Radical Authenticity Over Marketing Tricks

`1:11:27`

I think there was an organization called... I want to call it Brand, but maybe I'm wrong. Print, actually. It was this magazine that had all these pictures of business cards and stuff, and every designer I know would look through other business cards for inspiration, for color patterns and palettes and layouts, and I'm like, "Go outside." The best designs ever are right there. That leaf is the best it's ever been. Obviously, it has survived and evolved. This is a great thing, and so if you want to find great colors, look at a bird. Don't look at a book. Look at a leaf, right? Look at the ocean. Go to a tide pool and just look at the colors in that tide pool. Look at the way the light reflects. Like, that's the real stuff,

`1:12:14`

and... I have goosebumps. For me, whatever it is, whenever I talk about this, it's just fundamentally real to me, and I just love it, and I love the screen, too. I love making software, too, but probably because I'm in that a lot, I really like not being in that, too. — I don't think you love the screen. You said if you sell your business- — Right now, I do. If I... — All right, we never answered that. — Okay, let's get into this. — Yes. You said if you sold your business, — Yeah. — you're never going to use a computer again. — Well, I said I would never start another business again. What I would like to do is I'd like to shut my laptop. I'd like to turn off... Yeah, okay. I don't need a screen to survive my days. I'd like to close my laptop for a year and just not use it. I'll use my phone because I get in touch with people, right?

`1:13:02`

But I don't want to "compute." I don't need to compute. Let me just close it and walk away. Again, this isn't.. The computers are some of the most, probably the most amazing tool humans ever made. — The... Yeah. — So, I don't despise them, hate them, but I could take some time away from them. But I think time away from nature would bug me a whole lot more. If I couldn't go outside for a year, it'd bug me way more. — Oh, you'd go insane. — Yes. — Yeah. — I'd jump off the cliff. — I think people have gone insane. — They have, for sure. Right, exactly, so I want to be out. I want to be out there. I think it's just a wonderful... So, the screen is wonderful. Software is wonderful. Computers are incredible things, and right now is an amazing time for computers, one of the most amazing times since the web

`1:13:50`

back in the late '90s or mid-'90s, really. And it's cool to live through both of these moments. But I'd still rather play with some bricks and work on a stone wall, even though I don't know how. But that wouldn't pay my bills either, so I have to be practical. I've built a great software company. I like this stuff a lot. I don't know how to build stone walls, but I wouldn't mind playing with them. — The bills are taken care of. — The bills are, but I still... — I don't think you have to worry about that anymore. — I don't, and I don't do it for that reason. — I know you don't. — But yeah. My point is, had I built stone walls for 27 years, I'm not sure where I would be, you know? — No, the bills would be piling up. — My hands would be very sore, for sure. — The bills would be piling up. — Yeah, yeah. — One of the people I most hope to get on the show and I want to talk to is

`1:14:35`

Christopher Nolan. — Yeah, uh-huh. Have you ever looked into his personal philosophy at all? — No, I just like his movies. — Okay, so — Yeah. — there's something that me, you, and him, I think, have in common. He desires to live in an analog world. I'm almost positive that's a direct quote. — Yeah. — It might be me summarizing reading his biography. — Yep. — And so if you think about the juxtaposition between, like, you make software, but you want to be on a hike outside. — Yes. — You want to look at the ocean, right? — Yeah. — He makes some of the most technologically advanced films that have ever been created, and yet he doesn't have a cellphone. Like, you can't get in touch with him. — Love that. — You have to email his assistant, he has to track him down. — That's amazing. Yeah. — He will purposely put himself into a difficult position. So, he'll drop into a new city. — Yeah. — He doesn't have a smartphone, so no GPS. — Right. — He's got to go up to somebody and be like, "How do I get to the deli?"