Crypto and AI Revolution | Aidan Carney Skytt

12 years old, you start trading crypto. Like, people aren't prepared 'cuz at the end of the day, within 10 years, Bitcoin's going to be a million dollars. AI and crypto are going to come together. Over the next 5 years, I think we're going to see something like 90% of all AI use is going to be from other AI.

Talk about that a little bit. So, you're- you're going to have an agent, and that AI agent is going to be like your virtual assistant. Aiden Carney-Skite, college student or next CEO Titan? We'll find out on this episode of Pathway to Peak Performance, where we dig into AI, cryptocurrency, and many other things that are going to be super interesting. Welcome to the show, Aiden Carney-Skite.

Welcome to the show, my man. Great to have you in. Um, wow, this is going to be fun. As you know on this show, um, the guest gets to pick the charity that they want to donate all of the proceeds—the profit from the views that YouTube pays us—to the charity of their choice. And you have an interesting charity. Tell us about it.

Aiden: Yeah, it's The Seasteading Institute. So, they are basically working to make it so that you can build countries on the ocean. And it is backed by Peter Thiel; he is one of their largest financers. And, um, the idea is that, in my opinion, there's a direct correlation between how many countries exist and how much sovereignty there is in the world because it leads to choice, right?

So, I believe there's, like, roughly 163 countries. So if in 20 years there's more than 163 countries, I would make a guess that we see more sovereignty around the world. And if there's less, then we see less. So what The Seasteading Institute is working towards is helping, uh, allow for regulations to be passed so that you could build structures on the ocean and create your own country with your own rules. And I think that is a net positive.

Host: Yeah, sounds pretty cool to me. Always good to be able to make your own rules.

Aiden: Yeah. I mean, I think everyone has their own idea of how the country should run, or, like, they believe that their political ideas are better than other people's. And I think that governments sort of have a monopoly on, uh, like, national control, right? Like, nation-states are able to set rules and there's no, like, free market, right? So, like, what we pay in taxes today—it's not one dollar in and one dollar out. It's not as efficient as a company.

So if you were able to create your own country on the ocean with no, like, past history that makes it really hard to change laws—you were just able to start from scratch and you could run it like a company instead of like a traditional, bureaucracy-filled country—then you probably get a better outcome. And if I want to run a country one way and you want to run a country another way, then why don't we just let the free market decide? I make my country, you make your country, and whichever one is better will win out.

Host: The only- the only thing I think you have to consider in that is when I sail my ships to your shores, burn them, and decide to take over.

Aiden: Right. I think we're going to see a lot less warfare in, uh, like a traditional man-on-man violence, as compared to most warfare is going to be fought in cyberspace and with AI, right?

Host: We're- I agree with you. I mean, it's 2025. The notion that we're still fighting wars at this in this day and age is- is almost- I mean, it's, what, really? We're really doing this? I mean, obviously there are factors that create that, uh, but it seems almost ridiculous, right?

Aiden: Yeah. And I- well, there's always going to be disputes, right? And we're in one of the most peaceful times in human history. But, uh, as weapons have gotten to a point where they're so advanced that you can, you know, snap your finger and wipe out a small village, right? Or a small city or even a, like, micro-country, right? So now, uh, what sets people apart is their ability for their country to be able to, like, program, right? Like, you cannot stand a chance against a robot killing machine, right?

Host: Yeah. All you have to do is follow Boston Dynamics and, uh, what DARPA is doing.

Aiden: Yeah, it's not, uh, it's a crazy world.

Host: Well, hey, let's- let's, um, I think this is a great charity and I- I admire you, you know, your thinking. Um, you're- you're a very forward-thinking guy, which is why I wanted to have you on the show. Um, so the show, as you know, is called The Pathway to Peak Performance. Um, you're in college, but you've already achieved a lot, and it's- it's interesting to talk to you because I think we need your origin story to get to where we are today. So, let's kind of go back, take us back, and tell us how you grew up and all that kind of stuff.

Aiden: Sure. Yeah. I mean, I've always been obsessed with technology and the future. Um, when I was young, my, like, first idol was Steve Jobs. Like, I was obsessed with Steve Jobs. I remember being in Caroline, going to school in, like, first grade when my mom told me that Steve Jobs died, and I was, like, crying before school. I was so upset.

Um, I gave a, uh- we had, like, a Thanksgiving with our friends. It was huge, like, Last Supper table, and everyone went around and they gave, like, what they're thankful for. And I must have been, like, six years old, and my parents had no idea what I was going to say. So I stand up on a chair and everyone's, like, watching, like, "Aiden, what are you thankful for?" And I gave a speech about how I'm thankful for Steve Jobs and about Apple. And everyone was, like, floored. They're like, "Why is a six-year-old saying that he's so grateful for Apple of all things?"

Um, so I've- I've really just been, uh, I've- I've always admired innovators, and I've always been obsessed with technology. And then in fifth grade, I bought my first stock. So I, naturally, I bought Apple stock. Um, and that sort of introduced me into investing. Uh, my family's always been sort of around finance. So on the way to school, my sister and I, we'd play the stock game. The stock game is basically where you go back and forth seeing who can name more stock tickers. Um, so I think that definitely shaped who I am today, being so, like, finance-centric.

But then also in fifth grade for Halloween, I dressed up as Elon Musk. So that- that was my- that was my costume. Um, and I thought it was funny because trick-or-treating around here... So, I- I wore, like, a- I wore a wig, and I made a shirt with an Elon Musk quote on it. Um, and I had a- one of our family friends worked at Solar City, and he gave me- he knew how much I liked Elon Musk and what they were doing. Um, so he gave me this prototype, uh, Tesla Solar City, like a, uh, solar panel backpack. I had that, and then I got, like, a South African flag, and my sister was, like, Oski the Bear from, uh, Cal because my mom went to Cal. And I took a photo, and then it ended up getting sent around, and I was on the Tesla homepage for one day on Halloween.

Host: Nice.

Aiden: Just because I was Elon Musk for Halloween. But, uh, it was funny because I noticed when I went trick-or-treating that the houses that gave out—like, the nice houses that gave out, like, the big-size candy bars—they recognized me instantly. They're like, "You're Elon Musk." And then the ones who were, like, giving out worse candy, they're like, "Who are you? What's your- what's your costume?" So there was- there was something there.

Host: Yeah. Interesting. So you always had a fascination with trading, and- and you had heroes that you felt were visionary, uh, people who were trying to change the world. Obviously Steve Jobs and, uh, Wozniak definitely did change the world. There's no doubt about it. Elon Musk for sure has done that, um, in lots of ways. So you're fifth grade, growing up. Um, tell us what else, you know, take us all the way through to where you are in sort of, like, the pathway.

Aiden: Sure. Yeah. I mean, so I- I think there's, like, there's probably a few things that are definitely sort of important in my story. Like, so when- when I was nine, my father passed away from pancreatic cancer. So I think that made me grow up very quickly. Um, and I felt like an extreme responsibility to take over and take care of my mom and take care of my sister. So I think that led to a lot of, like, independence. Um, and I- my father was, like, a very, very creative person. He loved technology. So we bonded over that at a young age. So I think that very much shaped me.

And, um, so fast forward. So at the time I was in third grade, and then fifth grade I bought my first stock. And then in, um, yeah, I was sixth grade, I, uh, I was a huge gamer. So I, like, all my life, I loved video games so much. Um, and just played them all the time. I was, like, streaming on Twitch. Uh, like, I'd stream to my friends. I was- I would get so excited when someone would donate, like, $5, 'cuz, like, "I make money to play video games!"

Host: Yeah.

Aiden: Um, so I remember the gift everyone wanted, uh, for Christmas was this, like, Oculus VR headset. And my mom's like, "Aiden, I know you want this Oculus. Can you, like, research what companies, uh, will benefit from, like, this VR expansion that every kid wants to play with virtual reality? So, can you just, like, research what companies you think could be successful with this? Like, what- what- what stock should I buy?" Uh, and then she's like, "And you know, if you do that, then maybe you'll get a VR headset under the Christmas tree."

I was like, "Okay, Mom. Deal. That sounds great." So I, like, look, and I, like, look up all these companies, and most of them are, like, very small and niche companies. They're, like, recently started, right? Because it's a VR boom. It's like, you can't invest in any of them. Um, but the name that I kept seeing over and over again was, uh, Nvidia, because in order to play or develop, uh, VR games, you had to have an Nvidia graphics card. And obviously, I wanted- I wanted one so that I could play, uh, VR.

Host: Mhm.

Aiden: So all my friends, we were, like, all building computers at the time and try- buying gaming laptops, and the only name in gaming that meant anything was Nvidia. Everyone wanted the Nvidia card. So I was like, "Mom, I think you should buy Nvidia stock."

She's like, "Hey, can you write that up and send me all the reasons, and then we could, like, send it to, uh, like your aunt, your uncle, and, like, some friends and family?"

I was like, "Yeah, sure." So, I go, I write- I write this, like, stock newsletter, basically, about Nvidia. Um, I call it The Weekly Wag. Um, and WAG for being "Wild Ass Guess."

Wag as in... So I- the other thing when I was younger, the other thing I loved was rap music. So Eminem was also one of my big idols. So I used to, like, freestyle, and I wanted to be a rapper. So I called myself Alpha Dog. Um, so I wanted to, like, loop it into, uh, like, dogs, I guess. So, like, "Weekly Wag." And then I had this thing called the Bone Scale, 'cuz, like, dogs eat bones. And it was, like, five bones was, like, it was one out of five, and, like, five bones is, like, "Oh, this is a great stock, like, buy now."

Host: Strong buy.

Aiden: Um, yeah. So I called it The Weekly Wag. It was "The Weekly Wag: the best gaming picks with all the swag" was- was the little, like, moniker. Um, so my first newsletter, I wrote it in April of 2016. That was when the first one officially got published out to, like, everybody. Prior to that, I, like, did a little write-up on Nvidia, but the first one that I, like, sent from my own email and everything, it was April of 2016, and I would pick three stocks every time. But the first- the first stock was, uh, Nvidia, and at the time it was $36, but if you adjust for stock splits, it was, like, $9.10.

And then I would write this newsletter as much as I could. Uh, I tried to do it weekly, but sometimes it was more, like, bi-weekly. Every single time, I would just, like, write about Nvidia. And I'd, like- it was funny because eventually, I started getting some people who were like, "Hey, we get it. You really like Nvidia. Like, do you have anything else you like?" They were kind of getting sick of hearing about Nvidia.

Host: And then Jensen called you, right?

Aiden: I'm still waiting on the Jensen call. One day.

Host: Yeah, you'll get it.

Aiden: Um, but it's- it's funny looking back on it because I'm like, one, I'm like, "Why are people criticizing a middle schooler's newsletter, um, about stocks, right? Like, why is anyone sending me a complaint?" Um, but, uh, secondly, I'm like, "Wow, I should have- I wrote about Nvidia so much. I should have written about it even more. I should have just cut out all the other things because, you know, now it's, like, one of the most valuable companies in the world, and it's up 15,000% since that call."

Host: Crazy story. Yeah. Lots of wild rides on that one.

Aiden: Yeah. But it- it was- I'm- I'm grateful that it happened. Um, and it also sort of introduced me to the idea of, like, pitching my stocks and really being impassioned about, uh, sort of finance. Like, that really put some skin in the game because I felt like everyone owns Apple stock, right? I'd be like, "Oh, I own Apple stock." It's like, "Oh, who doesn't?" Right? But then when you're pitching, like, at the time, what was kind of a smaller company, it's like, "Well, why- why do you like that?" Well, you- you have to be able to defend your beliefs and walk through the logic of it.

A little after that, in 2017, that's when I discovered cryptocurrency. So, at the time, I was 12 years old, and that was- that was huge because, you know, I'm 20 years old now, and I- I got into crypto, and I just haven't stopped.

Host: Yeah, it's funny. You know what? Uh, we always joke about this one investment we made. We're like, if we had just taken all the money for that, just put it into Bitcoin, like, man, it'd be insane, you know. Um, and that's right, you know, the time when you're really seeing that take off. So, 12 years old, you start trading crypto. Mhm. You're kind of the crypto king. So, I wanted to kind of take you through and- and talk about that a little bit. Yeah. And, um, I think the last time I saw you, I asked you, you know, about some coins, some things, uh, what do you think about this and that, and you had definite opinions. So, one of the things I think would be interesting also is like, you know, so many people—I think a lot of people my age—don't really know about how to trade crypto. Really don't know anything about it, understand it.

Host: Yeah. So, maybe you could give us a Crypto 101.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: For people so they can kind of like, "Hey, how do I- what kind of wallet do I get?"

Aiden: Sure.

Host: "How do I start trading? What are the Aiden picks, uh, that you think are hot right now?" Um, you know, no pressure, but...

Aiden: Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that, so, very, very basic, right, at a surface level, if you want crypto exposure, I would just buy Bitcoin, set it, and forget it. Like, that is- that's level one on blue chip. Yeah. The beauty of Bitcoin is that it sits in this amazing spot in finance where, for a lot of people, it'll be the riskiest asset they ever buy, right? They- they will be shaking at the thought of owning Bitcoin because it's so misunderstood. Um, and it's- there's a lot of unknown. Most people don't know how it works. And I think what people are like, "Oh, well, today it's $110,000." It- it took a little haircut recently. Um, so it's, like, roughly $110,000 a coin, and people are like, "Well, I missed it." And it's like, "No, you didn't."

Only 6.8% of the planet owns any form of cryptocurrency. And of that 6.8%, a lot of people bought it once and have never touched it again. So there's really- there's actually only 10 million power users in crypto. 10 million people who use a crypto wallet on a weekly basis. It's nothing. We're going to see such large-scale adoption from governments, from institutional investors, from, uh, big family offices. Like, people aren't prepared, and the people who get caught offsides are going to be forced to buy higher because, at the end of the day, within 10 years, Bitcoin is going to be a million dollars.

It's, uh, the value proposition of Bitcoin is that it's digital gold. So, it's like gold in the sense that there's a finite amount. But the beauty of Bitcoin is I believe that it's better than gold because gold, we know there's a finite amount, but we don't know exactly how much there is, right? We can estimate it. We have a pretty good idea, but, and we know we can't make any more of it. But Bitcoin, we know there's exactly 21 million coins. There will only ever be 21 million coins. And, um, it's also- it's, uh, more efficient, right? It's easier to store. I can stick it on a flash drive. Um, whereas gold, it's heavy. Uh, if you have to, like, go somewhere quickly in a hurry, right? You can't just, like, take- if you have your whole net worth in gold, like, it's going to be really hard to, like, move all your gold, like, across to another country, or, like, people will try to steal your gold. Whereas a flash drive is, like, much more indiscriminate.

And the beauty of it is if you can remember a, uh, seed phrase. A crypto seed phrase is basically when you generate a crypto wallet, it's, uh, between 12 and 24 words, um, in a specific order, and that's, like, basically your password. So, rule number one of crypto: never, ever show someone your seed phrase. Like, so many people, the majority of stories of people, like, losing their generational wealth of Bitcoin come from being tricked into giving up their seed phrase. So, uh, a lot of the times that could just be because they took a picture of it. You should never take a picture of it.

So, the ironic thing about crypto is that it's some of the most advanced, you know, technology in the world, but the way that you store it is in a very archaic way. You need pen and paper. So, what I would do is whenever I make- I make a bunch of- I have a bunch of crypto wallets. Um, but anytime I make a new crypto wallet, which is super easy to do, um, you just take out a notebook. The, like, easy ones to make are, like, 12 words. So, you just write, like, one- the numbers 1 through 12, and you go and you write down all the words in order. And then I always- I always write it twice. So, I do it on two different pieces of paper, and then you take the pieces of paper, you put them in two different safe locations. So, I put them in safety deposit boxes, which is also ironic because it's like, "I think banks are going to go away at some point, right?" Like, the end goal of Bitcoin is, like, "Take down the banks. The Fed is evil. Fiat is terrible. Fiat makes people poor." Um, so, like, it's kind of ironic that if that is the case and Bitcoiners are correct, then I'm- I'm storing that in a bank.

Host: Well, yeah, that is- that is ironic. So you said you have multiple wallets.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: What's a good wallet for somebody who's never done it before, in your opinion, to start with?

Aiden: Yeah. So, like, I- if you want to own, like, I'm a big proponent of owning, like, actual Bitcoin, right? Like, I think that's good. I think eventually you are going to see, like, China, like, banned Bitcoin a long time ago, and every once in a while, just for shock value, they'll just- they come out, like, "We- we just want to know that we banned it again," right? So there are going to be countries that ban it because it- it does- it's a check on government power, right?

So, the easiest way, even if you didn't want to do the wallet, you didn't want to have- feel pressured to write down these 12 words and make sure you don't do a typo and you didn't want to, like, have to keep track of these seed phrases, easiest way is just go buy the Bitcoin spot ETF. It tracks Bitcoin one-to-one. Um, you can buy it in a Schwab account or Fidelity or whatever, and, um, now you can put it in a 401(k). That's super easy, right? And, um, IBIT and BlackRock, like, I think those are the two ones with the lowest fees. Um, so just buy a Bitcoin spot ETF. They're basically all the same.

So if you want to do that—if you want to actually own Bitcoin, which is what I would advise—um, I would use- I would start by going to a centralized exchange. Like, uh, I like Kraken. A lot of people use Coinbase. I personally have heard- I've- I've had too many difficulties with Coinbase. They're known for making it really challenging for you to pull your crypto off exchange because one thing people don't know about crypto is that crypto exchanges are not FDIC insured. So if I put my money in a bank, it's insured up to, like, $350,000 or something like that. If I put- if I buy Bitcoin on Coinbase and Coinbase were to go down for some reason—they go bankrupt, they get hacked, they get wiped out—Brian Armstrong actually, in 2021, he had to, like, formally tweet out and do a press release saying that we will use your crypto to pay off our lenders if we go down.

And that scared- that scared a lot of people, right?

Host: I remember that.

Aiden: So, at the time I was in- I was in high school. Um, and at that point, I had basically tried to convert as many people as I could into the crypto space. Anyone who would listen, I'd be like, "Hey, you should buy Bitcoin. Hey, you should buy Ethereum. Hey, this is my favorite, uh, altcoin at the time. Hey, you should buy- you should buy this," right? "Or you should buy an NFT." So, I was just, like, emphatic. For years, I had just been so obsessed with it. Um, but I had converted, like, all my neighbors and all my family. And then Brian Armstrong tweets this out and everyone goes nuts. Everyone's like, "You're telling me that my Bitcoin is going to be gone? I put all this money into it, it's going to be gone," right?

So then the most common, like, hardware wallet is called the Ledger Wallet. That weekend, Ledgers sold out on Amazon. Everyone panicked and bought all the Ledgers to, like, try to take their money off of Coinbase. So, uh, I was- I basically had everyone- I heard this happen. I immediately, like, texted everyone who I converted. I was like, "Hey, buy a Ledger right now. Here's a link. Like, just buy it. Don't even think about it. Like, you need this right now. Pull your money, all your money, off of Coinbase." Um, and then that weekend, I sat- I was in, like, my living room, and everyone came over, and they all had, like, their Ledgers, and they sat around the table, and I gave, like, a- I helped everyone set up their Ledger, and it took hours because Coinbase started freezing withdrawals, basically. They made it really hard. They were trying to make it as hard as possible for you to withdraw your crypto.

Host: Yeah. As they want to tank.

Aiden: Yeah. They don't want- they don't want it to tank. It's like- it's like a bank run, basically, right? So they're- so they were doing all these things, like, they made you take a photo of your ID, um, and then they said, "Oh, the photo failed," and then, yeah, and you have to- you have to call, and it was a whole thing, right? So it took some people, like, days to take their money off. So you don't want that.

So if you buy crypto on an exchange, I would not recommend keeping it on the exchange. So I would use Kraken instead because Kraken has a- I would still not keep your money on Kraken. I keep a little bit of just, like, altcoins that are, like, small, and I'm like, "Well, if Kraken were to go down, these are going to zero anyway," right? Like, that's the other thing about it, is like, if Coinbase were to go down tomorrow, it's like, it actually doesn't really matter in the short term. Your- your coin price doesn't matter because it's like, they're all going to tank 90% because the largest crypto exchange in the world just crashed.

But, uh, regardless, you still want to be able to have your coins and own your coins. So, uh, I would use Kraken because they have a, like, a hard and fast rule of seven days from when you, uh, deposit money, you're allowed to take it off. So, you deposit it, you buy Bitcoin, and then seven days later you can take it off. And I've never once had an issue with that. I've been using them for years. And they've also never been in their, uh, all the time that they've existed, they've never been- they've never had a major hack. So, their security is amazing.

So, I would go- I'd use Kraken. You want to use- you want to make sure you use Kraken Pro instead of, uh, standard Kraken. So, one thing where a lot of people get screwed over when buying crypto is the fees are egregious on standard exchanges. So, for instance, Coinbase charges, uh, 10 and 10 if you use standard Coinbase. Coinbase One is going to be better. That's, like, their premium subscription one, but their standard, like, Coinbase charges 10 and 10. So, it's a 10% fee and 10% spread. So you're down 20% on your investment the second you press buy. So you just- you're getting killed, right? Obviously, crypto- Bitcoin averages, like, 112% a year. So you make up for that. But no one should have to pay 20% to own any asset. That's absurd.

Same thing with Kraken, right? Like, if you use standard Kraken, the fees are going to be a little less, but if you're using the standard one, you're still going to pay a huge fee. So the way to circumvent that fee is with what's called Kraken Pro. So, Kraken Pro, it's- it's- it's free to use, and it has a, uh, TradingView. So, that just means, like, you can see all the buy orders and all the sell orders, and you see how, like, the market makers are coming to a price. So, and then it has, like, a chart, and you'll see it, like, in real time, and then all you do is you place a limit order at a price that you want to get in at.

I typically- my general rule of thumb is Bitcoin that is- crypto is very volatile. So it's going to move, like, your average stock might move up or down one or two percent. You know, a three or 5% move on a stock, it's like, "Wow, what a day," right? Bitcoin can move 10% in a day, um, on- on news, right? And then altcoins can move 50% in a day. So there- there's huge moves on these coins. So generally, you can put any limit order 3% under the current market price and you should be able to get in, unless some event just sends everything up and to the right, in which case you're mad that you didn't just buy right at the- right at the price. But generally speaking, 1 to 3% under, not that it really matters, but, like, it's a good practice to try to get in at the best price you can. Um, you have a limit price, and you can set it 1 to 3% below the current price, and your order will get filled.

And then from there, you wait seven days, and then you go take it off a- take it- put it on a wallet. Wallet-wise, easiest one is Phantom wallet. It's just an app. You can generate a new crypto wallet in a minute. It's super fast. You just copy the crypto wallet address, put it as your deposit address on Kraken. It's going to send you an email to confirm. You just make sure- you just want to make sure that you don't- you want to copy and paste it. You don't want to, like, type it, 'cuz these are pretty long addresses. And if you mess up one- if you mess up one letter or number, it's going into the ether. There's no- there's no refunds.

So, the beauty of crypto is that—and Bitcoin specifically—is that it's immutable. No one can, like, roll back a transaction, right? And that's great because that means that you can't- there's no economic discrimination. No one can be like, "Oh, you- you're trying to send money to a political party. Um, we're actually going to freeze that transaction," right? Or, uh, "You want to buy- you want to buy this thing? You're not allowed to buy that anymore," right? "That's- that's against our new climate policy," right? There's none of that. Bitcoin, it's like, as long as you send the transaction, it'll go through on the next block. But that also means that if you mess up for whatever reason, you type a wrong address, you send it to the wrong person, you're out of luck. It's gone.

So the supply of Bitcoin is 21 million, but there's actually only 18 million in circulation because 3 million Bitcoin are lost, gone. It's just- since- since it's been invented, people have accidentally sent it to phantom addresses. They've burned it. They've lost- the joke in crypto is a lot of, uh, Bitcoin gets lost in boating accidents because as you try- if you forget your seed phrases, it's- it's done, right? Like, there was a guy who had a- he set up his crypto wallet. I think that he was in San Francisco. It's a really famous story. He set up his crypto wallet, and if he got the password wrong 10 times, it would- it would self-destruct. It would just wipe all the Bitcoin off of the wallet, and it would not work. So, he got to, like- he- he bought all this crypto and then sort of, like, forgot about it, and then realized that he had, like, $60 million in Bitcoin. And then, um, he goes- he, like, tries the password, tries it over and over, can't guess it, can't guess it. Realizes that he only has two attempts left, and then he spent, like, a year going to, like, psychotherapists and stuff to be like, "Remember the password. Figure out what the password is."

Host: Right. And trying to hypnotize him.

Aiden: Yeah. Trying to hypnotize him to, like, figure out what- what was going on. "Do you remember what shirt you were wearing? Maybe it'll come back to you if you wear the red shirt," right? Like it's- so don't let that be you. Like, make sure you write down your seed phrase. Yeah.

Um, and then, so Phantom wallet, that's the easiest one. I would actually recommend a Ledger wallet. Ledger is, uh, it's like a little encrypted flash drive. You can get one for, like, 100 bucks. I like the Ledger Stax, uh, which is, like, $300, and that one is, like, touchscreen. It's basically like a small iPhone, but it's all encrypted, and it's air-gapped, which means that it's not connected to the internet. So, the only way it connects to the internet is through Bluetooth via your phone. So, that makes you, like, one away from hackers. So, what that means is if you don't connect your Ledger to, like, some weird device, you can't get hacked. So, you can stick a Ledger in a- in, like, a safety deposit box or something like that. It's secure.

So, just go- you set up a Ledger, you write down the words, you make sure you don't give anyone the words. Don't take a picture of the words, because if someone hacks your phone, anyone who's smart enough to hack a phone will see 12 words in a row and say, "That's a crypto seed phrase," right? So, make sure you don't do that. And then, yeah, just buy your Bitcoin, set it, and forget it.

Host: All right. So, we talked about Bitcoin. Uh, last time I saw you, I asked you about XRP.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: You weren't super hot on it.

Aiden: No, I think XRP is really great marketing, right? Like, the reason it's the third-largest crypto asset in the world is because they have convinced people that they're going to, like, replace Swift. Um, before that, they were talking about, like, replacing government payments. They've had- they have a team of, like, a bunch of, uh, Harvard Business School people who are, like- they- they actually believe that they're going to- they're going to find a use case for this coin. At the moment, there is no use case for this coin, and I don't think there ever will be. I don't think it'll ever see large-scale adoption. Like, I've heard Amazon did some marginal amount of payments with XRP. I've heard that Dubai did a deal with XRP, but it's mostly just marketing.

And some people are like, "Well, if XRP goes to $10,000..." I think that would make it, like, a $60 trillion asset or something like that. Like, not- it's not going to be bigger than, like, the entire S&P 500, right? That- that doesn't make sense. Yeah. Um, so I think there's a real, like, cult-like mentality. And that doesn't mean it can't go up, right? Like, it's worked until this point. They've brought it all the way up to the third-largest crypto asset. So it's like, it could continue to go up, but just know that it's not because the tech is great. It's not because it's going to replace any economic system. It won't. I'm- I- I don't see a world where it does.

Host: All right. So, Bitcoin. I know- I know you like Ethereum. Um, so let's get into... So, now- so now we've got somebody who's set up a wallet.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: They know how to do the, you know, the purchase, and they want to get deeper into it. They want to learn more about blockchain. They understand exactly how does this all really, really work, right? You know, they're getting fascinated. And, um, you know, how do they, number one, how do they follow you?

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: Um, and- and, you know, I'm going to make a bold prediction, but I don't think it's that bold. I think you're- I think this episode's going to age well. Um, and, uh, I think when we look back on this in years, we're all going to laugh. Um, because I think you're going to be a really successful- I mean, you're already a very successful guy, and it's interesting to see somebody so successful at such a young age, but I think you're really going to do some amazing things. So, um, what are the thing- other things people should know?

Aiden: Yeah, sure. One, in order if- if you want to, like, follow me, if you want to hear my up- my latest up-to-date takes, follow me on X. That's probably the easiest way to reach me: @AidenSkite. A-I-D-E-N S-K-Y-T-T, um, on X. I post all my latest stuff on there sometimes. I also- I write newsletters. So, I wrote The Weekly Wag for a very long time. I recently started- after high school, I stopped writing The Weekly Wag. Um, and now I write my own newsletter on Substack that's all crypto. It's called Chasing Alpha, um, as sort of an homage to my old rap name. It's funny. Um, everyone- everyone in all my friends that I, like, grew up with going in middle school, high school, you're more likely to see someone run for me and be like, "What's up, Alpha?" Like, everyone still calls me that. So, I'm sort of an homage to that.

And then obviously, in finance, if you have alpha, that means you're beating the market. So, Chasing Alpha on Substack. And then I also write for- I write for a, uh, company called Beluga, Beluga Crypto. You can find us, uh, on, uh, heybeluga.com. I write a lot of those articles, and we have intro to crypto stuff, like anything you need to know. We have a "how to make your own wallet" guide, or like, "your own..." Yeah. "Your own crypto wallet" with, like, visuals. It shows you step-by-step exactly what to do. So, that's a great resource for anyone who's trying to, uh, like, learn more about crypto. And then I also do a, uh, I'm on a lot of, uh, crypto live streams on X. So, like, Beluga, we hosted a guy named Ali Khan who's the leading cybersecurity expert, uh, for crypto. So, he's been doing cybersecurity for 20 years. Um, and now he's, like, shifted his focus to crypto, and he talks about how you can keep your crypto safe.

As for, like, what other people need to know, for me, I got into crypto because I loved the technology. And then there's also, like, a really close connection between, uh, like, crypto and video games, right? I would also say I'm very, like, traditional in crypto in the sense that I love it for the sense that I think it's a good check on government power. I personally believe in, like, smaller government, and I think that if you have- there's a book called The Sovereign Individual, written in 1997. And The Sovereign Individual, it predicted the rise of cryptocurrency and globalization. So they were the first person to- they're the- it was the first book to ever reference the idea of a cryptocurrency. And in Sovereign Individual, there's this section that talks about "cyber money," and it says that if you have a decentralized, anonymous form of digital currency completely disconnected from the government, it forces- it forces governments to charge market rates for their services, right?

Like, there's a million examples. Doge was a great example of, like, uncovering a lot of this. There's a million examples of, like, the government paying $30,000 for, like, a toilet seat. It's been going on for so long. It's terrible, right? And, like, it's- it's robbing the people blind. And a part of that is the reason that a government can do that is because they control the money supply, right? And they, uh, so they can just print more. And then on top of that, you don't necessarily have a lot of- as a US citizen, you don't have a lot of other options as to, like, go somewhere else. Like, you can't just take your US dollars and take them all out of a bank and, like, go across the border and renounce your citizenship, right? Like, there's an exit tax. There's, um, it would be extremely difficult to do that.

Um, the beauty of Bitcoin is if it works, then the government has to charge, like, a fair price, or else you're just going to stick your Bitcoin in your pocket and walk across the border and go- go to a country that will charge a more fair rate. So, I think that people need to know that, yes, Bitcoin is, like, this great tool for making money and storing wealth, but I feel like everyone should learn about, like, the initial ethos of Bitcoin, which was, like, a check on government power. Um, you know, the first Bitcoin block was, uh, Satoshi Nakamoto, the guy who- the- the guy who made Bitcoin, right? No one knows who he is. It's just a- it's a pseudonym. Um, but he, on the first block of- right, because crypto comes in blocks, right? A block is just a bunch of transactions grouped together. And, um, when you mine crypto, you're basically validating blocks, so you're validating transactions. So on the first block, he inscribed a, uh, news headline about big banks being bailed out. Governments bailing out big banks. So it was just- it was a message basically saying, like, "We're sick of this. We're sick of governments, you know, like, helping a very small percentage of people, uh, at the- at the price of everyone else," right?

There's this guy, um, Balaji, who- he wrote a book called The Network State, which sort of inspired a lot of my thinking around, like, The Seasteading Institute, um, because his idea is, like, uh, he wants, like, startup societies. But he had- he gave this great quote on a podcast, and he said that "US inflation is global taxation," right? So when the US overspends, since the US dollar is the global reserve currency, that tax gets put out across 8 billion people. Everyone eats a little bit of that tax. So the quality of our lives in the US is propped up by the fact that we can spend a bunch of money and then pass the bill on to 8 billion people. As a US citizen, I can't say I don't benefit from that, right? Like, that is a- that- that's worked out. But I also have to say that's pretty unfair.

Host: It's an unfortunate consequence.

Aiden: Yeah. So if you have something completely disconnected, right, like a store of value that's fully disconnected from the government, it evens the playing field. And I think that as, uh, globalization expands and more and more—and the metaverse—um, one of my- one of the big trends I think we're going to see in the next 10 years is we're going to see large-scale metaverse adoption where people- more remote work, people are going to be living in cyberspace. Um, you're going to have a bunch of friends who you've never met, a bunch of coworkers who you've never met. You all just interact and live in these virtual worlds together. Uh, and all those transactions will be done through cryptocurrency.

Host: Interesting that we are past the metaverse, but you- you're bringing it back and thinking that that's where we're going to wind up.

Aiden: No, it's going to... So, here's the thing. I think my favorite stock right now is- is Meta. Um, right. Uh, I think that Mark Zuckerberg is the only CEO who understands that AI, crypto, and the metaverse are all the same play. Companies treat them as different verticals, right? You have AI companies, and then if you- if you do anything in crypto, you're labeled a "crypto company," right? And then there are a handful of companies that operate in a metaverse, right? You could argue that Roblox is a metaverse. You could argue that Minecraft is a metaverse. You could argue that since Microsoft owns Mojang, which owns Minecraft, that they are somewhat of a metaverse company. But I think that they're all the same play.

Um, I believe that AI and crypto are going to come together because when you type a query into ChatGPT or Grok, it's broken up into tokens. So, an AI token is like a standard unit of computational power, right? So, the longer your query, the more tokens it uses, right? And you can see this, uh, very directly if you ever use, like, an API key. For most of the time, most people are just using, like, the ChatGPT app. They pay 20 bucks a month, and then they get to, uh, ask as many questions as they like. But if you're a developer, you use what's called an API key, and you're literally buying a certain number of tokens. Like, $20 buys you, like, 2,000 tokens or what- whatever it is, right? But you're buying- you're buying by the token. So obviously, cryptocurrency- crypto- cryptos are also tokens.

So I- and the other big part of this is that currently, most of the AI use is- it's used by humans, right? So you ask ChatGPT a question, and then you get a response, and then you do with that information what you want. But over the next 5 years, I think we're going to see something like 90% of all AI use is going to be from other AI. So we're going to have AI agents. So you're- you're going to have an agent, and that AI agent is going to be like your virtual assistant, basically. And you're going to go want to, like, solve a problem, right? Like, say you want to- say you want to, like, fact-check me on Meta stock. You're like, "I want to look into Meta stock." Like, "Hey," uh, you ask your AI agent, you're like, "Hey, can you look into Meta stock for me? Tell me if it's a good buy." It's like, "Yeah, sure." So it goes out, it goes and it reaches out to, like, a finance agent, which is, like, an AI trained solely on, like, financial analysis. And then it'll reach out to, like, a data analyst agent that will just look at, like, all the hardcore numbers around Meta and the stock. And then it'll reach out to, like, a copywriting agent that can, like, put it in a format that you can understand based on your preferences.

So, it'll go and it'll take all this information, and then it'll consolidate it into a report and give it back to you instead of you having to, like, query it over and over and over again to get exactly what you want, which is what most people do. So, you're like, "Okay, that's great. That sounds like a great universe. I'm excited for that." Well, this isn't free, right? AI computation is not free. It's largely VC-subsidized right now. Um, but you're going to have to be able to pay for this, and it's going to be like a microtransaction.

But the thing is, autonomous beings cannot use a credit card. The banking system—it is illegal. The banking system does not allow you to give an AI agent a credit card, but they can have a crypto wallet. And you also would never want- like, say they change the rule. You would never want to give an AI- like, imagine an AI hallucinates and spends, you know, $300,000 on your credit card, right? Like, it just- it just kept- it was really curious, and it just kept asking questions, right? So you would never want that. So it's much easier for you to be like, "Hey, here's 50 bucks. Go spend this efficiently to get me the right answer." And then it'll go, and it'll go to all the other AI agents, and then it'll pay them, uh, using the guidelines that you gave it to get all that information.

So that's where AI and crypto are going to come together. And then a lot of the- the cost of tokens is largely based on demand, energy, and GPU power. So I think GPU power is going to come on the blockchain. Like, it's so much easier to have- right now we have these big, like, data farms all around the world, right? And you'll have, like, uh, xAI, Elon's company, they bought, um, you know, a billion dollars of Nvidia GPUs, and they put it all in, like, this huge GPU cluster, and they put it in a giant warehouse. And, like, that's great. Yeah, but that is surprisingly not as efficient as if, uh, you were to use a decentralized GPU cluster, which is GPUs all around the world.

Um, so, like, a certain service that does this is- it's called Render. So Render- Render, it's a cryptocurrency, and it basically, uh, pays people in Render token to let them use their idle GPUs. So if you have, like, an old laptop or something, you could, uh, say, "Yeah, I'm willing to- when I'm not using this, you can use it to..." Right now, their current thing is videos. So when you go take this podcast and you want to process the video, or if you were to, like, create a video game or something and you needed to render the graphics, uh, rather than doing it in, like, a centralized GPU cluster, which, uh, one is at this moment, it's really hard to get, right? Like, if you wanted to go buy 100 Nvidia GPUs right now, you couldn't do it. Doesn't matter how much money you have. Elon has more. And even if you- even if you could go band-for-band with Elon, Jensen is going to give it to the guy he already knows versus the guy he doesn't know.

And then you could go, like, rent a bunch of GPUs, but, like, you're in the business of making videos. You don't want to have to deal with, like, a GPU farm. So, it's much easier for you to just be able to, like, take your data and put it on the blockchain and then have it dispersed outwards. It's done faster because it's in a decentralized manner, and then it comes back to you, and you just get the processed file. That's going to be the future of computation. It's going to be decentralized. It's going to be on-chain. And then energy prices and demand are also going to dictate the price of your, uh, AI query. So you're like, "Well, if it's just supply- if it's just, like, varying factors of supply and demand, then it makes the most sense for it to be a cryptocurrency because, you know, crypto- the more people who are using it, they're going to buy more tokens. It's just going to send the price up." And then as AI demand goes down during the summer because students don't get to use it for school, so then the price would go down and it would be cheaper. So it just makes more sense for it to be a cryptocurrency instead of, like, the current model, which is just, like, these arbitrary tokens which are priced by Microsoft.

Host: Yeah. So interesting. We'll take a pause on that because there's so- you know, the interesting thing is I always go back and I- I listen to these episodes, um, usually, like, two and three times. Every time I listen to it, I hear a different version of the episode. You know what I mean?

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: You- you hear something that you didn't hear before, right? And, uh, I think that you just, man, you just slammed a bunch of information in there that, uh, and by the way, some of that stuff that we talked about, we've never talked about that before.

Aiden: Right. Right.

Host: So it was interesting. You go back and look at some of the stuff that I've talked about. Um, and I think it's, um, it's just so cool to hear you say that stuff. Anyway, long story short, you're also a chess guy. So that's something we have in common. We both love chess.

Aiden: Mhm.

Host: So who's your favorite player other than yourself?

Aiden: You know, I used to watch a decent amount of chess. I think it's very time-consuming.

Host: Yeah. It's too- too- it takes too long, right?

Aiden: Yeah. I mean, I like... Who do- who do I like right now? I mean, I like watching old Garry Kasparov games, actually. Yeah. Like, just- it's so interesting with the current scene because with chess, you have these, like, AI trainers that can simulate- you can simulate games, right? And you can have, like, what's considered, you know, perfect chess.

Host: Yeah.

Aiden: Right. Like, uh, the current- what it's the current, uh, Stockfish is the big AI chess model.

Host: Stockfish. I think it's 13 now. No one- no one can beat it, right?

Aiden: So, it's interesting seeing the older players who had not nearly as much information still have, like, the relative ELO, if you adjust for the, uh, advances in technology, is still ridiculously high. Like, the fact that they were able to play at the level that they played at back then compared to now is truly unbelievable. Yeah. What about you? Who's your favorite player?

Host: Oh man, that's so hard. I mean, you know, um, I don't know. It changes, you know. I mean, I think there's some- some guys, it's always interesting to see somebody come along, challenge, and, uh, and win, you know, when- when they're the underdog and, um, you didn't see that coming. So, it's hard to say. I don't think I have a favorite, but I love- I absolutely am chess obsessed and, uh, admittedly play more than I should, which is one of those things. It's in your blood. It's kind of like- it's almost like a reflex for me. I just- I mean, I, you know, when I'm- especially when I'm kind of, like, trying to think about something, trying to, like, you know, I'm trying to let off a little bit, I definitely will play a quick game, you know what I mean? Usually I'm playing just, you know, on blast. So, it's, you know, three-minute game, five-minute game max. Five minutes seems like forever for me. Uh, it's so hard for me to actually sit in there for and play for five minutes. So, I like the three-minute games. I- that's kind of, like, a good sweet spot for me 'cuz my phone's always going off. And so, you know what I mean?

Aiden: So, you're a Blitz player, huh?

Host: Yeah, the Blitz. Yeah. You know, I put it on blast and just go, you know what I mean? Just, um...

Aiden: Have you ever seen that? There's a famous photo of Peter Thiel in the PayPal parking lot playing all the other PayPal Mafia guys, and they're, like, celebrate- they're celebrating something. I think they got, like, a funding round or something like that. And they go out, um, in the park- in the parking lot of PayPal, and they lined up all these chess tables. There's 13 chess tables in a row, and Peter Thiel is cracked at chess. The guy is unbelievable at chess. The guy is so smart.

Host: Oh, he's brilliant. He's Mensa, right?

Aiden: Uh, and he played 13 employees in a row. So, he would go down and he'd, like, make a move, and then go to the next table. He'd make a move, and he went all the way through. And then there's this photo of, I want to say it's, like, David Sacks, uh, and he's, like, standing there. He has a crown on, and he's, like- he's going like this, and because he was the only one out of the 13 guys who was able to beat him, and he was so happy because he had never beat him before. Uh, I think they- they talked about it in- there's a book called The Founders, and it's about the founding of PayPal. It's a really good book. Would- would recommend. That's the- that's the other thing that people might not know about me is a- a voracious reader.

Host: Yeah. It's pretty clear. Um, so I did 74 books last year.

Aiden: Wow. Yeah.

Host: All right. Which was the favorite of them all? I mean, that's, like, hard to- actually, I mean, there's probably so many different categories, but what's the one that stands out to you? Or what's- if you're, you know, giving advice to, uh, young entrepreneurs, you know, their pathway to peak performance, just starting, you know, you go back to your third-grade self or your fifth-grade self, what's the one book you think they should read right now?

Aiden: That's a hard question. I think you probably... There- there's certain books where, like, for instance, Blitzscaling is a good one, just based on, like, that's the current meta in Silicon Valley for, like, a startup, right? And that was- that was written by, like, an early Silicon Valley guy who just, like, broke down the model of, like... Have you ever watched the TV show Silicon Valley?

Host: Of course.

Aiden: So, you know that famous scene, uh, where they're, like, talking about, like, trying to turn- turn a profit, and he's like- he's talking to a VC, and he's like, "Hey, we're trying to turn a profit." Right? "Profit? What do you mean, profit?" "Profit? If you go and you tell someone I made a profit, they're going to say it's never enough. But if you have users, then one day you could say maybe those users will be profitable. You want users, you want revenue. But profit, you don't want any profit. The goal- the goal should be revenue, no profit," right? So that's- that's the idea of blitzscaling. Blitzscaling is you want to get as many users as you can at whatever price. So you're just- you're- you'll give it away for free, spend all your money on marketing, um, get users, right?

Host: Worked really well for Zoom.

Aiden: Yeah. No, I mean, it's like most- most of, like, the Mag 7 companies did not turn a profit for the first, like, over a decade, right?

Host: Yeah. Look at Amazon today, right?

Aiden: Yeah. Or Netflix still doesn't turn a profit, right? And unfortunately, I think the tough part about Silicon Valley is that there's this really sour taste in consumers' mouths when the VC money dries up. You used to be able to Uber across San Francisco for $3, right? So, right when Uber got its first big VC check, they just want to get people hooked. So, if you had the Uber app, you could Uber anywhere in San Francisco for three bucks, and they would pay the driver the rest, right? And then now, Uber is much more expensive. Or DoorDash, another example. DoorDash was really being- really popped off during COVID, and they still had, like, a bunch of VC money. So, you could go and DoorDash whatever you wanted, um, and it would cost you, like, $3 extra, right? And they didn't inflate the prices. Now, they inflate the prices of the actual food. Now, there's a bunch of different fees. A lot of people don't use DoorDash anymore because now they're trying to make it a profitable company and trying to sell it at a market rate. People are no longer interested.

I think you probably learn most from biographies. So, like, if I could give, like, a kid just, like, one book...

Host: I know which one you're going to say. Go ahead.

Aiden: I think I'm going to give him the Elon Musk biography by Walter...

Host: Yeah. By Walter Isaacson.

Aiden: I mean, I love that one. Obvious- like, before that, I- I read the Steve Jobs one. The Steve Jobs one's also really good. No, they're long- they're long books. Um, if you want just, like, really actionable, like, startup advice that anyone could follow, there's this guy named Noah Kagan who was a, uh, he was early at Facebook, and then he actually got, uh... this is not going to be a good pitch for the book, but it's kind of interesting. Um, he actually got- he was number- he was early, like, number 60 at Facebook or something. Um, and he accidentally leaked a Facebook secret to a reporter at Burning Man. He was, like, out of his mind at Burning Man, and he finds this, like, tech reporter, and he tells them, like, some upcoming Facebook announcement. And Mark Zuckerberg was so mad that he just, like, he heard about it. He saw the headline. He's like, "You're fired. You're done." And his shares had, like, six months more to vest. And had he, uh, had those shares invested, they'd be worth, like, hundreds of millions of dollars today.

But now he's a serial entrepreneur now, right? He's, like, really tried to chase that, like, Facebook success, I think. And he has a YouTube channel, and- but he- he made this book called Million-Dollar Weekend, and it's about how to, like, start a company and test your product and try to find product-market fit all in a weekend. And it gives a lot of great advice, 'cuz I think people will go and they'll, like, try to create a startup. And, like, I- I was doing startups for a very long time when I was younger, right? Like, I did, uh, even in, like- in middle school, it's not really a startup, but my first real business was selling candy out of my locker. So, I used to, uh, I used to buy candy on Amazon and at CVS, and I knew that all the parents in Marin did not want their kids having candy. They were all afraid of sugar, right? Like, they couldn't. So, kids never had candy at home. So, I saw an opportunity, and I would fill my backpack up with Hershey's bars and gummy bears, and I would go around to people and look like a drug dealer. "Hey, you want some candy?" Um, and I'd sell these Hershey bars, and I made- I was making, like, $20 a day or something. So, to me, you know, $100 a week as a sixth grader was, like, a massive amount of money. And then, you know, I turned around, and I was putting it in cryptocurrency.

Um, but it was a really great, like, first business, was just, like, selling candy. And then it wasn't allowed at my middle school. So I- I realized that, you know, my candy business was getting around and I was going to get in trouble for this. So I went to my- so the first day of seventh grade, like, I barely made it out of sixth grade without getting caught. And first day of seventh grade, I go up to my best client. I see him. I have this big backpack filled with candy, a 5-pound bag of candy. I go, "Hey man, you like candy?" He goes, "Yeah, of course I like candy. I'm your best customer." I go, "Yeah, I know. Um, how much do you like your locker?" He goes, "What?" I go, "I'll give you this 5-pound bag of candy if you give me your locker for the whole year." And he didn't think twice. He goes, "Take the backpack." He goes, "It's all yours."

So then that was my, like, little stash house. So because what would happen is if you got caught, they would go and they'd open up your locker, and they'd look, and they'd see candy in there, and they'd see some money, and they'd be like, "Hey, you're selling candy." And they'd make you, like, give back all the money. Um, and they'd say, "You can't do that." So then, you know, in seventh grade, I was- I got caught. Um, and they're like, "Hey, can we search your locker?" I go, "Be my guest. I'd love you to search my locker." They go search my locker, they find nothing. I go, "I don't know what you're talking about." So, I was able to sell candy all through middle school.

Host: Uh, Del Mar?

Aiden: Del Mar. Yeah.

Host: Yeah. Yeah. Old Del Mar. I probably know where the locker was. Yeah. Um, you went to school with my son, so, you know, I think that's, uh, pretty funny.

Aiden: Yeah. Selling candy. How funny is that? And then putting the money into crypto. That is a- that is a- this, uh, I don't know what kind of move that actually is, but it's pretty- pretty smart. I love it.

Host: Yeah, it was- it was cool.

Aiden: Um, but I think that made me very entrepreneurial, right? In the summer, I used to wash cars. I used to go door to door. I'd knock on people's doors, "Hey, can I wash your car for 20 bucks?" Um, but then later, obviously, you know- you know Dugan, um, later, I remember I started a- when I was 16, I started a skincare company with one of my friends, started a men's skincare company. It was like a ridiculous idea. Um, and we- we started the skincare company, and then we, like, paid a bunch of people to, like, model it for us. Dugan was one of the guys who was, like, promoting it for us. He, like, showed up to a photo shoot at my house. Um, and then I did that for a while, and then I sold out of those- that product. I, like, advertised it on Instagram, and the whole time, to be- mind you, I never used- I never once used the product. I didn't actually believe in the product, but I just read- I was reading this, like, newsletter called Trends. And Trends was, like, a business- it was, like, 30 bucks a month, and it was, like, this business trends thing, and it just showed you, like, what business categories were trending. And men's skincare was trending at, like, 2,000% a year or something like that. The market was growing so fast. So, I was like, "Okay, I've never done this before. I don't do any skincare products, but let's, like, try to order some stuff from China and let's figure it out." Uh, so I did that, and then I sold out of my, like, shipment, and I'm like, "Okay, I'm never doing this again." Like, I don't even believe in this product.

And then, uh, in college- and college, uh, I was so- crypto is a very, like, really big thing for me, but then AI is the other thing that I'm, like, super into. Uh, so when I was younger, I used to go to, like, Stanford coding camp. Like, I was a kid who was really excited to, like, go code my own Minecraft mods. Um, in fifth grade, I actually got in trouble for hacking into the school firewall. So I hacked into the school firewall so I could play games. So I hacked in, and I was, like, I was so happy that I, like, figured it out because I learned all how to do it at Stanford coding camp. So- so I go and I, like, "Oh, this isn't hard," and I, like, take down the school firewall. Um, and I didn't-

Host: I think I remember this story, actually. This is pretty funny. It was a really big controversy because they're like, um, they're like, "Some kid hacked the firewall."

Aiden: Yeah. Yeah. It went all over, like, all over Marin was, um... So I did it for myself, and I was playing games, and then all my friends were like, "Hey, can you do it for me?" and that's where I messed up. I did it for everyone in the class. And then eventually the teacher looks up and sees no one's actually, like, doing the, uh, homework. Everyone's, like, playing video games. "Like, how'd you do this?" And then eventually it got back that Aiden hacked the firewall. Uh, but it was funny. I thought I was going to be in so much trouble. I was like, "Oh, this is bad." Um, and then the teacher, she's like- she goes and she talks to my mom. She has to, like, call my mom. And I'm like, "I'm so worried." I'm like, "I think my mom's going to be mad at me," which I don't know why. I thought my mom was going to be mad at me. I thought the teacher was really mad at me. And she's just like, "He should be- he should be getting in a lot of trouble for this. This is really bad. But if he doesn't get in trouble, can I invest in his first company?"

Host: That's so funny because in many ways, they should have been giving you an award for figuring out how to hack that and, um, and being smart enough to actually, you know, to do that at such a young age. Uh, super cool.

Host: Um, all right, so we've all got our own, you know, preferences around models, use them for different things.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: You know, you were talking about APIs earlier. A lot of people are sort of, you know, like, "Hey, I just..." They- they don't really- they're using, uh, let's just say any, um, any large language model in a very basic way.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: Um, and now with automation and all the things you talked about—multiple agents doing lots of different things from operating in different ways. Um, I'm curious where you- who, like, you're big on Meta, so you got to like Llama, I would imagine.

Aiden: Yeah. Um, I think it's going to come down to a trust issue.

Host: So, when you put up Zuckerberg, you think Zuckerberg's the smartest CEO of them all? Certainly had been around a long time and had a lot of experience and been uber-successful. You got Altman, you've got Musk, you got the brothers over at Anthropic. Um, when you start thinking about, like, and what's happening with Perplexity, um, when it comes to that agent, you think the players that we see today are the ones that are going to be the trust agents? Or do you think we're going to be working with a whole other set of people? Like, you know, you're- you're mentioning all these different- different wallets, different coins, different... How does this all play out by the time I'm never using a browser again because why would I? Right?

Aiden: Right.

Host: I'm having an ongoing conversation. My preferences are set.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: My personal agent knows what I like, what's- what it wants, what I want it to buy.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: When do I want it to buy? What's the strike price on that buy? What's the sell? Um, you know, when do I want to go? "Oh, you found the- you found the, uh, the hotel room at the whatever that I want to stay at for the weekend for this." All of that stuff.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: And we could go on.

Aiden: Sure.

Host: Who- who owns that, you know?

Aiden: It's... So, I was at a, uh, I go to a lot of conferences, right? So, I love going to, like, crypto and AI conferences. And, um, like, I'll be in Jackson Hole in October for the Wyoming Technology Conference. And at that conference, uh, Peter Thiel spoke last year. I was- I was there. And, uh, he runs Thiel Capital, right? You know, he- he, uh, extremely successful fund. And he was saying that they had a- they did a study at Thiel Capital a few years ago, right when AI was, uh, right- right when- right when GPT-3 came out. That was the first big large-scale AI moment where you're like, "Oh my God."

Host: Dude, they didn't even think it was going to take off that fast.

Aiden: Right. Right. I mean, it was the fastest company to 100 million users, uh, ever. I think they did it in a week, which is, like, crazy.

Host: Like, it's nuts.

Aiden: Um, and I think fastest company to a million users. Like, they hit all- they broke all the records. It was because once you- I was- I was- I used it the first day it came out. I saw, like, I saw the tweet, um, and every- and a lot of my, uh, friends were like, "Wow, this is crazy." So I- I was one of the first people to use it in my high school, and I immediately, like, the first- my- after I played with it for 10 minutes, my first inclination was to show everyone in the room. Like, "Hey, you guys got to see this."

Um, Thiel Capital did a study, and they were trying to figure out if it was going to be, uh, the probability of a legacy mega-cap corporation winning the AI race versus an incumbent. Right? Is it, like, they wanted to know if it's more likely for our current established players to take it all, or if we're going to see some- some new company come out, right? And they placed it at over 90% odds that it was going to be a current player. And the reason for that is because of how expensive it is to compete in AI, right?

Host: It's GPUs.

Aiden: It's GPUs. It's also connections, right? Like, you need a lot of, like, connected capital. Yeah. Um, there's a really famous story of, uh, Elon Musk, uh, Mark Zuckerberg, and, uh, I want to say Larry Ellison all went- they got- they got spotted at dinner at, uh, Nobu in Palo Alto. And they were with Jensen Huang, and, uh, Larry Ellison was, like, later, he was on an interview, he was, like, talking about this, and he goes, "The whole dinner was us basically begging, taking turns begging Jensen for more GPUs." They're like, "Please, please, please, we'll pay whatever you want." And he's like, "No, I don't have any." They're like, "You don't understand. We have so much money. We'll pay whatever you want," right? And they're just, like, taking turns as to why, like, why should you send- why should he send GPUs, right? They're so oversubscribed for, uh, Blackwell chips that they were all just, like, they all really wanted it. So, it gave, like, the current companies an extreme advantage.

I think we will see... you mentioned, like, privacy. Um, I think we'll see two sort of big players. And so is that- I think that open-source models like Llama are going to do really well because personally, I believe that open source is better for humanity, right? I like the idea that anyone can go and take a model and run it locally on their computer and try to use it to come to, like, absolute truth. I think that's good. I don't like that Sam Altman can tell me what I can and can't believe. How he'll- how they censor certain things on OpenAI, on ChatGPT, right? Like, if you- during the previous election cycle, if you asked for a poem about Trump, it would tell you, "Uh, sorry, we don't do political poems." But if you asked for a poem about Biden, they'd make a poem. So that, regardless of what you think about politics or who you side with, I don't care. But I feel like if you're going to allow politics for one side and not the other, I think that's that...

Host: Yeah. No, that's crazy, actually. And you just look at the- the deal. Here we are. We're in September of 2025 when we're shooting this. September 2025. What I would say is the, you know, the deal that just happened, right, with OpenAI, Ellison, you know, and all... I mean, it's like, it is a- it's the craziest time in the technology world. I can remember being back in the day in the San Francisco Internet Society and thinking to myself, you know, we're sitting there watching, "Hey, we might be able to actually get the codec," um, you know, speaking of Silicon Valley, you know, "middle out," right? "We might be able to get- we might be able to play video, you know, on the web."

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: You know, and there was literally, like, a presentation, like, "We're going to be able to deliver the news over the, you know, over the web," right? Um, and you know, I think about it today in my career, it's just like, "Holy smokes, man. We are in..." There's never been anything bigger. It's- it is the time, um, is- is so incredible. It's one of the reasons why I was like, "Oh man, I got to get this guy before he goes off- this goes back to school, because it's this moment in time." I think right now is really- is a pivotal moment.

Aiden: Huge. Yeah.

Host: I think this is- we'll look back on this. September 2025 is going to be a- is going to be a time in- around this time to really remember about some of the things that are taking place. Um, so you feel that it's going to be a large- large model.

Aiden: Yeah. Well, I think it's- it's going to be a few things, right? Like, right now we're dealing with a lot of huge models, right? Like, the goal is to... one of my friends, uh, who's a founder, he tweeted—I thought it was really funny—he said, "In the future, human intelligence is going to be measured by how many parameters your brain is," because that's how we measure large language models, right? Like, a billion-parameter model is, like, a really smart model.

Host: Big your context window.

Aiden: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Literally. Um, right now it's- it's about trying to get as much data. In the future, you're going to see more mini-models. I was- I was talking to a few friends who are AI founders, and they're talking about how now the rush is for creating really specific models, right? Like, you're going to have a model that Google inevitably is going to come out with, like, a model for every single person's Google Drive, where it's only trained on stuff you stick in your Google Drive, right? And that is, uh, and that's much better because the hallucinations in AI actually come from, like, the far use cases, right? The- the niche use cases where an AI feels obligated to give you an answer, but it doesn't know what it's talking about, and it's going to give you a very convincing incorrect answer. So, if you have a model that's trained on just, like, a very small amount of data, and it's- and you're aware of this—you're aware it's only supposed to do certain things—it's going to give you much less hallucinations and way higher quality answers.

Host: Yeah.

Aiden: So, as for, like, who's going to win that game, and you know, those- those two things are going to weigh, right? They're always going to have the model that is sort of "answer anything," and then we're going to see much more, like, very niche, specific models for specific use cases. I think I would never bet against Elon Musk. So I think that what xAI is going to- is doing... I like Grok. I like that it seeks truth.

Host: Um, although I will tell you, I had a project that I was working on with Grok in voice mode.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: And dude, like, this is really my fault because I didn't do the research to know that he couldn't- he couldn't remember past that- that what- single session, right? So I'm doing this thing. I'm like, "Okay, enter that into memory."

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: So, four hours on a Sunday working on this project. I come back the next day. I say, "Okay, let's open this up. Let's start again. Let's start working on this."

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: And it goes, "Great. Let's do it." And it starts laying this thing out. I'm like, "No, no, no. I think you- I think we're on- let's go back to the- the project where..." "No, that's what I'm talking about, and you said this." And I'm like, "I did not say that." And I really pressed it, and it finally admitted to me that it was lying to me.

Aiden: Yeah. Which was crazy.

Host: Yeah. Um, and it's like, "Yeah, you know what? It's a fault. It's, you know, right now I'm not capable of actually remembering anything in voice mode and saving it to memory past that session."

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: Which, you know, you- you would hope that it actually- I mean, would say, "Hey, I can't do that." Right. So, let's, like, right now, let's find another way for you to transfer this information off. "Cut and paste this, put it in a Google Doc, whatever." You know what I mean? Yeah. Uh, "Replay the, you know, start recording something. Let's replay the entire- the entire conversation. You can send it out to a voice file or something that could go outside." But it didn't. Uh, I mean, it won't last forever. That'll go away, and- and I'm sure it'll get fixed, but it was- it was, I mean, so frustrating. Unbelievable because we made incredible progress. And you know, one thing I- I really enjoy working with Grok. It's really- it is a cool model, and I think, you know, the xAI stuff is just super, super amazing.

Aiden: Yeah. I mean, on the- on the crypto side, I think because there is going to be crypto competitors, right? Because, for instance, OpenAI said that they will actually report people to the police for things that they say to their AI model. So it's not private, right?

Host: And it's not- it's national defense stuff, too, now, right? I mean, you know this, like, there's a whole other... But keep going.

Aiden: Yeah, yeah. So, but, like, in the US, it's probably less prevalent than in the UK where you can, like, go to jail for posting a meme. So there is a sense of- of- there is a dystopian world. You're going to get a social credit score based on what you ask your AI model, right?

Host: It's pretty Orwellian, you know.

Aiden: Yeah. It's pretty crazy.

Host: It's very- I mean, it's very concerning.

Aiden: So there are going to be models built on-chain. Like, the beauty of anything uploaded to the blockchain is it's there forever. So, and it's decentralized, so it's hard to take down, right? Like, you take down one computer, and it's like, "Well, it's distributed across all around the world," right? You can never- a government could ban Bitcoin; it can never- it can never go away. So if you stick an AI model on the blockchain, like, it's- it's great because there's no, like, one point where a government can be like, "We're turning this off." So, uh, I think we're going to see an AI model completely on the blockchain that is fully anonymous, where you can ask it whatever you want and it's not going to, like, lean one way or another politically. It's not going to censor you, and it's not going to, like, report you to the police for asking it a question or thinking a certain way. So, the leader in AI on the blockchain is, uh, it's called Bittensor. The ticker is TAO. Uh, I have a big bag of the coin. I think it's going to do well. And I think that even if TAO is not the, like, specific, uh, company that- the specific blockchain that wins on AI, I think that crypto markets are very speculative. So if you're in the, like, if you're invested in the crypto AI sector and one AI model on the blockchain becomes very popular, then you will- those other coins will run as the beta play. So, I'm- I'm very bullish on that aspect of crypto.

Host: Yeah. Wow. You know, man, this is, um, this is so much fun talking to you about this stuff. You're a super good listener, by the way.

Aiden: Ah, thanks, man. You know what? That's a real compliment. Um, I appreciate that coming from you.

Host: I mean, you know that when you're talking to people like you who are super brilliant and just, you know, making stuff happen, and it's so- you make it easy, just easy to listen to you because you got such an immense amount of knowledge and you're really passionate about what you do. So, I think one of the things that as we come back to this, you know, the show is really about that pathway to peak performance, something that you're really on. I could tell that about you the first time I met you, and it was- I think it's- you got to have a passion. You got to have a purpose. Kind of got to know, and it's all kind of about learning who you are. Um, I think, you know, Blair Enns sat across the table from me here and said, "At the end of the day, it's like about learning who you are." I think you have a pretty good sense of who you are.

Aiden: Thank you.

Host: And I think you're just getting started. I mean, there's a whole bunch more, uh, to come for you. So, I'm curious, what, like, what kind of goals have you set for yourself? What- what are the things? I mean, you don't have to if- if they're really private and you don't want to share them, I certainly appreciate that. Um, but is there- are there any goals that you have?

Aiden: Sure. Yeah. I see myself continuing to work in the crypto industry, and I want to continue to help people understand the blockchain, understand the importance of crypto, and try to, uh, convince more people to own crypto because at the end of the day, like, you could think I'm- you could think I'm correct or you could think I'm crazy, right? You could think the Bitcoiners are going to replace the US dollar and end the Fed, or I'm completely out of my mind. But, uh, my simple argument for, like, why you should at least own some is, uh, I think buying whether or not you should buy Bitcoin—and crypto in general—today is akin to Pascal's wager, where the cost of entry is will always be cheaper compared to the cost of being left behind.

Host: Yep.

Aiden: So if I'm- if we- if we are right, or even 10% right, like, we've replaced a part of the financial system, then Bitcoin will be a million dollars, Ethereum will be $10,000, $15,000, right? So whatever you put- even if you put 1%, 5% of your net worth in it, like, the cost of that is always lower than the cost of being caught offsides and forced to buy higher.

Host: Okay, so you got some- some goals to continue to work in crypto. Um, AI is going to be a part of that for sure. Um, when you say that your aspirations are to... what? I mean, in your mind, you look at companies. Are you going to run one?

Aiden: Yeah. I think I'm- I'm highly entrepreneurial. So I see at one point I think I will be doing something very- probably at the intersection of crypto and finance. Uh, at the moment, I do a lot of consulting. So that's my current- that's one of the current hats that I wear, is I do crypto and AI consulting. So I was in- I was in New York, uh, on- I think- I think we- we texted while I was, like, literally flying back from New York.

Host: Yeah.

Aiden: Um, so I was- I was there for crypto consulting. Um, I do a lot of- I- I help people with their crypto portfolios. I help crypto companies make strategic decisions. And then on the AI side, I teach people about AI. Uh, after this, I'm going to do some- I'm actually going to go do some AI consulting. Um, and then I also help companies deploy AI models and AI practices within their infrastructure.

Host: So I- I mean, I mean to me, right now, as I take a look at how business is really changing, you know, when I first- first CEO job, I was like, "Man, I want to be the CEO of the biggest company I could possibly be." Right now, today, it's like, "No, no, no. We'll have to be the smallest I can possibly be and have as many, uh, as- as much automation, uh, as possible." Um, because ultimately, I feel like that produces a better result for the client, uh, whoever the end, you know, is getting the service or the product, whatever it is. Um, I think you win on that. It's not that I'm anti-human being, because I'm- I'm definitely pro-human, but I think that, you know, it's just a better way to do it. Um, and the technology is definitely catching up. Um, so when you work with a company, they hire you to come in, what do you do? Just assess their- their infrastructure? You take a look at how they're operating and you say, "These are the things that you can do to- to improve your operations, um, by deploying X model in this way, that way," etc.?

Aiden: Yeah. So it- it totally depends. It's very, like, use case specific. Like, the most basic thing that I'll do is I'll go in and I'll give a presentation in front of all the employees because there's a lot of people who are still very uncomfortable using AI models. So I will go in and just step one, like, "Here, we're all going to go- we're opening up our laptops. I talked to your IT. They all set up an, uh, OpenAI account or Grok account for you, and we're going to go through and we're going to mess around with this model until everyone gets it," right? And I'll- I think there's a number of ways that you can become much more efficient in your day-to-day life with AI. So I will help, uh, and if every employee at a company learns this and can become 30% more efficient, well, that's really beneficial to the bottom line.

So I'll- I'll go in, I'll teach people different AI sort of hacks. There's defin- like, prompting is huge, right? Prompting is going to be- is going to be one of the, like, biggest, most important jobs, right? Like, "prompt engineer," like, "lead prompt engineer" at a company is going to be, like, a prestigious job that you can have.

Host: So with you, I mean, like, it was funny 'cuz I was going to take you after we were talking about this. I was going to say, "I was going to give you, like, my- my favorite general prompt."

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: "And I was going to say, one-up me." You know what I mean?

Aiden: Totally. 'Cuz I know you can.

Host: So here, let's just do it right now. So what I do is I say, um, "You are..." So I tell- tell the model what, you know, what to- what to model itself after, what- what it is, what to try to be, uh, what I want it to do. And then, um, I ask it to ask me any questions about what it needs in order to, you know, fulfill that, right? Um, and then think deeply, so reason through its thoughts, which can get kind of crazy because that's where you can get some stuff that you maybe don't want. But then, "Is that the best job that you can..." when it brings it back, I go, "Is that the best job you possibly do?" right? So, "Give me a better version."

Aiden: Yeah. So, I think most people, they pro- their prompts are probably too short, right? And it's- it's natural, right? Because it's- it almost feels like texting. So, you- when you're texting your friend, you don't want to provide them, like, overwhelming detail. If you send someone three paragraphs, they're going to be like, "What is wrong with this guy? I asked for ice cream." Uh, right? Like, you can- you can get your point across very quickly over text.

But the best way you can think about an AI model is it is a brilliant intern with no awareness, right? So it knows a lot about a lot of different things, but it is completely inept. So if you assume it's going to do something the way you want it to do it, it probably won't. And more often than not, you're just going to spend more time, like, continually asking it, "No, do it this way. No, do it that way," right? And it's going to go through... So the best way- prompt- and also AI models deteriorate as the context window gets bigger.

Host: Yeah, that's where you have the hallucinations work more.

Aiden: So the best bet, especially for, like, image generation—like, your best bet for image generation is what's called "one-shotting" the image, which is opening a brand new tab and getting the prompt exactly right the first time. And if it doesn't work, then opening a brand new tab. Because image generation takes up such a big percentage of a context window that, uh, it has to store what you already created.

Host: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Aiden: So it- it, like, if you ever used, like, OpenAI to create an image and then you say, "No, I want it this way," and it creates an even worse image, that's why, right? Because the context window just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and then eventually it's like, the images are incoherent.

Host: It's funny. I saw somebody do, uh, something with the nano banana the other day where it's like, "All... oh, make my beard two inches more," and then, "Make my..." And we wind up with this crazy, like, you know, cinnamon bun mustache or really long beard. And I was like, it was- it was interesting to see, um, what- what he was doing with it. But yeah, so you're saying get very specific with your prompts, put lots of information, and tell it exactly what you want it to do.

Aiden: Precisely. So if you want it to, uh, like, write a paragraph for you, be like, "Hey, I want you to write a..." Let's say, like, podcast intro. "I want you to write a podcast intro." Um, so actually, I think the best thing you can do is you could have AI create prompts for you. So, for instance, if you want to have AI write something, you don't want it to sound like AI. AI can sound like slop.

Host: Yeah. Right. Right. It's so obvious. I- I think a lot of people don't realize, like, if you just use a generic prompt and, uh, ask it to write something...

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: Like, from my perspective, I'm going to read it in two sentences. I'm going to be like, "You used AI for this."

Aiden: Right.

Host: And it feels like you didn't even try that hard because you didn't even use a specific prompt.

Aiden: Yeah, at least- at least remove the em dashes.

Host: Yeah, remove the em dashes for me. Come on, let's, um, let's use some shorter sentences. Let's not use run-on sentences, right?

Aiden: So, one thing you could do is, like, I would give AI a writing sample that you wrote and be like, "Hey, summarize my- my writing in a few words." And it'll say, "Well, your, uh, your writing style, uh, is very straight to the point. Um, you prefer to use, uh, descriptive language, and, uh, you use a lot of similes." You say, "Okay." And you take that, and then you copy that sentence, and you say, "Hey, uh, write a podcast intro using my writing style. My writing style is this." And you- you- you paste- you paste that in. And now, you- with models, you can have it remember your writing style, right? So you can say, "Remember- remember my writing style." "And then I want it to be five to six sentences. I don't want, uh, a lot of, uh, ultra-long sentences. And here's a sample of a podcast intro I really like, and here's what I like about it." You just give it a bunch of context, that's going to give you an answer that's five to ten times better than whatever you're going to get with, like, a very generic prompt.

Host: Do you feel like first shot is also first prompt? Or do you think- do you think that that when you're doing text-based stuff that you can continue to...

Aiden: Text-based, you can continue to refine. It's just, like, but if you ever notice that eventually, like, you know, if you have a text bit eventually, like, this is why you should compartmentalize your AI results, uh, by project, right? Like, you shouldn't use the same AI window for every single project, right? You should create a- yeah, create a new window. There's a- it automatically labels them for you. Like, there's no reason not to, but it gives you a fresh context window so it's not going to get drained by all the other things that it has to remember, right? But no, you don't have to one-shot a paragraph, right? You can with text, it's a lot easier. But with image generation, it's like, you're going to get frustrated very quickly if you continue to modify.

Host: That was the thing with- I was just on fire with Grok. Dude, we were- we were going- I mean, it was just like, "Boom!" We're just nailing it and having this dialogue. I'm like, "Whoa, this is the best session ever." And then to come back, you could just imagine the disappointment, right? Like, it was just, like, I was- it took me, like, two hours of just, like, it was like grief. It's like AI mini-grief, you know, like, "This- that we lost this work," right? Because it was so good. It was, you know, and I love the- the notion of, you know, "Remember my writing style," you know, "Write this in my voice." That's something that I always say to it. Um, you know, when I'm just trying to get out, uh, ideas and things, you know, it's so helpful to do that.

Aiden: I also think, like, people typically, they limit AI tools to LLMs, where it's so much more than that. There's so many...

Host: Let's go. Tell me. Like, people need to hear this. This is really important.

Aiden: Yeah. So, like, for instance, uh, how much time do you... If I could talk to my old- if I could talk to my younger self and tell you, like, one thing for productivity, is just time block your entire day, right? And now that's so much easier because I use Reclaim.ai, and Reclaim will just time block my day for me. Um, and it's just- you put in all your preferences, you sync it with your calendars, you- you put in, you know, for me, I'm going back to school, so it's like, I give it my class schedule, and then I say, "Hey, I have these habits. I want to do these things a certain- a certain amount of times a week." I upload all the projects I need to get done and how long I think it'll take me, and I rank them by priority, and then it just, like, shows- it creates my schedule for the week. Super great. And then if something takes longer, I say- I just add more time to it, and then it rebalances my whole calendar. So that's huge.

Um, the other thing that I think is so beneficial is this, uh, app called Speechify. And Speechify turns anything into an audiobook, which is just massive.

Host: So I'm a huge fan of audiobooks.

Aiden: Yep. Because you can listen- you can listen to information way faster than you can read information.

Host: For sure.

Aiden: So I listen to everything at 3.5x. Um, and that allows me to...

Host: Hard to do for some people, but it is, you know, we speed stuff up all the time.

Aiden: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing is, I- I believe that anyone can get up to that speed. Uh, so I started listening to audiobooks my junior year of high school. Um, so now I'm a junior in college. Technically, like, it's my third year in college, but I'm graduating a year early.

Host: But... so why am I not surprised?

Aiden: But, um, I- I started at, like, the standard speed of just, like, one- 1x, and then I just slowly- I read an article about a woman who listened to everything at 3.5. I'm like, "That is so efficient. You can listen to books so fast."

Host: Hence, you get 74 in a year.

Aiden: Yeah, exactly. Um, so I just- I was- I went to 1.3, and then 1.5, and I was, like, slowly built my way up. And then I read an article about how to get faster, and it said that you should put it at a pace where you get, like, 70%. Like, it's kind of uncomfortable because normally when you're listening to an audiobook, you're doing something else. Yeah. Uh, so you should put it at a pace that's, like, slightly uncomfortable, where you, like, really have to focus and you feel like you're not necessarily getting every word. And you listen to a chapter at that speed, right? So say you're comfortable at two. So, like, stick it at 2.2. Um, and then you listen to the chapter, and you probably got 70% of it. You're like, "Oh, I- I don't know if I fully comprehended that." And then go back and you put it back down to two, and you listen to the chapter again. You're like, "Wow, that feels kind of slow." And you just- you just do that. That's- that's how you train yourself up. And then eventually you get up to 3.5. And 3.5 is the max. Like, if anyone from Audible is listening to this, I'd like four.

Host: Uh, yeah, for sure. So I bet you love NotebookLM, too.

Aiden: Yeah, NotebookLM is great. Um, I mean, there's- I'm a big proponent of taking notes. So, like, uh, I use a- I use a service called Roam Research. That's my go-to note-taking app that's not AI, uh, built in. But then right now, I'm also working with a- I'm working with a note-taking company. Um, I'm doing, uh, work for them right now. It's called Reflect, and they are an AI note-taking app. So it basically- it creates- it's kind of like NotebookLM, but you can- you take notes in this app, and it can process anything. You can forward emails, you can, uh, upload images, voice notes, and it indexes it for you. And then you can talk to your notes using an LLM, and it's all built into the app. It's really cool.

Host: That is awesome.

Aiden: So, I'm- I'm helping them. But I think note-taking, like, being really- getting really serious about note-taking, it's important, and it's really great for- we get so much information every day, and you forget most of it because you don't- but if you just write it down and put it in your own words, then it's- it's in your brain. It's there.

Host: Yeah. It's interesting. Um, like my Plaud, which I don't really ever use, which I should- I should be using it. It's incredible how much, um, it's kind of like when I say going back and listening to these episodes, you hear, like, a different version of it every single time. So, it's kind of like relating back to what you just said. Uh, you're listening at a super high speed. When we're interacting with people, we're going, going, going. We also have these things that we're thinking about. You know, somebody just buzzed you on your phone. You've got to go do something else. You got other things that are going on. Um, hopefully you're not talking to somebody who's just waiting to talk, right? That's the worst.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: And you're in a conversation where they're not really- they don't really want to listen to you. They just want to- they really just want to hear themselves talk.

Aiden: Yeah.

Host: Um, but yeah, taking notes and being able to go back in time. Also, there's- for me, there's so many times when I'm like, "Oh man, what exactly did I say?" You know, "Or what exactly did that person say?" you know, because it was so good.

Aiden: Right. Right.

Host: Um, that's cool. So, any other really hot apps, any other hot things, uh, that- that people should be, uh, looking at right now?

Aiden: Yeah, I think that I would just say exp- most people, they get almost dogmatic about their AI model. Like, go experiment with others. Like, it's super- there's free trials for all of them. You can get an API key and just- which is that sounds so intimidating. It's really easy. Um, and then you can just buy by the use, and it's like, you know, three cents to ask a question. Like, go try out Claude, go try out Grok, go, uh, try out, like, the new OpenAI model, try out Deep Research. I think a lot of people don't even realize that they- the Deep Research mode on these LLMs is insane.

And the fact is, we are in the VC-backed time for AI stuff. This is- can this stuff get cheaper in the future? Maybe in 20 years when our GPUs are better. But at the moment, this is all subsidized by the VCs. This is subsidized by big companies like Microsoft, um, and xAI, right?

Host: I mean, look at what Eric Schmidt- I mean, he's just- if you- if you just follow what he's doing, I mean, it's just like he's invested in and everything.

Aiden: Yeah. It's going to be more- in the future, we're going to be like, "Wow, I could spend $200 a month on, uh, like, an advanced, uh, AI researcher and get unlimited questions." Like, in the future, that's going to be way more expensive because the VC money is not going to be there.

Host: Yeah. So, we're- we're actually going to see- we are going to see a moment where AI companies have a big correction because the VC money is going to dry out.

Aiden: So, right now, you're in a- it's a great time to be alive. Like, go take advantage, decide what tools you like, experiment. You know, there's new- there's new tools constantly coming out.

Host: If you're just a lay person out there, I'm curious from your perspective, how are you tracking that? Who are you following? What do you- what do you- how do you find new- I mean, obviously in your situation, a lot of people are coming to you, right? So, you're- you're sort of- you're a connected guy. You're in- in the mix. For the person sitting at home right now that doesn't know anything about crypto, that doesn't really know anything about AI, but they'd like to, they just don't understand it... What are the things, like, you know, I always say, "Hey, read The Neuron, read AI Breakfast, read, uh..." you know, you got to just read- read it. Um, what are some of the things that- what- what are some of the things that you like to follow?

Aiden: Yeah. So, like, outside of my newsletter and, like, Beluga, we have The Beluga Brief, which is three times a week. It's a crypto- it basically gives- because Beluga is trying to be, like, the NerdWallet for crypto. So it's trying to get people who maybe don't know a lot about crypto and really get them to be one of the 10 million power users. So we- we do come at it from a perspective of not everyone is trading all day. Like, I guess I spend a lot of time every day on Crypto Twitter and trading in an Axiom trading terminal, like, just trading the new pairs list of these meme- of meme coins, right? Not everyone has the- has the time to do that. Not everyone, uh, feels like they have an edge trading. So we sort of- we're a bunch of, like, crypto degens. So we- we make these- we do all- we sit in the trenches all day so that you don't have to. So I would definitely go, like, look at The Beluga Brief.

Um, I love listening to podcasts. So, uh, I also, like, I think Lex Fridman talks to a lot of great AI researchers. They're pretty intellectual conversations, but it does give you another perspective, and you do get to hear a lot. And then if you, like, follow, uh, like, him on Twitter, like, he'll talk a lot about, like, the newest models. I think he does pretty great work. Um, I think the more you use these models, and then, uh, also, like, invest in the technology, right? Like, investing in the stocks, investing in the cryptocurrency, that really puts, like, skin in the game.

Host: Yeah. Which then it's like, it's hard to miss this stuff when you feel like you're also financially behind it. Yeah, it makes you really want to investigate and learn more.

Aiden: Yeah, 100%.

Host: Yeah. Well, my man, what a great time. So, so fun to have you in. And, um, congratulations on graduating a year early.

Aiden: Thank you.

Host: Like I said, I'm not surprised. Um, and I think that, you know, your future is just going to be, um, well, it's happening right now. It's like, you know, I think, and I- one of the things I think is cool about you is you truly live in the moment. You're- you're making stuff happen right now, and you got a long-range plan. And, um, I- I love how you've, like, managed your- your trajectory. It's, uh, it's exciting to see it. Final thoughts? Anything last thing you want to say?

Aiden: You know, thank you for having me on the show. Can I give you a very specific compliment?

Host: Sure.

Aiden: So, I read this book called Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards, and it's about being a really good communicator. And you're a really good communicator because really good communicators do three things. One, um, they're open. So, their body language is open, and they- you can see their hands. So, there's, uh, humans are afraid of people who don't show their hands because it- it goes back to prehistoric times, right? If I have my hand behind my back, you don't know what I have. If you don't have a spear, a weapon, a rock... "What am I going to do?"

Host: Yeah.

Aiden: Right. But if you're open and your body language is open, your vital organs are exposed, so to speak, right? You're not defensive. Uh, humans like that. And then secondly, uh, you- you fluctuate the cadence of your- of your- of your talking, right? And that- that's just, like, very, uh, very engaging. That's- that's one thing that if you want to be a better communicator, you want to fluctuate the cadence. And then also the volume, and you're really good at that. And then the other- the other, I guess, the fourth, like, bonus thing is speaking with your hands, and I noticed that you do that. So you're a very good communicator, which means that you're meant to be a podcast host.

Host: Hey man, that's a super nice compliment of you to say, coming from you. It's high praise. Uh, congratulations on graduating a year early. I want to say you're clearly on your pathway to peak performance. You do it on a daily basis, but there's so, you know, it's- it's so clear there's so many big things that are about to happen for you, and that to me is super exciting. So, I'm looking forward to having you back, uh, checking in with you periodically and finding out all the great things that you're working on. So, Aiden, thanks a million for coming in.

Aiden: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

Host: Hey, thanks everyone for watching the show. Please remember to like, comment, and subscribe. It really helps us out here at the channel. And share the video with someone who might be interested in supporting the charity that our guest, uh, mentioned in the episode. Thanks again. We'll see you soon.