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In last week's office hours, we answered your questions surrounding luxury commerce, the rise of the remote husband, and time management. So what you've seen is, effectively, everyone's been crowded out. This goes to a broader issue and that I believe almost every industry is turning into an oligopoly. You will lose some professional trajectory. You will lose some opportunity to develop relationships that will pay off later in life by being remote.
I just think to myself, okay, is this something I need to do or I have to do or something I want to do and then I eliminate everything else. Today we'll answer your questions about AI and higher education, the intersection of passion and talent and charitable giving. So with that, first question. Hi Scott. I work in college student affairs and I've been both curious and concerned about
the rise of AI and how it's changing higher education as an industry. Open AI just announced their new chat GPTEDU product which feels like a play to legitimize and maybe tame the untamed Wild West aspect of AI. How do you think a product like chat GPTEDU will influence the rest of that tech which you criticized in the past? Thanks for all the content. I don't always understand what you're talking about but I always learned something.
Okay, so a thoughtful question and let's be clear. I don't always understand what I'm saying. So look, chat GPTEDU is a version of chat GPT built on its faster GPT-4O model. God talk about some shitty branding. Specifically for universities. According to Open AI, chat GPTEDU allows universities to responsibly deploy AI to students. That's what they're worried about. Faculty researchers and campus operations. Open AI has claimed it's available at an
affordable rate for universities. It's smart. Every software and media company or even Apple has discounted rates for universities because that is an audienceable represent a fairly significant lifetime value both in terms of economics and influence. Chat GPTEDU also offers reliable
administrative controls robust data security and high usage limits. Examples of ways you can use chat GPTEDU for Open AI's release include personalized tutoring for students, write grant applications, assist professors with grading, several universities including ASU, University of Oxford, a bunch of them. UT Austin have been key players in shaping chat GPTEDU. Look, I like this. I don't think you can keep technology in a bottle across any sector
and also in education. I remember that when I was in business school, there was a little bit of a debate around whether we should be allowed to use spell check. I just think you should give your students. You want your students to be critical thinkers. You want them to be just ninja warriors and you want to essentially train them to use every tool such that they are better than their average bearer. It can develop differentiation. The currency and the margin that commands in the
marketplace such that they can do good things, lead the world, save the dolphins. And mostly, in my view, create economic security for them and their families. I think that's why most people pursue higher education other than the beer and football, which is why I went. But I think that we want to give them as many tools as possible. I tell my students to use chat GPTEDU to the extent they want. If it's something comes back anodine and bad. And I believe I can notice something.
Whenever I get really pissed off of my team and I get shit that I think is just mediocre. I say, what did chat GPT write this? Because it comes back like a computer wrote it. I find it's a great tool for brainstorming. So for example, if I'm looking for, I don't know, characteristics of income inequality in northern Europe versus southern Europe, it'll write something up for me. It'll give me examples. And I don't like most of them. And I like the way it frames it. But it'll
give me two or three things I haven't thought of before. I use it for brainstorming. Will it get to the point where it can write in the voice of, I don't know, a mooring doubt or a JD Solager, probably. But I think it's still a long way from there. I think we let kids have at it and raise the standards, have them expect higher quality work for them. I think this makes a lot of sense. Now as it relates to higher ed, you know, everyone's saying Harvard's out of business,
bullshit. Harvard will go from 55,000 applicants to 45,000 and keep in mind there are corrupt institutions. It's really a hedge fund just offering classes and they'll still just let them 1500 kids. So instead of admitting 5%, they'll admit 6%. The elite schools aren't in the business of educating. We're in the business to certifying. Our value out is our brand and our admissions
department, which prescreens people who are and only lets in freakishly remarkable people. So if you could have a button on LinkedIn that said freakishly remarkable, it would give you graduates of elite colleges or children of rich people, which quite frankly are economy are good people to hire oftentimes. Sometimes there are a lot of times there's shit ads, but they have a lot of contact. So anyways, I'm not even going to go into the whole nepo bullshit, but you effectively
have elite colleges are going to be fine. Technology is not going to disrupt them. The higher the online ed space, which I am in has been a shit show. I got this wrong. It has not disrupted traditional education. Those brands are the strongest brands in the world. They say Apple or Coca-Cola or the strongest brands in the world. Bullshit, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, the strongest brands in the world. No one's giving Apple $200 million for their name on the side
of a building on the Cupertino campus. These brands are really fortresses. Now, are they going to be disrupted? Are there, is there an overdue reckoning? Yeah, it's not going to come from students or applicants. So it's going to come from donors. These organizations have built these insatiable beasts around all their bullshit of people, administrators, thoughtful people, Thips, formerly important people hanging out as the vice chancellor of something before they run for Senate and lose
again. The reckoning is going to come from alumni who say, fuck this. I am no longer going to fund the zombie apocalypse of useful idiots on campuses and pull their funding, which will require a modification or a reduction in their rethinking of their cost structure. They will turn to AI to relieve some teachers of their administrative tasks. If they were smart, they would cut 10, 20, 30 percent of the cost right now. Where did, when the hell were we asked to more from being centers
of excellence to social engineers? No one ever asked us to do that. Anyway, where you're going to see the biggest impact of AI is leveling the playing field across lower middle income homes. What do I mean by that? I engage in this. My kid has tutors. Actually, he just told us he doesn't want a tutor and we're like, okay, and then we realize that he's a kid, which means he's stupid. And as I think about this, I'm going to force him to have continuous math tutor. But tutors are expensive and the
reason they're expensive is they're effective. And they help you get better grades, help them do better on tests. What this will be, I think the biggest impact this is going to have on primary education is that chat GPT and Anthropic will be able to offer what are pretty reasonable fact similes of $150 an hour tutor for nearly free. Now, you're going to have to monitor your kid more closely, but I think they're going to be able to zero in on where the kid is weak, where
he or she is strong and level them up even if they don't have wealthy parents. I think that's a great thing. Unfortunately, it'll also lead to great inflation and take the bar even higher. I sometimes worry about my 16 year old in the sense that you want your kid to have just the right amount of stress. You don't want them to be totally carefree and walking or sleepwalking through life as I was at 16 and I give a shit. But at the same time, you don't want them to be one of the
part of the anxious generation. You want them to have just enough amount of stress. But on the whole, on the whole, chat GPT isn't going to change the elite institutions. They have brands that are almost impenetrable. It will provide an opportunity for an overdue look at cost cutting at an administrative level. And I think the good part will be that it'll push tutorial or the, whether tutorial industrial complex will bring the cost down and offer it up from middle class
and lower income homes. Thank you so much for the thoughtful question. Question number two. Hey Scott, I'm a big fan of the show, Andrew Latis Book. I'm 24 and working in advertising as a visual effects artist at a small, successful studio in New York. I graduated two years ago with a degree in visual effects and chose a job in advertising over some lesser paying jobs in film and TV. I've just read the chapter of your book about finding your talent and I'm trying
to identify where I draw the line between my own talent and passion. I feel very lucky that I've begun a career in visual effects. And I like to think that I've got at least some talent for it, given my ability to leverage my portfolio for jobs so far. Call it if you've burned out or diminishing passion or both, but I'm wondering if you have any advice for young people whose passion and talent seem to be awkwardly blurred together. How do you go about separating them to avoid as you
said in the book, letting the works spoil the passion? And is there a way of balancing both on a schedule you can't control? So Ryan, if you're doing something you're good at and you like, maybe don't even love it at this point. It's hard to find something you love at a young age because generally at a young age, it means you're doing the shit work. You're doing the work that no one else wants to do. You're editing stuff. You're writing the copy. Your, you know, your bosses get to
show up late, but you don't. I do that a lot and it's something I hate about myself. And my news resolution is the same every year, be on time for stuff and I'm not. I don't know if it's because I like the rush of being late or I'm just a narcissist, but anyways, I got here. It sounds to me like you're kind of where you should be. And that is you're getting good at something and ask yourself
could I be great at it? And if you can be great at it, what I can promise you with near certainty or assure you or claim with near certainty, I guess I guess a promise says 100% in certainty is that if you become great at it, you're going to become increasingly passionate about it. Because the accoutrements of being passionate about something, the camaraderie, the economic security, the prestige, the achievement, the ability or just the recognition when you produce something great
with a team of people, it feels really good. I think it'll make you passionate about whatever that is. I think passion comes from mastery. So I mean, a couple things. One, look at the space you in and think, am I learning a lot? Am I learning a lot at this company? Do I have senior level sponsorship? Is the firm doing well? Is it a good culture? Do they pay me fairly? Is there a path? Has someone
taken an irrational interest or at least a real interest in my future and is coaching me? All of these things are important to ask yourself at a specific organization. Separate that, the organizational components. Do I like this field? Am I good at it? Could I be great at it? And it strikes me that your industry is going to go through tremendous disruption in front of mine is invested in an
Indian Special Effects company that uses technology to bring down the costs. I think they did a lot of the Special Effects for Dune and instead of costing 10 million a cost, you know, three or four, seven, I don't know what it is. But your ability as a young person, your brain is more agile, more neuroplastic, whatever the term is to absorb new technologies and then apply them or cut a swath between technology and creativity and be great at visual effects and be more efficient. I think
that is a fantastic seat. So I just be careful. I think a lot of young people think, well, I'm not loving my job or I find it difficult. Well, there's a word for that work and I don't care how romantic the industry is. If you're going to be good at something and really, I think there's just a ton of stress and work involved and it sounds to me like you've found a good seat for yourself.
So how do you balance both? I don't know. Boss, I hate the word balance. I think at the age of 24, this is what I would do if I were you and I were blessed with a career that it sounds like you're pretty good at and that is growing or I think visual effects are going to grow. A couple just one quick side note, design media for a smaller screen. You don't want to be in the movie effects business. The movie business is going to get smaller and smaller. The TV business is going to be fine. It's
going to be a huge business, but it's not going to grow. But if you can be great at capturing people's imagination with effects or figure out a way to do things for the small screens, specifically the phone, that is champagne and cocaine. Anyways, be the guy that really understands the intersection between creativity, storytelling and technology. But it sounds to me, Ryan, like you're in a pretty
good seat. And also, don't be hard on yourself. Recognize it at the age of 24, the majority of people have no fucking idea what they want to do. You know what I was doing at 24? I was deciding not to stay in investment banking and moving back in with my mom and I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life and then with my best friend and my girlfriend said they were applying to business
school and I go, I'll apply to business school then. With a 2.27 GPA from UCLA, I applied to business school. Go figure, Ryan. Definitely be that guy who understands the intersection of technology, creativity and storytelling. Thanks for the question, Ryan. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from Betterment. Even the most hardcore of us need to kick back and chill every now and then. But if you're an investor, chill is the last thing
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of Betterment.com. Investing involves risk, performance, not guarantee, cash reserve offered through Betterment LLC and Betterment Securities. Betterment is not a bank. Support for property comes from Babel. So you want to learn a new language? Great. You have a few options. You can uproot your life and move some more far away to get the full immersion experience, but I'm guessing that's not on the cards for you. You get a high-reprivate
tutor, but that's going to cost you several hundred bucks. Or you could try a language app, but not all language apps are created equal. So you might want to try Babel. Babel is a science back language learning app that lessons created by real people for real conversations. Unlike other language apps, Babel doesn't rely on artificial intelligence to build its 10-minute lessons. Instead, their lessons were developed by more than 200 language experts focused on teaching phrases and
vocabulary you can actually use. One of our producers, Caroline, tried Babel and she won't stop speaking Italian. It's really annoying, but I guess that means the app word here's a special. Limited time offer for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babel subscription, but only for our listeners at Babel.com slash PropG. Get up to 60% off at Babel.com slash PropG. Spelled. B-A-D-B-E-L dot com slash PropG. Rules and restrictions may apply.
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Brink Paul from South Florida. Just finished algebra for wealth. Loved it. It's up sending it to both my 30-year-old kids with a couple of notations on things they need to specifically look at. What is a 65-year-old business owner? I'll tell you a lot of stuff over there. Love the show and also love pivot. Just listen to your last episode talking about giving and the wonderful women in this world that are doing it so kind-hearted, obviously, so generously. My question is around that.
You're a charitable giver. You've mentioned that as well, and I also believe that there's no point kicking the stuff forward until the time I go and giving it out there and working in the world. Tell me a little bit about how you go about making decisions with regards to the types of giving that you've done. Now that you've kind of put away your chunk of change, that's going to support you for the balance of your life. Again, love the show. Looking forward to your answer.
Brant, thanks for the question. First off, you sound like just such an impressive man. You have a great voice, by the way. You could have a second career in podcasting. This is what I call the mother of all good problems, right? Trying to figure out how to give away money and what to do about it. It's interesting. It is a bigger issue than people think. UBS, I used to get invited every year to this UBS generational wealth conference. Basically, it was a conference for rich kids.
Think of the wealthiest names in the world. You get to meet their kids. I would talk about living a meaningful life. I talk a little bit about brands and technology. Then they would spend an entire day on giving, which I thought I didn't participate in it, but I thought that was interesting because obviously wealthy people are very philanthropic. I do think, and just to revisit what you reference, I do think there's a virus in the United States of hoarding.
That is, the problem with the numbers, if you get to 10 million, you can imagine 30 million, then you can imagine 100 million. Because your life has consistently gotten better along that scale. As you increase your wealth, you think that that scale is linear. If you can get from 10 to 30 million, your life is going to get three times as good. Daniel Connumnish showed us that the difference between zero and one million is huge. The difference between one and 10 million is modest.
The difference between 10 and 50 million is really negligible. Once you hit your number, in a decent way to calculate your number, if you want to be really conservative, it's figure out how much money you need every year. What is your burn? Say you need a half a million dollars to live really well a year. Then times it by 25. That means you would need 12 and a half million dollars in savings and income. Now, anything above that, I think you could start thinking
about giving away or spending or going above that half a million dollars a year. I'm a big spender. I like it. Hey, big spender. I'm indulgent. I'm materialistic. I love. I think I'm good at spending money. You know what? I hate it when people who have money can't spend their money. Well, I can't tell you. Speaking of Florida, how many really wealthy people I know and I go into their house? I'm like, oh my god. I mean, founds and stairways and like shitting modern art and
pictures of themselves everywhere. Oh, god. I mean, Jesus Christ can someone show these people how to spend their fucking money. That's not what you asked. How do I approach giving? I try to foot it to something I'm passionate about. And I think I know something about and that I want to
change. So my big thing is how men are struggling. I have recently made a gift, if I think about 14 or 15 million dollars to the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA for the development of programming that's more vocational that would have no interest requirements, not a traditional
four-year degree that appeals to younger people, mostly younger men who no longer have access to wood shop, metal shop, and auto shop that are thinking about specialty nursing or construction or plumbing or electric and can foot or can find skills that foot to this enormous gap in the real economy. And that is the trade sector. The trade sector is going to lose five people over the next 10 years for every two to go into it, which means the cost of renovating
and having soapstone installed in your kitchen, which I just had, exceptionally expensive. So those people are going to have incredible pricing power. Probably the biggest opportunity in our economy right now is in fact to buy a trade's business, a small business if you will. Anyway, I'm passionate about that. I really like the new chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley Rich Lions, he's a wonderful guy. I've known for 20 years. So I trust him to deploy the capital
prudently and effectively. So that's my kind of my thing. The other thing I'm passionate around as it relates to young men is teen depression. I've given a bunch of money to the Jed Foundation. It's not fair. I don't know, get a couple hundred or five hundred grand of them. And then just a personal relationship. I have a personal relationship with a kid named Scott Harrison that I've known for 25 years and he is building wells in Sub-Saharan Africa. Do I have
a passion around water or people in Africa? No, I'd probably rather give money to Americans. I know if that sounds jingoistic. Trust your instincts. But I'm so inspired by Scott and him and his personal story that I feel a friendship, a kinship with him. So I want to be supportive of his amazing charity, charity water. And he runs it so well that I'm confident my money will be put to good use. So how do I do it? I find things that foot to my passions or things I think are really important
that I have a specific interest in. But let me finish where I started. This is a great problem and congratulations on your success. And I think it's very American to be thinking the way you're thinking. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to office hours of profftumedia.com. Again, that's office hours at profftumedia.com. This episode is produced by Caroline Shagrin. Jennifer Sanchez is our associate producer
and Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Profftumedia pod from the vox media podcast network. We will catch you on Saturday for no mercy, no malice as Rabbi George Han and please follow our profftum markets pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. By the way, our profftum markets pod is already the number one
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