Every conversation has the potential to reveal something useful hidden within the ordinary, and this one delivers several of those moments.
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we catch up after Dan's 11th trip to Buenos Aires for his ongoing stem cell treatments, where he shares a remarkable milestone: a 12% increase in brain volume over three years, roughly equivalent to reversing 30 years of cognitive decline. The conversation flows naturally into Dean's growing practice of "phone fasting" and constraining his available hours, and how that's led to a heightened clarity about where attention actually goes each day.
We then dig into the idea of "creating a better past", the practice of making today worth remembering tomorrow, and how this connects to calendar structure, scheduling disciplines, and the real cost of vague future planning. Dan shares why he treats his schedule as a commitment rather than a suggestion, and why words like "should," "would," and "could" are blame-shifting words that quietly block learning and behavior change. Dean's shift to locking in six months of workshops in advance gives a concrete example of how structure actually creates freedom.
The episode closes on a thought worth sitting with: Dan's observation that at the bottom of all unhappiness, there's an argument with time. The conversation between these two has a way of making the abstract feel immediately actionable, worth your full attention.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTSDan increased his brain volume by 12% in three years through stem cell treatments, equivalent to reversing roughly 30 years of cognitive decline.Only 0.05% of people are proactively using AI to create output, meaning the competitive advantage window for early adopters remains wide open.Strategic Coach's 250 thinking tools stay permanently "upstream" from AI, because AI can only work with what humans have already created and published.Dan eliminated "should," "would," and "could" from his vocabulary entirely, calling them blame-shifting words that signal complaint without any intention to change behavior.Dean locked in six full months of workshops in advance for the first time, discovering that visible structure on the calendar creates bookings, and momentum that vague future planning never could.Dan's rule for unhappiness: at the bottom of every persistent dissatisfaction, you'll find someone having an unwinnable argument with time.
Links:
WelcomeToCloudlandia.com
StrategicCoach.com
DeanJackson.com
ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean:
Welcome to Claudelandia. Mr. Sullivan. There he is. Are you in Argentina?
Dan:
Nope, nope.
Dean:
No, I'm
Dan:
Back in Toronto. No, we arrived about noon yesterday. We got back. Yeah.
Dean:
Okay. Joe is on his way.
Dan:
Yep. Yep. He left last night.
Dean:
Well, he didn't leave last night actually. Well, he missed his connection. So that's a problem. Yeah, hopefully he figured it out, but he was definitely on the ... We're not happy till you're not happy airline experience program.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
So Garnet and Shirley, they were on the flight that took off. He was so frustrated. Yeah, he was so frustrated because he was on the runway or on the ramp and they were just taken off, so he missed just barely.
Dan:
You know, people are not necessarily talk about Joe, but I noticed a lot of people are throughout their entire life, they're about three hours late.
Dean:
Oh, just missed. Yeah, exactly.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. And if they just take one future event or one present event out of their life, they'd be on time, but there's always one thing that makes them three hours late.
Dean:
That's funny.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
So you're in Toronto now?
Dan:
Yeah, just got back. Yeah. Yeah.
Dean:
Perfect.
Dan:
And the snow is starting to melt.
Dean:
Okay. That's what I hear.
Dan:
That's
Dean:
What I hear. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. The power went out in our neighborhood last night. Suddenly it was just completely black, but at our house, five seconds later, the generator kicked in and we had full lights, electricity. Everything was working.
Dean:
Oh, see?
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
That's why you get a generator, right?
Dan:
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Dean:
Because that's like doing an experience transformer in advance.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
Looking forward.
Dan:
I remember a New Yorker cartoon a long time ago, 30, 35 years. And it shows this elderly couple standing at a corner in New York City, a street corner. And right in the middle of the intersection is a dead elephant.
Dean:
Oh my.
Dan:
And the wife, the older lady is saying to her husband, "Elmer, I'm never going to complain about you bringing that elephant gun with you on a date."
Dean:
Oh my goodness. That's so funny. Better, safe than sorry.
Dan:
You never know when the elephant's going to show up.
Dean:
That's exactly right. Better to have the gun and not need it. Oh
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It may be socially awkward, but you never know when you're going to need that elephant gun.
Dean:
I love it. So this is-
Dan:
This is our 11th trip to Buenos Aires.
Dean:
So what's the progress report?
Dan:
Yeah. Well, it's interesting because I'm the oldest patient that they've ever had at this clinic who's doing this procedure where you're replacing a cartilage and it's completely back. But what they've discovered is that it's a very young cartilage. It's an early life cartridge, which is okay if you're 13 pounds.
Dean:
Right.
Dan:
Yeah. But I weigh more than 13 pounds. And so it's a brand new cartilage. It's completely back. So if I do an MRI lying down, it's completely back. But if I do an MRI with me standing with my full weight, it's as if nothing's happened yet.
Dean:
Oh, really? And that's ... Well, what's the protocol for that too?
Dan:
It's kind of a gelatin that they put into the knee now, and it gradually kind of creates a structure in there. I think this is from the cosmetic world, where they put this in people's
Dean:
Cheeks or they- Wharton's jelly or whatever. Is that what you're talking about or is that
Dan:
Something that- Yeah, something like that. But gradually it'll reinforce the growth. My cartilage is growing at a much faster pace than a six month old baby would be. Yeah. And the pain is less. I
Dean:
Was just going to say, what's the practical thing?
Dan:
I would say if I compare to a week now, a seven day experience to seven days before I went for my first treatment, which was November of 19 to 2023, so it's two and a half years, basically. My pain is down somewhere between 80 and 90%.
Dean:
Oh, that's awesome. And that's really-
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, pain is the problem.
Dean:
Well, there you go.
Dan:
Well,
Dean:
That's
Dan:
Just the knee, but the big
Dean:
One
Dan:
Has been the brain. I mean, by far the biggest impact because they do it on my knee for cartilage purposes. They do it on both my ankles because I have Achilles tendons, broken Achilles tendons in both of my ankles, and they're good. They're good. They're better. There's more flexibility, more push off. But the big one has been the stem cells to the brain, and I've increased my brain volume by 12% in three years.
Dean:
12%.
Dan:
12%. I mean,
Dean:
That's great. And
Dan:
That's about 30 years. That's equal to about 30 years of decline.
Dean:
Wow.
Dan:
So I would be ...
Dean:
Basically,
Dan:
I'm back where I was when I was 52.
Dean:
Brain wise.
Dan:
Being 82 right now. And I notice it. I notice it too.
Dean:
You do? What do you notice? Like your brain feels more limber and alive?
Dan:
No, the biggest thing is that the world makes sense.
Dean:
Okay. Okay. That's
Dan:
Interesting. The entire world now is suffering from Trump to arrangement syndrome.
Dean:
Oh my goodness. Yeah. It's so ... Yeah, it really is. I think consciously-
Dan:
He's taken on a historically unique role where there's nobody who's indifferent to him.
Dean:
Right. Exactly.
Dan:
There's no in between.
Dean:
Yeah. I mean, it's really ... Yeah, this is ... It's funny because with my phone fasting and my zone of my 12:00 PM till 6:00 PM is really because I'm constraining the available time that I have to meet with people, that those times are filling up. So I really have very little time to pay attention to what's going on. Like just at a tippy top level, I know that we've bombed Iraq or Iran, sorry. But that's really ... I have not ... I've escaped really all of the other ... Just cursorily or peripherally, I've seen things about Dubai and the Emirates and stuff
Dan:
Like that. Well, I think because it was a war, it's a war. So people say, "Well, he's causing a war." Actually, the war has been going on for 49 years, but it's only been from one side. So the Iranians, the Mulas, the whatever they are, declared war on the United States in 1979, but it was only
Dean:
In
Dan:
2026 that an American president noticed it. And he said, "Oh, you can't do that.
Dean:
" Yeah. Wait a minute.
Dan:
Wait a minute. Yeah. I knew I had an itch there. I didn't know what it was. So why don't we make this quick? We'll just destroy your entire leadership in the first half hour.
Dean:
Okay. There we go. Reset.
Dan:
There we go. There we go. You tried to get our attention. It took you 49 years, but you got our attention and here it is. Yeah.
Dean:
Yeah. So I look at that for me as ...
Dan:
Sure.
Dean:
That's been a noticeable difference is just- Well, that's
Dan:
Great.
Dean:
... general awareness.
Dan:
And I don't think you've deprived the world of anything by not paying attention to it.
Dean:
No, because I think you said it when you gave up TV, you made the observation that there's a lot better things going on in your brain than our in that. And for me, I'm realizing that exact same thing. I've been really loading up a large language model in my brain of being exposed to so much stuff now. And yeah, so now it's really building the interface to tap into it. That's in the best way.
Dan:
Yeah. And I think the thing that ... My sense is in the center of complexity, if you have a complex situation, at the center, if you get to the center of a complex situation, it's actually just this rather than that. It's something that's happening at the center of complexity that ... First of all, there's something new happening, and it's this new thing that's happening, and it creates a first impact, which once you've made the first impact, it creates 50 other impacts, and that's where the change is. And my sense is that it's, from my perspective, that is that you're either entrepreneurial or you're not entrepreneurial. In other words, as an individual, you're either creating new things or you're consuming new things. And right at the center, there's a creator and a consumer, and they need each other. Yeah, they
Dean:
Do.
Dan:
They need each other, and they're in the center of all the complexity in the world. There's a creator of something and a consumer of something, and the rest of it is just a byproduct.
Dean:
Yeah. Those ... Last couple of days, I've been listening to a podcast interview with Cal Newport. He's on with Chris Williams. Williams or Williamson, it's funny because the thing that he's been talking about for 10 years is really gaining momentum now of being ... The awareness of the need for deep focus, deep work, is the big thing. It was an interesting thing just on my way home from the cafe this morning. He was talking about how the GPTs or the large language models now that people think about it slowly advancing towards this giant thing that can do everything, but his real ... He said, "What's really going to end up happening is there's going to be thousands of individual specialist things that do one thing really well." And I think that reminded me of who's, of the capabilities. I think you and I, and I love ... Every time we talk about offer prior, I think about you saying, "You could do anything, but you can't do one thing." And that's what I think people are thinking about AI as this thing that can do everything, and the reality of where it's going to end up heading is to where it can do one thing, and that you know that this is the thing to do that one thing.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
It's very ... I think that makes
Dan:
Much more sense. Well, my sense ... Yeah, just to extend that thought a little bit, I think it can do everything except one day late.
Dean:
Okay.
Dan:
Because it depends upon human output in order
Dean:
To- Yeah, for sure.
Dan:
In other words, that it's the expert on everything that happened up until yesterday. And that will always be the case. That will always be the case, mainly because humans live in a totally subjective world and computers live in a totally objective world. In other words, they can only work with what's already been done. Yeah.
Dean:
Yeah. That's really ...
Dan:
I just wrote an article on how Strategic Coach with its thinking tools is always upstream from AI.
Dean:
Say that again. How have ...
Dan:
Well, things are either upstream or downstream.
Dean:
Okay.
Dan:
Okay. So things that are upstream are the cause and downstream it's the
Dean:
Effect.
Dan:
And my sense is that a strategic coach with its 250 thinking tools is always upstream from AI.
Dean:
Yes. I got it. Yeah, that makes sense because-
Dan:
If you're creating new stuff, you're upstream from someone noticing it. Yeah. And AI is the great noticer.
Dean:
That's funny. The great noticer.
Dan:
Yes, the greatest noticer we've ever created.
Dean:
I mean, this is ... Yeah, I was just asking perplexity about the adoption of AI and the global estimate is somewhere between 15 and 20% of humans or whatever of people have even interacted with AI at all. But I've seen from as far as creating, using it for some ... Like proactively using it for some output is literally like 0.05% of people. Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, 20% of humans haven't interacted with electricity yet.
Dean:
Wow. Okay. So there's time. Yeah.
Dan:
I love that. Perspective. It's true in the sense that most of Africa in the way that we interact with electricity is not doing it yet. I mean, they have some things that are electric, but I was reminded of this last night because something happened in the beaches last night and all the lights went out. There was like a sound. It was like a bang and then
Dean:
We
Dan:
Were in pitch darkness and then 10 seconds later, we had full electricity at
Dean:
Our house, but
Dan:
As I looked outside, nobody else had electricity.
Dean:
Yeah. That sounds like a squirrel that got caught in a transformer. And the only reason I know that is because I've been where that has happened and that's exactly-
Dan:
Oh yeah.
Dean:
Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. It happened like two weeks ago. And that was the exact reason that a squirrel got into a transformer and millions of people lost electricity as a result of that famous-
Dean:
Those crazy squirrels.
Dan:
Hey, I wonder what this looks like. What is this? Oh.
Dean:
It's pretty warm in here. Yeah. Let's see what's inside.
Dan:
Yeah. I wonder, and the sentence wasn't completed.
Dean:
That's funny. You're right. The whole ... I mean, I still remember the whole thing about ... And most of much of the world, I think you said this about China, but if in much of the world, two hours from the capital cities, people are shitting in holes.That's the reality of where-
Dan:
They're not your competitor.
Dean:
They're not your competitor. Oh, man.
Dan:
Yeah. Well, I mean, you could see that the Iranians bought a hundred billion dollars worth of air defense equipment of one kind or another sensors and rockets. It was a hundred billion in the last three or four years they put in there, and none of it worked. I mean, there's been about 3000 sorties of ... A sorority is one plane going into a combat zone and doing something, firing a rocket or dropping a bomb. And I think there's been about 3000 of them so far in the last seven days in Iran, and that one American or Israeli plane has even been threatened. So if you're looking for a good security system at your home, do not buy Chinese.
Dean:
Right. Exactly. Not the answer.
Dan:
Not
Dean:
The answer.
Yeah, yeah. That's so funny. The big thing for me this week, Dan, has been this growing realization of creating the better past as the daily task. I realized that ... I read something else. I've been really studying the ADHD stuff and executive function and really just kind of practicing my ... Setting up systems around this, because I realized that vitamin A doesn't make the decisions for you. What I've noticed is it allows me to stay on the task that I'm working on, but it doesn't help with the narrowing down and the decisions or prioritizing of what needs to be done. And I think that this reality of creating a better past is that that's the only actionable thing that you can do. It's kind of like when you said upstream and downstream, it kind of reminded me of that, that it lags, right?
Today is really the sum total of all of the previous outputs from the days past, and there's no actionable element of the future. I saw this somebody on ... It's funny because my algorithm now on TikTok and Instagram and all these, is I get all these ADD content and it's such a huge community. I mean, there's so many people that are affected by this, but it was ... I wish I could remember exactly what they said. It's like, but forget about your six month plan or your six month future you. There's nothing there for you. Do you know what I mean? It's really, it's only today that matters. Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. I think I shared this in our last podcast that one of the things ... This is day 95 for me of working on today because I want today to be a great tomorrow, a great yesterday, tomorrow. It's basically ... Tomorrow morning, when I think about what I did on Sunday, the 8th of March, it was a great day. I really had some great breakers, great activities, conversing with you and everything like that. And once I get outside the framework of what's possible today, there's not much there.
Dean:
That's exactly right. Now, there are certain things that you can do to ... I look at for how many ... I don't know how many years, Dan, you and I have been having these conversations at, that it is locked in my world that we have created this better past of having arranged that we meet every Sunday morning like this and record the conversations, right? That is something, I think, looking forward to lock into place these structures that ensure that you're going to have that better past for today. And I'm just observing that, right? I think directionally, there's a place for setting up that infrastructure. It requires no executive function for you and I to find a time on our calendar, when our calendars are going to line up to record. And I find that it's an interesting difference between matching you and I, our calendar versus me and Joe with our doing our marketings.
It's like such a ...
Dan:
I
Dean:
Mean, do you find that with your ...
Dan:
I mean, when I look at ... I mean, I'm really ... I'm a managed person. I have people who manage my schedule. And if I look ahead, this is early March, so I have March, April, and May going forward, and I bet 60% of what's going to happen over the next is in the calendar, so it's going to happen. It's going to happen.
Dean:
Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. And generally speaking, my attitude towards it, I'll come to ... I have an appointment or something that's set up months ahead of time, and I
Dean:
Come
Dan:
To it and I said, "It would have been better if I did this tomorrow than today." But I said, "Nope, reinforce the discipline." I said, "You said you wanted whose, you gave them the freedom, you gave them the responsibility of setting up the schedule, just do what's in the schedule, don't try to change it, don't do anything like that, and then thank them for doing it. " And yeah, I think it may be 80%, not 60%. I bet it's 80% of everything over the next three months. And there'll be people who phoned Becca and they say, "Can I have 15 minutes with Dan and that? " And she'll talk to me and I said, "Let's do it in the next quarter, not right now." Yeah.
Dean:
Yeah. Do you keep a rolling quarter going in your mind or do you do it on the calendar quarters and you're
Dan:
Yeah. I mean, the calendar quarters are a function of the workshop quarters. In other words, generally my schedule is determined by interaction with other people and workshops are the biggest because that's where the cash flow comes from and everything else. But I never fool around with them. I can't think of a time when I said ...
Dean:
Hey, let's move the workshop here.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah, let's get in touch with 45 people until we're
Dean:
Moving
Dan:
Something.
Dean:
Let's check this a little bit.
Dan:
Let's just do it the way it's scheduled. And that's three years ahead. That's actually three years ahead.
Dean:
I love that. This has been a big shift for me. I mentioned to you this year has been kind of the first year where I'm completely calendared for the first six months of the year in terms of my breakthrough blueprints and the lead conversion and lead gen workshops are completely locked in and mapped out. And that's been a really different experience for me because typically I would have vaguely in my mind that I'm going to do one this time, but I was only ever letting people know about the next one, which may be six weeks away, six or eight weeks away. So it's kind of like a decision that people have that opportunity. If they can come, they can come. But now I'm seeing ... I've already got people who've booked for the June event. Now that they're on the calendar, it's kind of everything is there.
And that's what I'm really looking at is creating the rhythm of things. I'm realizing that's how ... I always say that life moves at the speed of reality and it's dependable that it's 60 minutes per hour and that it's seven days a week and it's three months and a quarter. So those things are coming and throwing them out there, putting the big rocks, as you would say, in place, everything else can work around those. I find that that's comforting.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
It is. I do crave and resist structure at the same time.
Dan:
Well, I think that the trick is to bring it into alignment with what you find fascinating and motivating. I think that's the trick. And I think it's a real problem. I think at the basis of all unhappiness on the part of every individual, at the very bottom of unhappiness, they're having an argument with time.
Dean:
I agree. Say more about that because I've been thinking something very similar.
Dan:
Well, you're either in agreement with time or you're in disagree. I don't think there's a middle road. Yeah. Yeah. And it has to do with the full use of your attention. And I think that happiness is a function of being fully present.
Dean:
It reminds me, Dan, do you ever hear the story of the ship that was coming into Harbor and it sees a light in the distance and it says, "We're about to collide, veer your course by five degrees or whatever." And the thing comes back, cannot veer course. Yes, you veer five degrees to the right and the captain signals back, "We are the USS, whatever. Veer your course by five degrees." And the signal comes back. We are a lighthouse. Veer your course five.
Dan:
It's a disagreement with ... It's an argument over time.
Dean:
That is right.
Dan:
Yeah. The basis of reality is that things happen when they happen.
Dean:
That is exactly right.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. But I just noticed it's like having an argument with gravity.
Dean:
But I want to float. Yeah.
Dan:
I'm a fly.
Dean:
Exactly. But eventually you're going to hit the ground. Yeah. So I think that there's so many of these things that are all pointing in that right, in that same direction that using ... It's dependable. I think that that is the thing, right? It's dependable that there's going to be 24 out that we're going to have a thousand attention units in a day. That's the only ... And we can only spend this moment.
Dan:
Yeah. But I think that consciousness where you're conscious with what's happening. And I said that ... I've been thinking about this over the last two weeks because anytime we go to Argentina, I am reminded of the fact that in certain countries, a schedule is just a suggestion.
Dean:
With certain airlines too.
Dan:
Oh yeah. And so we were there and that's why we take Becca with us because Becca is really great at rearranging things at short notice. And we had about, I would say, we were there for six days. I would say we had five scheduled changes. That would meet the average of a
Day there. And the thing is that if we had to handle that, it would have been a really bad week, but we have a who who just thrives on shifting things. And when you shift things, it's not just one thing you shift. There's a number of things that you shift, more than one, that any change ... It seems like a simple thing, but it's not because there's people to be called and limousine drivers are going to be and everything like that. And it's really interesting. So my attitude is that the fact that I have a structure and the fact that I have a schedule is a real gift, is a real gift. So I don't fool around with it. Even though, yes, things could be changed at the last moment and you could do this. I say, I think you're borrowing from the future by doing this and I'd rather invest in the future, deposit in the future.
And give yourself ... This is why I don't like the words should, would, or could. We should have done this, we would have done this, we could have done this. And I said, "Just treat it like experience, but then really make a change so that next time you don't, you're not faced with the same
Dean:
Situation."
Dan:
So I think the problem, those three words, it's funny that they should rhyme, would, could, and should, but they all mean I want to complain, but I'm not going to alter my future behavior. In other words, I want to say something, but I never found ever where somebody said, "I should have done this, " or they actually did the other thing.
Dean:
It's interesting. I'm just thinking about those words. So let me think for a second here. I would have is kind of like a blame where I would have if, but there's something else is like ... Yeah, that wasn't my fault. I think there's an external blame shifting. Well, I could have done this is kind of rationalizing your thing and maybe should, I should have, is bringing ... There's a bit of emotion in that, right? Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. And what there is, I've just noticed when I do it for myself, that
Dean:
There's no
Dan:
Learning in it. It's not enough of a punishment in the moment that I'm going to change my behavior for the future.
Dean:
Yeah. How do you think we could bring those into using those today that that's kind of ... Because if we're building a better future or a better path, then that means that we won't tomorrow look and say, "We would have done this, or we could have done this, or we should have done this. " How can we do that today?
Dan:
It's really interesting. I had an experience exactly about this topic yesterday. We got back to Toronto, and Toronto hasn't done anything to improve its airports, I bet, in a dozen years. It's really getting grungy. I mean, they actually have three buildings. They have the big one, which is mostly Air Canada and United.
Dean:
And
Dan:
Then the second one is ... And number two, the number two terminal is just smaller air Canada planes. It's basically an air Canada terminal. And then number three is everything else that's not in their alliance. If you're not in the Canada ... The one, I think it's called One World or something like that, everything like that. So Lufthansa, the German airlines would be at terminal one because they're part of Air Canadas.
Dean:
I got it.
Dan:
Yeah. So you do see a few other airlines, but they're part of the One World Airlines, but three is just horrible. It's just one of the most horrible airline terminals in my experience. The design doesn't make any sense. You get off the plane and you're walking forever before you get to.
Dean:
Oh, I know. I've noticed that. It's like you've parked in Hamilton and you got to walk the rest of the way. Right.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
I've noticed that about Ethro too. It's like that.
Dan:
Yeah. I mean, but it's not even kept up. The carpets are frayed, there's scratches in the walls, the glass hasn't been cleaned and everything else. It's just not well taken care of. But what I noticed is that once you get your bags and you come out, there's a turn to the left that says connections and I says, wait a minute, if there was connections it would be four, you wouldn't be getting your bags.
Dean:
Right.
Dan:
Your bags would go to the next plane. So I said, "I bet this is a shortcut." And I noticed it last time, I said, "I bet this is a shortcut." And we came in, it was just a bunch of tables or desks with people at them and we said, "Can we get out to the lobby this way?" And they said, "Sure, just go with that. " So I was right, I was right on it. And it saved me about three or four minutes of walking just to take the shortcut. There's no indication that you can take a shortcut. I just had a sense last time I went through, because we try to avoid that terminal.
We've gone to Buena Series by Delta and Delta is terminal three and this last one was American, it's terminal three, and we've done United and United comes out of number one and you go to Houston and you catch the night. So I went through and I felt really good because I said, "You know what, next time we should explore this route because I think there's a shortcut here." And I got out and I got in Bab said, "Boy, that was neat. That was neat that you spotted that. " And I said, "Yeah." I said, "It ticked me off last time because they make you walk about 50 yards to the right before you can turn left and then you're simply retracing your route." And I said, "That's a waste of time and everything else." And I felt good about it, but I said to myself last time, next time, let's go through, let's see if it's really a shortcut.
Dean:
That may be the interesting ... That may be the thing then is on reflection of the day, that looking at today that that could be making almost like you're a cartographer, mapping up the territory, wait a second, let's ... Yeah. I think that might
Dan:
Be ... I mean, how do you fly to ... When you come to Toronto, do you do Air Canada though, right?
Dean:
I do. Yeah. Yeah. So I go straight to-
Dan:
Well, you just come in. Yeah. Yeah. But there's a lot of walking. There's a lot of walking that-
Dean:
Oh yeah. I mean, sometimes very occasionally it'll be like right up at the ... Yeah, you're right there, but very rare. You walk
Dan:
The plane and there's the escalator to bag it.
Dean:
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, but I think those three words ... The fact that there is a word in the English language doesn't mean that it's a good word. Exactly. But should, could, and would are no use whatsoever.
Dean:
Yeah. They're only indication
Dan:
Three words to not take responsibility for. In other words-
Dean:
Well, that's what I mean. They're external
Dan:
Blame shifting. Yeah. Yeah. These are blame shifting words. Yeah.
Dean:
Yeah.
Dan:
It's really interesting.
It's the only thing that I'll correct people with where they said, "Oh, I should have done this. " And I said, "Okay, why don't you do a fast filter? Why don't you do an experience transformer on that? What worked about it? What didn't work about it? Next time I do it, this is what I'm going to do. " And they said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. " And I said, "No, you won't, because you haven't done it in five minutes, it's gone. If you don't make a firm decision that next time you're going to do something different, then you're going to repeat your behavior for this time." But it's really about those three words.
Dean:
I wonder if that's a thing of that maybe looking ahead at them. I wonder if you can apply them in advance, looking ahead of today, what is it that where's a wood? Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. Well, I think what you're doing, you go, "I'm in experimental route, and this time I'm guessing that this is the solution, but if it's not, next time I'm going to make a different decision." That's totally reasonable because I think the future is all guessing and betting anyway. Yes. Yeah.
Dean:
Certainty and uncertainty, right?
Dan:
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Dean:
Oh, that's great. I think that's ... Yeah, I think everything that ... Like that's one of my favorite things about our podcast is that there's no ... We're guessing and betting. There's certainty that there's very little required for ... We just know that this- Show
Dan:
Up on time.
Dean:
Yeah. That's all it is. That's exactly right. Pay attention, because that's really the thing. Pay attention during the week. I often find myself just making mental notes of this is ... I need to share this with Dan, but just paying attention and showing up on time. We've created the infrastructure, the scaffolding for it.
Dan:
Yeah. It's kind of ... There was a book, one of the quarterly books, I think it was two years ago, it was called Geometry of Staying Cool and Calm.
Dean:
Do you
Dan:
Remember that one?
Dean:
Yep.
Dan:
And that basically there's three rules to life. If you follow them, generally, you're cooler and you're calmer about life. If you realize that everything is made up, everything that exists was made up. Some human made this up. Okay. That's number one. Number two, nobody's in charge of the making up.
Dean:
Yep.
Dan:
And number three is life's not fair. And what I realized, but there is such a thing as fairness, but it's the creative thing. Life is just stuff, but you can just rearrange stuff so that if you're working with someone else, it's fair. The results are fair with the other person. And that's why my whole belief that people complain about unfairness. And I said, "Well, make it fair. Make it fair." No, no, but they should do ... No, no, no. There's no they and there's no should. If you want something to be fair, make it fair.
Dean:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so ... I think fair ... Yeah, life's not fair, but it's predictable. I mean ...
Dan:
Well, rules can be in charge, and I think the way humans have handled the unfairness of life, they put into place rules. There's no happiness until everybody is reasonably happy. There's nothing, but this war in Iran is a really interesting one because they only got the word, and this is the Israelis got the word. It wasn't the Americans. It was the Israelis got the word around midnight that they were having a big meeting in Tehran, the Grand Puba, whatever his name was that they were having a meeting and that these people were going to be at the meeting and it was the entire leadership of the country was going to be at a meeting and the Israelis said, "Oh, we got to switch our plans." And they switched all the plans and they killed them all in the first half hour. The entire leadership of the country was gone in the first half hour.
And well, that simplifies things. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Everybody you have to deal with is dead. They ask Trump, "Well, who's going to take over now?" And he says, "Yeah, that's a problem." The guy we had in mind, he's dead, and then there was another guy, we thought he might do it, and he's dead. They're all dead.
Dean:
The position ... I don't know whether ... See, this is where AI comes in. I don't know whether this is AI hallucination or whether it's the reality that he said that the position's open and that see even ... We're doing so great. I'm even creating opportunity in other countries, creating job opportunities in other countries.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
And that's why we're so screwed, because it sounds so plausible, but it could easily be AI.
Dan:
Well, they said, "Well, how do you think it's going? " And he said, "Well, we eliminated all their leadership in the first half hour, so we're way aheadred than I thought we were going to be. " But I mean, it's never happened in human history, what happened on that Saturday morning. I mean, you've never
Wiped out the complete leadership and that they were in two rooms, actually. They were in two rooms in the same compound, and they took them out and I said, "This is a big deal. You should mark this in your diary.This has never happened in the history of the world that you would just get rid of everybody who's got any say." And anyway, but it's an interesting thing, but you need time to ... I'm really in a really great period in my life right now. I've got enough time for everything important. Right now, I'm just feeling I have absolutely all the time I need to do everything that's important, and I've never had that feeling before.
Dean:
Yeah. There is enough time. There is. It's just, I just look at that I have an abundance of time.That's the reality and so much. I just have to bend ... I've spent a lot of years being a shapeshifter, like building the future with ideas and stuff, but it's actually all the stuff actually happens in the scope of reality today. So getting better at
Dan:
That. But just having that consciousness that you have all the time you need for what's really important actually changes the future.
Dean:
Yeah. I think that's true. I look at that as like, yeah, it's good on the cusp of being 60 to figure that out is good. And I always love ... I mean, I always say to people, "Listen, you to me are always the Ghost of Christmas future of the possibilities, that having your good snapshot of what 22 years forward can be. " That's the great thing. So there's plenty of time. There's plenty of time. Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. And also, I mean, the great thing about unscripted podcasts, in both our cases, we would say with the right person, the really great things about them is that two hours ago, we had no idea how this conversation was going
Dean:
To
Dan:
Go, and I think that's the great thing, and that's what I'm coming to. I'll send you the article I wrote on coach being upstream from AI and- I like that. But yeah, I'm sending out to my team this next week because Hamish McDonald, my cartoonist, he says, "Oh, this is a great, great article. Everybody in the company should know this. So I'm going to send it out this week and then I'm going to get feedback. Should we send it out to all the client base to do it? " But it's just something about there's this freakout that's going on with AI and part of it is just the marketing pitch on it. I mean, there's some major bets that are being made that this is a really big thing and there's huge amounts of money that are at play here with AI and that it's a fundamental game changer and if it's only half a game changer, a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money.
Dean:
Yeah. No, I think Cal Newport is right on track with this, that it's going to have to be ... I think it's going to get down to that it can practically do ... I wrote an email the other day called Six Pack Abs as a Service. That's really where we're headed. That's the best positioning to be in.
Dan:
Yeah. It's really, really interesting that there's something that I noticed when it relates to medicine, especially medicine, the area that Babs and I have been exploring for almost 40 years now. I can take it back to 1986, so it's
Dean:
40
Dan:
Years, and they said, "Well, and if it's possible for some people, it doesn't mean it's possible for everybody." Because unless you're investing in this and you're actually looking for it, it's not Not going to be available to people who are not looking for it.
Dean:
Yeah. That's very true. But it's there. When you look back, all the opportunities have been
Dan:
There. Yeah. It's funny, I go to sort of normal medical facilities and people will say, "Well, you can do that because you have the money. What about people who don't have the money?" I said, "Can't do it for the people who don't have the money, unless the people with the money make it possible." So I said, "The greatest breakthroughs in health that come from technology will happen in the United States. And the reason is there are a lot of people with money who are willing to just invest on the off chance that this will work." And I said, "You don't have that around the world."
Dean:
Yeah. Yeah. That's what Elon Musk was basically saying on his podcast with Peter Diamandis was the level of medical care available globally is what's going to be a major game changer. And that's because of basically saying the best surgeons in the future are going to be robotic. And so you think about that as ...
Dan:
And they're going to cost.
Dean:
Yeah.
Dan:
Yeah. Yeah. It's really interesting. I mean, simple thing like an MRI, like last Monday, so six days ago, I went to an x-ray clinic in Buenos Aires and the results of the x-ray didn't satisfy my doctor. And she said, "I didn't quite get what I wanted there. They took it at a wrong angle and I'm not going to send you back there. So is it okay with you that we get an MRI on your knee?" And I said, "Sure." And I had it the next morning. In Toronto, that would be six months to get an MRI.
Dean:
Yeah. Wild, right? Next thing you know, you'll have it at home, your home MRI system. I think that's the thing. All right. All
Dan:
Right.
Dean:
Well, we've said it all.
Dan:
Yeah.
Dean:
I think we can safely say tomorrow that we created a great yesterday.
Dan:
I think that's right.
Dean:
Yeah.
Dan:
And more than that, you can't demand.
Dean:
That's true.
Dan:
Okay.
Dean:
All right, Dan. I'll talk to you next time. I'll
Dan:
Talk to you. I'll be in Chicago next week, so I'll talk to you from there.
Dean:
Perfect. Thanks. Bye.
Dan:
No time change for you.
Dean:
Perfect.
Dan:
Okay. Bye. Okay,
Dean:
Thanks. Bye.
