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Hello and welcome. 
You are listening to Patrick 

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Boyle on Finance, a podcast 
exploring ideas from 

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quantitative finance, examining 
events occurring in markets 

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right now and financial history 
to see what lessons can be taken

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away, including interviews with 
some of the most interesting 

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people in the world of finance. 
To learn more about the podcast,

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visit on finance.org. 
A few days ago, someone added me

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on Twitter with this headline 
from the FT about how 

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Masayoshi's son compared himself
to both Jesus Christ and The 

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Beatles. 
Now, I don't know why anyone 

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would send me an article like 
this, as this is neither a 

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theology channel nor is it an 
entomology channel. 

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I've no way of judging the 
accuracy of either of these 

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claims. 
I'm going to guess that they're 

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true, as there's no reason that 
Masayoshi's son would lie about 

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something like like this. 
He possibly is a lot like Jesus 

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Christ, but maybe instead of 
making the comparison himself, 

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he should just grow a beard, get
some sandals, dress all in 

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white, and then let other people
bring it up. 

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That's what I would do in such a
situation. 

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His name is Son, so who knows. 
Definitely not me. 

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I read the article anyway, which
I'm fairly sure was meant for 

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some other Patrick Boyle. 
I googled and there are a few 

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priests and at least one 
entomologist with the same name 

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as me. 
It seems that Sun said that 

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Jesus and The Beatles, who I 
have since learned were a band. 

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It's not the kind of music that 
I cover here, but he said that 

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Jesus was also misunderstood and
criticized and went on to say 

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that The Beatles weren't 
initially popular either. 

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Now, like I said, I'm not a 
theologist, nor am I Rick Biato.

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It's not for me to decide if The
Beatles were initially popular. 

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I hadn't even heard of them till
a few minutes ago when I googled

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them. 
So I'm sure that Sun is right. 

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They're probably an underground 
band, never much appreciated in 

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their time, much like SoftBank. 
Sun did tell the FT that the 

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SoftBank Vision Fund would 
tackle the biggest challenges 

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and risks facing humanity today,
which strikes me as being 

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extremely noble. 
I think that Jesus would 

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probably do the exact same thing
if he was running a large 

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venture capital fund. 
And that really is the great 

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thing about venture capital and 
tech Bros in general. 

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There are other people out there
who make fun of them, but 

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without them who would be 
looking out for humanity. 

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The kind of people who do make 
fun of tech Bros often forget 

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the historical context around 
some of the big innovations that

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were backed by VC firms like 
SoftBank. 

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Naysayers will say, for example,
that shared office spaces have 

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been around forever. 
But many people my age will 

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remember that pre 2010, the 
biggest challenge and risk 

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facing humanity was the lack of 
IKEA furniture and free beer 

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available in the shared office 
spaces. 

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When Adam Newman and his firm 
Wework arrived on the scene 

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dressed all in white and 
barefoot, Masayoshi saw the 

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light and funded this remarkable
tech startup. 

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I think there was also an app, 
but that might not have worked. 

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Sure, sometimes technology looks
like 2 bicycle mechanics 

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building the first airplane in a
shed, but other times it looks 

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like a beer tap in the office 
and an app on your phone so that

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you can complain when the beer 
is run out. 

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The path of innovation is often 
not clear. 

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Sometimes we can come up with 
ideas only to learn that someone

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else came up with that idea 
already, like when David Bowie 

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accidentally ripped off the main
riff of Ice Ice Baby. 

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Here's a clip of David 
explaining. 

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Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, 
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, 

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Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. 
That's the way there's ghosts. 

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Ours goes. 
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, 

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Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, 
Ding, Ding, Ding. 

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That little bitty change, it's 
not the same. 

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Silicon Valley tech Bros have 
occasionally, not unlike David 

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Bowie, come up with ideas that 
already existed. 

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They're well known for 
repeatedly inventing the bath. 

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Famous examples are Lyft, who 
announced a service they called 

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Lyft Shuttle, which would be 
cheaper than a taxi and run on 

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pre designated routes, picking 
passengers up and dropping them 

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off at regular stops like a 
bath. 

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Uber even launched the service, 
which allowed riders to save 

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money by waiting for their Uber 
at a prearranged stop, share it 

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with strangers, and get dropped 
off at any point along a 

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predetermined route. 
That was a bus, too. 

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Elon Musk announced his idea for
a bus on Twitter. 

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He called it the Boring Company 
Urban Loop System, saying that 

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it would have thousands of small
stations the size of a single 

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parking space that would take 
you very close to your 

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destination and blend seamlessly
into the fabric of a city, 

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rather than a small number of 
big stations like a subway. 

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Later the Boring Company went on
to build the Las Vegas Loop, 

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which was not really as good as 
a bus and possibly the most 

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disappointing transportation 
innovation in history, where it 

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was just Tesla's being driven 
slowly in an unnecessarily small

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tunnel. 
I'm trying to raise VC funding 

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right now to add one of those 
miniature trains to the loop, 

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which would massively increase 
its capacity and make it more 

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fun. 
The fact that it runs on rails 

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would additionally make it a 
full self driving supervised 

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system, which would be amazing. 
So let's look at the things tech

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Bros invented that already 
existed and some of the things 

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that they invented that should 
never have existed. 

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It seems that the worst Silicon 
Valley inventions are the ones 

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that are pitched as being tech 
products when there's no real 

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technology involved, or if there
is technology, it just wasn't 

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needed for some reason. 
A lot of these products are food

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and beverage innovations. 
A good example of this type of 

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innovation is when tech Bros 
reinvented the water bottle with

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the Hydrate Spark, which is 
pitched as has a connected water

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bottle that tracks your water 
intake and glows to make sure 

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that you don't forget to drink. 
There is of course an Internet 

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connected smartphone app so that
your hydration records can be 

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stored in the cloud. 
In the top review on Amazon, a 

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guy named Daniel says that he 
loves how it integrates with his

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phone so it recalculates his 
daily water needs. 

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He says that he honestly can't 
think of anything wrong with it,

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and as a testament to its 
durable ability, he writes that 

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it survived Burning Man. 
Of course it did. 

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I imagine that it's a disaster 
if you have one of these bottles

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and you accidentally drink out 
of a different container, as 

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then how will the bottle know 
how hydrated you are? 

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Maybe that's what the app is 
for. 

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You can hopefully let your 
bottle know that you cheated on 

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it and maybe then it'll glow in 
a different colour to indicate 

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it's disappointment. 
I should really design these 

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products. 
It seems like about 15 or 20 

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years ago that otherwise healthy
people started saying that they 

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felt hypoglycemic and dehydrated
instead of hungry and thirsty. 

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Now we have people charging 
bottles overnight and connecting

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them to their phones so that 
they no longer have to rely on 

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their hypothalamus for basic 
physiological functions. 

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I suppose I'll put an Amazon 
affiliate link to the Hydrate 

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Spark bottle in the video 
description, but I will be 

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disappointed if you actually buy
it. 

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Soylent is another tech bro 
invention taught up by a 

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software engineer named Rob 
Reinhart who says that he used 

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to view food as a time consuming
hassle. 

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He says that he resolved to 
treat it as an engineering 

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problem and came up with a meal 
replacement shake. 

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That's how Rob invented Slim 
Fast. 

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But for tech Bros, I'm not sure 
how wise it is to have someone 

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who views food as a time 
consuming hassle preparing meals

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for you. 
But this is the high tech world 

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that we live in today. 
So stop your complaining and 

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drink your lunch, Rob wrote on 
his blog a few years ago about 

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getting rid of his kitchen. 
This home manufacturing center 

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has been by far the most 
liberating to eliminate, he 

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said. 
A New York Times review 

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describes Soylent as a 
punishingly boring, joyless 

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product that causes flatulence 
as a side effect. 

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So yeah, why not drink that at 
the office? 

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It's inventor Rob responded 
saying that this side effect was

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likely to be temporary and was 
just the result of adjusting to 

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the government recommended 
amount of dietary fiber. 

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Once again, Amazon link in the 
description. 

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One of the most amusing non tech
tech products in recent years 

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was the Juice Arrow, which 
Bloomberg described a few years 

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ago as an unlikely investment 
for the top technology 

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investors. 
Nonetheless, Juicero raised $120

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million in venture capital 
funding from firms like Google 

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Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. 
A reporter at Vox wrote that 

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Juicero's business plan reads 
like a pitch perfect parody of 

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contemporary startup culture. 
It's inventor compared himself 

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to Steve Jobs and explained that
the Juicero squeezed Juice with 

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the force of two Teslas. 
I'm told that Teslas have now 

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become the standards of weights 
and measures used in Silicon 

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Valley. 
Each juice arrow pouch I believe

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contains 1 Pico Tesla of chopped
fruit. 

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One investor told the press that
they were drawn to the idea of 

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an Internet connected device 
that transforms single serving 

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packets of chopped fruits and 
vegetables into a refreshing and

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healthy beverage. 
Another said that Juicero was 

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building a platform for a new 
model of food delivery and that 

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the subscription based model is 
reminiscent of other food 

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delivery startups like Blue 
Apron and Nature Box. 

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A Bloomberg reporter noted that 
squeezing the fruit bags by hand

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yielded nearly the same amount 
of juice as the $400.00 device 

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and was often quicker. 
Juicero responded that most 

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people would prefer to use the 
machine because the process is 

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more consistent and less messy. 
It turns out that people didn't 

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want to use the machine and the 
company went bankrupt. 

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The founder of Juicero was last 
seen promoting $40 jugs of what 

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he calls raw water, which I 
believe is text speak for dirty 

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water that he found. 
He told a reporter that he will 

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sometimes trespass across 
private property under the cover

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of night to collect this raw 
water. 

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He has recently written a book 
on the mind blowing nutritional 

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benefit of Sprouts. 
LinkedIn the description Now 

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Teforia was another technology 
innovation from Mountain View, 

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whose pitch was that their 
device elegantly blends the rich

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tradition of tea with technology
to create the perfect modern tea

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experience. 
So yeah, it was a $1500 teapot 

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with an app. 
This Internet connected tea 

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infuser used machine learning 
and advanced algorithms to 

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produce the perfect cup of tea. 
Sadly, Teforia is gone. 

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You can't buy one anymore. 
But in a five star review a 

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fellow named Robert writes, I 
love this machine. 

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He goes on to say you don't need
the pods because you have the 

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app. 
You can throw any loose leaf tea

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in it. 
That sounds great. 

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Wait till Robert learns that he 
doesn't need the app either. 

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It'll blow his mind, another 
fellow said. 

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It's always guys, isn't it? 
Wrote a review having bought a 

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tephoria, hopefully at a 
discount, after the company had 

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gone bankrupt. 
He only gave it a four-star 

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review. 
He seems to love the teapot, but

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then realized that no one was 
updating the app now that the 

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company was bankrupt, and by the
time he wrote his review, this 

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seemed to be driving him over 
the edge. 

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He writes in all caps. 
You can't use the Tephoria if 

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you don't have a smartphone. 
He goes on to say, yes, you can 

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use the little cups without your
phone. 

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Yes, that. 
That's the great thing about 

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cups. 
But he then says the true 

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usability comes from the Teforia
app. 

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He says on the surface, it's the
best tea maker money can buy. 

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And he says it's changing the 
way I drink and make tea for the

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better. 
But underneath is a ticking time

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bomb of uncertainty. 
If the app isn't updated, I will

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eventually lose the ability to 
use my Teforia. 

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Yeah, that that sounds awfully 
stressful to me. 

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We'll be back after a quick 
break. 

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It's like our brains have a mind
of their own when it comes to 

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money, right? 
Yeah. 

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It's crazy. 
We're diving into that today, 

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how our brains really deal with 
money. 

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We're going deep on this one, 
looking at money and how we 

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decide behavioral research. 
This stuff is like eye opening. 

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Seriously, it turns out our 
brains aren't always rational, 

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especially with money. 
No kidding. 

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So what's the deal with that? 
Why are we so bad at making, you

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know, sensible financial 
decisions? 

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Well, our brains are kind of 
lazy in a way. 

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They love taking shortcuts. 
Look, tech Bros are obviously 

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not big fans of food, and that's
OK. 

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As long as they're getting their
government recommended amount of

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dietary fibre and not sitting 
next to me, I'm fine with that. 

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One of the giveaways that food 
isn't a big deal for tech 

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workers came a few years ago 
when Myra, the chief people 

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officer at the food delivery app
at Just Eat, posted on LinkedIn 

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00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:34,000
that Just Eat had invented the 
Power Hour. 

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00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:38,080
What's that, you might wonder? 
Well, it was an hour during the 

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00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:41,840
work day when you could take a 
break from meetings, go for a 

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walk, even have lunch. 
She finished up her post by 

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00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:48,800
saying another way. 
We continue to brilliantly 

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00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:51,920
enhance the lives of just eaters
everywhere. 

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00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:56,520
Yes, that's right, Mira had 
invented the lunch break. 

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00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:00,720
The LinkedIn post was quickly 
deleted after people cruelly 

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00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:04,360
made fun of it, and Justine told
the press that the general 

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00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:07,960
public had humorously brought to
their attention that they didn't

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00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:12,080
do a very good job of explaining
their intention to remind their 

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00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,480
staff to prioritize their own 
well-being and get away from 

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their laptops. 
Another great invention was the 

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Pause pod, which was pitched as 
a private pop up space free from

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stressful moments, designed by a
team of inventors and 

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00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,360
advertisers based in Sweden. 
Here's a picture. 

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That's a tent. 
A tent in your office? 

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00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:39,560
The inventor of the PAWS pod 
told the press that in the 

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00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:43,080
initial crowdfunding round, the 
team had set out to raise 

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00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:49,200
$10,000, but instead brought in 
over $100,000 with pre-orders. 

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00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:54,680
That amount grew to about 
$140,000 with nearly 2000 PAWS 

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pods ordered, he said. 
You'll get it if you're familiar

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00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,440
with feeling stressed and doing 
meditation or mindfulness. 

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After people made fun of it on 
Twitter, the founder said that 

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he had never claimed that it 
wasn't a tent, which is true. 

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I'll put a link to a tent in the
video description if you need 

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00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,040
one of those. 
There's some really great gift 

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00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:22,240
ideas in this video. 
In truth, tech Bros in recent 

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years have invented roommates, 
calling it the trend of Co 

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00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:29,520
living where people live 
together, each having their own 

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00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,280
spaces but with some shared 
rooms. 

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With Bodega, they invented the 
vending machine, raising two and

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00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,560
a half $1,000,000 in funding for
what was described as smart 

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00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:45,200
store kiosks powered by AI that 
you can operate using your 

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00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,000
phone. 
You don't even have to work in 

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00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,120
tech to come up with these 
ideas. 

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00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:54,040
Back in 2020, a Canadian 
reporter pitched her start up 

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00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:57,560
idea on Twitter. 
Private backyards for people who

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00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:02,880
don't have private backyards. 
She said I would pay $5 to rent 

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00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:07,400
a fenced area for an hour so I 
could safely play fetch with my 

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00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:10,599
dog while doing an outdoor 
summer workout. 

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00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,319
If it works for bikes and office
space, why not land? 

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00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:18,240
Lauren made the mistake of 
pitching this idea to the public

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on Twitter rather than to 
venture capitalists. 

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00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:25,280
And instead of raising money, 
people just made fun of her for 

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inventing public parks. 
With the current excitement 

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00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:33,600
around AI, we're seeing a bunch 
of AI products that are just 

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00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,320
worst versions of things that we
already have. 

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00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,480
Amazon has become inundated with
AI generated books. 

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00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:44,400
Apparently it's become such an 
issue that to combat it, they've

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00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:48,560
started restricting authors to 
self-publishing a maximum of 

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00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:52,840
three books per day on their 
platform, which I imagine is 

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00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:56,800
unfairly holding back some of 
the more productive authors out 

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00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,600
there. 
There are all sorts of start-ups

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00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:03,400
pitching AI therapy where a chat
bot helps you with your 

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00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:05,920
problems. 
It's hard to think of anything 

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00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:10,200
more depressing than that. 
Spotify announced earlier this 

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00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:15,120
year an AIDJ feature which will 
pick music for you to listen to.

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00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,200
Isn't that what Spotify already 
does? 

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00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,800
Microsoft has been forcing AI 
features into all of their 

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00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,360
products whether users want them
or not. 

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00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,720
I guess they have to justify how
much they've been spending. 

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00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,920
Oral-B has an AI powered 
toothbrush, which of course 

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00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:34,920
connects to an app on your 
phone. 

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00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:38,360
They say that they've trained 
the toothbrush on thousands of 

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00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:42,120
different users to assess the 
different brushing styles. 

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00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,960
It seems you brush your teeth 
while looking at your phone and 

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00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,200
the app tells you if you missed 
the spot. 

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00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:52,480
It doesn't actually learn from 
your toothbrushing look. 

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00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:56,120
I don't really know what it 
does, but link in the 

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00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:59,000
description. 
It's hard to know if we've 

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00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:03,000
reached peak AI yet, but I saw 
in the news this morning that 

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00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,840
you can now buy a purse that's 
made out of an NVIDIA GPU, so 

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00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,640
maybe that's it. 
I've already made a whole video 

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00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:15,240
about Adam Newman who picked 
short term office rentals as 

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00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:18,720
being technology, and I've 
talked about Peloton who sold 

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00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:22,840
expensive exercise bikes with a 
$40 a month subscription fee. 

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00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,200
The bike wouldn't work if your 
Internet went down. 

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00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:30,120
There were also tech pro 
companies like Washboard, which 

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00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:35,560
charge subscribers $27.00 to 
send them $20 worth of laundry 

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00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,680
quarters every month. 
Sometimes Silicon Valley doesn't

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00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:43,600
just invent physical products 
that already exist, they invent 

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00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,960
websites that already exist. 
The kind of websites that they 

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00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:51,240
should probably have heard of. 
A few years ago, the founder of 

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00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,320
the dating app Bumble launched 
Bumble Biz, bringing the 

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00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:59,280
company's women first angle to 
professional networking. 

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00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:03,320
She invented a strange version 
of LinkedIn where you couldn't 

324
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,840
just search for someone in your 
industry, you instead had to 

325
00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,960
swipe left or right on whoever 
else was also logged into the 

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00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,680
app. 
I don't believe it worked out. 

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00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,400
Tech Bros reinvented the space 
race, too. 

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00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:21,080
Here's a clip of Elon Musk 
announcing his plan to land the 

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00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:23,960
man on the moon. 
I believe that this nation 

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00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,920
should commit itself to 
achieving the goal before this 

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00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:31,800
decade is out of landing a man 
on the moon and returning him 

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00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:35,920
safely to the Earth. 
The tech bro space race really 

333
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:40,080
heated up during the pandemic as
all sorts of space businesses 

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00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:44,160
were taken public as SPAC's. 
While listing as a SPAC provided

335
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,640
a shortcut to the stock market 
without the rigors of the IPO 

336
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,440
process, these newly listed 
companies were still subject to 

337
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:54,880
the regulatory and public 
scrutiny that comes with being a

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00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,680
publicly traded firm. 
It's only so surprising that a 

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00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,440
large number of space Spacs have
since been delisted after stock 

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00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,760
price declines and missed 
regulatory filings over the last

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00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,960
few years. 
According to Space News, nearly 

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00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:15,160
half of the space SPAC companies
have announced significant 

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00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:19,160
workforce reductions. 
Many have since been sold off on

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00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:23,880
the cheap, taken private, given 
up on space, or even shut down. 

345
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:27,480
There've been numerous failed 
launches, and the one bright 

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00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:32,000
spot on the horizon is that Elon
Musk announced over the weekend 

347
00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:36,760
that SpaceX will start flying 
Mars missions in just two years 

348
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,960
time. 
So that will definitely happen. 

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00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,840
Tech Bros have been busy in 
recent years disrupting the 

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00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,240
world of finance, too. 
They've reinvented money and 

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00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:51,120
payments with crypto currencies 
and reinvented markets and 

352
00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:53,600
financial transactions with Web 
Three. 

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00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:57,400
They even reinvented the receipt
with NFTS. 

354
00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,360
Some of this reinvention made 
certain payments faster and 

355
00:22:01,360 --> 00:22:05,360
cheaper by ignoring the law and 
industry best practices. 

356
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,600
Things like anti money 
laundering regulations and know 

357
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:12,560
your customer rules can add 
significant costs for financial 

358
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,800
firms. 
Web 3 was supposed to somehow 

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00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:19,920
make transactions free or 
extremely cheap while making a 

360
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,240
large sums of money for the 
people who invested in it, and 

361
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:26,600
it's hard to understand how 
these goals could be achieved 

362
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,880
simultaneously. 
The conflict at the heart of 

363
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,080
fintech is the tech companies 
focus on product and user 

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00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:37,800
experience with the aim of 
reducing friction to ensure 

365
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:40,760
seamlessness. 
This focus often takes 

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00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:43,440
precedence over compliance 
matters. 

367
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:48,240
According to the ABA, 93% of 
fintech struggle to meet 

368
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:52,680
compliance requirements, and 
over 60% of fintech companies 

369
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:59,200
paid at least $250,000 in 
compliance fines in 2023 alone, 

370
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:02,120
stemming from a lack of 
transaction monitoring, 

371
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:05,840
insufficient customer due 
diligence, and a failure to 

372
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:10,240
report suspicious actions. 
Traditional finance firms often 

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00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,840
manage to have compliance 
problems, but without a focus on

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00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,120
user experience, which is also a
thing that you can do. 

375
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,560
More and more, we're reading 
news about how people who used 

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00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,000
to love their smartphones now 
hate them. 

377
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,920
Some argue that the reason 
behind this is that in recent 

378
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,640
years, apps have been optimized 
not to make a user's life 

379
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:36,440
easier, but instead to maximize 
the time spent on the app and to

380
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,280
maximize user engagement. 
Why does a water bottle, a 

381
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:42,720
teapot, or a toothbrush come 
with an app? 

382
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:47,400
No one was asking for this. 
Social media no longer shows a 

383
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,320
user the photos or tweets that 
their friends uploaded, instead 

384
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,640
showing them content created by 
total strangers that might anger

385
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,400
them enough to respond or to 
scroll through the responses 

386
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:02,240
looking for comments that agree 
with their point of view. 

387
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,120
This is how you keep an audience
scrolling. 

388
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,520
We're seeing a strong push to 
ban smartphones at schools 

389
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,120
because of how they affect young
children. 

390
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:16,200
Studies show a relationship 
between high smartphone use and 

391
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,120
mental health disorders, even 
amongst adults. 

392
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:22,840
To be clear, I'm not anti tech, 
I love technology. 

393
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,240
Without it, my career in finance
would not have been possible and

394
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,160
I wouldn't be able to make 
videos like these, which I love 

395
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,720
making. 
You'll probably have noticed 

396
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,640
that none of the products I've 
made fun of are really all that 

397
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,600
high tech. 
They're mostly non tech products

398
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:42,640
pitched as if they were tech to 
achieve a higher valuation. 

399
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,120
It's no surprise that people 
like Elizabeth Holmes and Sam 

400
00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:50,400
Bankman Freed pitched their non 
tech products to tech investors.

401
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,760
A specialist in their industries
would have and did spot the 

402
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:58,800
flaws in what was being sold. 
And by no means saying that all 

403
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:02,520
new technology is junk. 
The tech industry has hugely 

404
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:06,120
improved the way that we live. 
But it's important not to be 

405
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:09,200
tricked by marketing. 
Thanks for tuning in again to 

406
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:12,560
this week's podcast. 
The podcast is listener funded 

407
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,040
by supporters on Patreon, and if
you want to sign up for that, 

408
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:17,880
there's a link in the show 
notes. 

409
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,480
Have a great week and talk to 
you again soon. 

410
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,800
Bye. 
If you enjoyed this episode, be 

411
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,640
sure to subscribe so you're 
notified when a new episode is 

412
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:28,880
posted. 
Thank you to everyone who is 

413
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,000
supporting this content on 
Patreon. 

414
00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:34,240
If you enjoyed this content, you
can find more like it on 

415
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:38,760
YouTube, on the Patrick Boyle on
Finance channel, or follow us on

416
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,960
Twitter at Patrick E Boyle. 
Thanks for listening. 

417
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:42,400
Bye.