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[Music]
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how did our smartphones Go from
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something amazingly cool to something
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that everyone hates feeling that I get
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sometimes when I use my phone
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excessively and the only way I can
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describe this feeling is is a feeling of
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of guilt this is what my minimalistic
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phone setup looks like this is the dumb
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phone dumb phone sales are up my parents
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2006 digital camera is now Peak coolness
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the anti- smartphone movement is just
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getting started and this movement is
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going to change technology probably even
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more than AI because it all starts from
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one simple idea what will happen when
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using a smartphone becomes uncool just
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like smoking and we're going to see
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exactly what happens but as I started to
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dive deeper into this I realized that
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this whole movement is based on an
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entirely wrong idea because smartphones
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aren't really the problem social media
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also isn't really the problem this thing
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is the problem but to understand it we
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have to start here that's me in 1998 and
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I know my outfit was fire and together
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with hundreds of millions of people I
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was getting my first taste of the
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internet I grew up downloading music
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from Emil chatting with friends on MSN I
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bought Minecraft Alpha in 2009 I signed
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up to Facebook cuz believe it or not it
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was the cool thing to do at the time
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technology was cool being on social
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media was cool and when smartphones
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arrived they were even cooler my first
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smartphones in an HTC Sensation look at
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that sweet animation it's so nice but in
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2012 something happened these are the
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charts that show anxiety levels and
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feeling of not having a meaning in life
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in teenagers and it's clear something
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went wrong and guess what was
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skyrocketing to the mainstream in 2012
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yeah timelines match perfectly I spend 3
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hours a day on my phone I feel addicted
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that's it smartphones are evil except
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they're not because something else was
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discovered in 2012 something much more
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hidden but also much more d dous think
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about it when you feel bad for wasting
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hours on your phone what are you doing
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probably scrolling Tik Tok which is
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Media or Instagram which is social media
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or playing the latest dark pattern
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playing to win game like Monopoly go
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which in the end is Media this guys as a
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game because all you doing this game is
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press one button so probably vacuum
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cleaner simulator is a better game than
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this but still and surely you don't hate
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your smartphone when it's guiding you
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through a new city with Google Maps or
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when it's taking picture of good
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memories to your friends or when you're
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drunk and you need to call an Uber we're
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addicted to Media smartphones just serve
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it best right now but the invasive and
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addictive media of today has one key
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difference with TV or Myspace or even
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the Facebook I was using in 2010 and
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it's this the loop this Loop is how Tech
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products are built basically all
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software products are built with this
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from Big Tech to Tik Tok to a two people
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startup in a moldy basement and this is
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the key so get ready for a crash course
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on on how digital products are actually
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built in 40 seconds so you have your app
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you have designers and Engineers but
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what should your team work on we could
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build a dark mode improve the algorithm
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add a new AI chat bot we have an endless
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list of ideas but how do you decide what
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to build what we need is called a
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Northstar an objective that's measurable
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a number if we are say Google Maps we
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can put here the number of kilometers
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traveled maps and this is what we want
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to grow so we take our ideas and we
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start building the ones that we think
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will increase this number the most so
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for example let's build a new dark mode
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so you don't get blinded by your phone
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when you're driving at night then we can
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immediately test it with millions of
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people around the world and see whether
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it actually improves the North Star if
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it does we release it to everyone and on
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to the next one now this is a big
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simplification but this is how Tech
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works this is what I do in my job as a
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product manager and around 2012 social
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media and media companies in general
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including Netflix YouTube Spotify well
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they have realized that here the best
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best metric they can put was time and
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engagement they discovered that if they
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optimize for time they can basically
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print money with ads or subscriptions
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they found a direct correlation between
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increasing time and increasing the
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revenue and so the rise for optimizing
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for your time was on and all the other
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apps follow suit now this Loop is not
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inherently evil it's just a really
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really really effective way to build
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Tech products and all it does is build
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things that optimize for the Northstar
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but with the Northstar is trying to take
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over all of your users time well that's
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where this whole mess starts this is
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Chamas pipia he worked directly with
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Markus Zuckerberg at Facebook during
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those years and he basically pioneered
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this time sucking Loop and this is what
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he has to say about it I feel tremendous
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skilt um I think in the back deep deep
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recesses of our minds we we kind of
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knew something bad could happen and I
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probably shouldn't mention it but even
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this very video is optimized for keeping
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you here I'm using music and text and
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images and hopefully an interesting
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story so that you will watch it until
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the end why well not because I like it
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but because YouTube is also playing this
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time game and if I want to tell this
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story I need to create something that
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people want to watch until the end so in
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reality the best way to support your
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favorite Creator is not actually liking
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their video or subscribing to their
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channel is actually to watch the video
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until the end but after 15 years of this
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Loop Building Products that take more
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and more of your time people are
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starting to have enough especially
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younger people that have been exposed
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much more to the effects of this are
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saying you know what this is too much I
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want my time back and even though it is
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not a real problem there's only one
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thing that people could do declare war
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on the smartphone Dum phone sales are up
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flip phones are cool again and no I'm
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not talking about these flip phones I'm
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talking about these flip phones in 2020
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Global Dum phone sales reached 1 billion
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units in growing while smartphone sales
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were were 1.4 billion units but down 12%
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from the year before interest for the
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keyword Dum phone has only been growing
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on Google there's a new market market
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for Less lone is a company that makes
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premium minimalist smartphones with e
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Inc displays and they've been growing
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year after year while tech companies
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were Racing for more more megapixels
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more cameras on the back more AI more
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revolutionary features like a new button
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people are starting to Crave for less
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and it's not just the devices we are
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seeing an explosion in apps and gadgets
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that help reduce screen time and phone
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usage apps that block other apps all the
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way to phone cages or you put your phone
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in and you can't take it out until the
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timer is over even Apple and Google
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couldn't ignore this trend and they
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ended up building digital well-being and
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Screen Time reduction apps built
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directly into Android iOS and it's not
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just phones in the age of computational
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Photography 100x zooms and AI image
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processing old digital point and shoot
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cameras from the 2000s are back old iPod
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seales are up young people are buying
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typewriters to escape from having to use
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their computers and iPads this is a
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rebellion but what really matters here
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is not this small bunch of people that
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get an Nokia over this iPhone 15 Pro Max
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what really matters is that this
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movement can disrupt teack completely by
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putting forward a very simple idea why
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is smartphones become uncool this is the
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marble Roman The Stereotype of the cool
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guy smoking his cigarette with his
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cowboy hat look at his coolness a marbor
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of the company built this character with
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one purpose only to make smoking seem
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cool and well it worked you've seen
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countless movies where the cool edgy
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character smokes it was a cool thing to
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do until it wasn't it took decades but
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people realized the danger of smoking
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and culture made smoking uncool and
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while yes higher taxes on cigarettes and
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more awareness of the dangers helped a
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key factor in deciding whether a
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14-year-old will start smoking or not is
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just well how cool smoking is if
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everyone around him thinks smoking is
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lame then is way less likely to start
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coolness is everything if culture
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decides something is cool that thing
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grows like crazy if culture decides
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something is uncool like cigarettes then
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it dies in the US we went from 42% of
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people smoking in 1965 to 14% in 2019
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but then there's another side companies
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spend hundreds of billions of dollars
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every single year just to make their
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thing cool this is what keeps fashion
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alive where baggy jeans are cool then
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they are uncool then they're cool again
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and so on and while we cannot make it
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direct comparison there are studies that
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show how smartphones and cigarettes are
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two completely different types of
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addition the same thing is what has been
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going on with smartphones that companies
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launched cooler and newer phones every
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year and made sure that having the
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latest smartphone is cool it's a status
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symbol and this has been the trend for
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the last 15 years but now something is
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changing this time optimizing Loop that
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media compan companies have been taken
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to the extreme caused culture to fight
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back and even though it's not the cause
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the smartphone is the victim because
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this new movement is all about making
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smartphones uncool a few years ago if I
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went to my friends and I said I'm in a
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dopamine detox they would have looked at
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me like a weirdo but today they would
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reply oh I should do that too a few
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years ago taking a break from social
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media was weird why why why would you do
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that now when you hear someone coming
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back from a trip in some remote place
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one of the first things they say is oh
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it was so cool I was able to unplug from
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everything a few years ago it was crazy
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to even think about getting a dump phone
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today it's happening more and more and
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this new movement has also brought up
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the big guns celebrities there's a
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reason why company use celebrities to
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sell you perfume in these cringy black
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and white commercials because
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celebrities have the power to change
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culture in the 2010s celebrities mve to
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social media in droves Gathering
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hundreds of millions of followers but in
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the 2020s we are to see celebrities go
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in the opposite direction distancing
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from social media distancing from their
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smartphone taking a break I decided to
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delete my Instagram because I just felt
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like I was so addicted to this kind of
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false version of my life that it was
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just taking over and this simple idea is
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going to be much more powerful in
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changing Tech than AI or any other fancy
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technology just like the ban on
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cigarettes we might start to see phone
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free zones bars restaurants clubs
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starting to ban phones because that's
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would make them cooler berim in Berlin
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is probably the most secretive and hard
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to get into club in the world and for
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years no phones are allowed inside and
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this makes it ouly cooler if a few years
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ago the Stu symbol was having the latest
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iPhone a few years from now the flex
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could be being able to live on an old
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Nokia flip phone 15 years ago you
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weren't part of the cool kids if you
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weren't on Facebook in the future
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watching Dick Top might be seen as lame
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I know these things might seem silly now
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but don't underestimate the power of
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changing culture but also don't think
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that tech companies are just going to
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sit and wait they're going to do
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everything in their power to ride this
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trend and it's already happening the
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whole idea of this new wave of AI
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devices like the rabbit R1 or the Humane
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AI pin is that you don't need your
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smartphone and all the addiction it
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carries with it but you can still get
00:11:18
all its benefits thanks to AI That's the
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idea at least the execution has been
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what's the traffic to the Empire State
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Building from here
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finding directions use the voice command
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feature of AI pin to ask for traffic
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information to the Empire State Building
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and it will provide you with the details
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you
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need I did and I'm willing to bet that
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in two or 3 years the big smartphone
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guys like Samsung Google or Apple will
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start to build products around this as
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well like phones with physical switches
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and locks to use them less or even
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devices that replace some of the things
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your smartphone does like music so yeah
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probably going to go back to iPods once
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this idea of digital minimalism and
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taking control of time becomes
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mainstream in culture apps and media may
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start to break free from this Loop of
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maximizing time because just like today
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saving that some food is organic makes
00:12:13
it more appealing in the future social
00:12:15
media site that's explicitly built to
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not have time addiction is going to be
00:12:19
more appealing and this changing culture
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is also going to massively influence the
00:12:23
next generation of devices to the
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majority of people this is already
00:12:28
cringe and apple and any other company
00:12:30
can spend billions to make their Vision
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Pro or whatever VR headset the highest
00:12:35
resolution with the best tracking but if
00:12:37
wearing it is seen as cringe or uncool
00:12:40
then it's already bound to lose and if
00:12:42
you ask me yeah even as a tech
00:12:44
Enthusiast this is pretty cringe but
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this is also the perfect storm to make
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augmented reality classes the next big
00:12:50
thing because people do want the
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benefits of having a smartphone
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capturing movs navigating the world what
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they don't want is being sucked into
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Doom scrolling into a rectangle and with
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V being an overlay on the real world
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with way more limitations on what you
00:13:03
can display you're not going to see a
00:13:05
Tik Tok feed projected over your fridge
00:13:08
and so this is what goes on behind the
00:13:10
scenes of every single video I make and
00:13:12
it took me years to learn all this stuff
00:13:14
now you can go literally behind the
00:13:16
scenes of my most successful videos the
00:13:19
ones that got millions of views and
00:13:20
learn exactly how they were made with
00:13:22
story behind there's no Theory no bullet
00:13:25
points no secret formula for success in
00:13:27
Lamborghinis this is not a YouTube
00:13:30
course each story behind is a practical
00:13:32
Hands-On behind the scenes of each one
00:13:34
of my most successful videos and how
00:13:36
they were actually made the storytelling
00:13:39
structure the little tricks the
00:13:40
packaging the editing and the wise
00:13:42
behind every single decision if you're a
00:13:44
Creator or you want to become a Creator
00:13:46
well this is an inside look at exactly
00:13:49
how a successful video is made so you
00:13:51
can check out story behind at the link
00:13:52
below and there's also a discount code
00:13:54
valid for the first 20 people to
00:13:56
purchase story behind at the lowest
00:13:58
price it will ever be oh and if after
00:14:00
this video you still want to keep your
00:14:02
smartphone do you even know all the
00:14:03
secrets that hide behind it well you can
00:14:05
learn all about them in this video right
00:14:07
here
