How to Learn To Do Anything In Record Time

1. 0:00 – 3:36

   Starting scrappy: early podcast setup and learning by doing

   1. SPShaan Puri0:00

      The, the opposite of what people think. People think you should go learn some secret theories that you don't know, and then you need to, like, develop your own voice and, and, like, come up with original content. And it's like actually that's a really slow way to get better.

   2. SPSam Parr0:11

      [upbeat music] So I was saying, I, I have a lot to ask you about this document. What, what did you say?

   3. SPShaan Puri0:27

      I was saying, are you gonna ask me about my fresh green smoothie? Maybe my green goddess salad? Maybe this-

   4. SPSam Parr0:33

      Or my green can of Mountain Dew

   5. SPShaan Puri0:35

      ... giant steak that the chef made.

   6. SPSam Parr0:38

      [laughs]

   7. SPShaan Puri0:38

      You know, a, a w- what kind of life am I living here? This is an incredible life. Um-

   8. SPSam Parr0:43

      Well, I would say maybe, like, now is not the best time to eat a salad and a steak. [laughs]

   9. SPShaan Puri0:49

      [laughs]

   10. SPSam Parr0:49

       Maybe, like, later. It's like you literally are eating a steak right now. [laughs]

   11. SPShaan Puri0:53

       Yeah, I took one bite right ... The countdown to recording was like five, four, three, two, one. I was like, "I gotta get it in."

   12. SPSam Parr0:58

       Um, uh, before we really get into stuff, um, so did you see that picture that I shared of you when we first started recording?

   13. SPShaan Puri1:06

       Yeah.

   14. SPSam Parr1:07

       That was great. So ... And I was kind of reflecting on it, and the reason I was reflecting on it is The Hustle, like the, the, the newsletter The Hustle, has a daily podcast coming out, and they've worked on it for like months. When we started, w- y- I mean you rented a studio at first. But then it was you and I, like I'm pretty sure we just used our iPhone headphones and we were in that shitty, like, closet.

   15. SPShaan Puri1:27

       [laughs] Yeah, we were in a clo- we were basically in a closet with a, and a table where we were so close together that anytime I talked your mic picked it up. Anytime you talked my mic picked it up. So it was like awful, awful recording. You can see the, in the photo you posted about, like, us recording, I'm like hunched over. I got my glasses on. I didn't wear my contacts. I'm wearing my jacket still 'cause I just walked over from my office and just like we started recording instantaneously. I'm looking at my phone, [laughs] you know, like, um, really wasn't, you know ... You know, some people are like, you know, y- you wear a suit. You know, act like, act like you, you're gonna be where you wanna be or whatever. Uh, I definitely wasn't doing that. I was just sort of like, "Uh, whatever, none of this video stuff matters. All that matters is the audio. Let's just do that."

   16. SPSam Parr2:12

       Which wasn't entirely wrong, but what, what I was proud of was that when we did it, like we really ... Oftentimes we would just use the iPhone and just like an audio file. And the, uh, like I said, The Hustle-

   17. SPShaan Puri2:23

       I'm still, I'm recording this on an iPhone. Are you s- you using your iPhone or are you using the fancy camera?

   18. SPSam Parr2:26

       Well, we have fancy mics now.

   19. SPShaan Puri2:27

       Yeah.

   20. SPSam Parr2:27

       But, like, there was one time where I remember, like, we literally, like ... It was like a speakerphone and an iPhone. But the, the Hu- the Hustle guys, they've got this podcast coming out. It ... And they're doing it every day. I'm, and I'm gonna pop on it sometimes. I, I f- they, they're gonna ask you to pop on it sometimes too. But they're doing a daily podcast. I think it's gonna work. It's so, it's so much work though.

   21. SPShaan Puri2:44

       Daily, like about the news, or about what?

   22. SPSam Parr2:46

       Yeah. They're doing a da- ... It's called The Hustle Daily Show, so it's easy.

   23. SPShaan Puri2:50

       Right.

   24. SPSam Parr2:50

       And they're doing a podcast every single day. It launches Wednesday. And, um, we were talking about ... I just left a meeting where we, I was helping them get it off the ground. And I was like, "What," ... What I told them was, "It's gonna work right away, I think." So, like, when your ep- episodes when it was just you came out, it took off right away.

   25. SPShaan Puri3:07

       Yeah.

   26. SPSam Parr3:07

       But then it goes down when, like, the, when the novelty wears off. And that's when you've gotta, like, actually develop the skill. And I would actually say, Shaan, I would say you started out pretty great. But then ... And I would say I started out decently as well, decent as well. But then we, like, developed the skill, and that's, like, when it really starts getting good.

   27. SPShaan Puri3:26

       Right.

   28. SPSam Parr3:27

       And I'm like, don't forget guys, when you start doing this it's like a skill. This isn't like ... Some people, like you, were talented, but y- you still have to, like, hone this in.

2. 3:36 – 4:30

   Copywork as the fastest path to better writing

   1. SPShaan Puri3:36

      Yeah. And by the way, the best way to do that is just to be a fan of other people's work. Uh, because if you're a fan of o- of other people's work, you'll pick up on the little things that they do that, um, it's like, man, why do I love this? I love this because blah, blah, blah. And you're never gonna recreate that, but if you see five examples, then you start to realize what the bar is and where you need to be. And so it, like you t- you talk about this with copywriting. How do you become a better copywriter? It's actually-

   2. SPSam Parr4:02

      You copy other people's work

   3. SPShaan Puri4:03

      ... the, the opposite of what people think. People think you should go learn some secret theories that you don't know, and then you need to, like, develop your own voice and, and, like, come up with original content. And it's like actually that's a really slow way to get better. The way you get better is you do copy work, which is you write other people's ... You literally hand write word for word what somebody who's writing you love, what they do. And, uh, you write that. And I do this, uh, still. I do it as a warm-up basically. So if I'm gonna write something-

3. 4:30 – 5:34

   Breaking down favorite examples: Sam’s hook and Scott Adams’ writing matrix

   1. SPSam Parr4:30

      Yeah

   2. SPShaan Puri4:30

      ... I'll first spend five, 10 minutes. And actually I, one of, uh, one of the pieces I copy work is yours. You have something that ... You have this post. It's very hard to find, 'cause every time I want it, it's so hard for me to go find it again. So you need to, like, put this front and center somewhere.

   3. SPSam Parr4:42

      Which post?

   4. SPShaan Puri4:43

      But it basically, it starts with, "Let's, let me be perfectly clear. You're reading this because I want you to."

   5. SPSam Parr4:50

      Yes. [laughs] That's a good one, right?

   6. SPShaan Puri4:51

      "I am making you read this."

   7. SPSam Parr4:52

      Yes.

   8. SPShaan Puri4:52

      "It's like I'm casting a spell. But I'm not forcing you to do something you don't wanna do. You want to know what I'm talking about." And you like write it like that [laughs] and so ... And I know it because I've copywritten the same thing like a bunch of times. And, um, and I just love that, "Let, let me be perfectly clear. Let's be perfectly clear." [laughs] It's so good. And then you're like, "You're reading this because I want you to." [laughs] Every line is getting you to further down the slippery slope, and you're like, you're explaining what's going on. Uh, so that one, that one is brilliant. I love that one that you do. I have another one that's, uh, the Scott Adams one, the day you became a better writer.

   9. SPSam Parr5:26

      Yeah. He goes, um-

   10. SPShaan Puri5:26

       That's another great one

   11. SPSam Parr5:27

       ... and the first sentence is like the most important part of that whole thing.

   12. SPShaan Puri5:31

       Right. Yeah.

   13. SPSam Parr5:32

       I forget the f- I forget it. What was it? Do you remember?

4. 5:34 – 8:10

   The broader learning framework: covers, recipes, and guided reps

   1. SPShaan Puri5:34

      I don't know. Ben, Ben pulled that up. But, but basically the, this method is actually applicable to many things. So if you wanna learn, uh, you know, how to play the guitar, you can first learn all the scales, and you can learn music theory, and then you can try to write original songs. But man, that would be a really hard way to do it. The better way is you take a song you like and you figure out how to play those four chords. And you're like, "Okay." So you play covers, right?

   2. SPSam Parr5:56

      Yeah.

   3. SPShaan Puri5:56

      And you play a shitty cover initially, then you get better and better. And then you might add your own twist to it, and you go from there. Uh, Ben, make that bigger. I can't, I can, uh, I can't see it. You know, this is... What is this, a screen for ants?

   4. SPSam Parr6:07

      [laughs] So this is written by the guy who created Dilbert, who's a beautiful writer. I, I can't read it from here. What's that first line?

   5. SPShaan Puri6:14

      It says, "I, I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in quote, unquote business writing. I couldn't believe how simple it was. I'll tell you the matrix here so you don't have to waste a day in class." It's great.

   6. SPSam Parr6:25

      And then he references the first article and he goes, "By the way, the first..." What's he say? Uh, "The first sentence is, like, the most important thing. Go reread that sentence up that, that I wrote-

   7. SPShaan Puri6:36

      Yeah

   8. SPSam Parr6:36

      ... when we started this out."

   9. SPShaan Puri6:36

      Exactly. Re-

   10. SPSam Parr6:37

       "I re- I wrote and rewrote that dozens of times."

   11. SPShaan Puri6:39

       It makes you curious. That's the key. And then he goes, "Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren't as smart as you think." [laughs] And he goes on and on. Uh, but it's a short, very short post, but it's very good. And, um, and so yeah, whether you wanna, if you wanna learn to cook, first start with recipes. Nail those, then do original creations. If you wanna learn to play music, first start with covers, then do this. Um, and so like, like for example, I'm, I'm about to teach my power writing course again, so I took like five months off, and I'm gonna do it again at the end of, uh, end of this month. Um, and in it I have one section which is just the habits you need to become a better writer, and the first one is copy work, and then I make them do copy work right there. And I'm like, I remember asking, I was like, "I'm gonna use 10 minutes of our course time for you to write this, 'cause I know if I just tell you to go do this, you're not gonna fucking do it. You're gonna feel like it's weird. You're gonna say like, 'Okay, I get the idea, but like, I'm not actually gonna go do that before I need to write.' I'm gonna give you one rep at doing this right now." I said, "Go write. Come back." They come back, and I was like, "What did it feel like?" And they're like, they're like, "It's weird. It's like I feel like my hands aren't my hands, they're their hands. It's like my, my tongue isn't my tongue, it's their tongue," right? Like my voice... Like I can almost pick up their voice by the time I've written the third paragraph. It's like if I then switched and was writing my own stuff, it'd be in that voice. And it's like, yeah, that's exactly the point. It's like it's a hack to getting your stuff to not be flat and boring or cumbersome, and like, not be stuck at writer's block where you just have a empty page that's intimidating you.

5. 8:10 – 9:30

   Sam’s copywork product experiment (sponsor segment)

   1. SPSam Parr8:10

      So for Trends, um, they were doing this thing, like a contest to see who can launch a product. And I was like, "Oh, I'll, I'll play. I'll do this." And so I didn't use my Twitter as a way to promote anything, because that would've been a little unfair, but I did use my Facebook. And basically I was like, "I'm gonna create a copy work course." I think I called it Copy That or something.

   2. SPShaan Puri8:30

      Nice.

   3. SPSam Parr8:30

      And, um, it's just Gumroad, it was for $50, and I just gathered like my 12 favorite bits of copy and I made a PDF and I explained why each part is interesting. And the person who receives one, they receive one every 10 days, and they have to write it by hand, and they get commentary as to why it's cool. And, uh, I think it's gonna be good. I w- I'm, I'm releasing it in like three days, and I've been like spending all my time doing it. It's amazing.

   4. SPShaan Puri8:55

      That's amazing. That's a great idea. What's, uh, what's the URL for that?

   5. SPSam Parr8:58

      Uh, you, you liked it. So I, I don't wanna show the URL yet.

   6. SPShaan Puri9:02

      Oh, 'cause that's an unfair advantage or whatever.

   7. SPSam Parr9:04

      Yeah, it's an unfair advantage, but if you go to my Facebook, uh, you'll see. But basically I tell the story about how... Here, I'll send it to you. About how Ben Franklin used-

   8. SPShaan Puri9:13

      Yeah

   9. SPSam Parr9:13

      ... to use copy work, and it was one of the best ways to learn how to write, but for some reason we don't do it anymore. And I just did what you did, where I talked about how you get to feel the texture of other people. It's called, uh, I just, I just call it How to Write Irresistible Copy.

   10. SPShaan Puri9:28

       Yeah.

   11. SPSam Parr9:28

       I sent it to you. And, uh-

6. 9:30 – 12:33

   Power Writing Course: doubling skill quickly and the role of feedback (sponsor segment)

   1. SPShaan Puri9:30

      And there's, there's a lot of, um... It's like, you know, f- so when I made the power writing course, I was like, okay, I'm literally gonna only t- it's, you have 10 days. My goal was I'm gonna make you a t- a, like two times better at writing in 10 days. That was the mission from the start. And I was like, I don't think it's that hard, because most people, they themselves feel like they suck at writing, and they kinda do suck at writing. And, but like most things, when you haven't tried to get great at something, or you don't know how you, how to get great, you're actually not that far away. A f- couple tweaks will get you double, like twice as good, or three times as good.

   2. SPSam Parr10:01

      Sure.

   3. SPShaan Puri10:01

      And then, you know, to become the best in the world, yeah, that's a whole lifetime of practice, but you can double your skill in pretty much anything if the right guide gives you, like, the right couple things to do. And copywriting, uh, copy work is one of those that I was like, this is one of the central ones. And, uh, people aren't gonna believe me, but it works. And so, um, I, yeah, I devote one of my little sections to it in the course.

   4. SPSam Parr10:24

      Yeah.

   5. SPShaan Puri10:24

      By the way, I should put out the course name, otherwise they're gonna get mad at me for talking about the course and not t- telling people go, go, go do it. So I'm teaching it in February. I teach it myself with my bare hands. I, it's live on video. It's recorded if you miss it. Uh, and go to powerwritingcourse.com. And so I think we have, like, uh, 200 spots. We opened it up y- like, two days ago. 100 people took it already, and we'll see-

   6. SPSam Parr10:43

      Wow, really?

   7. SPShaan Puri10:43

      ... we'll see if it fills up, yeah.

   8. SPSam Parr10:44

      How many people came the first time? Also 200 people?

   9. SPShaan Puri10:47

      I did 160 the first, 150 the first time, and that was capped. Then the second time I did it no cap, and, uh, it was 350 students did it.

   10. SPSam Parr10:57

       Oh my God.

   11. SPShaan Puri10:58

       And this time I think I'm gonna shut it off after 200. Um, but I'm gonna teach it, yeah, basically I'm gonna teach it, uh, 'cause I, I like the slightly smaller group sizes so I can just give a little more feedback myself.

   12. SPSam Parr11:11

       Wow.

   13. SPShaan Puri11:11

       'Cause it takes a lot of work. 'Cause after the thing, you write your thing and then I go in Slack and I'll give you, like, direct feedback on it. And so that takes more time than actually teaching the course or coming up with the content, is, like, going, giving people real feedback. So I don't do it for everybody, but after every session I'll give, like, 15, 20 students direct feedback. And then, so over the course of the 10 days you're gonna get it from me at one point.

   14. SPSam Parr11:31

       Dude, that's sick.

   15. SPShaan Puri11:32

       Yeah.

   16. SPSam Parr11:32

       Uh, yeah, I know, uh, Sarah took the class. Or did Sarah take it? Or who... Some- one of my, someone I'm close with took it, and they said they loved it. And Gagan, the founder of Maven, said that it was one of the most loved courses.

   17. SPShaan Puri11:43

       Yeah. They, they actually have hooked me up. So Maven is, uh, really helping me out. 'Cause they knew I was lazy. I was like, "Uh, I'm probably never gonna teach it again." [laughs] They're like, "Why? It was, like, one of the highest rated courses." And I was like, "Well, it's just, like, work to, like..." They're like, "What's the work?" I'm like, "Well, I gotta, like, send an email out to be like, 'Join it.'" I was like, "I feel stupid asking." So I'm just like, "It, you know, I just don't wanna do it." Um, and they're like, "You already made all the content. It's highly rated. All you gotta do is, like, send out two emails." So they just sent it out on my behalf. [laughs] I was like, "Thank you. All right, I'll teach it then."

   18. SPSam Parr12:11

       [laughs] Yeah, how about this-

   19. SPShaan Puri12:12

       'Cause I like the actual teaching

   20. SPSam Parr12:14

       And look at the homepage. So if you go to maven.com, you see Shaan.

   21. SPShaan Puri12:17

       [laughs]

   22. SPSam Parr12:18

       And then right next to him, you see Sarah-

   23. SPShaan Puri12:20

       Wife

   24. SPSam Parr12:20

       ... my wife.

   25. SPShaan Puri12:21

       [laughs]

   26. SPSam Parr12:21

       How funny is that?

   27. SPShaan Puri12:22

       Yeah. Does she love-

   28. SPSam Parr12:23

       Love it

   29. SPShaan Puri12:23

       ... teaching it? She did hers, right?

   30. SPSam Parr12:24

       Yeah, she dug it. Yeah.
7. 12:33 – 13:17

   Upcoming guest teaser: Ryan from Bolt and using controversy to get attention

   1. SPSam Parr12:33

      Wait, but before we do all this other... Uh, what's his name? Ryan is coming onto the pod, so everyone-

   2. SPShaan Puri12:37

      Yeah

   3. SPSam Parr12:37

      ... Ryan will be on in, like, 30 minutes.

   4. SPShaan Puri12:40

      Ryan is the [laughs] he's the founder of Bolt. And so basically, Ryan's a pretty impressive dude, so I invested in Bolt. He has built two projects that are worth over a billion dollars, and he's under, like, the age of 28. And recently, a bunch of people heard... Most people hadn't heard of Bolt, and then he went on Twitter and started, like, basically he took a, he took shots at Y Combinator and Stripe, like, two of the most beloved startup organizations. And he basically was like, "They're the mob. They're the mafia." And he's like, "And YC's not worth doing, and here's why." And so controversy, or picking a fight, really works. And so, uh, I wanna talk to him about k- about that and see what he has to say.

   5. SPSam Parr13:14

      Yeah, that'll be good.

   6. SPShaan Puri13:14

      And, and I think he's gonna bring a couple ideas, so we'll-

   7. SPSam Parr13:16

      So let's talk-

   8. SPShaan Puri13:16

      ... see what happens

8. 13:17 – 14:39

   Dan Price story setup: why Sam questioned the $70k headline

   1. SPSam Parr13:17

      ... let's talk... You wanna talk about Dan Price? What, what's your crazy Dan Price story?

   2. SPShaan Puri13:21

      Well, okay, most people probably don't know this, so, so you, yeah, I think you know, uh, because you wrote about it in 2015, which is way ahead of the curve.

   3. SPSam Parr13:29

      Yes.

   4. SPShaan Puri13:29

      So-

   5. SPSam Parr13:29

      So listen to this, though

   6. SPShaan Puri13:30

      ... why don't you explain this, and then-

   7. SPSam Parr13:31

      Let me-

   8. SPShaan Puri13:31

      ... I'll tell you my piece.

   9. SPSam Parr13:32

      Let me explain how this, how this happened. So I'm reading... So we have this document, and Shaan was, like, writing in the document right before we started, and he wrote, "Crazy Dan Price story." I don't know what you're gonna say.

   10. SPShaan Puri13:42

       By the way, that's, that's our little secret. We, we s- we write the topic so you get the, the person curious, but you don't, you don't fill in the details, so they don't know what you're gonna say, so the reaction's authentic.

   11. SPSam Parr13:52

       Yes. So I don't know what you're gonna say. But in 2015, I wrote this article, and the headline said... So Dan Price is the guy who kinda looks like Jesus. He's based out of Portland, I think. He's the guy who famously said, "From now on, everyone, the minimum wage at our company is $70,000 a year. I'm reducing my salary." The headline to the article I wrote in 2015, which at the time, and still has not gotten picked up a lot, it says, "Dan Price, the Gravity Payments CEO paying everyone $70,000, is full of shit."

   12. SPShaan Puri14:21

       Pretty funny.

   13. SPSam Parr14:21

       "Turns out 90% of the Dan Price story is completely made up, and he's making a fool of all of us." And, uh, and basically I, like, wrote about how there's, like, three things that are very weird that happened with the story. And a lot of this, by the way, is opinion. Some of it's fact, but there, there's a lot of, uh, allegations.

   14. SPShaan Puri14:38

       [laughs]

9. 14:39 – 16:14

   Allegations and incentives: salary, lawsuit dynamics, and abuse claims

   1. SPSam Parr14:39

      So, so take that for what it's worth. But, uh, a few things. One, prior to him raising everyone else's, uh, salary to $70,000, he was paying himself $1.1M. And that's for a company that was only doing $16M in revenue. Well, why is that weird? Well, because, uh, he was being sued by his brother, and his brother was suing him. The, the brother was suing Dan, who's a co-founder. The b- two brothers were founders. Was suing Dan for pa- Dan was paying himself too much money. And it's kinda like, oh, well-

   2. SPShaan Puri15:12

      Because the bro- the brother had a profit share. The brother was, uh, was not active full time, so he didn't take a salary or had a small salary. He was there for the profits. Funny thing was, there's no profits, 'cause the brother is taking a humongous salary and reducing profits to, like, zero, so that's why the brother was mad.

   3. SPSam Parr15:27

      Yeah. Well, the, the brother quit. So Dan goes, "Oh, well, and I don't wanna share the profit, so just boost my salary." And then immediately the brother sues Dan. And so he's like, "Oh, well, maybe we should reduce my salary and everyone's salary, and we're gonna make this..." And second, and worse, he was accused of... Listen to this sentence.

   4. SPShaan Puri15:44

      [laughs]

   5. SPSam Parr15:45

      "Dan Price is accused of repeatedly waterboarding and beating his wife." And on October 28th, this was, I think, 2015, his ex-wife gave a TED Talk where she talked about how Dan was punching her in the stomach and slapping her in the face, and she had to go lock herself in the car 'cause she was afraid that he was gonna, like, kill her. So, like, crazy stuff. So anyway, I... This is allegations, but, like, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. It, there is allegedly-

   6. SPShaan Puri16:12

      It's allegedly a duck. [laughs]

10. 16:14 – 19:28

    Virtue signaling backlash: PR, ads, and the “cover-up is worse” theme

    1. SPSam Parr16:14

       Yes. There, there's just a, a few things. And then here's another funny thing. Price said of himself, "I'm just so sick of the attention. It just feels a lot like..." It's, he feels like such a big investment of yourself. There's this episode of The Office where Michael Scott was like, these people wanted to talk to him about this, uh, thing going on at Dunder Mifflin, and he goes, "Man, I was amazed. You know, it's like I didn't wanna make a big deal out of it, but, like, the media was contacting me, so I decided to call a radio station."

    2. SPShaan Puri16:38

       [laughs]

    3. SPSam Parr16:38

       "And I did a, and I called this other radio station, and I did an interview, and, you know, like, it's just crazy that they're all coming to me." That's, like, what Dan's like. He's like, "I'm sick of the attention."

    4. SPShaan Puri16:45

       'Cause, 'cause he runs ads.

    5. SPSam Parr16:45

       "Why is everyone coming-"

    6. SPShaan Puri16:47

       He runs ads promoting the story of the CEO who reduced his salary and everybody else in the company makes $70,000 minimum wage, and he's, like, barefoot. And then even further, you know, the guy doesn't wear shoes. He loves the earth, and he loves the world, and he says all CEOs are too greedy. Um, you know, be like me. And then his employees, I don't know if you heard this part. This is after your, this is after 20- 2015, so you probably didn't have this in your thing. There's this video that goes viral of his employees gifting him a Tesla, 'cause they're like, "Dan, you've sacrificed so much."

    7. SPSam Parr17:18

       Oh my God.

    8. SPShaan Puri17:18

       "You have, you have so little."

    9. SPSam Parr17:20

       Cringe.

    10. SPShaan Puri17:20

        "We're gonna give you this Tesla." So they all pitched in and bought him a Tesla, and he's, like, crying. He's overwhelmed. Uh, blah, blah, blah. So they got fooled, 'cause basically... So, so [laughs] yeah, he pays himself a high, high salary. Brother gets mad. Brother, whatever. He ends up buying his brother out at a discount, cuts his salary. Still takes the money as a profit. Like, he still gets the profits from the company as the, as the owner of the company, but it's just not a tax-

    11. SPSam Parr17:46

        But it's not a W-2 salary.

    12. SPShaan Puri17:47

        Yes, it's not a salary, so it's actually even more tax advantageous. It's just like, you know, Zuck takes a $1 salary 'cause he gets paid in stock. Um, you know, it's crazy. Go, and then he, and then he makes bank. Oh, he does $50,000 speaking gigs. Doesn't share that with anybody. He has a $500,000 book deal 'cause of his, like, story about, you know, CEO greed. And, uh, you know, for- frigging waterboarded his wife. I was like, this is crazy. Like, what, what is going on? Um, this is a crazy story to me. And it just reminds me of, like, any time somebody really goes out of their way to tell you how virtuous they are- You can pretty much take it to the bank that they are [laughs] they are overcompensating for s- for something that they are not-

    13. SPSam Parr18:28

        100%

    14. SPShaan Puri18:28

        ... as virtuous as, uh, as the effort that they're taking to tell you how virtuous they are. If you're running ads-

    15. SPSam Parr18:32

        It's like Fox- it's like Fox News saying fair and balanced. It's like, dude, like, don't piss on my back and t- and tell me it's rain. Like, ex-

    16. SPShaan Puri18:38

        Like- [laughs]

    17. SPSam Parr18:38

        So don't lie to me. Like, just be you.

    18. SPShaan Puri18:40

        Just, "P- piss on my leg." [laughs] Who pisses on your back? [laughs] "Piss on my leg and tell me it's rain."

    19. SPSam Parr18:46

        Just, like, be honest. Like, like, so, like this whole thing that, his whole schtick, the wife thing is, like, if that's true, that's obvious-

    20. SPShaan Puri18:52

        That's crazy

    21. SPSam Parr18:52

        ... uh, that's its own category and that's unforgivable. But the whole, uh, pay thing, it's like, dude, like, it, it's kinda like, it's kinda like Lance Armstrong. A lot of people aren't mad that Lance Armstrong took the drugs, they're mad that he was so cocky about it that he did a commercial saying, "What am I on? I'm on my bike eight hours a day busting my ass."

    22. SPShaan Puri19:13

        Right, right.

    23. SPSam Parr19:13

        "What are you on?" And then he sued a guy who was accusing him of taking drugs. It's like, dude, that was the part that was a little, like when you went overboard.

    24. SPShaan Puri19:22

        Yeah.

    25. SPSam Parr19:22

        And that's like the scam thing.

    26. SPShaan Puri19:23

        The cover-up is worse than the crime for, for-

    27. SPSam Parr19:25

        Yes

    28. SPShaan Puri19:25

        ... nine, nine out of 10 times

    29. SPSam Parr19:25

        The cover-up is worse than the crime.

11. 19:28 – 25:54

    Cana: the pitch for at-home “printed” beverages and why it could matter

    1. SPShaan Puri19:28

       Uh, yeah, that's crazy. Um, okay, so I wanna do a couple other random things. Uh, I wanna talk about this, this business I heard about that I think is kind of amazing. I don't know if you looked into it, but it's called Cana. Do you know what I'm talking about?

    2. SPSam Parr19:42

       Uh, maybe. Tell me more.

    3. SPShaan Puri19:44

       All right. So this guy, uh, David Friedberg, who's gotten really pop- he went from, like, you know, didn't have a Twitter account to now very popular because he's on, he's one of the four people on the All-In podcast, which is a pretty popular podcast. Um, you know, if they're, you know, if we're not the best podcast in the world, you know, they're the second-best type of thing. You know, they're, they're a great podcast. So basically it's Chamath, it's Jason Calacanis, it's David Sacks, and then it's this guy Friedberg. And pretty much everybody had heard, everybody in the tech world had heard of the other three. Nobody knew about Friedberg. And Friedberg has been, like, the, um, the like, you know, the revelation. He's actually, you know, my favorite one on the pod and many people's favorite one on the pod. Why is that? Well, he's kinda g- like a science background, and he's an engineer/ scientist who goes into business. And so the first business he built was called Climate Corporation, and, um, it's ended up s- it was basically telling farmers about, um, weather, it was like weather data and k- kind of like giving farmers, uh, information about what they should be doing with their crops and things like that. So it was like, a, a data company for farmers. I, I don't know, know a ton about it, but I think that's-

    4. SPSam Parr20:48

       And he, and, and I think they raised-

    5. SPShaan Puri20:50

       ... a fair summary

    6. SPSam Parr20:50

       ... a, a relatively small sum for the amount o- of which they sold for.

    7. SPShaan Puri20:54

       Right. So actually I should go back. He was early Google pre-IPO. He was, like, uh, one of Larry Page's favorite people, the founder and CEO of Google at the time, and he was working on special projects for them. Then he left, he starts Climate Corporation. Ends up selling it to Monsanto, the big evil, you know, whatever company in the agriculture space. Um, then he-

    8. SPSam Parr21:13

       For like a billion

    9. SPShaan Puri21:14

       ... then he starts, yeah, for like a billion dollars. Then he starts, um, this company that's, uh, what's it called? Last Mile, First Mile?

    10. SPSam Parr21:20

        Metro Mile.

    11. SPShaan Puri21:21

        Metro Mile. So it's a insurance company, and it was a pretty innovative idea. It's like get in your car, and instead of p- like if you don't drive your car much, why should you pay your, the same amount for insurance as somebody who drives a ton, right? So it's like pay per mile insurance, and even better is, like, they install a little thing in your car or whatever. It could basically see do you speed a lot or not. If you don't speed a lot, you should pay less for insurance. So it's like a dynamic form of, of insurance. So that was a cool idea. Ended up going public in a SPAC, and then famously the SPAC kind of has crashed since then. It's got bought by-

    12. SPSam Parr21:51

        It's been obliterated. It, uh-

    13. SPShaan Puri21:52

        It got obliterated. It got bought by Lemonade for, you know, like a third of what it went public for. So, you know, not a great ending.

    14. SPSam Parr21:58

        Its market cap is, is 209. It previous market cap was, like, 4 billion.

    15. SPShaan Puri22:03

        Yeah. So, uh, so it ended up getting acquired. You know, whatever. The public story wasn't great, but, you know, built a company that ended up going, you know, generating hundreds of millions of dollars. Uh, so, so anyways, another good win. So now he's got a new company, and so he actually, he has a, he has like an incubator for himself called The Production Board, and basically it's like, not VC, it's like Google backed it for like a billion dollars or something crazy, and then BlackRock and a couple others backed it for, so it's, it's raised a ton of money. And all it does is it builds its own companies in-house. One of the companies that they just announced I think is really cool. So anyways, that's a bunch of backstory, and by the way, I think I got, like, a third of that wrong, but whatever. You get the general idea of who the guy is. So his new company is pretty dope, [smacks lips] and it's this trend I've been trying to follow, which is 3D printing, but it's basically printing beverages at home. So what does that mean? They're gonna give people a machine. So you buy this machine, and think of it like a printer, and it sits in your kitchen, and when you wanna have a drink, whether that's you want, um, you know, like a LaCroix, you want sparkling water with lemon flavor, you want a hot tea, you want a, a White Claw with alcohol in it, you want a white wine. Whatever drink you want, you push a button, do-do, and it'll dispense that beverage for you. And it does this because they basically realized, and he tells this story, it's pretty dope. He tells this story that, like, [smacks lips] um, he was at a dinner, and the scientist is there, and the scientist kind of educating him on this. He's like, "You know, almost every drink is all water." Right? So juice is like 94% water. Uh, Coca-Cola's like 95% water. Wine is like 95% water. Everything's like 90-plus percent water. And the la- and then, you know, it's like X percent sugar and alcohols, and then, like, 1% is the flavoring that gives it the unique taste that makes it taste like iced tea to you. Um, and it's only 1% of what's actually in the beverage. And it's like, so isn't it crazy that we, like, have factories that produce, you know, we, we, we go, we get, we get all these, like, chemicals and water and whatever. We put it in a factory, then we put it into bottles, then we ch- put the bottles on a truck, and we truck it to a store. It sits on their shelf. Then you drive to that store, you take it off that shelf, you drive it home, you put it on your shelf at home, and it's in a bottled plastic thing that then goes into the r- you know, recycling or, or the trash. And wow, that's a lot for, like, something that's basically water, and we all have water in our own homes piped, you know, already through the water system. So, like, why in, why instead of doing this central manufacturing and, like, kind of brutalizing the environment and having this high cost, why can't I just- Add the flavoring at the end point at your home using the water that you already have and create these beverages on the fly. And so after years of, like, R&D and testing, they've basically got it to the fa- fact where here's what they do. The machine basically takes your water, and it can either make the water really cold, really hot, or carbonated, and then it has three cartridges. There's a sugar cartridge, there's a alcohol cartridge, and then there's the flavor cartridge. And all you do is you just select what drink you want, and it, it'll say, "Okay, we're gonna put out, like, one microliter of, you know, um, of this, you know, ascorbic acid," 'cause that's what gets you the soda taste. And then, "We're gonna add some sugar, and then we're gonna add no alcohol 'cause it's a soda." Or if it's a white wine, it's gonna be like, "Here's the alcohol, a little bit of sugar, and then here's the flavoring that's gonna give it that, you know, the, the, the, the, the palate of, uh, of a white wine." And so, and the idea is that with those three cartridges, you can make basically an infinite combination of, of drinks 'cause one... the, the flavor cartridge itself has, like, 85 different flavors inside of it that can be mixed and matched. And so I think this is kind of amazing. It's gonna be like let's say you could pull this off. Now, all of a sudden, we're not buying bottled drinks everywhere. We're just able to at our endpoint have any drink we want for any... You know, my mom wants tea. My dad wants wine. I want soda, and my wife wants flavored water. She... We can all get that out of the same device for a fraction of the cost.

12. 25:54 – 29:09

    Personalization, the “Coke Freestyle at home” analogy, and creator-made drink recipes

    1. SPSam Parr25:54

       It's just like a, it's like a better Coke Freestyle machine. You know Coke Fre-

    2. SPShaan Puri25:58

       That's exactly the an- analogy. It's a-

    3. SPSam Parr26:00

       I love those

    4. SPShaan Puri26:00

       ... it's a at-home mini Freestyle that can do 10 ti- 10 times more than what the Freestyle can do.

    5. SPSam Parr26:06

       I used to go to the movie theater near my place in San Francisco. I would never see a movie, but I would walk into the lobby just to get a Coke from the Freestyle machine 'cause you could make Coke Zero Cherry Vanilla or Coke Zero Orange Vanilla, and I loved it, and it's the only place you could do that. And so I tried to get one for my office, and the terms were ridiculous. It was something-

    6. SPShaan Puri26:24

       Yeah

    7. SPSam Parr26:24

       ... like $100 a month for life or like-

    8. SPShaan Puri26:28

       Right

    9. SPSam Parr26:28

       ... it's like a, it's like a crazy... Like, it's, it's... They make it challenging to get a Freestyle machine, and they are so cool, and they are so good. And so this is just like a home Freestyle machine but for every drink ever, right?

    10. SPShaan Puri26:39

        Yeah, 'cause you, you know, like, as kids we used to go to, like, the normal soda fountain that has, like, 10 spouts, and it's like you do the rainbow. You just put all of them in the cup, and it's like, "Oh, that's how I want my drink," right? And Freestyle took it one step further 'cause you can be like, "I want orange. I want like..." It's the long tail of flavors, so you could be like, "I like black cherry Mountain Dew." And I might be only .1%, so, like, Mountain Dew can't afford to bottle that because they're like, "Dude, it's such a small market." But with this, it's like the long tail of flavors gets done, and so the analogy is like it's like TV. So back when we had three channels, they could only program the most general stuff that the average consumer's gonna want. So if you're a fishing enthusiast, then we only have three channels on TV. It's not gonna work for you. But then you get cable, and now you get, you know, hundreds of channels, let's say. So now there's a dedicated fishing channel. But then let's say then YouTube comes along, and YouTube's like, "No, we can literally... Anybody can create from their own home, and now we'll have every variation." So you want only bass fishing in Spanish 'cause you're a Spanish speaker. Well, now there's a channel for you. And, um, and so that's the same idea. The way that we did it with content where once the means of production went to the home, now you got every single supply-demand, like, niche got filled. Uh, that's gonna happen now with beverages where every flavor's gonna be done. And even better, you get the economic savings. You get the environmental savings. You get the p- flavor personalization, right? Like, Star- one of the reasons Starbucks is so successful is 'cause my wife can go in there and order a venti skinny, you know, latte, half decaf with oat milk, light ice and blah, blah, blah, and with, you know, one packet of stevia, and it's like her drink is her drink, and Starbucks is willing to do that, whereas you go to, you know, a normal coffee shop, you can't get, can't get that done. So that's gonna be at the home, and even further now, it also creates a business model for... So, like, me and you, we could basically say, uh, let's say Sam loves root beer. We could create My First Million Root Beer. All we do, we don't have to find a manufacturer and a bottler and a whatever. All we do is we just create a recipe. It's a piece of soft- it's like a, it's like a piece of content. It's a, you know, it's a... it's just, like, three variables, and we could just send it to your device, and you could print it out for, you know, 55 cents.

    11. SPSam Parr28:50

        That's great.

    12. SPShaan Puri28:51

        And we would get our share of the royalty from everybody who does that, and so all of a sudden you're gonna see, just like The Rock made his own tequila and so did George Clooney, it'll... that will go down to you don't need 100 million followers to do that. You could now have 10,000 followers on Instagram and create your own beverage, and people could print it at home, and you could get your share of that. How cool is that?

13. 29:09 – 31:42

    Diet root beer tangent and the Production Board thesis (with a veganism aside)

    1. SPSam Parr29:09

       First of all, diet root beer is one of the best sodas of all time-

    2. SPShaan Puri29:14

       [laughs]

    3. SPSam Parr29:14

       ... because it has no caffeine, so you can drink it any hour of the day. It's not Sprite 'cause Sprite's whack, and it's diet, no calories.

    4. SPShaan Puri29:21

       [laughs]

    5. SPSam Parr29:21

       And it's, like, creamy. It's the best. I l-

    6. SPShaan Puri29:23

       The second point was it's not Sprite. [laughs]

    7. SPSam Parr29:26

       Well, because, like, you could do... I used to drink diet, like, 7 Up sometimes.

    8. SPShaan Puri29:30

       [laughs]

    9. SPSam Parr29:30

       But, like, that's, like, some ratchet stuff, but it's got... I- it just, that's kinda weak. That's, like, a, a, a refreshing.

    10. SPShaan Puri29:35

        [laughs]

    11. SPSam Parr29:35

        I want, like, a hearty, creamy thing.

    12. SPShaan Puri29:37

        [laughs]

    13. SPSam Parr29:38

        So I used to drink a diet root beer a day, but for some reason in San Francisco, I could only find it in the Asian neighborhoods. So my office-

    14. SPShaan Puri29:44

        Right

    15. SPSam Parr29:44

        ... the Craigslist office was in an Asian neighborhood, and so I've always wondered, like, do Asian people love ev- ev- what... They were, um... The, the Vietnamese grocery store always had the best selection of diet root beers.

    16. SPShaan Puri29:54

        [laughs]

    17. SPSam Parr29:54

        They had, like, four different types.

    18. SPShaan Puri29:55

        [laughs]

    19. SPSam Parr29:56

        Uh, anyway, I love diet root beer.

    20. SPShaan Puri29:57

        Sam goes and gets a 23andMe test-

    21. SPSam Parr29:59

        Yes

    22. SPShaan Puri29:59

        ... just, just to know. [laughs]

    23. SPSam Parr30:01

        Exactly.

    24. SPShaan Puri30:02

        Is there a little Nam in me? [laughs]

    25. SPSam Parr30:03

        Yeah. [laughs] The, um, the second thing is we used to have this li- list of, um, companies that you should work at in order to, like, get rich that are growing. I would put this on that list, and-

    26. SPShaan Puri30:17

        When-

    27. SPSam Parr30:17

        What was the name of his, uh-

    28. SPShaan Puri30:19

        T- well, it was-

    29. SPSam Parr30:20

        What was that?

    30. SPShaan Puri30:20

        TPB, The Production Board.

Episode duration: 31:42