Join Dean and Dan as they reflect on the last year of procrastination and continue the journey, embracing what procrastination has to tell us.
Links:
StrategicCoach.com
DeanJackson.com
Transcript: The Joy of Procrastination Ep029
Dean: Mr. Dan Sullivan.
Dan: Good morning Mr. Jackson. Good afternoon. Yeah.
Dean: Where in the world is Dan Sullivan today?
Dan: Well we're home for quite a long time, right up until about New Years I have just four days out of town.
Dean: Nice.
Dan: Yeah, yeah. And I was reflecting on that. I sent you a little message which you could hunt down at some point during our recording here. Just reflecting on the last 16 months since we launched this project, The Joy of Procrastination. It's been quite remarkable. One of the things that I noticed, I had two huge projects come to fruition during November. And the first one was the documentary video on the game changer. That's sort of a personal documentary that was done for me. And the producer and creator was Nick but it was a gift from Nick and David Berg.
And I was looking at the total time involvement since we decided to go ahead with this project, which was basically around January or February. And that was launched on my part with an impact filter to Nick and to our team. And then out of that came a scheduled interview, two occasions where Nick and his cameraman and his sound technician came to our home in Chicago. And I put in about four hours in two separate interview sessions. And I had another one roughly about 30 minutes in Scottsdale. And then in September I did another impact filter identifying what we were gonna do with the video when it was launched and how we were going to use it for marketing purposes. So that was another hour. So this entire year's work involving lots of people, dozens of people including Nick's team and my team, and hundreds of hours. But on my part only about five hours, five hours for the entire project.
Dean: That's so great.
Dan: Completely finished. Already launched into a major marketing program where we're going to get the word of this out to about a million people in the first quarter of 2018. And the total time on my part that I can really identify was five hours.
Dean: That's so great, isn't it?
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Wow, there's so many lessons in that. I got your fast filter here by the way too.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: It's funny that you mentioned the 16 months, because I just noticed that we've gone past 25 episodes too. And I think that's a milestone that is a good time for reflection here, you know?
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Because I look back on how things have changed and it just ... I think even in the last 90 days or so even it feels to me like we've even gained momentum in the advancement kind of thing. Turning procrastination into a superpower. And just the conversations that we've been having have led to a lot of I'll call it innovation I guess, like personal innovation. Yeah.
Dan: I would say innovation and transformation. One is that we've created very new strategies for people to look at how they deal with what previously was experienced as a negative time mismanagement, time mismanagement experience. On the other hand it's a transformation because the very concept of procrastination, which had always been negative in my mind, is no longer negative.
Dean: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. And almost to the point where now it's like it doesn't even cross my mind to think of it as a negative thing because I know that it's the fuel, it's the thing that's always there. Yeah. So that's become totally ingrained. I know that now we've added and layered on top of this I can take a 10 minute block and literally get clarity on what my procrastination is for the day, what the fuel is for, what I'm going to work on. And I don't know whether we've revisited but I've really been consciously taking an effort to use sometimes up to three units to ask myself the question, "What would I like to do tomorrow?" And tomorrow being what can I do right now that would be a blessing to my future self? That would be the thing that would set things up by removing some friction or knowing that I'm going to need this in the future, and it would be great to wake up and have that done. And it's the little simple things sometimes that make a big difference. So I've really been enjoying that.
But the biggest ... I've gotten something that I want to share with you this week that was sort of birthed out of last week. But I want to be kind of ... I haven't really had a chance to kind of go through your fast filter here, so I want to make sure that ... I don't want to step on your agenda for today-
Dan: Well it's not really an agenda, it's just sort of kind of me sending you raw material that can be useful either in the recording or as we go along. But this is kind of interesting, the creation of this little ... The fast filter for our listeners is an abbreviated version of a major tool in strategic marketing which is called the impact filter. And as the name suggests you can do it in about half the time. Impact filter usually takes about a half hour to complete, and the fast filter you can knock off in 15 minutes or less.
But it was interesting because I around 11:30 I was just thinking it might be useful to some summing up and send it on to Dean. And I said, "Well, I got some time. I could knock it off in two 10 minute periods." Didn't think I could do it in one 10 minute period, so I gave myself two 10 minute periods. And it was just about 15 minutes when I was finished. And I wrapped it up and I send it off to you.
Dean: Nice.
Dan: It was not like you had to read it and be prepared for it.
Dean: Right, okay.
Dan: It came to mind. And I mention one thing in it which was the very brief amount of time that I had to spend on a major project for us this year. And the other thing was it was about 10 minutes after 12:00, and I was in the kitchen and I said, "Gee, we sure made a mess in the first couple hours of the morning." And I said, "I bet I could get everything cleaned up in 10 minutes." In nine minutes I had everything cleaned up, everything was in the dishwasher. And it was just neat, it kind of bugged me that the kitchen was messy. And I looked at my watch and I said, "Well I got a 10 minute unit, I can knock this off in 10 minutes." And so I just did it on the way down to my study, sort of our entertainment center down here in the big house of the three houses that we have in Toronto, and I went down.
But it's kind of neat when you just say, "Well is it worth 10 minutes?" Yeah, it's worth 10 minutes. "Do I have the 10 minutes?" Yes, I have the 10 minutes. "And can you get it done in 10 minutes?" Yep, I can get it done in 10 minutes. And then I didn't fuss about it. I was really quite efficient in getting everything into the dishwasher. But that's a little thing, looks like a little thing, but I didn't have that skill a year ago.
Dean: I did not either. You're absolutely right. I think that that, being able to look at something, sum it, and realize ... I think that's a great question in process, right? "Could I do this in 10 minutes? Or if I can't do the whole thing could I really make an impact on this?" Something that normally you would ... It would be carrying weight or holding up space in your brain because you would always be thinking, "Well I need to do that, something's gonna have to happen with this. And can I do it now?" And that makes such a big difference. And I find that I look at things now and realize with that 10 minute lens, being able to say, "Can I finish this in 10 minutes?" And if I can then it just seems like that seems so much more rewarding than not doing it and putting it off till later, you know?
Dan: Yeah. And it's going back to the original concept of procrastination. It seemed to me that the thing that bugged me the most about it, made me most guilty is that I would always put it off to the future because obviously it was a big project and I was going to have to set a lot of time. I couldn't really start it until I had given myself the amount of time that would be necessary to do the whole thing. And of course I vastly magnified and inflated it in my mind how long it was going to take because I was seeing myself as the person who was going to handle the entire bulk of the project.
And that brings me to my next point is, and I mentioned that in one of my points on the fast filter, this immediate filter to who's going to do this? Okay, I've got this thing that needs to get done, where before I would say, "Well how am I going to do that?" Immediately throw me into procrastination. Now my mind immediately goes, "Well who's going to do that?" And there's immediately something I can do like a fast filter that I could do in the next 10 minutes or next two 10 minute periods. And that person would know about it very shortly. And then we could launch the project. So tremendous shift of mindset about this whole thing.
Dean: I've had an experience this week that was pretty impactful. And last, I don't remember whether it was, was it last Sunday that we talked or was it the Sunday before?
Dan: We talked last Sunday. Mm-hmm (affirmative), last Sunday.
Dean: We did talk last Sunday. This has really all happened since then. Because I remember that we talked about this idea of the talking fast filter, the oral fast filter of having potentially an impact filterer as a collaborator in doing this. And I mentioned to you that I had been thinking about this idea of what I was calling maximizing oral output, the MOO Method, which I've changed the M to multiplied. So I've formalized this idea now of the Moo Method of Multiplied Oral Output. And so I love this because it totally fits with the who not how idea. And I had a project, I had the seed of a project idea. And rather than wait to prepare an impact filter and to then present it to the who. I called up two of the people on my team on Wednesday, texted, I said, "Can you meet me first thing on ..." Tuesday actually. "Can you meet me first thing tomorrow morning? And I have a special project that I want to do tomorrow." And I got them together and we spent about half an hour with me doing the equivalent of an impact filter to explain the process to them.
So I did it in real-time rather than going off on my own. I invited them into the process to speed up the transfer to the who's. And we had a great meeting. I was able to convey the message, the success criteria for it, and they were able to get to work and we created an amazing ... I did a study on the multiple listing data for Winter Haven. The track, what were the things that were impactful on actually making houses sell faster, right? So I outlined all the elements. We took a swath of a sample of middle 20% of the market, the median price. And we looked for the quantifiable things that we could measure like the days on the market and the percentage of the asking price that they got. And then we looked for the factors that could correlate with that result. So it was the number of pictures or virtual tours or did they offer a higher commission or did they have nicer pictures than usual? All of those things that I had them sort of prepare the data for so that I could prepare this study that was a really ... I just can't tell you how excited I am about that outcome because some of the things that we found were so contrary to what people might think, right? But it was all quantifiable data because I don't have a horse in the race so to speak.
I saw a study that what kind of triggered it, there's sort of things that have happened in the last few weeks that kind of inked it in my mind that there was a study that showed that professional photography helps homes sell faster and for more money. So I started reading the study and go through it. And turns out the study was presented by a real estate company that in the press release for it then went on to say that they offer professional photography for all the people who list their home with this company, right? And I thought what an immediate bias in the report. They did a survey that showed that professional photos help you get more money. And then all of a sudden, well lookie here, this company offers professional photos. And so it was so interesting.
So I wanted to kind of counter that because I think we as a society have an insatiable desire, an unquenchable thirst of study findings. I've shared that site with you even. That was the home of where we found that money can buy happiness, if you use it to buy time, you know?
Dan: Yes.
Dean: I've got all of these great statements. It turns out that if you have more pictures in your MLS listing that you're more likely to sell your house faster and for more money. That was one of the findings that we had, which is interesting. That project from beginning to end was my being able to come up with the idea quickly, convey it orally to my team, and then watch the results from that. It was really different than I would have ever approached that in the past.
Dan: Yeah. Now compare this with a year ago.
Dean: Yeah, that's what I mean.
Dan: If this was a year ago, walk me through how this idea might have developed or not developed. You would have written in your journal-
Dean: That this would be a great idea and I would have thought it through and then-
Dan: This is like you reporting from Siberia.
Dean: Yes, exactly. And it would have been probably either forgotten or-
Dan: Come across six months later and I’ve been going through your journals. Yeah. Yeah, it's really an interesting thing. I just had a real evidence of what the impact of this new time approach is for me. And when I say the new time approach it's kind of the benefit of everything we've talked about over the last 16 months. So anyway, so it was Tuesday since I talked to you last. So the Tuesday. And one of our top salespeople comes in and she says, "I've got this person and he's right at the edge of signing up with your 10 times program in February, but he really really wants to talk to you." And her previous experience is like yeah, maybe four weeks down the road. And I said, "Sure." I said, "I've got some time." I walked her back to Anna, who's my scheduler, and I said, "I've got some time to talk to her prospect." She says, "Oh yeah." She says, "Friday you're almost completely free. You can talk in there."
So from Tuesday to Friday, which is actually a really quick turnaround for this sort of thing, and we did a Zoom call. I said, "I'll do it if it's a Zoom call," because I want to see them. I find that my closing rate if the prospect and I can see each other is much higher. My closing rate's pretty high, but if I can provide high quality photography even better, photography of myself, the closing rate ... And we just had a great hour. And the guy, he owns five companies, he lives in Houston. I caught him on his ranch, which he's got a couple thousand acre ranch outside of Houston. And that doesn't even count as one of his companies. That's just a hobby. And we were able to go back and forth. But it was great. And he said, "Gonna talk the weekend with my spouse." And he said, "Let you know on Monday."
But it was really great, the fact that what I'm noticing is that benefit from all our work together, Dean, has introduced a layer of slackness if you will into my schedule that I never had.
Dean: Yes. Abundant time.
Dan: Abundant time, I have abundant time. Yeah.
Dean: I launched another new podcast last week, which I may have mentioned for my real estate agents called Listing Agent Lifestyle. And in episode zero, which is kind of setting the groundwork for it, which was by far the longest, took the longest to get that episode done because it was me having to go off alone and do the outline and think about really what I wanted to say because it was just going to be me compared the scheduling the guests that I had for the first three episodes. Those were effortless and instant.
But when I would put that together I wanted to establish what were the principles or the elements of the listing agent lifestyle. And this will become a scorecard, but the eight elements of the listing agent lifestyle I laid out included five of the business elements of it, the things that they have to address. But then there were three lifestyle elements that really kind of were the interplay here. And the words that I used to describe them were daily joy and abundant time and financial peace. And those three things, when you look at it, what you were describing there, your ability to move your schedule or do whatever came from an abundance of time, there's always time to do what you want do. That's how that manifested itself there. And I think that's an important part of my daily joy, of being able to have that kind of abundance, that kind of time abundance.
Dan: Yeah, and the thing is that this has an impact on other people. What I noticed, the fact that I'm not hard pressed, I'm not tightly scheduled, I'm not putting in 80 to 100 hour work weeks. But I'm getting really big projects done with a minimal budget of time on my part to get these things triggered and into teamwork networks that produce terrific results. But I'm sitting there and the fact that I'm available, and then I spent about 15, 20 minutes talking to the salesperson and just getting the context of who the person was, where she was in the process. And it really gave me a lot of background in where the person's from, where do they live, what does she know, what has she picked up in the conversation. And she had a report so I was able to go down the points that she had put in there.
But it's just being available for something that just comes up. And fully available, not only can I listen to it completely but I can act on it completely in a very short period of time. And I see that as a real reward for what we've achieved here.
Dean: Mm-hmm.
Dan: Like if I went back a year without knowing or even looking at the schedule I know that last November I certainly wouldn't have been in a similar position to do that.
Dean: I love it. It's a pretty ... This idea of ... I feel this week the freedom of this idea that I can do impact filters with other people. That to me-
Dan: Yeah, and I haven't neglected that idea. So I wrote it down as a fast filter to talk to others about it. Well not Ari. First because this involves what our company approach is going to be to this, okay? Because we're essentially going to be taking one of our tools and moving it offsite. We're going to be moving it out of the company and making it reside in another company. And I got to get complete alignment that that's okay to do. And there are some procedures. But I immediately went from the conversation with you to putting down my complete thoughts on how this would work and who we could do it with. And so before ... I've got a painful history of the past of just running off on my own and then creating a whole bunch of complexity for a whole team. And they didn't know what I was doing. And, "What are you doing allowing another company to use our intellectual tools?" And so there's strategy circle issues here that you have to deal with when you do this. But I can see it as a huge capability for 2018, just from the conversation we had. So I'm feeling very enthusiastic about it.
Dean: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And that was great.
Dan: And just to fill in for everyone what we're talking about is that we have this always works thinking process called the impact filter. And Dean brought up the topic that although he loves the idea of the tool he doesn't always love the idea of actually spending the time filling it in. Was that put diplomatically?
Dean: That's well put. Yes, that's the way I talk about it too. I talk about myself in third person like that when I'm describing that. That although Dean loves the idea of the tool he doesn't like the idea of filling it out. I'm talking about that third person Dean too.
Dan: Yeah. Although Dean seems to have unlimited potential for future projects.
Dean: Right. That's true.
Dan: If he would only-
Dean: Apply himself, that's right.
Dan: Apply himself to the matter at hand he would ... So anyway, but it was a beautiful ... I got the idea when the words were just out of your mouth. And it might be another type of project, collaboration project that I could show inside the game changer program. And that's another aspect of it that occurred to me after our phone call. And I said, "This might be a really really terrific demonstration of how you can take one of your capabilities and actually use it as the basis of collaboration with an entirely different organization out in the marketplace." That actually moves you ahead enormously because you now have-
Dean: That's a great idea.
Dan: You now have a go to number where anybody the moment they get an idea they can just say 1-800 impact filter and they're in business.
Dean: Yes. Oh, I love that. And the more that I thought about that, Dan, this idea of that collaboration of getting your thoughts ... When I really look at this, I sense something's really shifting in my thinking about this, in the way that I am approaching things. And all these, I'm noticing all these things that are happening. I mentioned to you the idea of the ghost restaurants that only exist only on GrubHub and Seamless, the delivery apps, that are operating out of a commissary kitchen nine different restaurants, but eliminating the actual dining room and what I've come to now call the mainland experience. I've made these distinctions between the cloud, which is like this whole other ... It's a real place now. We're starting to see that.
What these guys have essentially done is they've set up real estate, and by real estate I mean nine different brands of a restaurant, right, they've set up real estate in the cloud, they exist there, but the rudimentary thing, the actual preparing of the food and the getting the food to the actual physical body of the person who ordered it from the cloud, because that's where we all are existing, right? It's almost like this perfect balance that our heads are literally in the cloud now as a society. That's where we are. Everything is we're experiencing life through our mobile devices here, right? That we're experiencing our life through the cloud. And yet our physical bodies are anchored to the mainland.
And it's this that if you can imagine all these people who are up there, their heads are up in the clouds here, but below all the physical embodiment stuff, that's where all the physical things that have to happen are happening, you know? Like if you want food you can go to the cloud and you can see what's available, what your options are, make your choices, but it's still you can't eat it in the cloud. It has to be delivered right to you, right? You can only consume mainland things on the mainland.
And I'm thinking about this as there's an entire ... There's two kind of economies going on, right, in a way. There's the cloud and then there's the mainland economy. And the thing about where I see the person who is taking your digital ideas, and if you're speaking, or doing, putting your thoughts out there to get them digitized, that once that's happening you can send that to the mainland to be multiplied. That's where it all happens, right? A whole economy of people like transcriptionists and editors and writers and the people who are doing the real-time things that can only be done on the mainland.
Dan: Well it's really interesting. If you think about this company, I think it was a Chicago-based company you were talking about that created this nine headed hydra. Yeah, but what they've done is they've kind of combined the best strengths of a catering service on the one hand, if you think of a catering service, with kind of an Uber or Uber itself, an Uber type delivery service with branding.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: Okay, so they're branding. And have also probably are taking advantage of a fourth thing which is that people kind of like their home space. They like inviting people over. But the disadvantage of inviting people over is that somebody on the home team was going to have to do a ton of work to actually go out shopping and make the food and everything. So there was a lot of work at that end. Well that's been eliminated altogether.
And the other thing is that the home cook only knows certain dishes where this nine different brand operation knows hundreds of recipes, different things. So there's a lot of playing to people what people would really really like if they could get it in model. And I think that that's probably the model for a lot of things that are starting to happen in the world is that if you could have it the way you wanted it, and you do a 360 degree view on that, not just, "Could I have the food I wanted served the way I want it, delivered the way I want it with no work?" You put in your what I'd really like to do list. And the best businesses are those that are including the most wants. Like the way I want it, like the way I want it. And yeah, very interesting.
Dean: It is. It is really interesting. And I think that when you were just saying that we really want what we want, you know? It's like that ... You think about the way that companies like Uber are doing something like that, like what would you really want is I want to be able to use my iPhone and summon a car in about three to five minutes right to my feet. And then I would really want to get in and get out without having to pay.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: That's really the ... I don't want to deal with the exchange and the transaction friction of getting out my credit card or getting the cash.
Dan: And quite frankly the driver doesn't want to either.
Dean: Exactly. And that's the thing.
Dan: The driver has more actual incentive based on good and bad experience to want to eliminate the cash side of the transaction.
Dean: Yeah. It doesn't make any sense to rob them, because it doesn't have all-
Dan: Well it's really interesting, it's really interesting, there have been a lot of predictions that Uber and companies like Uber, and there are others, that they're going to eliminate private transportation. People just aren't going to drive anymore. And my sense is that that's up to a point of percentage in the population. But there's a percentage population that really does like driving. And actually their time in the car is some of their more precious time. They like getting ... Oh go ahead.
Dean: Oh that's interesting. Well I just read that the go to gift now, the sweet 16 gift in Connecticut, this was in a Connecticut high wealth area, was it used to be that the gift was getting a BMW or a new car on your 16th birthday. Well the new preferred 16-year-old's gift is getting unlimited Uber on your 16th birthday. That your parents give you unlimited Uber. You Uber wherever, whatever you want. That's the new sweet 16, the golden ticket sort of thing.
Dan: Well you know why it's preferable.
Dean: Well it's so many-
Dan: You avoid all the lectures and restrictions.
Dean: Well that too. But think about this, could you imagine all those years ago that the preferable thing is that you're going to send your 16-year-old daughter off in a car every night with a stranger, that that's preferred to them having their own car. Isn't that amazing? That society, that that's where we've come to? That your 16-year-old girl, you'd rather have her getting in a car with strangers than having her have her own car. It's pretty funny, but you talk about it that it's like there's a sense of safety in that you they're you believe background checked and rated and all these things, that there's that mutual kind of protection thing in it that everybody knows who everybody is kind of thing.
And I just think, I was saying to somebody that I remember maybe 20 years ago that when the internet was first really starting to take off that I remember what daring journalism it was when a GQ editor or a writer said, "I spent a week in my Manhattan apartment and my only access to the outside world was the internet." Like can you survive with your only access being online? And they were like, "I was able to get Chinese food delivered to my house." All this thing where you're out ... And I thought, "Wow, we've really come a long way, that it's not only possible to get any physical thing that you want delivered want to your house, there's no need." You think about how quaint and funny that kind of daring journalism would be. I'm gonna put that up there, if anybody finds an article like that.
Dan: Yeah. I can remember seeing something not quite like what you're talking about, but kind of relates to the issue of things being new and how people approach new things with the mind frame they had before, pardon me, came by. And it was an old episode of a series, TV series that came out in the 1970's, it was called Upstairs Downstairs. And it's about London life, and the upstairs were the aristocratic family upstairs, and downstairs were the servants. And kind of like Downton Abbey, but Upstairs Downstairs was as popular in its day as Downton Abbey became more recently. And there was this whole debate about whether they were going to bring a telephone into the house. And this was hotly debated both upstairs and downstairs. But it was decided that they would have a phone, and it would be near the front door, in a side room but very near the front door.
And the first time that it rang the butler was doing some cleaning and he had his jacket off. But before he went and answered the phone he put his jacket on, and looked in the mirror and made sure everything was right before he picked up the phone, and then he answered. Because he hadn't crossed over to the point that this was very different than answering the front door, that someone was wanting access to the house but it was a radically different thing. And I think that we approach things with the future, and why future things seem strange is because we're approaching them with what we're used to.
Dean: Yeah, I just almost can't even wrap my mind around what this is going to look like 20 years from now. But I know that we are right now, in these discussions, equipping ourselves for speedier and better productivity.
Dan: Yeah, but you got a lot of experience, you've got a lot of experience. How have you approached all the new things over the last 20 years, okay? So lots of surprises have occurred that you weren't prepared for 20 years ago, and how have you done? How have you done?
Dean: Yeah, fantastically, yes. Very excited.
Dan: Yeah, well my point is, my feeling's that's going to be true over the next 20 years too. You'll do fantastically.
Dean: Oh I agree. I agree.
Dan: And the whole point is you don't have to need to know now how you're going to approach something that pops up. You'll approach it the way you've approached everything else.
Dean: Yes, that's true. Early adopting and yeah…
Dan: I had to laugh, I sent a note off to Peter Diamandis because there was this article on the internet, and it was about Elon Musk saying that he only gives humanity a 5% to 10% chance of surviving artificial intelligence, okay? And so I sent him off a note and I says, "Well point number one, this is the type of thinking that entrepreneurs do when they don't take any free days."
Dean: Oh, that's funny.
Dan: And it was kind of interesting because Peter told me that Elon Musk makes a point about not taking any free time whatsoever. A good week is a 100 hour week, which divide by seven is slightly over 14 hours a day. And I said, "You can get trapped into the future. I've certainly experienced, you have experienced people who are trapped in the past." They can't get out of their ... It's kind of like a nostalgic clinging to something that probably didn't actually happen, but they remember it as having in their past. Well what I'm seeing more and more is that people are getting trapped in the future, that they're hearing predictions about, "This is going to happen, this is going to happen. And you're powerless to do anything about it." And they're putting themselves into a state of fear that there's no escape from, because you're heading towards it. Things that you're heading away from, there's a possibility of escape. But things that you believe that you're heading towards, and they're getting more powerful by the day, is truly frightening to the person who believes it.
And I was saying that the way the future is actually created is by what people do today. And our, first of all having I think quite successfully conquered the whole issue, the negative issue of procrastination in the last 16 months, you and I through these conversations, and then the interim thinking we do between the recordings, I feel unusually well prepared for the future because there isn't going to be any procrastination in the future of the negative kind as I look forward. So you and I have really prepared ourselves enormously for a much better future as a result of what we've been doing with our conversations. And that's how you prepare for the future.
Artificial intelligence, whatever it is, it'll be my sense that the experience of artificial intelligence will be the same experience as electricity.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: I really like it. I really like having electricity. Now I'm probably going to really like having artificial intelligence around.
Dean: I really like it too, that's exactly right. I think it's very interesting that I've been looking for the word that is actually ... The way that we flip on the light switch and electricity goes to work for us, that's the thing that is ... It just works and it's in the background and we don't even pay any attention to it, right, because it's just there. And in all this thinking of the mainland and the cloud, I am really looking at all of these things that we can bring that sort of electricity-like ubiquity to the things that often are things that are mainland tasks that we can cloudify in a way. That's what I spend a lot of my time wrapping my mind around is being able to tap into execution, mainland execution like we tap into electricity. That it's just there.
Dan: Yeah, here's the thing is you'll do the things that you feel positively normal about doing.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: That's my prediction for the future, that you will do the things that you feel positively normal about doing. Now positive is that you can see a payoff that's a good payoff and normal, that it doesn't feel like a big deal.
Dean: Right, yes.
Dan: And we do things that are positively normal today that would have mystified, perhaps horrified people 50 years ago.
Dean: Yeah. Well I remember reading a book about Albert Lasker. One of the things was the man who sold America, or something. He was one of the original advertising guys, Albert, Lord & Thomas he started. And they were talking in the 20's about, the teens and 20's, about bringing refrigeration to the masses, right, that that wasn't something that was normal. Because only through electricity did we then have the ability to have an electric freezer or refrigerator that could keep things cool. But people were resistant to it because they didn't want to plug something in that was constantly using electricity. Because it was all new and they could see that meter running. And while that meter's running they know that that's costing them money. And they, to overcome that-
Dan: And the electricity back then was hundreds of times more expensive than it is today.
Dean: Yeah, to comfort people they came up with the words Meter-Miser technology, that if every Frigidaire refrigerator is equipped with Meter-Miser technology to use the least amount of electricity. And now it's like what you said, it's positively normal to have appliances-
Dan: Meter-Miser. You got a Meter-Miser it's positively normal.
Dean: Right, exactly.
Dan: Well the other thing was that frozen foods, before Birdseye, he was the guy who created Birdseye, the Birdseye brand, which was fast freeze, it's flash freezing. And you could take the fruit, lots of it was fruit or fish, actually started with fish, and you could flash freeze it. And it was held in time, in other words until you thawed it there was no deterioration of the fish, meat, or anything else. There was no deterioration from a taste standpoint, from a texture standpoint. And then you did it. And that had to be solved because people were all for being able to have preserved food, but then if you defrosted it and it tasted like mush, no. That wasn't positive.
Dean: That wouldn't work.
Dan: No, that wasn't positive. And that was the flash freezing. But there were 25 different components to bringing refrigeration in as a positively normal practice in people's lives. And those 25 were created by 25 different sources.
Dean: That's it.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: I love it.
Dan: Yeah, so artificial intelligence will arrive when it's seen as positively normal. Autonomous cars will arrive when they're seen as positively normal. That's the prediction that I can make about our future that nothing will be widespread, accepted, nothing will be practically successful until it's viewed by the population as positively normal.
Dean: I like those words.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Well I think after 16 months we have, I think that-
Dan: We have made procrastination positive normal.
Dean: That is exactly right. I feel that that is exactly what we've done. Amazing.
Dan: Amazing where these conversations go, it's amazing where these conversations go.
Dean: I always enjoy these conversations. I look at these times as bright shining lights.
Dan: Thanks a lot.
Dean: I look forward to the next one.
Dan: Which will be next Sunday.
Dean: Oh, perfect. Okay Dan. Thank you.
Dan: Have a great week, Jean, Dean.
Dean: You too. Bye bye.
Dan: Bye.