S1: The idea that UBI reduces the need to work isn't new,
S1: but recent studies show that it does not lead to
S1: better jobs or more education. I think the issue here
S1: is that certain people will spend free time and money
S1: to better themselves, and certain people won't, and it's not
S1: clear why that is. It's not clear what the actual
S1: genius like factor is, but the way forward is basically
S1: trying to figure out what that is and not believing
S1: in fairy tales like giving away free money will make
S1: everyone ambitious. It does not. And this reminds me of
S1: a lesson that's very similar that I learned like 20
S1: years of hiring people, which is exposing people to training
S1: and encouragement makes the best people stand out, but it
S1: does not turn everyone into the best people. And I've
S1: known this because I tried because I tried for like
S1: ten years with cohort after cohort where I would just
S1: be like, oh, well, my training wasn't good enough. That's
S1: why they didn't get it, or they were distracted or
S1: they were busy or whatever. So I just keep hitting
S1: him and keep dumping hours and hours and hours and
S1: more training and more training and send them into more classes.
S1: And you come back to them and you're like, hey,
S1: what have you done? They're like, I don't know. I
S1: didn't do anything. What should I do? And you're like, uh, no, no.
S1: So you've you've got to figure out what you want
S1: to do. You've got to I've given you all the training,
S1: I've given you all the stuff and, uh, all the books.
S1: And I gave you all the demos. I told you
S1: how to set up the demos. I showed you how
S1: to set up the tech, and, um, have you done
S1: any of that? And they're like, no, what should I
S1: do first? I don't I don't know how to do
S1: any of that. Can you show me? And you're like, well,
S1: I showed you four times. You want me to show
S1: you a fifth time? Okay, sure. I'll show you a
S1: fifth time. Show them a fifth time. Come back two
S1: weeks later. Hey, how's it going? Going with what? With
S1: the stuff we talked about last time. And they're like,
S1: yeah I never got around to that. Like, I couldn't
S1: find this one driver. Like, there was a driver down low,
S1: but the driver download didn't work. It's like, okay, well,
S1: did you research that? No. How would I do that?
S1: Can you help me? That that ends up being like
S1: 50 to 80% of everyone. Here's the alternative. Here's the
S1: alternate version of a star. Okay. You're like, hey, um. Hey, everyone.
S1: So check this out. This is a class about. And
S1: you see a hand go up. Hey, look, I read
S1: the whole document. Um, I looked forward in the class.
S1: I've got this thing running, but there's an error. Um,
S1: so I fixed it, and I stood up a different version,
S1: and it's running. Can I show you? And you're like, okay,
S1: so you basically read everything, jumped ahead in the class,
S1: built something. It didn't work, but you fixed it, and
S1: now you're running a different version and you want to
S1: show it to me now. But I just started my
S1: first sentence of the class and they're like, oh yeah, sorry. Yeah.
S1: Please continue. Sorry. I was just excited The difference between
S1: these two things are so insane. Okay. And what I've
S1: learned after all these years is that if you're trying
S1: to build a star team and you're trying to build
S1: like a group of the best people, what you want
S1: to do is throw help and throw training and throw
S1: encouragement to a massive group of people and not judge,
S1: not prejudge, not do anything. You have no idea. You
S1: have no idea. It's not people who wear yellow shirts.
S1: It's not people from Idaho. It's not people from Mississippi.
S1: You have no idea what the criteria are like background,
S1: ethnic group, you education, background. Are they educated? Do they
S1: have a PhD? Do they have two master's degrees? Are
S1: they still in high school? You don't know. And that's
S1: the smartest thing you could possibly realize is that you
S1: have no idea. You have no idea who's going to
S1: just be kind of, like, complete, Completely inert and just
S1: unable to learn and unwilling to learn and unable to
S1: absorb any amount of effort that you give. Versus some
S1: random person who doesn't think much of themselves and are
S1: unassuming and quiet and they just absolute sponge. Absolute murderer.
S1: Like the the craziest, best IT person you've ever found.
S1: And suddenly they just can't shut up about everything. It's like, oh,
S1: and I did this and I read everything. All those
S1: books that you recommended. And then I went and downloaded
S1: this and I oh, but I changed it. And I
S1: want to show you this thing, and you're just like,
S1: Holy crap. They were sitting right next to the other
S1: person who I gave the same exact training. This is
S1: a lesson, incredibly powerful lesson. And to bring it back
S1: to this article, I believe the same thing is true
S1: with UBI. The same thing is true with social Programs.
S1: The same thing is true with all these different things.
S1: So the whole trick and we're going to get a
S1: little broad here. The whole trick is to make sure
S1: that no one's at a disadvantage, okay. Cause trauma because
S1: they're hungry. Because they can't afford coverage. Right. Because there
S1: are stars all throughout this entire population. This these 8
S1: billion people that we have. There are stars who you
S1: will never know if they're a star because they can't
S1: make it to your class because they're working seven jobs
S1: and they got an ant and a dog and a
S1: and a parent and a girlfriend or a boyfriend who
S1: is sick. And so they're over here juggling and they're
S1: another Einstein, they're another von Neumann. And you will never
S1: know because they got screwed. They got screwed by luck
S1: So the goal and now we're going really broad. The
S1: goal is to build a society in which nobody is
S1: screwed in that way. And when they do get messed
S1: over in that way, we help them. We help them
S1: get back into this, remove the obstacles so that everyone
S1: has the opportunity to be one of these stars to
S1: stand out. But we should not think that everyone who
S1: gets exposed to the opportunities is necessarily going to be
S1: one of those stand out people. So if we see variation,
S1: which is probably going to look a lot like a
S1: bell curve, right, you're going to have most people in
S1: the middle. Um, when you see that variation, you should
S1: be like, yep, that's exactly what we expect to see.
S1: Most people in the middle, some people who don't want
S1: to do anything despite any training, and some people who
S1: could just hear the first word and write a book. Right.
S1: That's just expected. Now, I would say that there's some
S1: nuance here in the sense that, like, okay, if we
S1: can identify that grit and self-discipline and I don't know,
S1: something that we could try to put into culture, something
S1: we could try to put into education systems, something that
S1: we could try to put into training, something we could
S1: try to put into parental education if we could find
S1: those tokens and just like, make sure they're part of
S1: the training and that helps lift everyone or some number
S1: of people, that'll be fantastic. But it has to start
S1: with realizing there's going to be a distribution and that's
S1: going to be based on meritocracy, which is good. However,
S1: the whole purpose of society and liberal society, or liberal
S1: liberal approach to building a society is making sure that
S1: everyone can enter into the meritocracy funnel without disadvantage. That's
S1: that's the goal. That's the trick.