TS]
00:37:47 ◼ ► It would not surprise me in the least if somebody else independently has has come up with this coinage [TS]
00:37:53 ◼ ► but I really I really think that you need a different word to describe self driving cars and I spent. [TS]
00:38:00 ◼ ► Spent a while thinking about it and in my original version of the script I had it as automobiles. [TS]
00:38:08 ◼ ► but I thought oh I don't like that because it's it just didn't it just didn't feel right [TS]
00:38:17 ◼ ► and it leaned into this whole notion of they are they are automatic transport machines they are fundamentally different [TS]
00:38:24 ◼ ► from from cars so I don't know I don't know about that there are some it does feel right. [TS]
00:38:32 ◼ ► First you know people you refer to their cars autos if they've got an automatic or a manual [TS]
00:38:37 ◼ ► but I have never heard anyone use that phrase but I like it you know for example like if you buy you know [TS]
00:38:44 ◼ ► when you buy a new car I say had people say oh did you get whatever menu and I am going to order it with me [TS]
00:38:52 ◼ ► and say I've only heard Americans refer to them as as automatics I became me about be curious to hear from listeners [TS]
00:39:02 ◼ ► but in classified advertisement set off in the called auto pilot has to say as you left I was going to [TS]
00:39:10 ◼ ► but then that then becomes the word doesn't but that's how words sometimes abbreviations. Yes that's true that's true. [TS]
00:39:17 ◼ ► Anyway anyway that we're getting off. No you're going off track. It's a good name for it but I'm not. [TS]
00:39:26 ◼ ► Just because just because that's the most obvious place that we see this transition happening was that the most [TS]
00:39:32 ◼ ► important. So I would what I think is important about autos coming into daily life. [TS]
00:39:44 ◼ ► So as we know right now self driving car it it works is is not a technical problem. [TS]
00:39:53 ◼ ► We're not imagining a future world where there will be self driving cars that work. We already have them. [TS]
00:40:00 ◼ ► Now it's very interesting I've read a lot of first hand accounts of people who have driven in them [TS]
00:40:05 ◼ ► and in particular leave the Google cars which have more or less free rein up and down the California coast [TS]
00:40:15 ◼ ► And the safety record now is better than human drivers over the equivalent distance. [TS]
00:40:22 ◼ ► So my perspective on this is that the rollout of autos now is really much more of a legislative barrier it is no longer [TS]
00:40:34 ◼ ► And interestingly there are a few states that already have legislation in place too I think next year make it legal for [TS]
00:40:43 ◼ ► there to be self driving cars on the road. Florida is one of those states. It was Florida. [TS]
00:40:52 ◼ ► So this is this is definitely this is definitely coming. And the reason why I think it's important is. [TS]
00:41:09 ◼ ► So once you have a fleet of autos in a city you don't need taxi drivers and there's lots of taxi drivers [TS]
00:41:23 ◼ ► and the other reason why I like to use autos because it's as a broader term is think about all of the kinds of machines [TS]
00:41:39 ◼ ► and some very you know there are some very interesting videos I've seen again of automated farming equipment just [TS]
00:41:45 ◼ ► driving around harvesting corn. There happens to be a person in there but he is not driving. [TS]
00:41:51 ◼ ► and then the other one that was very very interesting is Caterpillar which is the mining manufacturing company they [TS]
00:42:00 ◼ ► All in on automated machines they have this whole system and you can go and watch their promo videos [TS]
00:42:23 ◼ ► and to me the thing that's important about this is like this is the first wave where it's very concrete. [TS]
00:42:33 ◼ ► And from my perspective the question that really needs answering is what are you going to do [TS]
00:42:41 ◼ ► when the three million people who work in the transportation industry suddenly find themselves unemployed possibly over [TS]
00:42:56 ◼ ► but I bet it will be pretty fast because it will be just so much cheaper they'll be a big incentive to use autos. [TS]
00:43:03 ◼ ► And I feel like that that is a moment where we as a society have to come to a question about what are you going to do [TS]
00:43:10 ◼ ► with all of these people who are suddenly unemployed and this is not unprecedented. [TS]
00:43:22 ◼ ► You talk yourself about the transition from horses to the original autos the automobile. [TS]
00:43:34 ◼ ► and really heavily automate things that used to be done in the ledges and by means of calculating people [TS]
00:43:41 ◼ ► and bookkeepers you know we've seen wave after wave of this and it is up a level and [TS]
00:43:47 ◼ ► and is traumatic for millions of people but the world keeps spinning and and by and large people keep ating [TS]
00:44:06 ◼ ► but I don't know maybe they say that every time. Well we're never going to see change like this again. [TS]
00:44:10 ◼ ► Did the introduction of the computer or the introduction of you know the motor car. [TS]
00:44:18 ◼ ► and then you look back twenty years later thirty years later and it's like yeah that was a big change [TS]
00:44:24 ◼ ► and things changed and we're all still here and I could just see that happening again with the self driving cars. [TS]
00:44:31 ◼ ► Yeah I think actually the best the best comparison to make along these lines is actually the thing that I opened my [TS]
00:44:36 ◼ ► video with very on purpose is talking about the transition from agricultural work into non agricultural work [TS]
00:44:50 ◼ ► but if you go back to the eighteen hundreds I think it was about eighty percent of the population maybe was ninety [TS]
00:44:57 ◼ ► percent of the population was directly involved in food production that that the number of people who did anything [TS]
00:45:03 ◼ ► other than work on a farm or directly service farms was just a tiny portion of the population [TS]
00:45:09 ◼ ► and I think you could totally make the same claim go back at that point in time and. [TS]
00:45:16 ◼ ► And tell people about OK what we're going to have improvements in farming technology which are going to allow fewer [TS]
00:45:21 ◼ ► and fewer people to produce more and more food and people could say well you know what is everybody going to do. [TS]
00:45:30 ◼ ► Yep so I totally ignore all of that this has been a kind of rallying cry very many times throughout history. [TS]
00:45:40 ◼ ► And there is even a name for it the official name is the Luddite fallacy which is the position that are going to get [TS]
00:45:50 ◼ ► but I think if you if you believe in the Luddite fallacy you believe that technology reduces the number of jobs. [TS]
00:45:58 ◼ ► I think that's the right crowd around. Very internet if it's the wrong way around. [TS]
00:46:05 ◼ ► and one of the reasons why I think that is fundamentally different this time is because I look at it this way. [TS]
00:46:13 ◼ ► You say all right we have we have all these different categories of work that humans can do [TS]
00:46:19 ◼ ► and humans can sell their straight up physical labor you can have a guy dig a ditch just muscle power. [TS]
00:46:26 ◼ ► Yeah just straight up muscle power and you can it you can be barely cognitively functioning [TS]
00:46:34 ◼ ► and then you move up that you keep moving up into things like white collar workers as you know OK well now this is a [TS]
00:46:40 ◼ ► thinking person's work and as a general statement the economy has has transitioned from in the first world anyway. [TS]
00:46:49 ◼ ► Physical labor jobs into more intellectual labor jobs jobs that require some kind of thinking [TS]
00:46:56 ◼ ► and actually put driving a car in the category of jobs that require some kind of thinking. [TS]
00:47:01 ◼ ► We don't think of it that way but you need to have a mentally alert person to drive a car or an ambulance. [TS]
00:47:07 ◼ ► Yes it is like it's like the lowest kind of thinking job perhaps because I know I've I've driven quite a lot across the [TS]
00:47:14 ◼ ► and you listen to audiobooks you know your mind you don't have to focus like you're a doctor for example I don't want [TS]
00:47:19 ◼ ► the doctor listening to audiobooks while he's doing it so yeah like oh that was good. [TS]
00:47:24 ◼ ► If you're a doctor listening to this podcast please stop listening to the podcast if you are performing surgery at the. [TS]
00:47:32 ◼ ► Anyway with truck drivers you know they're going to be smart and know brilliance and laws [TS]
00:47:40 ◼ ► and so my perspective on this is that the Basically our machines for almost all of human history were just shockingly [TS]
00:47:50 ◼ ► dumb they had no cognitive abilities whatsoever and that we are we are just getting to the point now where. [TS]
00:48:07 ◼ ► and that's where you talk about a self driving car in very many ways it is a brain competition with humans which makes [TS]
00:48:17 ◼ ► when you build a better plowed into that plow is not any smarter than the plow that was made of sticks. [TS]
00:48:23 ◼ ► If it's made of metal it's just physically stronger maybe yeah it's just physically stronger it's bigger. [TS]
00:48:29 ◼ ► I had this I had this whole bizarre section that I cut I think quite rightly which is hung on the progress of flower [TS]
00:48:38 ◼ ► and then I look at this later like what am I writing this for this whole thing sounds like a hell of a moment ago. [TS]
00:48:45 ◼ ► But there is a little a little clip of a flour mill that I still left in there anyway. [TS]
00:48:50 ◼ ► But if I get like a bigger better flour mill is not fundamentally different from a primitive flour mill. [TS]
00:48:56 ◼ ► Yeah and that's why I like people who say like oh I'm just engaging the Luddite fallacy when I talk about this stuff. [TS]
00:49:02 ◼ ► This to me is the real difference is like OK well humans have two kinds of labor to sell physical labor which we've [TS]
00:49:10 ◼ ► and we crossed that threshold I guess at the time of the lever almost in ways that that machine started being able to [TS]
00:49:20 ◼ ► and things came along so that threshold thing crossed you're saying there's another threshold now. [TS]
00:49:30 ◼ ► And that to me is is the real difference and part part of the reason why I am I am concerned is [TS]
00:49:39 ◼ ► and I think this is this is a bit of a it is a bit of an uncomfortable conversation to have sometimes [TS]
00:49:45 ◼ ► but I look at it another example of of a machine that is competing cognitively with humans on a low level are the self [TS]
00:49:53 ◼ ► checkout machines that you see everywhere now in supermarkets and yours. I mean this is this is one. [TS]
00:50:00 ◼ ► Things that really made me start thinking I need to make this video is i saw a bunch of stores around me transition to [TS]
00:50:07 ◼ ► Man I hate things that they can be sure annoying like Don't get me wrong there are there are there are troubles [TS]
00:50:13 ◼ ► and problems with them but it doesn't matter that yeah they're more economically efficient [TS]
00:50:17 ◼ ► and I did a tally of some of the places that I visit and in and one of the supermarkets in London alone. [TS]
00:50:26 ◼ ► and I was like oh OK I just wrote these machines replaced about forty checkout registers in this one huge supermarket [TS]
00:50:35 ◼ ► and looking at all of the other places I'm like OK I know that there used to be five people at the desk over there [TS]
00:50:41 ◼ ► and now there's one you know not not every place is doing this but enough places are doing it [TS]
00:50:50 ◼ ► We're going to have autos doing the same kind of thing start pushing people out of the labor market with taxis [TS]
00:51:03 ◼ ► What is it that we're going to have these people do that a machine won't be able to do better. [TS]
00:51:17 ◼ ► or you take someone whose job is long haul trucking What are you really going to do with millions of people who used to [TS]
00:51:28 ◼ ► And how are you going to transition them to something else when all of this kind of work can be automated [TS]
00:51:37 ◼ ► when the machines keep getting better and better and can compete with humans on different levels. [TS]
00:51:43 ◼ ► And I I sometimes get mad because I get into arguments with people who keep saying things like oh you know they'll [TS]
00:51:50 ◼ ► these people they'll go get educated and go to college they'll learn how to become app developers for the App Store [TS]
00:52:00 ◼ ► All of these things and I and I always feel like that's a nice story to tell yourself [TS]
00:52:07 ◼ ► when you start talking about numbers in the millions of people you're not going to transition a million guys who were [TS]
00:52:14 ◼ ► truck drivers into white collar work somewhere in an office I think we have to face the fact that that is that is not [TS]
00:52:23 ◼ ► practical and I mean yeah you know you make the case brilliantly if both now and in your video and quite possibly [TS]
00:52:32 ◼ ► but I may very well be wrong I always want to be clear about this. I'm very open to the notion of being wrong. [TS]
00:52:47 ◼ ► and said don't worry because in two hundred years will be working in call centers and this [TS]
00:52:56 ◼ ► All this going to be this invention called the telephone and then this and then that and then this [TS]
00:52:59 ◼ ► and their heads would explode you know just like that person in the field two hundred years ago [TS]
00:53:04 ◼ ► and in two hundred years you look at all the jobs people are doing and go Well I would never even thought of that. [TS]
00:53:10 ◼ ► Yes And of course a machine can't do that yet because you know I hadn't thought of it. [TS]
00:53:13 ◼ ► Yeah I mean this is maybe maybe I'm clinging on to a wispy thread of hope and there isn't going to be an invention [TS]
00:53:28 ◼ ► when I first transition from being a teacher in to being a You Tube explainer person as I do now I guess I remember I [TS]
00:53:40 ◼ ► and all these these kinds of jobs that have been coming up I think like wow I'm I'm making a full time living now on [TS]
00:53:47 ◼ ► You Tube and at the time that wasn't even five years old that the whole idea that there were ads on You Tube [TS]
00:53:53 ◼ ► and You Tube would share the revenue with people who make the videos that didn't even exist for very long at the time [TS]
00:54:00 ◼ ► It's it was it was quite amazing to me that this is this new kind of work that could happen [TS]
00:54:05 ◼ ► and I started looking around at all different kinds of look at all these new jobs isn't this interesting there are [TS]
00:54:12 ◼ ► One of the things that I thought one day was ha I wonder how many people make a living on You Tube full time [TS]
00:54:23 ◼ ► and if you're on the inside of You Tube you can do some ballpark numbers of heart that are harder to do on the outside [TS]
00:54:29 ◼ ► but you know you can you can gather data about the views on channels and there's a whole bunch of stuff you can do. [TS]
00:54:36 ◼ ► The bottom line is my back of beyond the loop calculation was not talking about companies like Disney who happened to [TS]
00:54:43 ◼ ► be on You Tube and not talking about channels like vivo that happened to be on You Tube [TS]
00:54:48 ◼ ► but people whose job is like mine making You Tube videos how many people like that can there be around the world. [TS]
00:54:55 ◼ ► My ballpark was maybe somewhere around two thousand people. And so that that was kind of my guess about that. [TS]
00:55:10 ◼ ► The other thing that that actually this is something that I talk about in a future podcast [TS]
00:55:14 ◼ ► but there's been a bunch of interesting articles making their way around the Internet right now about how many people [TS]
00:55:20 ◼ ► make a full time living developing applications for the i Phone an i O. S. On Apple. [TS]
00:55:27 ◼ ► and they always have these comical numbers about you know there's twenty zillion apps in the App Store [TS]
00:55:33 ◼ ► and then the question is OK but how many people make a full time living at that they get not companies but individuals. [TS]
00:55:40 ◼ ► And I haven't seen anybody try to ballpark it. I'd be really curious if somebody could. [TS]
00:55:46 ◼ ► But the clear thing from these articles is that the number of independent developers making a living on the App Store [TS]
00:55:52 ◼ ► is a tiny number of people it is a very small number of people. So when I was thinking about realizing how. [TS]
00:56:00 ◼ ► A few people did You Tube I had this growing suspicion that while there are many new kinds of jobs I don't think that [TS]
00:56:13 ◼ ► And again through some people at the Bureau of Labor Statistics this information was confirmed to me that basically [TS]
00:56:20 ◼ ► jobs that are new within the last hundred years are very small portions of the workforce [TS]
00:56:26 ◼ ► and if you look at what people do they are jobs that have been around for a long time in one form or another. [TS]
00:56:34 ◼ ► And so that's why I worry that this this refrain of new jobs will come and save us. [TS]
00:56:41 ◼ ► Doesn't doesn't strike me as being borne out by the data it's actually there are very few jobs over time [TS]
00:56:48 ◼ ► and a lot of the old jobs that make up about half the labor force seem to be easy targets for automation like within [TS]
00:56:55 ◼ ► our grasp right now for stuff that works in the labs. So that's kind of my thoughts on the new the new jobs thing. [TS]
00:57:03 ◼ ► Apologies if this was covered in the video but I do know something I took away from the video [TS]
00:57:07 ◼ ► and it might be a really naive question because I know you do your bit more if I was sort of economics [TS]
00:57:13 ◼ ► and things like this than I But another thing that I thought might save our bacon was this you know I want things that [TS]
00:57:25 ◼ ► And I don't and I'm sure there's somebody you know normal word for this and you'll laugh at me for even saying it [TS]
00:57:30 ◼ ► but I am not stupid and I realize that companies will maximize their profits and automate and automate [TS]
00:57:37 ◼ ► and cut down their labor force as much as they can to squeeze every last penny out of out of their business. [TS]
00:57:48 ◼ ► and society could fall into such ruin that they actually can no longer start hurting their customer base [TS]
00:58:02 ◼ ► For example if McDonald's could completely automate the cooking process completely and you just went to an A.T.M. [TS]
00:58:17 ◼ ► Is that kind of a self correcting element to the economy as a whole where business went completely. [TS]
00:58:25 ◼ ► Suresh society into the ground because they need society to sustain their business. [TS]
00:58:30 ◼ ► OK So you've actually you've actually jump to the thing that I was going to talk about at the end [TS]
00:58:36 ◼ ► So this this comes right to the right to the point where I am on board with you that that was one of the reasons why I [TS]
00:58:44 ◼ ► made this video is I wanted to contribute to a general conversation of talking about what are we going to do with [TS]
00:58:55 ◼ ► and under the current system you are you are kind of right that you can't have a system where. [TS]
00:59:07 ◼ ► It gets very strange economically very quickly that there are ways under which it can work [TS]
00:59:12 ◼ ► but yes that there are there are certainly problems with very high unemployment rates. [TS]
00:59:18 ◼ ► But at some point I don't know what the time frame is going to be we will be in a world where technology is just so [TS]
00:59:27 ◼ ► advanced that basically all of human labor is almost irrelevant that that would be my prediction. [TS]
00:59:42 ◼ ► So for those who haven't seen Gray's videos Well I mean he talked about you know newspaper articles being written [TS]
00:59:47 ◼ ► automatically in the end that things that we don't even things we think are ridiculous to be done automatically [TS]
00:59:52 ◼ ► actually happening automatically already writing music doing doing legal work there's all kinds of terrifying stuff. [TS]
01:00:01 ◼ ► So OK But here's the thing if we could magically jump to that point I feel like well that's not really a problem. [TS]
01:00:08 ◼ ► If all human life is not required because then you're in what is called a post scarcity economy where our current [TS]
01:00:22 ◼ ► We exchange money for goods and services because you have a limited amount of time [TS]
01:00:27 ◼ ► and there's a limited amount of production that can happen this is the story of all of human history. [TS]
01:00:31 ◼ ► But if you transition to a place where robots can you know they can grow your food [TS]
01:00:35 ◼ ► and they can run the solar plants to generate the electricity to run the robots you know well then suddenly Why would [TS]
01:00:41 ◼ ► people pay for anything. If you can have automation just one hundred percent of the way. [TS]
01:00:46 ◼ ► So that's that's like a nice fantasy land but the gist of the poll and drink cocktails. [TS]
01:00:52 ◼ ► Yes It's like the Wally World right the robots are taking charge of everything and we get nice [TS]
01:00:57 ◼ ► and fat in our luxury spaceship but I'd love to be in that role by the way maybe not have had a treadmill [TS]
01:01:06 ◼ ► But anyway that's what I want actually if you're on a treadmill if you want to do it. [TS]
01:01:13 ◼ ► and I have to say I am so I am that to be clear here I am very long term optimistic on humankind. [TS]
01:01:22 ◼ ► I am very short term worried for exactly the kinds of problems that you bring up which is. [TS]
01:01:29 ◼ ► What happens as the unemployment rate goes up because there's there are all of these incentives for companies to [TS]
01:01:39 ◼ ► automate work and to increase the unemployment rate. And any company that doesn't go along with this. [TS]
01:01:51 ◼ ► but they've been the one company that doesn't go along with it just pushes itself out of business faster because of the [TS]
01:02:07 ◼ ► and I think we're in an interesting position where OK we're standing in today's society [TS]
01:02:12 ◼ ► and you can look at maybe a quasi utopian future but between us and there is a pit of doom. Yeah. [TS]
01:02:20 ◼ ► Of dangerous situations because you cannot have if you imagine particularly American society exactly as it is now [TS]
01:02:33 ◼ ► Yeah that's riots in the streets level of unemployment right now. That is people can't get food this is a huge problem. [TS]
01:02:43 ◼ ► And so this is this is my concern about what are we going to do in the transition phase [TS]
01:02:48 ◼ ► and I'm going to be very very conservatively say the transition phase is like the most like a twenty year phase that we [TS]
01:02:57 ◼ ► I actually my gut feeling is this is more of like a ten year timeframe that we need to be worried about this stuff. [TS]
01:03:04 ◼ ► But there is there is definitely a human tendency to overestimate change in the short run [TS]
01:03:16 ◼ ► but that's kind of what I mean by I'm short term worried which is a twenty year timeframe. [TS]
01:03:24 ◼ ► but there's a lot there's a lot of pubs that start you were going to ask me something. [TS]
01:03:31 ◼ ► I can hear you breathe and you're like my wife you can I'm watching like on the Skype right now. [TS]
01:03:37 ◼ ► I'm covering the cameras to get the feel of the whole time you're not my wife they are like she can just tell from the [TS]
01:03:46 ◼ ► Exactly what about just getting into that this would be a very popular thing to suggest [TS]
01:03:52 ◼ ► but I'm sure some think that you know is often talked about could there be could legislation or regulation. [TS]
01:04:13 ◼ ► And here here's my view on technology I think technology is almost a technological progress I should say is it's almost [TS]
01:04:25 ◼ ► like like a nuclear reaction in that one once it gets started it is going to keep spiraling [TS]
01:04:35 ◼ ► and there is nothing that you can do to kind of hold this back as long as you have groups of people anywhere in the [TS]
01:04:42 ◼ ► world this is the kind of reaction that is going to occur and it takes place faster [TS]
01:04:52 ◼ ► or what I mentioned in the video is talking about unions try to do the same thing to hold back the progress. [TS]
01:05:08 ◼ ► But I meant to say but you know what I mean trying to limit the amount of jobs being lost [TS]
01:05:14 ◼ ► and even to say you know in America you convinced the country to to legally prohibit something like the thing that I [TS]
01:05:24 ◼ ► showed which is that the Baxter robot which is a very human like robot that can do a lot of very simple task in which [TS]
01:05:34 ◼ ► and in the United States through its tremendous political pressure convinces its NATO allies to all join on board [TS]
01:05:40 ◼ ► and then it starts leaning on you know the world organization the more people that you get to sign on to technology ban [TS]
01:05:52 ◼ ► Yeah like that that's all you have done is make it more valuable for the people who don't want to participate in this [TS]
01:06:04 ◼ ► Well now this is it is almost like you're talking about a totalitarian society is necessary to halt progress within its [TS]
01:06:15 ◼ ► Yeah you just you cannot possibly do that especially if people are traveling you know you are leaving the country [TS]
01:06:21 ◼ ► and you come back you know then it's almost like a North Korea situation where you leave [TS]
01:06:28 ◼ ► and the technology outside of this country borders like what you know I got I got to get a message back to my family to [TS]
01:06:36 ◼ ► If the United States is completed I mean you know you make a good you make a joke about that about like a North Korean [TS]
01:06:41 ◼ ► person being amazed by the technology outside their borders and at the moment that is a joke [TS]
01:06:46 ◼ ► but the joke would turn the other way really quickly if in twenty years like you say they go from outside North Korea [TS]
01:06:52 ◼ ► and all they see is riots in the Straits unemployed people in these wonderful technology. Yeah. [TS]
01:07:15 ◼ ► I'm going to lay it out that I think this is one of the biggest challenges that humanity is going to face. [TS]
01:07:31 ◼ ► It's because part of it is I think that the things that are talked about daily in the news like don't are not [TS]
01:07:36 ◼ ► necessarily big scale things to worry about and from. So it's like this is the thing to be discussing. [TS]
01:07:43 ◼ ► Now this you know this is this is a really big societal changing kind of thing that needs to be is this a bigger issue [TS]
01:08:00 ◼ ► Which are all caught up in the nature of what is a level of technology available now. [TS]
01:08:14 ◼ ► and I've always held the opinion that technology is really the driving force behind history [TS]
01:08:25 ◼ ► I was saying on Twitter that people were taking my video as being very pessimistic [TS]
01:08:30 ◼ ► and I didn't really mean it that way I was aiming for it to be quite neutral like to inform people about this issue. [TS]
01:08:37 ◼ ► But I was trying very consciously to not have it be a Isn't this the most terrible thing in the world it was more like [TS]
01:08:46 ◼ ► And my my position really is that if we play our cards right this could be humanity's greatest moment. [TS]
01:08:57 ◼ ► and end up with it like a riot in the streets situation so I want to see what just playing our cards right look like. [TS]
01:09:10 ◼ ► So here's here's here's the way I want to walk into this in the video I made a very conscious choice to not talk about [TS]
01:09:18 ◼ ► potential solutions. At the end of that video you know I depend on you for solutions. [TS]
01:09:23 ◼ ► That's what that's what it takes you all the time and if I don't put it off where should I go. [TS]
01:09:31 ◼ ► Well I mean this is this is a case where I'm going to I'm going to start before before I get to the end I might as well [TS]
01:09:38 ◼ ► but here's the way I want to log into this is I've been kind of talking about this topic with people in my life [TS]
01:09:48 ◼ ► and just people of interest for a decade because this is just this is really been a great interest of mine [TS]
01:10:00 ◼ ► During a pattern in all of these conversations which is that getting people even on the on board the know this time is [TS]
01:10:10 ◼ ► really different technological change is different from the agricultural revolution. [TS]
01:10:18 ◼ ► and I was always really aware that if it if it then if the conversation even if I got them on board part one if we [TS]
01:10:30 ◼ ► Suddenly what we're actually having is a conversation about contemporary politics. Yeah. [TS]
01:10:36 ◼ ► Oh well now I'm talking about what is this person's feelings about political situations right now [TS]
01:10:43 ◼ ► and then I often saw people undo changing their mind about technological problems because it disagreed with their [TS]
01:10:57 ◼ ► And so that's why I did not want to connect those two parts because I've seen people unconvinced themselves often [TS]
01:11:05 ◼ ► when what you know so much out of denial like I say I suddenly they're confronted with something else they don't like [TS]
01:11:09 ◼ ► and that is the head in the sand. Yeah well you know every everybody does this which is you. [TS]
01:11:17 ◼ ► It is very much human nature when you're kind of forced to draw a conclusion that you don't like to then go back [TS]
01:11:31 ◼ ► when talking to people is get them on board the automation train and just kind of leave it [TS]
01:11:41 ◼ ► and then you can have a much better conversation about well what are we going to try to do for this sort of thing [TS]
01:11:51 ◼ ► Well I guess I think that maybe you haven't thought about it because you haven't had enough conversations out of those [TS]
01:12:00 ◼ ► Here here is the change that I think needs to happen in people's minds is we need to stigmatize particular feelings [TS]
01:12:25 ◼ ► when we were recording this it's the middle of a recession which let me circle back to later. [TS]
01:12:31 ◼ ► People have very negative feelings towards the unemployed that oh you know why why aren't they working. [TS]
01:12:48 ◼ ► Everybody has like a cousin Earl who's just you know never never tries very hard anything is a total bomb [TS]
01:12:55 ◼ ► and isn't looking for work and is just like a total mooch on society. Everybody knows somebody like that. [TS]
01:13:01 ◼ ► Your cousin doesn't listen I don't think you listen. But there are always individuals like that. [TS]
01:13:09 ◼ ► Yeah but it's a very different case when you start looking structurally at the whole economy and I think we are we are. [TS]
01:13:17 ◼ ► The reason why in part the reason why I made this video now is I think we really are in the beginning phases of this [TS]
01:13:22 ◼ ► thing called structural unemployment where people just will not be able to find a job. [TS]
01:13:31 ◼ ► And under those circumstances I think we have to start viewing people not as unemployed with the implication that oh if [TS]
01:13:47 ◼ ► and instead we have to look at them as almost as unemployable that there is there is nothing that this person can do to [TS]
01:14:00 ◼ ► and given the current level of technology that they cannot outcompete a machine in the things that they're able to do [TS]
01:14:13 ◼ ► and then at this stage if you come along to this point and agree that certain kinds of people are unemployable. [TS]
01:14:20 ◼ ► The question we have to ask ourselves is well are we going to help those people or are we going to say tough luck. [TS]
01:14:31 ◼ ► You get to starve to death on the streets because you are not economically viable. [TS]
01:14:35 ◼ ► And the way I have phrased that you might feel where which we have with that is I mean you know if society is anything [TS]
01:14:42 ◼ ► society is about setting the minimum standards below which we will not let people fall. [TS]
01:14:49 ◼ ► If people are unemployable do we help them or do we leave them on their own and my position is that we help them. [TS]
01:14:56 ◼ ► But that that's what society is. You don't just you don't just abandon people because they're not economically viable. [TS]
01:15:07 ◼ ► So that like this is where we are this is where we walk into but then this not are not totally how capitalism works. [TS]
01:15:15 ◼ ► when in many of these conversations it starts becoming like so are you a socialist boy feel like. [TS]
01:15:23 ◼ ► No I'm not a socialist I this is this is not my like I haven't been sneakily trying to turn it over into the Soviet [TS]
01:15:36 ◼ ► but my my the reason why I think that happens is because people look at it with the current economic situation [TS]
01:15:46 ◼ ► So what do you want to do do you want to raise taxes right now to pay for all of these people [TS]
01:15:51 ◼ ► and my position is I'm not talking about right now. What I'm talking about is as the unemployment rate rises. [TS]
01:16:02 ◼ ► Because my my thought on this is that the current level of technology that we are in it increases income inequality [TS]
01:16:12 ◼ ► and so if you have increasing amounts of automation what you should find as a society is that there are fewer [TS]
01:16:20 ◼ ► and fewer people who are collecting basically more and more of the resources of the society [TS]
01:16:26 ◼ ► and I don't even mean that on an individual level. I even mean that on a company level. [TS]
01:16:34 ◼ ► There's a book that people should should check I mean there are many books on the subject [TS]
01:16:38 ◼ ► but one of which is particular interesting is called Average is over by Tyler Cowen I think is how you say his last [TS]
01:16:51 ◼ ► And one of the things that is very interesting is saying OK let's take a look at the companies on the Fortune five [TS]
01:17:01 ◼ ► The number of employees per revenue dollar generated that ratio has just skyrocketed. [TS]
01:17:13 ◼ ► but Apple is sitting on the world's most gigantic pile of money they have they have so much money [TS]
01:17:23 ◼ ► and you look at the biggest companies in the world you know in the one nine hundred sixty S. I think it was G.E. [TS]
01:17:28 ◼ ► and It was Ford and they employed hundreds of thousands of people. But Apple is like two thousand people. [TS]
01:17:36 ◼ ► It's some comically small amount of people and it's hugely more profitable than those old companies were [TS]
01:17:46 ◼ ► So this is what I mean by a kind of income inequality I don't even just mean particularly rich doods [TS]
01:17:56 ◼ ► So what's going to happen to Apple when there's only five people left on earth that can afford. [TS]
01:18:02 ◼ ► and punching each other in the face as income inequality rises because of automation [TS]
01:18:13 ◼ ► The only way to avert the riots is that you have to start talking about providing a minimum level of security to the [TS]
01:18:29 ◼ ► Let's keep the wheels on the cart solution because as I said before I think you can't you can't stop companies from [TS]
01:18:38 ◼ ► But if you leave that indefinitely you can end up in that giant pit of doom where there are riots in the streets. [TS]
01:18:47 ◼ ► So I know you're trying to sort of be you chew on the issue and you know you're not claiming to have all the answers [TS]
01:18:56 ◼ ► KING I need to be king in these situations I need unilateral control with military force behind me. [TS]
01:19:02 ◼ ► Because on one hand it feels a bit like you're saying this is happening people. Stop stop ignoring it. [TS]
01:19:10 ◼ ► But on the other hand you're using a lot of language like we need to start thinking about we need to think about the [TS]
01:19:15 ◼ ► future you know we don't need to do anything now but we need to start thinking about what we do. [TS]
01:19:20 ◼ ► It says to me that we need to be doing something now. I guess that's what we need to be doing now I guess. [TS]
01:19:25 ◼ ► I guess this is for for the historical record my need to be thinking about a time scale is basically between now [TS]
01:19:33 ◼ ► and the point at which self driving cars are legal on the road not that quick that by the sounds of it yes that is what [TS]
01:19:43 ◼ ► I am not putting the we need to be thinking about this for five years kind of issue [TS]
01:19:52 ◼ ► Should we be connecting a huge pension pot of money for all these future unemployed over what I really think that the [TS]
01:20:04 ◼ ► Because I think if you can't get past that point you have no political capital to get anything done that is what it [TS]
01:20:11 ◼ ► where I see the most resistance comes from is people thinking oh I'm not going to support those lazy people who you [TS]
01:20:17 ◼ ► know who who aren't working and I have a job why can't they get a job and if you could you could pass a law [TS]
01:20:26 ◼ ► No You know you can not at all and that's that's why you can't change people's opinions with a law [TS]
01:20:33 ◼ ► but I think people who will listen to the show are aware that I am often very deeply cynical [TS]
01:20:38 ◼ ► and pessimistic about making meaningful change in the world I am not very optimistic about lots of those things even [TS]
01:20:45 ◼ ► though I am the guy who is known for making videos about how the voting system should be changed because I'm very much [TS]
01:20:59 ◼ ► and so talking about a whole bunch of issues doesn't do anything to help those issues. [TS]
01:21:03 ◼ ► Yeah but this to me is much more like it's almost much more like a social issue and this is not the best comparison [TS]
01:21:16 ◼ ► The public sentiment shift on gay marriage has been remarkably quick compared to changes that have happened in the past. [TS]
01:21:25 ◼ ► and I actually I would bet that that's also a side effect of of just like technology like the Internet allowing people [TS]
01:21:41 ◼ ► But the government couldn't pass a law that said everybody has to be OK with gay marriage [TS]
01:21:51 ◼ ► We have moved to this position where people are much much more on board with what gay marriage is [TS]
01:22:08 ◼ ► and in some little way like I'm trying to contribute to a conversation of being aware that people are not able to work [TS]
01:22:18 ◼ ► but through no fault of their own that it that I said that's a marriage thing only became such a talking point because [TS]
01:22:30 ◼ ► or started coming under pressure today things like It's not like we just it's not like someone's decided let's talk [TS]
01:22:40 ◼ ► and then the politicians said oh OK now we can start changing the rose like it does it does start at the top in some [TS]
01:22:51 ◼ ► Starting to pass laws or do things in this area for that conversation to stop or at least. [TS]
01:22:58 ◼ ► And they see people at the top saying we're thinking about changing the rules what do you all think. [TS]
01:23:07 ◼ ► The only reason anyone in power is even going to put that put that message out into the air of hey we're thinking about [TS]
01:23:16 ◼ ► and legalizing gay marriage would do you think about that my political base they would never even float that idea if it [TS]
01:23:23 ◼ ► wasn't already something that was in the ether as it were that is being discussed by people that is clearly an issue [TS]
01:23:30 ◼ ► that you know politicians don't decide to float ideas like just for the hell of it that you know they're they're trying [TS]
01:23:40 ◼ ► And so that's why I really do think that the first the first step is understanding that unemployment now is very [TS]
01:23:48 ◼ ► different. Right. There is this thing that I put a link in the show notes but it is. It's a chart that I think. [TS]
01:24:11 ◼ ► Gross domestic product adjusted for time from one nine hundred fifty until basically now [TS]
01:24:16 ◼ ► and pretty much just a line you know up in to the right there's a couple of dips but the trend is upward. [TS]
01:24:22 ◼ ► The other line is something called labor productivity which means how how much money do you get out of every employee [TS]
01:24:36 ◼ ► You give your workers better technology they can do more stuff that's great but the other line is employment [TS]
01:24:43 ◼ ► and the employment line goes right along with the other two basically until about the early two thousands [TS]
01:25:05 ◼ ► Now the interesting thing about this graph is that basically as far as we have economic records this is never occurred [TS]
01:25:12 ◼ ► before that when you have ups and downs in the economy you have recessions you have depressions G.D.P. [TS]
01:25:20 ◼ ► Productivity and employment all go down at the same time and they all go up at the same time. [TS]
01:25:27 ◼ ► But what this shows is that we can literally see in the economy that in some ways like companies are now decoupled from [TS]
01:25:35 ◼ ► the people that they employ that companies are doing much better through automation technology. [TS]
01:25:41 ◼ ► But employment is just flat flat for a decade. Their fortunes are handcuffed to the footsoldiers anymore. [TS]
01:25:48 ◼ ► Yes And I mean this is one of the things that I think is really interesting is you know we've been in this recession [TS]
01:26:03 ◼ ► There's stuff to buy on the shelves that were not in some world that is is filled with hardship and woe. [TS]
01:26:10 ◼ ► But if you go back to previous recessions and depressions you think about the Great Depression. [TS]
01:26:19 ◼ ► There is not enough food there are not enough clothes and this is that this is kind of like workers [TS]
01:26:28 ◼ ► But now that's not the case and that's one of things I think is just so different about this is [TS]
01:26:32 ◼ ► when you talk about automation you are talking about machines that are able to produce all of the things that we want. [TS]
01:26:47 ◼ ► And so that this this graph I think is particularly terrifying just to see that like the economy is taking off without [TS]
01:27:07 ◼ ► Today's audio book is relevant to the conversation because it's one of the books I used while researching the video [TS]
01:27:18 ◼ ► It's an interesting book because it's a little bit different from some of the other materials that I was researching [TS]
01:27:22 ◼ ► while putting together the video because it talks a lot about what is going to happen during this transition phase as [TS]
01:27:30 ◼ ► our economy switches from requiring humans to do just about everything into a world that is increasingly automated. [TS]
01:27:37 ◼ ► But his focus isn't on the automation it's about what is going to happen to the shape of the labor force as this comes [TS]
01:27:45 ◼ ► into effect. That may sound terribly boring as I'm describing it now but it is a very very interesting book. [TS]
01:27:52 ◼ ► And honestly if you're in the workforce right now it's probably a good book to pick up to just get some ideas about [TS]
01:28:00 ◼ ► Really to the economy within the five year time frame and I don't know if everybody is aware of this [TS]
01:28:05 ◼ ► but audible is an Amazon company and they have a feature where if you are like me say very interested in a book [TS]
01:28:12 ◼ ► and researching it you can get the audiobook version and then you can also get the Kindle version and audible [TS]
01:28:18 ◼ ► and Amazon will synchronize your location between the two of them so this is actually a book that I partially listen to [TS]
01:28:24 ◼ ► an audio book form and partly read and more importantly I could highlight and bookmark very easily [TS]
01:28:35 ◼ ► and it's one of the reasons why I quite like using audible books especially for stuff that for me anyway is work [TS]
01:28:42 ◼ ► related so if you're a student as well you might also be interested in using this feature from audible. [TS]
01:28:46 ◼ ► I find it very helpful. I hope you will as well. So that is my recommendation for this week. [TS]
01:28:51 ◼ ► Averages over by Tyler Cowen when you sign up to audible you can get that book for free. [TS]
01:28:57 ◼ ► So if you want to listen to it audible has it with over one hundred fifty thousand titles [TS]
01:29:04 ◼ ► Get a free audio book and a thirty day trial today by signing up at Audible dot com slash hello internet. [TS]
01:29:09 ◼ ► All one word that's audible dot com slash hello internet. And there will also be a link in the show notes. [TS]
01:29:17 ◼ ► Why are you so interested in this what you say even talking about if it's been a ten year discussion that it's clearly [TS]
01:29:23 ◼ ► a video that was a very thought out and you know and well thought out this is obviously really important. [TS]
01:29:30 ◼ ► Are you scared for yourself for the first draft of this video with a flour mill section was an hour [TS]
01:29:35 ◼ ► and I had to burn the whole thing and then I got it to start over. Well who are you scared for. [TS]
01:30:00 ◼ ► One of the things that I see in all the comments is people are asking what job is safe from automation [TS]
01:30:09 ◼ ► and my perspective is like that is that is really beside the issue because it's quite selfish. [TS]
01:30:18 ◼ ► but it's not it's not even that it's a question of if we don't handle this right it doesn't matter if you have a stick [TS]
01:30:24 ◼ ► it doesn't matter if you have a job they can't be unemployed if this is how he around you is crumbling. [TS]
01:30:31 ◼ ► If I expect it doesn't matter if you got a nice ass if someone's throwing a brick through the window. [TS]
01:30:34 ◼ ► That's exactly and I think that that is probably one of the best leverage to kind of poll [TS]
01:30:57 ◼ ► It's not going to be worth a whole lot to you if the world is starving and people just you know tear down your gates [TS]
01:31:04 ◼ ► when people talk about what job should I get that a say from automation it's a bit of like I think you [TS]
01:31:16 ◼ ► and it doesn't really matter that you even if you have a job that you think is incredibly safe from automation this is [TS]
01:31:35 ◼ ► when I was a young lad in college I came across a book called genetic programming Volumes one two [TS]
01:31:47 ◼ ► and those were amazing books about computer programming there was always this alternate life that I wonder about where [TS]
01:31:53 ◼ ► I had become a computer programmer instead of becoming a physics teacher that was a possibility. [TS]
01:32:00 ◼ ► But these books were amazingly eye opening to me because what they were was well the thing that I talked about very [TS]
01:32:12 ◼ ► but how to write a program that can figure out on its own the solution to some kind of problem which just blew my mind [TS]
01:32:30 ◼ ► and I really think there is a version of my life that might have gone much more down that route because I just I just [TS]
01:32:37 ◼ ► and you can talk about how this works is just so beyond the scope of an audio podcast to talk about this but. [TS]
01:32:45 ◼ ► Just very briefly I'll say that you can talk about it it does one of two things either simulates the way the human [TS]
01:32:50 ◼ ► brain does stuff with kind of pretended neurons in the computer that you can show things [TS]
01:33:04 ◼ ► Or you do something where you basically you have an artificial environment in which you create a bunch of random [TS]
01:33:10 ◼ ► programs and you let you basically run evolution on that you let them breed with each other [TS]
01:33:19 ◼ ► and then you keep running generations on this and you can come up with programs that can solve things. [TS]
01:33:24 ◼ ► And the interesting thing is that you as the programmer have no idea how it works. [TS]
01:33:29 ◼ ► That was a thing that I found the most amazing was I well I would type up a program [TS]
01:33:35 ◼ ► and so I'd come up you know in the morning it would be something like twenty thousand generations of digital programs [TS]
01:33:40 ◼ ► had lived and died and there was some program that could solve a problem for me and I would look at it [TS]
01:33:45 ◼ ► and go nope no idea how it has worked. I can't even remotely figure out how it works. [TS]
01:33:51 ◼ ► It's thousands and thousands of lines of code long. It's just impossible but I found that really fascinating and. [TS]
01:34:01 ◼ ► That we that was for me was it was when I was like whoa. This this is a big deal because you've glimpsed the power. [TS]
01:34:10 ◼ ► and this is again the case where you overestimate change in the short term because at that point I thought like man this [TS]
01:34:19 ◼ ► and the answer is it has not except that basically now a lot of these things are really coming into their own because [TS]
01:34:28 ◼ ► the computing technology has gotten fast enough that it was it was really a we need computers to be ten years faster in [TS]
01:34:35 ◼ ► order to do some of this stuff in a in a realistic way the problems I was having it solve were very very simple [TS]
01:34:40 ◼ ► but that was the thing that really sparked my interest in this and just realizing boy. [TS]
01:34:45 ◼ ► Anybody who's job is to sit at a computer and manipulate things entirely digitally. [TS]
01:34:55 ◼ ► and that's the one thing I didn't talk about in the video because it's not as easy to show visually. [TS]
01:35:00 ◼ ► It's so easy to talk about oh these factory workers and these truck drivers are all going to lose their jobs. [TS]
01:35:08 ◼ ► But I actually think that the people at the biggest risk are not blue collar workers [TS]
01:35:13 ◼ ► but it is white collar workers people who do just work at a computer all day long. [TS]
01:35:24 ◼ ► or part of your job is to go into somebody else's house or to deal with humans in a very direct way. [TS]
01:35:33 ◼ ► and I think those jobs are relatively safe in terms of protection from automation. [TS]
01:35:40 ◼ ► But if your whole job is sitting at a computer I guarantee you if your company is big enough they have hired an [TS]
01:35:48 ◼ ► and I have gotten a bunch of anonymous e-mails from very very guilty automation engineers who feel terrible that this [TS]
01:36:00 ◼ ► Do they like yes I work it's funny and I'm in the basement and nobody knows I'm here [TS]
01:36:06 ◼ ► and I am I am basically required every quarter to be able to automate some portion of the work force that is happening [TS]
01:36:15 ◼ ► You remind me of a great story that that is probably long enough ago now that I can risk telling it [TS]
01:36:24 ◼ ► and high enough up food chains that we can risk the story getting out. I mean treatment. [TS]
01:36:37 ◼ ► We would every three months we would change roles so you would get three months of doing you know getting to be like a [TS]
01:36:45 ◼ ► and three months of you know in the business section writing business stories and things like that [TS]
01:36:51 ◼ ► but also three month stints where you did really crummy jobs that just had to be done by you know by the mill [TS]
01:36:57 ◼ ► and because you're a cadet journalist that was that was your thing. And one of them was reformatting the T.V. Guide. [TS]
01:37:03 ◼ ► We would be sent from the T.V. Stations like their their programs of what shows were on what times for the UK the T.V. [TS]
01:37:19 ◼ ► and the rating of the show whether it was suitable for children and that had to be in italics [TS]
01:37:27 ◼ ► You would usually by Friday you would finish reformatting the T.V. Program so it could be printed inside in the paper. [TS]
01:37:34 ◼ ► So in a way this mate of mine he was pretty clever with computers used there were that there were kind of you know [TS]
01:37:40 ◼ ► algorithms that screwed computer system could run but no one really knew how they worked. [TS]
01:37:50 ◼ ► and he figured out a way to completely automate this job so you would just have the program get scanned in [TS]
01:38:00 ◼ ► And he could just press one or two of these memory case and he would automatically identify the times [TS]
01:38:05 ◼ ► and make them BOWDEN The sort of thing that people can easily do now but at the time [TS]
01:38:10 ◼ ► but at the time you know I ten no longer than ten fifteen years ago this was this was cutting edge [TS]
01:38:16 ◼ ► but it was kept a secret that we had figured out how to do this you know I think it was like when [TS]
01:38:25 ◼ ► Programs you were like like like Harry Potter being given his life without a Marauder's Map. [TS]
01:38:32 ◼ ► and told you are not to tell anyone that we have cracked if all you have to do on Monday morning is the press let [TS]
01:38:48 ◼ ► and it became the secret the secret past him and it was a great example of automation completely making a job done. [TS]
01:39:00 ◼ ► Yes from the from the boss and say I'm sure that job is not redundant but I was happy it was good to get [TS]
01:39:07 ◼ ► and it's funny that I have I have run across a number of examples of computer programmers who are who have told similar [TS]
01:39:15 ◼ ► tales where they have basically said oh yes I have figured out how to automate my own job and I'll just sitting quiet. [TS]
01:39:22 ◼ ► Once but I like I like that you like this idea of a rotating secret society of taking someone aside [TS]
01:39:33 ◼ ► That's really going to go I hit the guy he did is now really really senior in the company like he's one of the most [TS]
01:39:38 ◼ ► senior managers in the company so I'll have to send in this and tell him that you have to say I think [TS]
01:39:43 ◼ ► and his staff are doing that. I'm sure he'd be very upset if you could get rid of the record of what they see. [TS]
01:39:49 ◼ ► It says we could possibly talk about this some more I'm sure there's going to be lots of lots more say that now [TS]
01:39:54 ◼ ► and you read it and things like that so yeah I'm sure the next podcast follow up will be. [TS]
01:40:00 ◼ ► Significant I think we should quickly talk about with the former take you our former teacher you've mentioned that yeah [TS]
01:40:06 ◼ ► we did assign homework but are you going to do a trade here for the for the business and let them off the homework. [TS]
01:40:14 ◼ ► I am going to do something which I did very often as a teacher which is trying to wait until the last possible minute [TS]
01:40:32 ◼ ► I really didn't but I can't do it right now. Off you go and I will see you next week. [TS]
01:40:37 ◼ ► Students former students of mine I can pretty much guarantee any time I forgot to collect homework I almost very rarely [TS]
01:40:47 ◼ ► And I guarantee you that the same is true with a whole bunch of your teachers just because you didn't want to. [TS]
01:40:51 ◼ ► Yeah basically I was I was part of my eternal strategy to reduce the volume of homework that ever passed through my [TS]
01:40:58 ◼ ► hands. No other teachers have done a similar thing like oh let me forget and then I didn't assign homework this time. [TS]
01:41:11 ◼ ► and Everybody's had this in the class goes well Miss Grey you didn't assign the homework right [TS]
01:41:19 ◼ ► What collect our homework plays we haven't when I don't and I spent all night doing it or. [TS]
01:41:23 ◼ ► but you didn't give us any homework assignment for you know for this time I don't like those kids just as much as everybody [TS]
01:41:32 ◼ ► Listen you're not you're not playing along here right where you're all better off if I forget to collect the homework. [TS]
01:41:41 ◼ ► It never occurred to me as a student that the teacher actually was on the same team as me [TS]
01:41:55 ◼ ► The kids are viewing this as an adversarial role as a you do not understand how much we're on the same page so. [TS]
01:42:03 ◼ ► and you have a one extra week to watch Black Mirror which you should because it is amazing that asking people to watch [TS]
01:42:11 ◼ ► all the episodes of black Marilyn Are there specific ones you want them to watch I think you should watch them all [TS]
01:42:17 ◼ ► Series one series two three episodes with anything else you wanted to you were told I could talk about robots forever [TS]
01:42:22 ◼ ► but we'll talk about more and more in the future as it comes up naturally if it does [TS]
01:42:26 ◼ ► but was there anything else you want to talk about no I mean this is there's lots going on [TS]
01:42:30 ◼ ► but there's nothing that can't wait for Episode twenty and the finale of series to Yes Esther [TS]
01:42:36 ◼ ► and I have to be honest I don't mind. Well actually I was about to say making this episode. [TS]
01:42:42 ◼ ► but I just realize we've been recording for about two hours now because I don't mind making this absurd shorter just [TS]