The Boys React: Tech Layoffs, IG Founder Starts A New Company & More Tech News (#415)

Shaan Puri

It's like, "Yeah, I took one look at you. How much longer do you want to live as a New York 5? Because you could be an Idaho 9 with one plane ticket, baby!" So, I feel like every city should have to make their pitch as to why a 20-something-year-old should move there and live there. A 25-year-old... I might create a whole new show around just this, just this pitch. Ben, this is your segment. You own this segment. You take it away!

Ben Wilson

alright here we go we're reviewing the news we're letting the boys react

Shaan Puri

By the way, I like the thing you started doing where you're like "Fellas..." [followed by some statement]. I think that's kind of like on the first episode of the "News of the Boys React." I feel like you kinda nailed the catchy thing... that was pretty natural by you. Good move by you.

Ben Wilson

Fellas, there is a new Instagram! The founders of Instagram are back with a new app. It's called **Artifacts**, and it's being described as "TikTok for text." Fellas, is this the next big thing?

Shaan Puri

sam did you see this thing

Sam Parr

So, the page says... I'm trying to pull it up. The page doesn't really say what it is.

Shaan Puri

It's okay. They, in the news, kind of talked a little bit more. So I heard "TikTok for text," and I was like, "Okay, what is that?" Basically, it means two things. **Number 1:** Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram, was like, "When I saw TikTok and how the feed works—where you just open the app, you're already in, you don't have to follow a bunch of people, you just start swiping, and it just learns what you like—he's like, 'Oh, this is the way everything should work. I can't believe Twitter doesn't work this way. I can't believe why are we still trying to do this manual follow interesting people thing when the app should just give you what you're interested in through machine learning.'" **Number 2:** What they're doing is, instead of what TikTok did for videos, these guys are trying to do with news. Actually, not just text, but news. So they're trying to serve you text-based news based on your interest. And that's where he lost me. I don't think people want to read a bunch of news in the same way that they're willing to swipe through mindless videos for entertainment. I think that's where it has this problem that a lot of Silicon Valley ideas have, which is they try to sell you what you should do instead of what you want to do. It sounds noble and high and mighty, and when they go to dinner parties and say, "This is what we're gonna do," everybody pats them on the back. But I think that this is not gonna work for news, so I'm out.

Sam Parr

so here's the thing that I'm wondering

Shaan Puri

By the way, you like how I went "Shark Tank" on it? Now I'm in or out. That's maybe a new... there might be a new part of this. I'm out. I'm out.

Sam Parr

Alright, well, you can't see me, but I'm holding... I've been watching Andrew Tate videos because it's just hilarious now that he's in jail. It's kind of funny. He always holds his hands like in a "V" when he's sitting down, and that's like how the alpha sits. So you gotta, like, if you're gonna say you're an alpha, you gotta sit with, like, your... yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go. You gotta, like, sit. That's how... yeah, there it is. That's how alphas sit according to Andrew Tate.

Shaan Puri

Let me try that again. And for that reason, I'm out. Yeah, I had a little snap too, and my wrist fell a little... something there.

Sam Parr

That was cool. So here's the thing: this guy, Kevin Systrom, killed it, right? You know this little fella; he created Instagram. Awesome! But he's been out of the game. That's "ring rust," my friend. When... yeah, I watch it. Absolutely! I've watched enough fighting to know that ring rust is real for a lot of people. So I wonder, is he actually in touch with what people want? Is he hungry? Are he and his partner, you know, billionaires flying on planes with Ashton Kutcher? Does he actually know what people want? But I don't know about you, but I study a lot of Japanese.

Shaan Puri

He's like, "Ashton, Ashton, I see you got TikTok open. Wouldn't you rather that those were all just news articles, dude?"

Sam Parr

I love studying how the Chinese, and particularly the Japanese, do things. The Japanese news apps in Japan work wonderfully. Now, what works in Japan doesn't necessarily work here. These are two totally different cultures. There's a term for that, but I'm not going to pretend to know what that term is. It's basically when things work in Japan, and vice versa in America, it doesn't always translate to each of those cultures because they're so different. But it works there, and maybe it could work here.

Shaan Puri

In fact, I think the parent company of ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has another app that is basically this. It's an algorithmic news app called... I don't know how you pronounce it, like T o tiao? Tiao? I don't know how to say it. Chow chow? I have no idea what the name of it is, but this is what it does, and it's super, super popular. So maybe...

Sam Parr

maybe yeah that's the right answer maybe but I don't know second

Shaan Puri

yeah it's just

Sam Parr

I think it's hard to be a billionaire who's been out of the game and to start something from scratch. I think that.

Shaan Puri

I gotta give us a director's note here. I was watching something somewhere, and basically, I was watching *First Take*, you know, like the... I don't know if you've ever watched these ESPN shows where it's like two guys reacting to the news. These shows only work if you disagree. So basically, on all of these, by default, you gotta take one side, and then I gotta argue the other, regardless of how I actually feel. So if I'm out, you gotta be in. I think it's a good case to be in to say, "Yo, this actually already works in China and Japan." So, I'm just saying, good content comes from disagreement, not agreement.

Sam Parr

I was a hard maybe you are a hard no that's kind of a disagreement

Shaan Puri

that's far enough that's far enough alright

Sam Parr

alright what else we got ben

Ben Wilson

Alright, next one. I think everyone is talking about tech layoffs. More than **150,000** tech workers have already been laid off in the last **6 months**. That includes **12,000** at Google, **18,000** at Amazon, **11,000** at Meta, and **10,000** at Microsoft. So, fellas, any advice for our fallen comrades?

Sam Parr

Comrades, I hate that these people use the word "comrades." I saw, dude, we are not comrades. These guys are trying to do the Soviet Union bullshit. Bro, you made $600,000 a year in cash, plus another $250,000 in stock bonuses, and you had free pizza every single day.

Shaan Puri

yeah we are not comrades oat milk like get out of here

Sam Parr

Yeah, we are not comrades. You know, comrades don't eat Grey Poupon. We are not that. I hate when people say "comrades." We're not even comrades... I don't know a person who works at Google.

Shaan Puri

Whenever Sam lacked motivation, he would just go meet a lazy Google engineer. He would get their W-2 salary out of them, and then he was like, "Fuel ignited!" back to the lab.

Sam Parr

Dude, I remember I went to the Facebook campus once, and I overheard people complaining about the line for... So, like, Facebook's campus, for those who haven't gone, it's basically like a mall. It's like a mall, but everything's free. I'm not joking. I actually wrote an article about this. If you look up "Sam Parr Facebook office," [you'll find it]. They had a vending machine, but instead of candy bars, it was like... computers.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, an iPhone charger... you could get like a computer MacBook charger. If you just push D3, you would get a huge MacBook charger.

Sam Parr

Yeah, and it was all free. I think it's incredible. They had like a dentist, they had a barber, they had a dude... I swear to God, they had a wood-making... like a wood shop. You can go and like...

Shaan Puri

There's a van. You could just go and get a hand job if that's what's bothering you. It's crazy, dude. They...

Sam Parr

Have everything there. You could go and leave your car, and your oil would get changed when you came back from work. I remember seeing all this stuff, and I just thought, "Oh, this is it. We made it." Then I realized that the tenure at Facebook is like 18 months, and so I was like, "Oh, okay, this isn't actually all that good." So anyway, long story short, these people ain't comrades, okay? But what are they gonna do? I actually don't know. Is it 100,000? Is it 150,000 layoffs? I'm not well-versed enough in the macro economy to know what's gonna happen to them. I don't know. Do I think they're gonna start companies? No, I don't.

Shaan Puri

some will some will and I think that's that's good I think it's good to I think it's good for these companies to trim the fat they got way too much fat when I went and we're when we were getting acquired by twitch twitch had I think 2,000 employees at the time and they made me like do go through a round of interviews during the acquisition process like you know meet the team and and whatever and they would ask me questions for 55 minutes and then the last 5 minutes they would say do you have any questions for us and I just said how many employees does twitch have and then they would say 2,000 and then I'd say how many employees do you think twitch should have and this was my iq test for them and I was trying to see if I it was actually not even an iq test it was an honesty test who here has the courage to say a number less than 2,000 and only 1 most were just taken aback by the question because they knew what I was implying because they you know if they said if they said more I just started laughing uncontrollably if they said 2,000 is the right number I would raise the people's eyebrow and be like oh really you just happen to have the perfect match of resources to to needs like isn't that isn't that fortunate that you guys are just playing it perfectly wow you guys are amazing leaders and if they were honest and said you know if we wanted to just keep doing what we're doing we'd probably only need 250 amazing people and for us to do some of the new initiatives new bets I think maybe another another 100 people would be would be right I would stand and give them I would give them a standing ovation in a in a job interview which is awkward because they're just sitting down in front of me only one person was honest in that out of the 7 that I talked to that day the rest were were liars and so so yeah these companies have had it coming they need to trim the fat if you got laid off it's okay I'm sure you will bounce back you you've had a very very cushy situation for a very long time hopefully you built up a little safety net for yourself and go do something interesting I think this is a healthy recycling and flushing of the system you know this is the juice cleanse for silicon valley right this is the detox cleanse for silicon valley it needs to it need needs needed to happen

Sam Parr

Dude, juice cleanses are the stupidest thing. It's not like the juice is like a pipe cleaner.

Shaan Puri

my my influencers tell me differently

Sam Parr

Dude, I hate when people talk about this like it's not. It's not like you just have gunk in your veins and the juice goes through like a pipe cleaner, just pulling the gunk and cleaning your veins. I always hated that idea of a cleanse. But in this case, yeah, I think that is actually true. *Fuck, we're agreeing again.* A lot of these companies are really generous. They're giving 6 months' severance, and if you have been there for a while, you get even more. So I actually think that now's a good opportunity to turn shit into gold. Take, you know, 2 months to freaking chill, which, sorry, they kind of already were, I bet. But take some time to actually chill and then get after it. I've been thinking about job hunting. I call it job hunting because a lot of people think of it like, "Oh, I'm out. Hopefully, I'll find a job." But I'm like, "No, no, no. Now is the time to job hunt." You make a list of 10 companies where you want to work, find the hiring manager, and you hunt them down to get that job. You know, it's a hunt. It's not like, "Oh, I'll just apply to these hundred companies on Indeed and hope for the best."

Shaan Puri

/ their tires you put your resume inside the tire when they go to find it that's how they know you wanted it

Sam Parr

Yeah, so now is that time. I always perform best when I have my back against the wall. You know, we use that phrase "burn the ships" or "burn the boats." Now is maybe a good time. Hopefully, people will find opportunity in it. But let's get one thing straight: we're not comrades, okay? Give me a break. I hate that stuff. Cut the word "comrade."

Shaan Puri

that's what that's what that

Sam Parr

listen comrades and solidarity I never wanna hear that word solidarity again

Ben Wilson

It's more behind the scenes. Someone else wrote the question, which they actually wrote: "Any advice for fallen brothers and sisters?" But I like to think it was Sam who is just setting himself up for, like, "I'm gonna set up this question and tear it down."

Sam Parr

Don't say "solidarity." Don't say "comrade." If you make over $100,000 a year, you don't get solidarity.

Ben Wilson

Okay, these next ones rapid fire: **Doomsday Clock**: The Doomsday Clock got moved to 90 seconds to midnight. This is largely due to fears that the Ukraine war could escalate into a nuclear conflict. The Doomsday Clock is [maintained by] all these nuclear scientists who just tell us how close the world is to ending. Fellas, are we all gonna die? No.

Shaan Puri

I've honestly never even heard of this doomsday clock. Ben, you're the historian around here. Is this a common thing? Is this something I should have known about? Does this happen all the time, or how big of a deal is this dead end?

Sam Parr

And it's not like, by the way, it's not like a clock, right? It's more like a meter. Is this like Smokey the Bear? Like, what's the threat of a bonfire or a wildfire?

Shaan Puri

smokey the bear

Sam Parr

You know, like there's Smokey the Bear. It's like today is a day where there could be a fire. The clock is a bad thing because, yeah, it always hits midnight.

Ben Wilson

It started during the Cold War. Basically, a bunch of nuclear scientists got together and wanted to tell everyone how close the world was to ending. They aimed for everyone to take the threat of nuclear war and nuclear disarmament very seriously. The problem with the clock is that it started, I think, at 3 minutes to midnight. So, every time something happens, they're like, "Oh, we're actually really close. We're 2 minutes to midnight." The clock moves back and forth a little bit, so... but we're at...

Shaan Puri

like the 50 yard line basically

Sam Parr

that's also a dumb analogy

Shaan Puri

why that's a distance because

Ben Wilson

The what they were trying to do is give people this feeling of impending doom, right? It's only a matter of time.

Shaan Puri

The same reason why the United States is squaring about that for you. Or, like, you know, what do you need? Like a weightlifting analogy?

Sam Parr

I want a temperature bulb, you know, like the temperature can go up and down. I just think... look, you want the Smokey the Bear thing. I was thinking about this since humans started existing. If this was a book, it would be like 1,000 pages, and the time we're in now would be like a paragraph on the 1,000th page. I just think I am not so important that this one paragraph is going to be more important than the rest of the 1,000 pages. So, I almost always refuse to believe that anything doomsday-related is going to happen while I'm here. So, no, I'm not worried about this at all.

Shaan Puri

alright what else do

Sam Parr

you want that that was a good analogy by the way the book thing you're welcome that's a free one

Ben Wilson

Alright, ChatGPT can pass a bunch of tests now. It can pass the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam and it passed a test from the Wharton MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania. Are you annoyed that you didn't have the chance to use ChatGPT to cheat in high school or college?

Shaan Puri

Hey, hey Ben! How come you didn't read the actual headline that's written in the doc? I'm curious, what's wrong with that one? It says, "ChatGPT is Asian." It talks about how good it is at taking these tests. I gotta say, I had my own human ChatGPT. I was a prolific cheater throughout school. In the 5th grade reading program, I organized a syndicate. I realized that if I was not going to read 32 books and win, but I had 10 friends, then if we each read 3 books, we could get to the 30 bookmarks and all win. We would all just take the test for each other. That's what we did. I won! The teacher called my mom and let her know that I had cheated. My mom couldn't have been prouder. The second thing that happened was during a math test. They used to give us a TI-83 calculator. My buddy, who was smarter than me, would take the test before me. He would just type in all of the answers into the TI-83 calculator under the "Y=" sign button. I would simply open that up, fill in the answers, and go on my way. So, I don't need ChatGPT-3. I was ahead of the curve on this. You know, cheaters gonna cheat.

Sam Parr

Dude, we used to take... you know how you're allowed to have a water bottle in school? We used to take the labels off like the Dasani bottles and write the answers and the cheat sheet on the back of the label. Then, we would put the label back on, and that was where the answers were. So, I don't know, man, that deserves an A just for that. But am I jealous that they have this? Yeah, sure. But I'm not jealous that I'm in school again, nerds. So, we win that one.

Shaan Puri

I have a wife yeah

Sam Parr

yeah I know I

Ben Wilson

by the way sean I didn't read the headline because it only got a b on the test at wharton so I'm not sure

Sam Parr

if it

Shaan Puri

if it's oh okay okay

Sam Parr

good nice nice nice I have nothing to do with this I have nothing to do with this

Ben Wilson

Alright, Justin Bieber sold his share of his back catalog for **$200,000,000** to an investor. Smart move!

Sam Parr

Yeah, definitely. Why did he do it? You know, has he had income coming in? Like, why?

Shaan Puri

I think somebody said his tour got canceled, but I mean, is he really living tour to tour at this point? I don't know. I think I would just assume it was a good offer and he had to make a decision. He decided yes, so let's go with that.

Sam Parr

Dude, Dr. Dre did the same thing, and people are like, "Why would you do that?" Someone said, "Well, listen to this." He recently got divorced, and he owes his wife, you know, half of what he had. He probably made $500 million off of Beats, so half of that went to his wife. Then there was another article that said in the divorce, it was released that they were spending $3 million a month on travel and clothes. So that's $36 million a year.

Shaan Puri

neil patel's status

Sam Parr

Yeah, man! Holy moly! So, he actually probably needed the money. Is it smart? Yeah, he better go write some hits now, man. He better get dancing! But yeah, you know, look dude, he sold the work that he did from 13 to like 30 for $200,000,000. That's pretty dope.

Shaan Puri

And by the way, he sold just his share. He only owns a small part, you know? His agent and the label own it, and there are like four other parties involved in this. So, he just sold his share, which means his total back catalog has got to be worth closer to **$1,000,000,000**. Good move! In fact, I'm just going to say this now: if I ever sell something for **$200,000,000** and people come to me questioning if this was a good move, you're getting a slap. You're getting a slap from me! Do you need an explanation as to why I took this **$200,000,000** check? I mean, how dare you! You better have **$900,000,000** if you're going to ask me a question like that. If you ask me that question, I will say, "Please show me **$900,000,000** before I answer this question; otherwise, you're getting a slap." So, yeah, I do not question this. Also, Bieber makes good decisions. He follows me on Twitter.

Sam Parr

that's does he really does he really

Shaan Puri

two dots make a line baby that's 2 data points of bieber making good decisions and that's a lot

Sam Parr

Two dots don't make a line, but just because it rhymes and sounds good doesn't mean that it actually works. Did you need...?

Shaan Puri

2 any 2 points can be connected via line 2 dots make a line alright

Sam Parr

Does he really follow you on Twitter? By the way, he does. Dude, DM him! Did you DM him? I never have been... sort of.

Shaan Puri

of crafting the right message couple dozen years now

Sam Parr

how many people does he follow how many other people does he follow

Shaan Puri

smooth 280,000

Sam Parr

oh there's a line

Shaan Puri

Does he follow you? Does he follow Ben? Does he follow any of the Bens on this call?

Sam Parr

No, dude. By the way, you made the announcement on one pod that you want a woman to reach out to you because you have a great DTC [Direct-to-Consumer] idea that you want help from a woman. I have had like 15 women reach out to me. Half of them think that I'm you because our voices [sound similar].

Shaan Puri

we only have 4 female listeners so they must have told some friends

Sam Parr

By the way, we're not saying that anymore. Someone had a talk with me. I'm going to bring it up next pod. We shouldn't say that anymore, and I'm going to explain why. But for now, let's talk.

Shaan Puri

to that that joke is killer okay

Sam Parr

No, it's not, and I'll explain why later. But listen, I've had about 15 women reach out to me, and like 7 of them have a million followers on Instagram. Their profiles are such that when I'm scrolling through them, and Sarah, my wife, is sitting next to me, she's like, "What are you looking at?" Because it's like the hottest Instagram models and bikini models and things like that. So, I don't know what you're getting at, but it probably worked. I don't know what you're trying to do. Yeah, so I had so many people reach out to me.

Shaan Puri

Well, send... well, send them to me, right? Why did they reach out to you? "Oh, it's because my Instagram is like private and locked." "Oh yeah, that's not gonna be... that's not gonna work." "Yes, I don't think so. I'm still... I've... there's definitely been some good outreach. I'm talking to two people who I think are the right..." "How many people?"

Sam Parr

I don't know

Shaan Puri

I didn't count maybe 20 25 something like that

Sam Parr

I had a lot of

Shaan Puri

serious people reach out

Sam Parr

I had a lot in there... Yeah, they're trying to reach you or they think that I'm you. It's pretty funny, but anyway, that's that.

Hubspot

this data is wrong every freaking time

Shaan Puri

have you

Sam Parr

Heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform where everything is fully integrated.

Hubspot

Woah! I can see the client's whole history: calls, support tickets, emails. And here's a task from three days ago that I totally missed.

Sam Parr

hubspot grow better

Ben Wilson

I have just one last point, which is a new study showing how much money you need to make to be in the top 1% income earners in every state. In California, it's $850,000. New York and Connecticut are actually at the top, with Connecticut surprisingly leading at $930,000. The bottom is West Virginia, where you need $370,000 per year to be in the top 1%. This question is specifically for Sam: What do you have to say to my comrades who are not in the top 1%?

Sam Parr

I actually am going to do a big thing about this in the next episode. It shows that you can be in the 1% of New York and make that income, yet still not be able to retire because that's how much it costs to live there. Yeah, dude, move to Missouri! I think that's crazy. $800,000 is so much money. It's so much money! So, $800,000, by the way, is $456,000 post-tax. If you assume that you spend $15,000 or $20,000 a month, which is very reasonable, that means you're saving like $200 a year. You just gotta make that for 20 years in order to actually be able to retire, which is even crazier than the $800,000 stat. If you're making that much money in New York, I'm getting a remote job ASAP and moving to, you know, West Virginia or Florida. I'd rather, if I'm just making a W-2 income, live like a king in Florida than live like a plebe in New York and be in the rat race. So, get out! That's what I would do.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, people always talk about, you know, the big city and all that stuff. But "big fish, small pond," you know? That is a... what do we call it? Small pond syndrome. You want to have small pond syndrome; that is a much better way to live. Now, of course, there's no end to that. You could go live and be at the top 1% in Thailand with probably like, I don't know, $120,000. So, you know, there's no end to that. But it definitely just shows how much of a rip-off California and New York are. And I think I say this because you live in New York half the year and I live in California the full year. So, you know, who are we to say?

Sam Parr

but like charlottesville pretty nice boise

Shaan Puri

charlottesville is bad great now this time of year

Sam Parr

yeah lovely this time of year the land of lincoln it's beautiful

Shaan Puri

Honestly, places like California, you're like, "Oh wow, that's a lot." But then you scroll down and you're like, "South Carolina, 500,000?" Man, like Idaho, 508,000? Really? You gotta wonder, why would that be? Why would that be so high? They're not bringing enough assets to the table, or as you just like to say, you gotta have some attributes. At least California's got the oceans, it's got the weather, it's got the scenery, it's got the celebrities. It's got whatever you want: Silicon Valley, Hollywood. You gotta have some attributes if you're gonna be demanding this level of income to be in the top 1%.

Sam Parr

have you ever been to floribama in georgia you know what that is

Shaan Puri

florabama in georgia

Sam Parr

In Alabama, duh, Florida. You know, so where Alabama and the Florida line meet, this is where we would go for our... well, I grew up in Missouri. All Missouri people go to Florida for spring break. You go to Florabama; it's the line. It's the MTV show, right? Yeah, it's the redneck Riviera, my friend. It is the trashiest place on earth, but it is so fun! You could eat popcorn shrimp all day for $4. Florabama is the place to go. You get those Alabama prices while being on basically the Florida coast. It's alright, it's alright.

Shaan Puri

I actually think there should be a pitch competition, like Shark Tank, that's just cities or states doing what you just did. Like, you ever wanted to wake up and have shrimp? Because we do that here, right? Like, you're tired of not having shrimp before 10 AM? Because that's not a problem in the Redneck Riviera.

Sam Parr

Fried popcorn shrimp and grouper for dinner—it's the best, man! Florida's the place to be. You don't have to own socks; it's the best, man. No shirt, no shoes, no problem. I'm all about the Floribama!

Shaan Puri

It's like, "Yeah, I took one look at you. How much longer do you want to live as a New York 5? Because you could be an Idaho 9 with one plane ticket, baby!" So, I feel like every city should have to make their pitch as to why a 20-something-year-old should move there and live there. A 25-year-old... I might create a whole new show around just this pitch.

Sam Parr

Yeah, man, we need Alaska to sponsor this pod. Alright, I think that's it, right? That's it.