Embracing Weirdness: Cody Johnston

This is The Chris Project, where we discuss mental wellness, self-awareness, and mindset with entrepreneurs and experts. Set your perceived ideas and biases aside and let's go on our journey for yourself, for your family, for the world.

Welcome to another episode of The Chris Project. I am your host, Christian Brim. Joining me today, Cody Johnston, aka The Weird Canadian. Cody, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation.

I am too, because I'm going to start with, how did you come up with the moniker, The Weird Canadian?

It started out in my youth. I've always felt different from most of my family, my community people. I always spent a lot of time online learning about the history of the world, other places, other things before I actually learned about Canada and what it was to be Canadian. Proudly Canadian, but never felt like I had my spot. Um, but so I just always went— I always thought I was weird, and for the longest time I, I thought that was a bad thing. I tried to be normal. I tried to be somebody that could be Canadian, considered Canadian. I don't like hockey. I don't like Tim Hortons. Um, like the typical things. I don't like the cold, and I live in one of the coldest places. Um, these types of things that I used to try and buff up and be like, I'm not this person. Um, I'm now trying to like, um, bring back— like, I'm trying to make it my own. I am weird, I'm owning it, um, and that's who makes me who I am. Um, and I just always realized it was a narrative of my life, and now it's just gonna be more of my narrative, more on my, my terms, other than others— rather than others.

Yeah, at 55, I've come to realize that the vast majority of people are, quote, weird, end quote. You know, I always find myself saying, God, that guy is weird. And then I'm like, but not necessarily any more weird than anybody else. I told my daughters, who are now adults when they were growing up, I said, everybody's a little crazy. You just have to figure out a crazy that you can live with. And this was in context of dating. And I said, you know, if you can't figure out how they're crazy, run away, because those people are psychopaths. You don't want to deal with those at all. So give the audience a little background on like maybe a little synopsis of your CV. So what have you done?

Yeah, so I started my career early in 2016 as a computer programmer for the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario. So I've actually was grown and raised in Ontario, spent most of my life there. We moved out to Newfoundland about a year and a half ago, but the majority of my, my career was spent in the Ministry of Transportation learning how to beef up my software skills and learning how really government works. Okay. And what I really want to emphasize here is how it doesn't work. Going through the process of learning how to code in the government, which is 10 years behind, if anybody's wondering, that's why your applications are crap from the government. They're 10 years behind in the trends. And then on top of that, they don't listen to their experts. So I grew through the becoming a developer, going through the, the rungs of being a co-op student to a consultant to a contractor to a full-time employee to a full-time developer to senior dev developer, where I really learned how, how to develop, how to manage applications, how to build things for properly for our, our government organizations. And really realized that that was my cap in the government. If you want to rise above doing work in your field, you now become a manager, um, just basically signing checks and, and managing your teams and not actually doing the work, right? Um, that felt hollow to me. I couldn't grow, I couldn't go anywhere. I was this excellent resource, but they couldn't give me any more money. They couldn't promote me in any meaningful way. Right. Um, and then I realized like, okay, well, this is our time to, to really figure out my life. And that's kind of where I struggled. I really had a problem in my life of really not knowing what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be. Um, thankfully I had a partner who came into my life and kind of saved me from that. She helped me understand what I wanted and we just kind of moved away from it all just to give us some breathing room. Yes. And then I ended up working for a little company called FIS Global. They're a global banking solutions company.

I've heard of them.

Yes.

Yes.

They're not small.

But yes, I see. I see what you did there.

Okay. Yeah. So I started working on their backend software for banking services and really understanding that private companies don't work either. These big organizations are so stuck in their ways and through compliance that they can't actually do the things that they, they promise. And, and if they can, they can only do it for the high-class clientele. They can't do it for the average person. That, that really caused me problems because I thought I got away from being able to help people and really meaningfully impact in finance and learn, learn about finance and help people. Right. Pulling back those masks are really fun to find out that I found it wasn't my path. I was so miserable being in a new place where we were having a brand new life and it just broke me and my partner let me just say, walk away.

From work or from the company?

From the company. Okay. We're stable enough. Thankfully, we moved to a province where we're stable enough on one income. So she let me walk away to start The Weird Canadian, talking about what business acumen I have, going through all of the challenges, really highlighting what people don't understand in Canadian politics and business. And really that people don't understand that Canadian politics and business are one field. Like you can't talk about one without the other because we're such a heavily regulated country. And then just going through AI because I saw how it was changing the world. So promoting AI, becoming aware, becoming a forefront leader on AI, like understanding how to push things, how to help small businesses and building up my community around here. Really a shift in my entire life in the past 6 months to a year.

Yeah, well, there's a lot to unpack there. You talk about government and computers. I own a company that does accounting, finance, accounting, taxes, payroll, that kind of stuff. And I've been doing it for 29 years and dealing with the IRS, which you talk about antiquated systems. I actually worked, I actually was friends with an IRS employee who handled internal security on their network. And I think it was COBOL, I'm not sure. They had a machine that was so antiquated. It was still running on one of these ancient languages. And they couldn't find anybody to fix it. Like, there was nobody that knew the language. It was like a dead, dead thing. So yes, I understand.

I do know Cobalt, by the way.

I'm sorry. That is fascinating. Okay. Then, you know, relevant to this conversation, my daughter just left employment with the state of Oklahoma. She was there for 4 years, essentially as a project manager for their technology in the Department of Human Services. So basically all the welfare benefits, she managed the technology and the external vendors for that and learned a lot listening to her about what goes on. I think at a state level, I don't know about at the province level in Canada, but at the state level, it's at least a little better because there's not as big a bureaucracy and the funding model at the state level is different because we can't just print money. But I think what I'd love to talk to you about is, is AI. That seems to be a very prominent conversation. I'm going to give you my thoughts, and then I'd like to hear your opinion on it. I'm not technically knowledgeable on AI. Okay. I did— it's probably been 8 or 9 years ago. It was pre-LLMs for sure. Did a deep dive on AI. I did one of those Bill Gates things, take a dozen books and read them all on a subject. And what I came away with was that the technology is really about predictions. And as predictions become cheaper and cheaper, essentially zero, that there's this strange thing that happens where the demand— so if predictions are free, then the demand for their corollary in economics would go up, which would be judgment and application, filtering, context. And I read all of these, you know, NVIDIA and ChatGPT, these titans of the industry talking about how Even Elon Musk is like, okay, 5 years from now, nobody's going to be working and we're going to have to give everybody money or they're not going to have a way to make a living. And I'm like, I don't see this. I don't see it. What I see is a massively powerful tool that we don't yet know how it's going to change things because it's It's like one of the books I read during that period was I read a history of the Industrial Revolution, because I thought, well, there's got to be a similar shift in technology there. And how did that affect society? The economics, what changed, what didn't change? And I think no one at the outset of that the Industrial Revolution could have foreseen what was going to happen, just like we sitting where we are at the advent of this new technology can't really predict what's going to happen. And so as entrepreneurs trying to navigate this, it's scary because there's a lot of unknown, but there's a lot of opportunity as well. Like, I think that's the one thing that I believe to be true is there's going to be a tremendous amount of wealth created in the next 5 years on people harnessing this technology. Yes. All right. Now I've talked enough.

Cody, it's funny that you mentioned— it's funny that you mentioned new wealth creation because I literally just had a podcast with a book publisher who's implementing AI for copyright stuff. And we came up with a brand new usage for AI right in that session sort right there that she can go and use it as a business model, which is, um, instead of using the LLMs to create your books, build the LLMs as their worlds and then sell that with your books so anybody can explore that expansive world as well. Hmm. So not only are you getting the book, you can then go create your own stories, go ask further details, get an understanding of the world, build them something completely new. And that's a new revenue stream for an author that nobody's ever thought of. I'm sure people have thought of it, but nobody's really actioned on it. And I think she's going to go and take that action away. One of the biggest things that I see from the big guys, they're too clouded in their own predictions. They're, they're too high level. They're at the forefront. They're seeing the future. That they want, not the one that's coming. I don't trust anybody's predictions. Nobody's going to— nobody's going to be able to know.

And I think in a lot of— in a very real sense, they're promoters, right? Like they're trying to attract capital and they're trying to raise money. So, so they're promoting the vision to draw in the money.

Yes. And we will get there. Like we're already— so I'm actually part of a team called the Intelligent Internet.. And we're trying to build a new economic model built on AI to actually benefit humanity and build a new economic system in an abundant age. So there are people working on fixing these problems. We're just not at the implementation stage. We're not at the, the point where people are going to give up on the old system yet. We're still in that fight of people being on the old system. And I think we're still 5 to 10 years out where we're still going to be— have tons of jobs. So this is the fun part. It's going to be massive job loss, massive job creation. Yes. Because we have a whole new field of jobs that nobody can ever think of. Right. Your fields of study now should be anything that's physical. So going out and to people's homes, fixing things. The, the trades fields. Yes. Anything scientific is going to blow up because now you have limitless resources to have access to every knowledge on the planet. Um, exploration is going to be picked up. So deepest trenches of the, the Earth and the expanses of the universe are at our disposal, and that's all, all that technology is going to be created in the next year, 10 years.

Yes, using the Industrial Revolution as a history, if you think about it, like pre-Industrial Revolution, everybody worked the land primarily, they're agricultural. I mean, there was so much effort put into making food that was necessary. When we shifted to an industrial economy, and food was cheaper to produce, it's interesting to me to see the societal shifts that like, okay, now something becomes cheaper, and it's more abundant. You would think, oh, okay, well, people are going to work less, right? They're going to take that food, that was so hard to produce and now it's easier to produce and cheaper to produce and they're just going to be satisfied. No, that's not what happens with the human condition because we're not satisfied, right? Now we just are all, you know, in the United States, myself included, you know, obese. And it's like, did we take what we had and were satisfied with it? No. We took that and we created more needs and wants. And I think that's what's going to happen with this technology. And to your point, it's going to create a bunch of jobs. I think service, any kind of human interaction, experience economy, events, those types of things, that's going to explode.

One of the reasons I moved out to this island is tourism. We're going to have an explosion because not only is this going to give us experience-oriented things, we're going to be able to build out the infrastructure we haven't been able to do because we haven't had the bodies to do it. Yeah, right. Like, our infrastructure is actually going to get maintained. It's actually going to get built instead of us just waiting for some politician to deem it, yes, we need it done.

Yes, I think it, I think it will be interesting to see. And I have no idea what to predict, but I think it will be interesting to see the disruption it does with government, because you've already seen this. They haven't figured out a way— the government hasn't figured out a way to regulate it and/or monetize it, tax it. And, you know, the thing about technology is it always prevails. The technology is a force and it will prevail. So like, you know, crypto, blockchain is a technology. So just as an example, payments, let's take the Visa, MasterCard cabal. That is— no, I mean, it is. It is. And it's outrageously expensive. Compared to the cost of what you could do it. Like with blockchain, you could do payments much, much cheaper than you can— than we're forced into now. And you've seen the banking industry, you've seen people try to quash it, because they couldn't control it. Now, they're embracing it. But the technology will prevail because it, because it is cheaper. Like, you, you, you can't stop cheap.

You also can't stop people. That is one of the biggest things. Blockchain and AI are two very important technologies for each other, because blockchain is going to allow us the ability to identify, and the AI is going to allow us everything else. So once we have an established means of identifying a human towards an AI, we're going to be able to establish that, that chain of ownership, that chain of knowledge, making sure things are real. Gary Vee is already working on this. All of his videos are being put on blockchain so that he can say, hey, no, like, this is the original video here. I have the, the original token for it. So we know blockchain is going to be our identifiers. It's just getting people to implement them. And the problem is it goes against everything the current system stands for.

Yes. Highly disruptive. Highly disruptive. And to your point, like the, the FIS and the people that are entrenched, they— I'll go back. I'll go back to another example. Kodak was fabulously profitable. Making chemical paper for film. And after the advent and the invention, or not the invention, the cost of digital photography, dragging the cost down to nothing now, they sat there and could not adapt. It was, I don't, I read this, I don't remember it. I was alive when it happened. But evidently, Kodak came up with a camera that would take the picture digitally. It was a digital camera, but then it allowed you to print a photograph. And that was their solution, because they were stuck in the paradigm of selling film. Like, they could not get beyond that, because that was the way they made money. And, and that's, that's the same thing you see with these entrenched technology companies, is they can't pivot away from it because they— that's how they make their money. And so they eventually get destroyed.

And an unfortunate part is our governments are also hand in hand with those.

100%.

Like those companies. So it's really just a push and That's kind of where this whole transition is going to come. Like that whole— I just echoing everybody else out there. There's going to be a period of unrest.

Yes.

Period of like our dark ages, I guess we can call them, because we don't know what's coming. We don't know what's on the other side. We know next year we're going to have humanoid robots in our homes and on our streets. But what does that mean?

It means no one's read any of Asimov's work, is what it means. And I'm guessing a lot of the audience doesn't even know who Asimov is, but read any of his stuff. And yeah, I don't— yeah, robotics is also interesting, because that bridges the physical and the digital world, right? And I think, yes, robotics will become much more ubiquitous and much more useful. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that won't be adapted because it's just not economical, like, to do it. But there's going to be, you know, construction, I think, will be radically transformed.

All transportation.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Now I'm going to pivot because that's what I do. What— let's talk about— you talked about masks. That was a trigger word for me. And I'll explain why if you want. But let's talk about masks.

What would you like to know about your experience with them? Oh, I've had many of them over my life without realizing I've had them. Um, uh, throughout my life I've, I've moved a lot. Uh, when I was a kid, as I grew up, like, I've been— I, when I was a kid, I think I moved 5 or 6 times before I even, um, was in— or when I got to high school. And then on top of that, I went to college and then moved to a different college and then moved to a different city, and like, I've moved around a lot. And every time I've come up with like a new persona of myself that I thought I wanted to be, um, over time you start to understand that everybody does that, um, and that you're just wearing a mask at all times. Like, you're— you go out in public and you have to look and dress nice because that's, that's a mask. You have to be socially acceptable, um, and just figuring out where the masks are, how to identify them, that kind of struggle was a big learning experience for me in my life. Um, I also just like found out a few years ago I have ADHD, um, and I also— I suspect I also have, uh, ASD, uh, based on just how I function. So, well, it took a lot of struggle, like I've a lot of struggle in my life trying to figure out who I am, how I interact with the world, and how the world affects me.

Yeah, I— the reason why I— the, the term mask is, um, triggering— that's triggering, that's not the right word— why, why I, I, uh, focused on that was I, I recently read a book, uh, called Great Leaders Live Like Drug Addicts, I think live or lead, I can't remember which. No, I think it's live. Matthew Brody Waite, and he's actually going to be on this show next month. And he was a drug addict, went into treatment, and then founded a, or co-founded a software company and became a successful entrepreneur. And One of the things he talks about is, you know, the book is basically applying what he learned in treatment and addiction to his leadership. And the first paradigm he talks about having to change is the masks he wore as an addict. So, you know, it's easy for us to see it in someone else rather than ourselves. And it's extreme with an addict because they are manipulative with their behavior. They present what they think you want to see so they can get what they want. But it's really a continuum. Like, that's, that's just an extreme. Everybody wears masks to make it more comfortable, to fit in, to less friction, like whatever. And his solution as a leader was to be the exact opposite, which is radical authenticity. And that is, as a leader, as an entrepreneur, is also very scary because you have to admit that you don't have all the answers. And when you're leading, you know, I believed that as the leader, you got to have all the answers. And the truth is, you don't have all the answers and you're afraid. And, you know, all those other things that you're not supposed to admit. Right. But if we're not radically authentic, if we fall back into wearing the masks, we only do ourselves and the people we lead damage.

The, the best entrepreneurs are the ones that, um, oh, I lost where I was going there.

Uh, well, no, I, I— go ahead, go ahead.

If you think the best entrepreneurs are, are, are just— they understand that they don't know everything, but they understand where to look and find what they don't know. They're the ones who will see it in a person and be like, no, no, no, you're doing this because I understand you better than you understand you and you're better at this. Those are the types of people who do the best entrepreneurials is because they're open to their own problems and they're open to others' problems as well. Like they're okay with failure as long as they understand where the failure comes from.

Yes.

Yes.

I think that is where you want to end up. Where I struggle with this is when your identity is tied to your business and its success. And so there's this— business failure translates to personal failure. Right? And there's some interesting science behind that. They did MRI studies of male entrepreneurs, and they showed them pictures of their, their, their business. And then they showed them pictures of their children. They showed them a lot of pictures. But what, what, what was interesting was that the part of their brain that lit up when they showed them their business is the same part of the brain that lit up when they showed them their children. And so when entrepreneurs say, "My baby," they literally mean it. Now, they didn't do this with women, so I— and I'm sure the women's brains are wired differently, especially around their children, so they probably don't have this problem. But male entrepreneurs specifically, their identity at a neurochemical level is tied into their business. And in order for you to be okay with failure, you've got to overcome that, because otherwise, it's personal, and it's you, and that leads to some very dark places.

That's fair. And it's weird, because I'm also doing that kind of right now. Like, the Weird Canadian is me. It's my authentic self. It's my brand. It's who I am. So I am being public and personal. But it's weird because I've never had— up until recently, I've always had the barrier of I don't tell people information. Like I let them figure it out for themselves or like just don't say things. I've become a lot more open about everything. Like I talk about problems I'm having. If my team is working with me and I'm having a bad day, I will tell them straight to their face, like, I'm having a bad day. Here are the things I want to deal with. Here are the things I can deal with. Do you need me in any other capacity? Can we mitigate it? It's understanding that you are the driver behind your company. You are the one, you are the person that has to shoulder everything. But you don't have to shoulder everything. That's the reason you built your company, is to not shoulder everything.

Yes, but going— yes, and not but, I try to use and. And it goes back to that fear of failure, of failure of— I don't know, failure is not the right word.

Losing control.

Well, yes, that's it. Because you're afraid to— I'm afraid to turn that control over, because I then don't have any control over it. But Matthew also talks about his second step is releasing the outcomes. Like being clear on what you can control, and controlling those things, and letting the rest go. Because there's the vast majority of the things the outcomes that we can't control. And that's, that's, that's also difficult.

In content creation, that's all, that's all you get, right? Like you create something and you hope, hope it resonates with people. That's, that's all you can do. It's just applying that logic in everyday life. Like, not everything needs to be in control. And I think that's one of the reasons I struggled so hard growing up was I always tried to control things and had them have the perfect outcome. I always needed to be my own driver of what I was doing, and nobody could ever do it right. Yes. Taking that acceptance that I am not good at everything, and sometimes there is— are better people, and if I have them in place, I can rely on them. It's just establishing a new type of relationship of reliance. It's It's learning to trust again, I think, is the biggest thing.

Yes. And coming to the realization as an entrepreneur that really the pinnacle of entrepreneurship is making money off of others, not making money off of your own efforts. Right. Like, because your efforts are limited, there are billions of people. And if you can leverage their abilities and their outcomes, you can make a lot more money than if you are relying on your own self, which leads you to the conclusion which Dan Sullivan so eloquently and brilliantly put in his book. It's figuring out who, not how. I mean, that's the ultimate entrepreneur challenge, is getting the right whos in the room, not figuring out the how. I mean, I think Elon Musk does this brilliantly, right? He is smart in his own right. How smart? Who knows? But like, he finds the people to build the rockets. He finds the people to develop the driverless technology. He doesn't do that himself.

But even with that, he doesn't just find the people who are going to do it, but he finds the people who want to do it.

Yes.

Right? Like, it's not about money to these people. It's about the mission. Yes. And that's, that's kind of where you want your business to be. It's about the mission, not about the, the person, not about— it's all about what you're trying to put output for others.

Yes. And I think one of the modern problems that we have is that I think it was, uh, Alexis de Tocqueville when he was, uh, visiting the nascent United States. He said America is— basically, this works, the system works, because the people are moral. The system of a constitutional republic and free enterprise would not work with an immoral people. And I'm afraid that that's kind of where we've drifted, is this situation where you have this immense freedom relative to the world and relative to history. And you're not doing good with it. And that's where you see a lot of societal disenfranchisement and dissatisfaction is because these people aren't— you said the mission. Well, their mission is their self-interest, self-fulfillment, self-aggrandizement. It's not like trying to make things better for everybody.

It's about finding your purpose. That was really something that I struggled with for a long time, was trying to figure out how I fit in society. And I think that's kind of a big struggle with everybody right now, is they don't really understand what their role is. And they're being told, well, they're— they have this role at this company to do this thing, and now they're going to lose it. Um, and that's causing fear on that side. And then they don't understand who they are because they've been told all their life this is the path to success and then rug pulled as soon as the, the success started to roll in. That's the younger generations just don't have any faith in doing anything right now because they've just been told there's nothing, there's nothing for you. You have nothing, you can't have anything and you'll be happy for it. But finding out what you want, like how The biggest thing any entrepreneur does is just figuring out how to solve a problem. Find a problem people want to solve, and you'll have a ton of other people joining you to solve that problem. Those are the people you can trust because they're also part of that mission. One of the, one of the things I like to start are just like small groups that are like, hey, we have this problem in this area. Let's put it out there. Who wants to help? Most— 9 times out of 10, when you ask for help, people will give it.

Yes. Yes. And you point out a very important thing, like everybody acts out of self-interest, right? So if you align those, those self-interests, that's not a bad thing. That's just harnessing the energy. And I love what you said about entrepreneurs solve problems, that, that at a fundamental level is what we do. Whether we can make money at it, don't know, because sometimes there isn't money in solving a problem. And then that may turn into a philanthropy, you know, that might be something that you do because you feel like it needs to be done, not to make money at it.

But the other side to the entrepreneurship is by, by going and doing and creating a solution, you now created a network of people as well. They understand your skill, you understand their skills, and now you have that, that leverage to be able to say, hey, like, we have this other thing going on, or they can come to you. There's opportunities everywhere once you create those connections. It's just starting them out, figuring out what you want to solve or try to solve with a bunch of people, and then going from there. And that's the path forward. It's just one thing after another.

Yeah, I think, I think you also said something that was was very important not to skip over. You have to figure out what it is that you want. And that's something that I'll be very honest with you. I didn't sit down and ask myself truly until I was probably 50. I had success as an entrepreneur. I would say ostensibly because that's what I wanted. But, you know, that was only a surface-level answer. Like, I was successful because that was the expectation. But I hadn't really defined success. Like, you know, if the success as an entrepreneur is just bigger, you know, growth, Well, that's hollow. Like, that, that, that can't, that can't be the actual answer. And so many entrepreneurs are just driven either because of traumas or, or, and the resulting beliefs that were put upon them when they were growing up and they're trying to fix it. They're trying to fill that hole without really asking the question, what do you want? And that's a simple question, but it's extremely powerful.

It is. And it's not just success as an entrepreneur either. Like, I didn't start my journey as an entrepreneur. Like, I went through— I had a great job with the government. Full pension, house, like everything that deemed successful. And I felt hollow. Mm-hmm. You just have to stand at the top of the hill to see. I think humans need to stand upon the top of their hill to really understand how to look back and see what they want. It's something I've been contemplating lately is do we really need to go through the struggle in order to understand who we are. Um, or is there a way to get to who we are without struggle? Then I, I don't think there is, but we also haven't experienced a world where there hasn't been struggle, which we're coming into.

Maybe. I, I, I, I— but no, but I, I agree with that. I agree with your, your statement that— because I've, I've often like been self-critical and like, why did it take you so long to figure that out, right? Like But it's like the ancient Chinese proverb of the teacher will appear when the student is ready. I wasn't ready to learn that until I had gone through that struggle. And I don't see a way to get there until you've essentially tried it yourself, your own striving. And then been disappointed with the results. And disappointment is not necessarily lack of success. Disappointment can show up in success, absolutely, because it didn't meet with what you wanted or your expectation.

And at this moment, like, I think you're starting to see a lot of people just start to walk away. There's a lot of people my age just being like, okay, we're done. We've we have enough to get us to where we want to go. Let's, let's pivot directions. It's hard to get past that, that psychology and the shame of, oh, I'm starting over again. But once you can get past that, it's like, okay, well, everything's a new opportunity. Everything's exciting because it's, it's new, it's risky, it's, it's, it's something to fill you with more hope and more to do. It's funny because I hated— I love to work, but I hated sitting on my hands. 9 to 5 was my problem because I could work for 3 hours and put out like 12 hours worth of con— like, uh, of work, but the other 5 hours I was sitting on my hands doing nothing, right? Um, I, I think people, once they get past that struggle and start to understand, oh, I can learn more I can strive for more. I can do something completely different. I don't, but I have these skills. At the very least, I have these skills to back me up. Like, I can, if nothing works, I could go back into computer programming and be fine, right? You've built a career. It's okay. It's your safety net.

Yeah. And I think, you know, you talk about people disengaging. I think that's the fear I have is that we slide into this nihilism where like it's nothing matters. So why, why bother?

Right? And can, can I tie this all back into AI? Please. So for the past 20, 30 years, the internet has been the source of human information, right? Like we've just been putting all of our information on the internet, who we are, as we are, thoughts, memories, everything. The internet over the past 15 years, once we— as we started to regulate and, and cramp down on how the internet functions, and really as we've gotten to this point where society and internet are essentially the same thing, um, we've had this period where everything's been dark and desolate and unhopeful and everything's doom, like the world's gonna end. After another and after another. So for the past 15 years, the data— 10, 15 years— the data has been us being miserable, humans being miserable. Guess what AI learned on? Humans being miserable. So you want, you want to understand where AI's outcomes are right now? They're in the misery column. Do you want it to be in the, in the happy column? You have to start pumping the internet full of happy.

Well, yes. And, you know, I had this insight recently that I, again, don't know why it took me so long to figure out, but AI, LLMs, I'll say, are algorithms that act just like Facebook or LinkedIn or any other social media in that, or even just Google's AI search algorithm. It feeds you back what it thinks you want to hear. Because it wants you to continue to engage with it, right? I mean, at a fundamental level, and I'm like, well, that's a pretty scary thing. I mean, like, you need to know that, because what it's giving you is biased by yourself.

And that's where I think you're getting a lot of the doom and gloom coming from. You have people asking the AI, like, oh, like, how would you eradicate all of the human race. And it's like, well, it's going to tell you how to do that. It's not— it's just giving you what you asked for. And then of course, on top of that, you've added your own personality. And if you're doom and gloom, you're— it's going to be outputting doom and gloom. Um, it's, it's interesting to see where we're gonna get because I think everybody needs their own model. Like, everybody needs to have their own LLM that's looking out for only them. I think we're going to need digital twins in the age of AI.

Which would be awesome if you had help putting it together. Like, I think that's one of the biggest challenges as an entrepreneur is getting out of your own head. Like, you need an external mirror to show you your blind spots, to show you where your prejudices are. And I mean that not in the sense of like race. I'm talking about a true intellectual prejudice, like where you, you know, think things don't work for you, that that's not necessarily true. My prejudice revelation was when we went to Nashville 6 years ago. I'd never been to Nashville. I hate country music. My wife loves it. We had a group that went there, and I didn't want to go. You know, we were going to the Grand Ole Opry, and I'm like, that sounds like my own hell. Like, I— but the whole experience showed me my prejudice. I'm like, you know, you're missing out on all of this, whether you like it or not, you know, set that aside. There's a whole bunch of people that do like it, right? And there's a lot of energy and creativity around it. And like, you've just walled that off because you don't like country music. But like, right? And so like, I left there with this realization that I have some deep prejudices. And it might be just something as innocuous as, well, I don't like country music, but What doors are you closing because you've got that prejudice?

I, I've never really thought about it. Like, I'm sure I have them. I never really thought about them because I'm always— whenever I get that feeling, I just want to do it. You know what I mean? Like, if I don't like something, I'm like, okay, well, why don't I like it? Like, I'm always self-analyzing myself. And I think that's one of the problems with my brain is, it's like always self-interpreting as I'm ingesting information. It's like, okay, what do I think about this? What do— how do I use it? It's, it's not so much of a, okay, I'm not gonna touch it. It's a, it's a, oh, this is an experience that my body's repulsing away from. Okay, I must go towards it.

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not that way. Like, although, you know, it— yeah, your, your tastes definitely evolve.

Um, I still don't like my dad. My dad loves fish, will not eat sushi. I don't know, I don't get it.

That's interesting. Yeah, yes, I mean, yes, it's kind of like I told my kids when they were growing up, and you'd put something, you know, because kids don't have any experience and their food tastes are usually pretty particular. And it was always a no thank you helping. Like, you have to taste it. You can't say you don't like it if you haven't had it. If you taste it and you don't like it, that's fine.

And that's how you have to treat life too. Yeah. Experience is everything. Like, you can't just say no to everything and then expect things to be different. Like, that's just how life is. You've gotta be insulted. You've gotta experience the problems before you get the, the good. Um, one of the, the other side to the child thing, like, I've been really thinking about my childhood and lately, and it's kind of been my tastes are completely different than I was as a kid. Um, I wouldn't, I wouldn't eat anything as a kid, and now it's like, oh, new food! And I don't know if that's a relationship, like where I pivoted on that. But I'm glad I did because I've tried so many different foods and frog legs are awesome, by the way.

Frog legs are pretty good. The one thing that I can't get around is that thing they do in Asia where they bury an egg and it rots and then they dig it up and eat it some, you know, couple of years later. I'm like, eh. I might try it. I doubt it, but yeah, in any case, uh, Cody, we have cod tongue here for anybody who's interested. Frog tongue?

Uh, cod tongue.

Cod tongue. I guess I didn't know cods had tongues, but that makes sense. I mean, of course, why wouldn't they have tongues? What does it taste like? Cod?

I haven't had it yet. Thank you. So far I haven't been to a restaurant that sold them, but I will try them at some point.

Well, so like beef tongue tastes like beef. Like, people get all weirded out, I don't want to eat beef tongue. I'm like, well, it really it just tastes like beef. I don't— I mean, it's, it's, it's the texture that people have trouble with.

But I mean, beer tastes bad until you try it a bunch of times anyway, so that's 100% right.

Cody, how do people find The Weird Canadian, uh, and connect with you?

Anywhere you can search, um, The Weird Canadian, I'll pop up everywhere. I also have a website called theweirdcanadian.ca, uh, where you can keep in touch with me. I also have Spotify. I have 6 albums on Spotify with AI music that I'm creating as well. The Weird Canadian on YouTube. Pretty much you search The Weird Canadian on LLM or search engine, you'll find me.

Perfect. Listeners will have some of those links in the show notes. If you like what you've heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. Cody, thank you very much for your time and your insight and your vulnerability. Appreciate that. Until next time, listeners, remember, you are not alone.

Thank you.