Independence Through Profitability

`1:57:12`

Someone had an insight to design a watch that looked like that. And then from there, everyone based their designs off of that initial thing. But there was a time when that was the first thing that looked like that. That gets me going. For example, you take a Rolex Daytona today, and you look back at the first one in 1963. To me, the one in 1963, not just because it's older, it's better, in my opinion, aesthetically. Because it's the purest form of the concept, of the idea. Everything else from there has been layered on because they need to sell more, they need to come up with a new version, a new model, and this is what happens. They couldn't still sell that first version. That's not the way the world works. You have to keep making new stuff, right? — Purity is the word that comes to mind, "Purity." Purity and- — Interesting. —... the pure idea, like the pure form of the thing.

`1:58:02`

— Could you use the word "essence" or no? — I mean, essence is part of it, I think. Maybe you could. What's the French word for essence? I want to hear you say it, "Essence." I don't know what the hell it is. But it's more about, to me, it's purity. It's like, that's the beauty, is that this is the initial idea, this is the original concept, and this is the first execution of that idea in three dimensions, in a product. Actually, the gym I used to go to had some old Concept, getting back to the Concept2, old Concept2 rowers. And I, actually, really liked looking at the early ones. And then looking at the changes over the years, and in that case, the changes were more functional.

`1:58:48`

Like, they used better materials that lasted longer and stuff. But the idea, the fact that this idea of this product that's so good today, was so pure back then, and still kind of the same thing just gave me... I'm more attached to the brand because of that. Like, they didn't just add stuff to add stuff. They added stuff that literally did improve things, not just to sell new models, but to... You could see the material changes. Meanwhile, a lot of things like watches and stuff, it's just like, new dial colors and new stuff just to kind of sell more. — That's a great point. — Yeah. — You're adding to it, but you're not making it better. — Right. There we go. — So, that's the second viral tweet, — Yes. —...where you kind of laid out this huge essay about smart electronics. — Oh, God! My parents were visiting for a couple of months, so we rented them a house down the street,