The Exchanges

Q Totally. Well, in, in the spirit of storytelling, Michael, do you remember when you first met Gurley?

A Yeah, I do remember when I first met Gurley, uh, this was, this was in the, in the nineties, and Bill had written this research report that was super thick, and I'm reading this report, I'm like, how the bleep, bleep, bleep, does this guy know more about our business than we do? It's like, what? We must be totally screwing up here, and, and, uh, he had, Uncovered a whole bunch of analysis and thoughts about our business, and we were so busy, uh, kind of distracted by growth that we had missed a few things, and Bill shined a massive light on that, and it was super helpful. So I, I, I, uh, became a fan instantly of his work and have been a fan ever since.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I do remember when I first met Gurley, uh, this was”

Q Of bringing in employees that make radically different amounts of money than the other employee base. How, how do you think that will be? How difficult will that be to manage?

A I think it'll be a challenge culturally, for sure. Um, you know, uh, he could have a long line outside of his door, uh, with people, uh, you know, wanting this or complaining about that, and that could be a distraction. So, you know, I think people, uh, generally have a sense of fairness, right? And they, they want to be treated fairly. Um, relative to others and relative to the, the opportunities that they have out there in, in the overall market. And if they feel that they're not being treated fairly, uh, that's going to be a problem. So I don't know how that, I don't know how that gets sorted out. I do think the math could work for them, given, given everything you guys just talked about. Uh, and, and obviously if you, uh, reduce this down to a race to super intelligence or something along those lines, the size of the prize is, is tremendous. And they do have an incredible business that is aided by these advancements, uh, in a, in a big way. And there aren't a whole ton of companies that can go do this.

AI assessment note: “I think it'll be a challenge culturally, for sure.”

Q capitalist from birth is going to better align us with the policies that allow the company country to continue to grow. Um, and I think growth is a critical element to making sure that we get our deficit to GDP back in a, uh, you know, in, in a manageable place. Michael, I know you care a lot about that issue. Any, any other thoughts on, on that particular point?

A Yeah, I mean, government's obviously been spending too much and, uh, there's been some, Some renewed attention and focus on that. That's a good thing. Uh, it gets priced into, to the currency, right? And we see it in all the effects, uh, You know, whether it's inflation or the value of the currency. And, uh, you can't really, uh, escape that. I think the, the, the, the spending has to come under control. Uh, now maybe we get this incredible, uh, productivity lift. I'm sure we're going to talk about that as we get to the AI fund portion here. Um, but We shouldn't be spending, uh, so much more than, than we're taking in as, as, as a government. We, you know, we, I've sort of stepped back from the hysterics and you say, we don't have a loan to value problem as a country. Uh, we, we, we have a spending problem.

AI assessment note: “we don't have a loan to value problem as a country. Uh, we, we, we have a spending problem.”