Tech Bros Inventing Things That Already Exist

Summary

The video script satirizes Silicon Valley's tendency to overhype and reinvent ordinary products as tech innovations. It mocks examples like the Hydrate Spark water bottle, Soylent meal replacement, and Juicero juicer, which claim technological advancement but offer little practical improvement. The script also pokes fun at 'Tech Bros' for their lack of understanding of basic human needs and everyday products, suggesting that not everything needs a tech makeover.

Takeaways

• 😀 Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, compared himself to Jesus Christ and the Beatles, suggesting he faces similar misunderstanding and criticism.
• 🤔 The speaker humorously suggests Son should let others make the comparison to Jesus by adopting symbolic attire, rather than stating it himself.
• 🎶 The script discusses the SoftBank Vision Fund's mission to tackle significant challenges facing humanity, aligning with a perceived noble and altruistic goal.
• 🤷‍♂️ The speaker expresses uncertainty about the initial popularity of the Beatles, highlighting a generational and cultural gap in musical knowledge.
• 🏢 The script satirizes the reinvention of common products and services by tech companies, often with little real technological innovation, such as shared office spaces and meal replacement shakes.
• 🚌 Tech companies are criticized for 'reinventing' existing concepts like buses and lunch breaks, sometimes with a lack of originality or practicality.
• 🍵 Examples of 'non-tech' products marketed as tech innovations include the Hydrate Spark water bottle, Soylent meal replacement, and the Juicero juicer, which were criticized for their unnecessary complexity.
• 📈 The script touches on the financial tech sector's struggle with compliance and regulation, contrasting the tech industry's user experience focus with traditional finance's compliance focus.
• 📱 There's a critique of how technology, particularly apps and smartphones, has been optimized for engagement over user well-being, potentially leading to negative health impacts.
• 🚀 The script ends with a nod to the tech industry's impact on space exploration and finance, suggesting a pattern of overpromising and underdelivering in these sectors.

Q & A

Who did Masayoshi Son compare himself to in the Financial Times article?

Masayoshi Son compared himself to both Jesus Christ and the Beatles in the Financial Times article.

What is the speaker's opinion on Masayoshi Son's comparison to Jesus Christ and the Beatles?

The speaker humorously suggests that Son's comparison might be true and proposes that Son should let others make the comparison rather than stating it himself.

What does the speaker think about the initial popularity of the Beatles?

The speaker claims to not be knowledgeable about the Beatles' initial popularity, suggesting that they might not have been popular initially based on Son's statement.

What is the SoftBank Vision Fund's goal according to Masayoshi Son?

The SoftBank Vision Fund aims to tackle the biggest challenges and risks facing humanity today.

What is the speaker's view on the role of venture capital and tech entrepreneurs in society?

The speaker sarcastically suggests that venture capital and tech entrepreneurs are looking out for humanity, while also mocking some of their innovations.

What is the 'Power Hour' mentioned in the script?

The 'Power Hour' is a concept where employees are encouraged to take a break from meetings and work to go for a walk or have lunch, described as a new invention by a food delivery app company.

What is the main issue the speaker has with the products invented by 'Tech Bros'?

The speaker criticizes 'Tech Bros' for inventing products that either already exist or don't require technology, often pitching non-tech products as tech to achieve higher valuations.

What is the 'delete me' service mentioned in the script?

Delete me is a subscription service that acts on behalf of consumers to force data brokers to delete their personal information that is being sold online.

What is the 'hydrate spark' and why does the speaker find it amusing?

The 'hydrate spark' is a connected water bottle that tracks water intake and glows as a reminder to drink. The speaker finds it amusing because it's an over-engineered solution to a basic human function that doesn't require technology.

What is the criticism of the 'juicero' in the script?

The 'juicero' is criticized for being an overpriced and unnecessary internet-connected device for squeezing juice from pre-packaged fruit bags, which could be done manually with the same or better results.

Outlines

00:00

😅 The Unlikely Comparisons of Masayoshi Son

The paragraph humorously discusses how Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, compared himself to Jesus Christ and the Beatles, drawing attention to the absurdity of such comparisons. The speaker, while not an expert in theology or musicology, humorously suggests that Son might be telling the truth and proposes that Son should let others make the comparison. The speaker also touches on Son's vision for SoftBank's Vision Fund, which aims to tackle humanity's biggest challenges, a noble goal that the speaker sarcastically suggests Jesus would also pursue if he were in charge of a venture capital fund.

05:03

🤖 Tech Bros' Misguided Innovations

This section critiques the tendency of 'Tech Bros' to reinvent the wheel, often creating products that already exist or are unnecessary. The speaker points out that many of these innovations are not technological breakthroughs but rather rebranded versions of existing concepts. Examples include Lyft's and Uber's bus services, Elon Musk's 'boring company' urban loop system, and various other tech-driven transportation ideas that have not lived up to their hype. The speaker also pokes fun at the idea that tech innovations are always beneficial, suggesting that sometimes they are simply solutions in search of problems.

10:03

🥤 The Absurdity of High-Tech Hydration and Food

The paragraph satirizes the tech industry's foray into everyday items like water bottles and meal replacement shakes. It discusses the Hydrate Spark, a 'smart' water bottle that tracks water intake, and Soylent, a meal replacement shake designed to eliminate the hassle of food. The speaker mocks the idea that these products are necessary, suggesting that they cater to a tech-centric view of the world where basic human needs are seen as problems to be engineered away. The humor lies in the absurdity of treating simple, everyday activities like drinking water or eating as if they require high-tech solutions.

15:03

🍵 The Farcical World of Tech-Infused Beverages

This section continues the theme of tech bros overcomplicating simple tasks, this time focusing on the juicero, a high-priced juicer that was revealed to be no more effective than manual squeezing, and Toria, an internet-connected tea infuser that was ultimately unnecessary. The speaker highlights the irony of these products, which promise innovation but often deliver little more than what could be achieved with traditional methods. The humor comes from the speaker's incredulity at the high valuations and investments these products received, despite their lack of practical improvement over existing solutions.

20:04

🤳 The Tech Industry's Invasive Presence in Daily Life

The paragraph discusses how tech innovations have become invasive, integrating into every aspect of daily life, from lunch breaks to personal care. It mentions the 'pause pod,' a tent-like structure for meditation, and the trend of co-living spaces. The speaker also touches on the irony of tech companies creating 'smart' versions of simple items like toothbrushes, which connect to apps for no apparent benefit. The humor lies in the speaker's exasperation with the tech industry's tendency to commodify and complicate ordinary life experiences, often to the detriment of user experience and common sense.

25:05

🚀 The Tech Bro Invasion of Space and Finance

This section critiques the tech industry's recent forays into space exploration and financial technology. It discusses the tech bro space race, the rise and fall of space-themed SPACs, and the impact of fintech on traditional financial practices. The speaker points out the often-hyped and under-delivered nature of these innovations, suggesting that the tech industry's focus on user experience sometimes comes at the cost of compliance and practicality. The humor is derived from the speaker's skepticism towards the tech industry's self-proclaimed disruptive innovations, which are often repackaged versions of existing concepts or ideas that have not been thoroughly vetted for their long-term viability or legality.

📱 The Backlash Against Tech's Overreach

The final paragraph addresses the growing public backlash against the tech industry's overreach into various aspects of life, including the push to ban smartphones in schools and the decline in user satisfaction with apps designed for engagement rather than utility. The speaker reflects on the tech industry's ability to improve lives while also cautioning against the marketing tricks that often misrepresent non-tech products as innovative tech solutions. The humor here is subtle, as the speaker acknowledges their own reliance on technology while still critiquing its excesses.

Keywords

💡Masayoshi Son

Masayoshi Son is the CEO of SoftBank, a multinational conglomerate holding company. In the video, he is mentioned as comparing himself to Jesus Christ and the Beatles, highlighting his self-perception as a visionary and misunderstood figure. This comparison is used to set a tone of humor and critique towards the tech industry's self-image.

💡The Beatles

The Beatles are a legendary British rock band known for their influential music and cultural impact. In the script, they are humorously cited as an 'underground band' by the narrator, who feigns ignorance about their popularity, to underscore the idea that initial unpopularity does not preclude eventual success, a point that parallels the discussion of tech startups.

💡Venture Capital

Venture capital refers to the financial capital provided to early-stage startups with high growth potential. The video script satirically suggests that venture capitalists, like Jesus, are looking out for humanity, by funding innovative ideas, although it also pokes fun at the sometimes misguided or overhyped nature of such investments.

💡WeWork

WeWork is a company that provides shared workspaces. The video script uses WeWork as an example of a tech startup that received significant venture capital funding and was backed by SoftBank. It humorously points out that WeWork's innovation was seen as addressing a major 'challenge' for humanity: the lack of Ikea furniture and free beer in shared office spaces.

💡Innovation

Innovation in the context of the video refers to new ideas, products, or processes that are introduced to the market. The script critiques the tech industry's tendency to present incremental changes or even pre-existing concepts as groundbreaking innovations, such as the examples of the Juicero or the Toria teapot.

💡Juicero

Juicero was a short-lived startup that created an internet-connected juicer. The video uses Juicero to exemplify how tech bros can over-engineer simple solutions, as the product was criticized for being an expensive and unnecessary device for squeezing pre-packaged fruit bags.

💡Tech Bros

The term 'Tech Bros' is used in the video to describe a stereotype of tech industry workers, particularly those in Silicon Valley, who are often portrayed as overly confident, innovative, and sometimes out of touch with practical needs. The video script critiques this group for their tendency to overcomplicate simple concepts and for their self-aggrandizing narratives.

💡Web 3

Web 3 refers to the next generation of the internet, often associated with blockchain technology and decentralized applications. The video script touches on the hype around Web 3, suggesting that it is part of a broader trend in the tech industry to reinvent existing concepts, sometimes without clear benefits or necessity.

💡Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies that use cryptography for security. The video mentions cryptocurrencies as an example of how tech bros have reinvented money and payments, suggesting that while they offer some benefits, they also come with significant challenges and risks.

💡NFTs

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique digital assets that represent ownership of a specific item or piece of content. The video script includes NFTs as an example of the tech industry's tendency to create new markets and financial transactions, often with questionable value or practical use.

💡Compliance

Compliance in the video refers to the adherence to laws, regulations, and industry standards. It is mentioned in the context of fintech companies struggling to meet these requirements, which contrasts with the tech industry's focus on user experience and seamlessness, sometimes at the expense of regulatory concerns.

Highlights

Masayoshi Son compared himself to Jesus Christ and the Beatles, claiming they were misunderstood and not initially popular.

SoftBank's Vision Fund aims to tackle humanity's biggest challenges and risks, a noble goal aligned with Jesus's hypothetical actions if he ran a VC fund.

Criticism of tech innovations that are not new, such as shared office spaces and the WeWork startup, which was funded despite the concept's long existence.

Tech Bros are praised for looking out for humanity, despite being the subject of mockery, especially for innovations backed by VC firms like SoftBank.

The humorous reinvention of the bus by companies like Lyft, Uber, and Elon Musk's Boring Company, which were not as innovative as claimed.

Delete.me is introduced as a service that helps delete personal information from data brokers, a response to the challenges of data privacy.

Critique of 'non-tech' products like the Hydrate Spark water bottle, which connects to a smartphone app, as an example of unnecessary tech integration.

Soylent, a meal replacement shake, is discussed as an example of a tech bro invention that simplifies food to an engineering problem.

Juicero, the Wi-Fi connected juicer, is highlighted as a failed tech product that raised significant venture capital despite its lack of innovation.

Toria, the $1,500 internet-connected teapot, is mentioned as an example of a tech product that didn't need to be tech, yet was pitched as such.

The 'Power Hour' invented by Just Eat, which was essentially a lunch break, is criticized as an example of tech bros reinventing the wheel.

Pause pods, private spaces for meditation or mindfulness, are mocked as tents being sold as innovative tech products.

Bodega, a startup that aimed to replace corner stores with vending machines, is discussed as an example of overfunded yet simple ideas.

The trend of co-living is mentioned as a tech bro invention that isn't new, but is being rebranded as innovative.

AI-generated books on Amazon are criticized for flooding the market with low-quality content, an example of AI being misused.

AI therapy and AI DJ features are discussed as examples of AI being forced into products without necessarily improving them.

The pursuit of a smart city in Saudi Arabia is mentioned as an example of tech bros trying to reinvent urban living.

The video concludes with a call for skepticism towards tech products that are pitched as innovative but are often just repackaged versions of existing solutions.

Transcripts

a few days ago someone added me on

Twitter with this headline from the Ft

about how masay Yoshi son compared

himself to both Jesus Christ and the

Beatles now I don't know why anyone

would send me an article like this as

this is neither a theology channel nor

is it an enology Channel I have no way

of judging the accuracy of either of

these claims I'm going to guess that

they're true as there's no reason that

masayoshi son would lie about something

like this he possibly is a lot like

Jesus Christ but maybe instead of making

the comparison himself he should just

grow a beard get some sandals dress all

in white and then let other people bring

it up that's what I would do in such a

situation his name is son so who knows

uh definitely not me I read the article

anyway which I'm fairly sure was meant

for some other Patrick Bole I Googled

and there are a few priests and at least

one enologist with the same name as me

it seems that sun said that Jesus and

the Beatles who I have since learned

were a band it's not the kind of music

that I cover here but he said that Jesus

was also misunderstood and criticized

and went on to say that the Beatles

weren't initially popular either now

like I said I'm not a theologist nor am

I Rick biato it's not for me to decide

if the Beatles were initially popular I

hadn't even heard of them till a few

minutes ago when I Googled them so I'm

sure that sun is right they're probably

an underground band never much

appreciated in their time much like

SoftBank Sun did tell the Ft that the

soft Bank Vision fund would tackle the

biggest challenges and risks facing

Humanity today which strikes me as being

extremely Noble I think that Jesus would

probably do the exact same thing if he

was running large Venture Capital fund

and that really is the great thing about

venture capital and Tech Bros in general

there are other people out there who

make fun of them but without them who

would be looking out for Humanity the

kind of people who do make fun of tech

Bros often forget the historical context

around some of the big innovations that

were backed by VC firms like SoftBank

naysayers will say for example the

shared office spaces have been around

forever but many people my age will

remember that pre-2010 the biggest

challenge and risk- facing Humanity was

the lack of Ikea furniture and free beer

available in the shared office spaces

when Adam Newman and his firm we work

arrived on the scene dressed all in

white and Barefoot Masa Yoshi saw the

light and funded this remarkable Tech

startup I think there was also an app

but that might not have worked sure

sometimes technology looks like two

bicycle mechanics building the first

airplane in a shed but other times it

looks like a beer tap in the office and

an app on your phone so that you can

complain when the beer is run out the

path of innovation is often not clear

sometimes we can come up with ideas only

to learn that someone else came up with

that idea already like when David Boe

accidentally ripped off the main riff of

Ice Ice Baby here's a clip of David

explaining ding ding ding D ding ding

ding ding ding D ding ding ding ding

ding d That's the Way theirs goes ours

goes ding ding ding d

d that little bitty change it's not the

same Silicon Valley Tech Bros have

occasionally not unlike David Bowie come

up with ideas that already existed

they're well known for repeatedly

inventing the bus famous examples are

Lyft who announced a service Day called

Lyft shuttle which would be cheaper than

a taxi and run on predesignated routes

picking passengers up and dropping them

off at regular stops like a buff Uber

even launched a service which allowed

Riders to save money by waiting for

their Uber at a pre-arranged stop share

it with strangers and get dropped off at

any point along a predetermined route

that was a bus too Elon Musk announced

his idea for a bus on Twitter he called

it the boring company Urban loop system

saying that it would have thousands of

small stations the size of a single

parking space that would take you very

close to your destination and blend

seamlessly into the fabric of a city

rather than a small number of big

stations like a Subway later the boring

company went on to build the Las Vegas

Loop which was not really as good as a

bus and possibly the most disappointing

Transportation innovation in history

where it was just Teslas being driven

slow in an unnecessarily small tunnel

I'm trying to raise VC funding right now

to add one of those miniature trains to

the loop which would massively increase

its capacity and make it more fun the

fact that it runs on Rails would

additionally make it a full self-driving

supervised system which would be amazing

so let's look at the things Tech Bros

invented that already existed and some

of the things that they invented that

should never have existed before we get

to that let me tell you about today's

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me.com booil and use promo code boil a

checkout it seems that the worst Silicon

Valley inventions are the ones that are

pitched as being Tech products when

there's no real technology involved or

if there is technology just wasn't

needed for some reason a lot of these

products are food and beverage

Innovations a good example of this type

of innovation is when Tech Bros

reinvented the water bottle with the

hydrate spark which is pitched as a

connected water bottle that tracks your

water intake and glows to make sure that

you don't forget to drink there is of

course an Internet connected smartphone

app so that your hydration records can

be stored in the cloud in the top review

on Amazon a guy named Daniel says that

he loves how it integrates with his

phone so it recalculates his daily water

needs he says that he honestly can't

think of anything wrong with it and as a

testament to its durability he writes

that it survived Burning Man of course

it did I imagine that it's a disaster if

you have one of these bottles and you

accidentally drink out of a different

container as then how will the bottle

know how hyd ated you are maybe that's

what the app is for you can hopefully

let your bottle know that you cheated on

it and maybe then it'll glow in a

different color to indicate its

disappointment I should really design

these products it seems like about 15 or

20 years ago that otherwise healthy

people started saying that they felt

hypoglycemic and dehydrated instead of

hungry and thirsty now we have people

charging bottles overnight and

connecting them to their phones so that

they know longer have to rely on their

hypothalamus for basic physiological

functions I suppose I'll put an Amazon

affiliate link to the hydrate spark

bottle in the video description but I

will be disappointed if you actually buy

it soent is another tech bro invention

Tau up by a software engineer named Rob

Reinhardt who says that he used to view

food as a timec consuming hassle he says

that he resolved to treat it as an

engineering problem problem and came up

with a meal replacement shake that's how

Rob invented slim fast but for Tech Bros

I'm not sure how wise it is to have

someone who views food as a timec

consuming hassle preparing meals for you

but this is the high-tech world that we

live in today so stop your complaining

and drink your lunch Rob wrote on his

blog a few years ago about getting rid

of his kitchen this home manufacturing

center has been by far the most

liberating to eliminate he said a New

York Times review described soand as a

punishingly boring joyless product that

causes flatulence as a side effect so

yeah why not drink that at the office

its inventor Rob responded saying that

this side effect was likely to be

temporary and was just the result of

adjusting to the government recommended

amount of dietary fiber once again

Amazon Link in the description one of

the most amusing non-tech Tech products

in recent years was the juicero which

Bloomberg described a few years ago as

an unlikely investment for the top

technology investors nonetheless Jero

raised $120 million in Venture Capital

funding from firms like Google Ventures

and Kleiner Perkins a reporter at Vox

wrote that juo's business plan reads

like a Pitch Perfect parody of

contemporary startup culture its

inventor compared himself to Steve Jobs

and explained that the juicero squeezed

juice with the force of two Teslas I'm

told that Teslas have now become the

standards of weights and measures used

in Silicon Valley each juicero pouch I

believe contains one Pico Tesla of

chopped fruit one investor told the

press that they were drawn to the idea

of an Internet connected device that

transforms single serving packets of

chopped fruits and vegetables into a

refreshing and healthy beverage another

said that juera was building a platform

for a new model of food delivery and

that the subscription-based model is

reminiscent of other food delivery

startups like blue apron and nature box

a Bloomberg reporter noted that

squeezing the fruit bags by hand yielded

nearly the same amount of juice as the

$400 device and was often quicker Jero

responded that most people would prefer

to use the machine because the process

is more consistent and less messy it

turns out that people didn't want to use

the machine and the company went

bankrupt the founder of juicero was last

seen promoting $40 jugs of what he calls

raw water which I believe is Tech speak

for dirty water that he found he told

reporter that he will sometimes trespass

across private property under the cover

of night to collect this raw water he is

recently written a book on the

mindblowing nutritional benefit of

sprouts Link in the

description now Toria was another

Technology Innovation from Mountain View

whose pitch was that their device

elegantly Blends the rich tradition of

tea with technology to create the

perfect modern tea experience so yeah it

was a

$1,500 teapot with an app this internet

connected tea infuser used machine

learning and advanced algorithms to

produce the perfect cup of tea sadly T

Foria is gone you can't buy one anymore

but in a five-star review a fellow named

Robert writes I love this machine he

goes on to say you don't need the pods

because you have the app you can throw

any loose leaf tea in it that sounds

great wait till Robert learns that he

doesn't need the app either it'll blow

his mind another fellow Seth it's always

guys isn't it wrote a review having

bought a Toria hopefully at a discount

after the company had gone bankrupt he

only gave it a fourstar review he seems

to love the teapot but then realized

that no one was updating the app now

that the company was bankrupt and by the

time he wrote his review this seemed to

be driving him over the edge he writes

in all caps you can't use the Toria if

you don't have a smartphone he goes on

to say yes you can use the little cups

without your phone yes that that's the

great thing about cups but he then says

the true usability comes from The Toria

app he says on the surface it's the best

team maker money can buy and he says

it's changing the way I drink and make

tea for the better but underneath is a

ticking Time Bomb of uncertainty if the

app isn't updated I will eventually lose

the ability to use my

Toria yeah that uh that sounds awfully

stressful to

me look Tech Bros are obviously not big

fans of food and that's okay as long as

they're getting their government

recommended amount of dietary fiber and

not sitting next to me I'm fine with

that one of the giveaways that food

isn't a big deal for Tech workers came a

few years ago when Myra the chief people

officer at the food delivery app just

eat posted on LinkedIn that just Eid had

invented the Power Hour what's that you

might wonder well it was an hour during

the workday when you could take a break

from meetings go for a walk even have

lunch she finished up her post by saying

another way we continue to brilliantly

enhance the lives of just eaters

everywhere yes that's right Meera had

invented the lunch break the LinkedIn

post was quickly deleted after people

cruy made fun of it and just e told the

press that the general public had

humorously brought to their attention

that they didn't do a very good job of

explaining their intention to remind

their staff to prioritize their own

well-being and get away from their

laptops another great invention was the

pause pod which was pitched as a private

popup space free from stressful moments

designed by a team of inventors and

advertisers based in Sweden here's a

picture that's a tent a tent in your

office the inventor of the pause pod

told the press that in the initial

crowdfunding round the team had set out

to raise

$110,000 but instead brought in over

$100,000 with pre-orders that amount

grew to about

$140,000 with nearly 2,000 pause pods

ordered he said you'll get it if you're

familiar with feeling stressed and doing

meditation or mindfulness after people

made fun of it on Twitter the founder

said that he had never claimed that it

wasn't a tent which is true I'll put a

link to a tent in the video description

if if you need one of those there's some

really great gift ideas in this video in

truth Tech Bros in recent years have

invented roommates calling it the trend

of co-living where people live together

each having their own spaces but with

some shared rooms with Bodega they

invented the vending machine raising

$2.5 million in funding for what was

described as smart store kiosks powered

by AI that you can operate using your

phone you don't even have to work in

Tech to come up with these ideas back in

2020 a Canadian reporter pitched her

startup idea on Twitter private

backyards for people who don't have

private backyards she said I would pay

$5 to rent a fenced area for an hour so

I could safely play fetch with my dog

while doing an outdoor summer workout if

it works for bikes and office space why

not land Lauren made the mistake of

pitching this idea to the public on

Twitter rather than to venture

capitalists and instead of raising money

people just made fun of her for

inventing public parks with the current

excitement around AI we're seeing a

bunch of AI products that are just worse

versions of things that we already have

Amazon has become inundated with AI

generated books apparently it's become

such an issue that to combat it they've

started restricting authors to

self-publishing a maximum of three books

per day on their platform which I

imagine is unfairly holding back some of

the more productive authors out there

there are all sorts of startups pitching

AI therapy where a chatbot helps you

with your problems it's hard to think of

anything more depressing than that

spottify announced earlier this year an

AI DJ feature which will pick music for

you to listen listen to isn't that what

Spotify already

does Microsoft has been forcing AI

features into all of their products

whether users want them or not I guess

they have to justify how much they've

been spending oralb has an AI powered

toothbrush which of course connects to

an app on your phone they say that

they've trained the toothbrush on

thousands of different users to assess

the different brushing Styles it seems

you brush your teeth while looking at

your phone and the app tells you if you

missed a spot it doesn't actually learn

from your

toothbrushing look I don't really know

what it does but uh Link in the

description it's hard to know if we've

reached Peak AI yet but I saw in the

news this morning that you can now buy a

purse that's made out of an Nvidia GPU

so maybe that's it I've already made a

whole video about Adam Newman who paid

short-term office rent

as being technology and I've talked

about pelaton who sold expensive

exercise bikes with a $40 a month

subscription fee the bike wouldn't work

if your internet went down there were

also Tech bro companies like washboard

which charge subscribers $27 to send

them $20 worth of laundry quarters every

month sometimes Silicon Valley doesn't

just invent physical products that

already exist they invent websites that

already exist the kind of websites that

they should probably have heard of a few

years ago the founder of the dating app

Bumble launched Bumble Biz bringing the

company's women first angle to

professional networking she invented a

strange version of LinkedIn where you

couldn't just search for someone in your

industry you instead had to swipe left

or right on whoever else was also logged

into the app I don't believe it worked

out Tech Bros reinvented the Space Race

too here's a clip of Elon Musk

announcing his plan to land a man on the

moon I believe that this nation should

commit itself to achieving the goal

before this decade is out of Landing a

man on the moon and returning him safely

to the Earth the tech bro Space Race

really heated up during the pandemic as

all sorts of space businesses were taken

public as spacks while listing as a spa

provided a shortcut to the stock market

without the rigors of the IPO process

these newly listed companies were still

subject to the regulatory in public

scrutiny that comes with being a

publicly traded firm it's only so

surprising that a large number of space

Spikes have since been delisted after

stock price declines and missed

regulatory filings over the last few

years according to space news nearly

half of the space spack companies have

announced significant Workforce

reductions many have since been sold off

on the cheap taken private given up on

space or even shut down there have been

numerous failed launches and the one

bright spot on the horizon is that Elon

Musk announced over the weekend that

SpaceX will start flying Mars missions

in just two years time so that will

definitely happen Tech Bros have been

busy in recent years disrupting the

world of Finance too they've reinvented

money and payments with cryptocurrencies

and reinvented markets and financial

transactions with web 3 they even

reinvented the receipt with nfts some of

this reinvention made certain payments

faster and cheaper By ignoring the law

and Industry best practices things like

anti-money laundering regulations and

know your customer rules can add

significant costs for financial firms

web three was supposed to somehow make

transactions free or extremely cheap

while making large sums of money for the

people who invested in it and it's hard

to understand how these goals could be

achieved

simultaneously the conflict at the heart

of Finch is the tech company's focus on

product and user experience with the aim

of reducing friction to ensure

seamlessness this Focus often takes

precedence over compliance matters

according to the ABA 93% of fintech

struggle to meet compliance requirements

and over 60% of fintech companies paid

at least

$250,000 in compliance fines in 2023

alone stemming from a lack of

transaction monitoring insufficient

customer due diligence and a failure to

report suspicious actions traditional

Finance firms often manage to have

compliance problems but without a focus

on using experience which is also a

thing that you can do more and more

we're reading news about how people who

used to love their smartphones now hate

them some argue that the reason behind

this is that in recent years apps have

been optimized not to make a user's life

easier but instead to maximize the time

spend on the app and to maximize user

engagement why does a water bottle a

teapot or a toothbrush come with an app

no one was asking for this social media

no longer shows a user the photos or

tweets that their friends uploaded

instead showing them content created by

total strangers that might anger them

enough to respond or to scroll through

the responses looking for comments that

agree with their point of view this is

how you keep an audience scrolling we're

seeing a strong push to ban Smartphones

at schools because of how they affect

young children studies show a

relationship between High smartphone use

and mental health disorders even amongst

adults to be clear I'm not anti-tech I

love technology without it my career in

finance would not have been possible and

I wouldn't be able to make videos like

these which I love making you'll

probably have noticed that none of the

products I've made fun of are really all

that high tech they're mostly non-te

products pitched as if they were Tech to

achieve a higher valuation it's no

surprise that people like Elizabeth

Holmes and S bankman freed pitch their

non-te products to Tech investors a

specialists in their Industries would

have and did spot the flaws in what was

being sold I'm by no means saying that

all new technology is junk the tech

industry has hugely improved the way

that we live but it's important not to

be tricked by marketing if you enjoyed

this video you should watch my video on

the line a smart City being built in

Saudi Arab Arabia next don't forget to

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you again in the next video and yeah I

know that David Boe wrote that riff

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