Office Hours: The Next Big Thing After Smartphones, Scott’s Favorite Things To Do in LA, and Advice to a 79-Year-Old Parent

0:28Support for this show comes from Aura Frames. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so orders you now to get it in time for the holidays and support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

0:45When it comes to managing your company's spend, finance leaders face a brutal truth. You often have to choose to move fast and lose control or carefully control money and slow everything down. But not anymore. Brex breaks that trade-off. Brex is the intelligent finance platform that helps you spend smarter and move faster. With Brex, you get high-limit corporate cards with built-in expense management, plus a team of AI agents that handle manual finance tasks for you. Brex's AI agents do all the stuff you don't want to do, like collect receipts and memos, enforce your policy, and monitor transactions for abuse and fraud, all according to your rules.

1:27So you're free to focus on the business. Over 30 ,000 companies run on Brex, from Anthropic to Zoom. Join them at brex.com.

1:49Welcome to the Profit Pod's Office Hours. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propgmedia.com. First question. Hi, Scott. This is Alex from Berlin. I'm reading all those reviews on the R, including yours on the Apple Vision Pro. And my feeling says that we are missing one important point in all of these reviews. All of these reviews are looking at the shortcomings of those goggles and how clumsy it is and how much friction is associated.

2:36But there is an interesting question that's beyond all of the current state of VR and goggles, and that is, what is the next big thing after the smartphone? And that's a trillion-dollar question. It probably won't be solved in the next one to three years, but I would love to get your thoughts on this. Are these VR goggles a preview of what's about to come? So I would love to get your thought on that. Thanks for the question, Alex from Berlin. In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone and really gave birth to kind of, you'd argue, the smartphone era. There's about, I think over 2 billion iPhones have been sold since its introduction.

3:26AR and VR adoption, it's still early, and it's estimated or projected to continue to have enormous growth. According to Statista, the number of people using VR hardware is projected to reach 98 million people this year, while 23 million people will be exploring advanced AR technology. They estimate that by 2027, both AR and VR will exceed 100 million users globally, Still a long shot from the billions of global smartphone users. According to Goldman, Goldman Sachs, that is, I call them Goldman because we're very close. And it was estimates from Goldman are that the AR-VR market will reach 80 billion by 2025.

4:00Meanwhile, Citigroup has estimated the sector will grow by more than$2 trillion by 2035. Look, I just don't buy into AR and VR. I shouldn't say that. I don't buy into VR. I buy into AR. I think augmented reality, being able to hold up your smartphone, you're in Soho, you're walking by, you see a cool apartment building. You think I'd really like to know what's available there. You hold up your phone, you put it into real estate mode. It shows you what apartments are for rent, how much it is, the layout, the floor plan. You click speak to a realtor. Someone comes on and says, yeah, that building is great.

4:30I can send someone to show you an apartment, whatever it might be. You flip on something. I don't even know what they are, but it says this is who's here, who's interested in having, you know, meeting up for a beer. I think there's all sorts of things you could do with augmented reality. I thought the next big thing was going to be voice. And actually, voice assistants declined in usage for the first time last year, which really shocked me. But I still think voice is going to have a lot of resonance and progress. I also think AI is going to be big. I'm an AI optimist. It's obvious you read my post on the mixed reality headset from Apple.

5:08I don't think it works for a few reasons. One, first and foremost, I think it's a Neanderthal that's this heavy browed Neanderthal that's headed for extinction because as a species, we don't want shit on our head. That doesn't make us more attractive or more utile. If, in fact, the technology got to the point where it could be embedded even for two or three grand into a pair of Persals or Ray-Bans, I'm down with that. I think it would be huge. according to Mark Zuckerberg, that is about 10 years away. The thing that struck me here is if Apple had released a car, I believe Tim Cook would have driven out in the car and gotten out of it.

5:43I think his buddy Bob Iger that was there would have been in the passenger seat. Did you notice that neither Mr. Cook or Mr. Iger got near this headset and didn't put it on? Did you also notice that the people who are allowed to beta test it could only use it for up to 30 minutes? Why? Because at about 30 minutes, it starts weighing on your head and you start feeling nauseous. So I just I kind of think this thing is over before it begins. Now, having said that, a lot of really thoughtful pushback from people. One, my old business partner, Ian Chaplin, who was always kind of a pragmatic technologist and the secret sauce in our success early on.

6:19He said, Scott, why wouldn't you want to travel with a 4K monitor wherever you go? That kind of makes sense. Put it on whether you're watching movies or doing a Zoom. You have this amazing 4K monitor that immerses you in whatever the situation is that the entertainment is. Okay, I get it. A lot of B2B applications, the next thing of spatial computing. Even my podcast co-host Kara Swisher has said, we've got to move from just staring at a screen or at our phone. I get it. I get it. And to be fair, Apple has the brand, the staying power and the capital to probably iterate and get to something reasonable.

6:52I don't think this makes any sense. I think it was started or greenlit during an era when Tim Cook wanted a call option against the metaverse taking off such that he didn't get caught flat-footed by his nemesis, Mark Zuckerberg. One of the things I love about Tim Cook, other than he has added more shareholder value than any individual in history, is that I just know deep down he hates the Zuck. And I like that. I like that a lot. Well, seems like a nice man. Seems like a nice man, doesn't he? Anyways, I would just like to admit that headsets and crypto just don't work and are never going to be more than niche markets.

7:26Crypto is never, it's about a trillion dollars right now. It's worth a third of what Apple is worth, the whole market. And I don't think headsets work. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. What is the next thing? I think the next thing is generative AI. I see my son, my 12-year-old, is on these design AIs coming up with new pictures. I'm using it all over the place. How many times use the blockchain today? Jesus Christ. Genitive AI, you're saying what I think is the next thing. I thought it was going to be voice. I thought 3D printing was stupid. We have an amazing 3D printer called China. The internet of things never made any sense to me.

8:02I don't need my blender to speak to the internet. Wearables, sort of, sort of. I think the only wearable that works So basically your iPhone, the Apple watch, which is testament to Apple staying power. I don't think it was a great product, but they've kind of hung in there and they now produce more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry. So if anyone could figure out how to turn chicken shit into chicken salad, it's Apple. But let's be clear. I think a mixed reality headset is, in fact, chicken shit. Thanks for the question. Next question. Hi, Professor G. This is Tristan in London. I hope you've enjoyed your first year in London.

8:39Apologies for the weather. I'm going in the opposite direction. I am about to get on a plane to LA. I'm in my mid-30s. I have a job that I love. I work in an architecture, construction, and engineering multinational, consulting on innovation, learning, and development project. I get to work with great people building amazing things. the company has a great ethic and shared culture which is why i'm making this transfer i have 101 questions i could ask you a move like this affects everything from family friend finances relationships so what i want to ask is what do i do in that first week in that first month in that first year in the u.s i don't doubt you are a scholar of transatlantic culture and differences.

9:30What do I do to make this moon a success? Thank you. So I don't see these questions before people ask, but this is one of those questions where I wish I had some time because I think I could come up with a really thoughtful answer, but I need a little bit more time. But anyways, here goes. I think the first thing you want to do before you get there is reach out to as many people as possible who might know people there and say, I'm really up for meeting people and say yes to everything and go to a bunch of stuff and try and meet a bunch of people. I didn't I didn't get a sense for whether you have a partner or a spouse or kids or not.

9:59The second thing I would do is just logistically, I would try and create a cocoon. One of the things I don't like about L.A., I've lived in five cities, L.A., San Francisco, Miami, New York, and London. The only city I would not live in, again, is San Francisco. And I don't buy into all the shitposting about what a terrible city it is right now. I think it's the most beautiful city in America aesthetically. I just didn't like the weather, specifically the monotony of the weather. It's always jeans and sweater. It's like, oh, it's 60 degrees. and I found it was politically extreme. I don't like political extremes on the right or on the left.

10:30Anyways, having said that, I love LA. I love LA. You get up there and in February and it's 65 and clear and you're like, Jesus Christ, I love LA. What to do, my brother? First off, first off, the only thing that's not great about LA or one of the only things that's not great about LA in addition to the massive increase in uptick in homeless people, which is obviously disturbing, is that you're in your car too much. So I would just logistically in terms of your work and where you decide to live, try and create a little bit of a cocoon such that you're not in your car all goddamn day. And it's easy to find yourself in your car all day if you don't really plan.

11:04So give up on some space, give up on some amenities if you can live near your work such that you're not commuting all the time. Oh my God, Hollywood Bowl, Zuma Beach, the counter for breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel, head out to Coachella in Palm Springs or just go to Palm Springs, go down to Laguna Niguel. I mean, L.A., go to El Coyote and have margaritas and kind of mediocre Mexican food, but just absorb the vibe. Walk around Hancock Park. Oh, my God! L.A., Los de los Ángeles. I love everything about L.A. There's nothing, it's like what not to do, my friend. Go to the rooftop of the Waldorf for a fancy lunch.

11:49Take a girl you're interested in impressing or a guy you're interested in pressing to Nobu in Malibu. And I think you want to give yourself a year before you make any snap judgments, because I live in London now. I've made a snap judgment based on the hell that is London's winter and think, you know, I don't like it that much. But the reality is it's a great city. And now that the sun is out, I'm like, oh, I love it here. The dog loves it here. The dog can run. The dog can run. And I've been going to a bunch of Premier League games, which, you know, kind of sands over all the rough edges. But LA, LA, oh my gosh, the Latin culture, the Mexican food, the entertainment, the fabulousness that the entertainment industry provides it.

12:28There's just so many incredible fun things to do. In-N-Out Burger, for God's sakes, it's worth it moving to LA just for In-N-Out Burger. I like to go to the one, the first and last thing I always do when I go to LA. I fly into LAX and then I go to that great In-N-Out Burger on Sepulveda. That is my kind of port of entry. That is my ease of entry. That is how I ease into Los Angeles. I absolutely love the hotels there. Drive up the one or the 101 or whatever it's called, the Pacific Coast Highway. Stop in San Francisco and then San Luis Obispo. And then Carmel, the ultimate collision of sea, sky, and land brought to you by God that is California.

13:07I just absolutely love Los Angeles. So drink it up, my brother. Say yes to everything. right now, start finding people who live there and saying, hey, I'm moving to LA. I generally find people are pretty friendly in California or everywhere. And say yes to drinks, say yes to breakfast meetings and just go out and find your people. But oh my gosh, what to do in LA, what not to do in LA. It's a wonderful, wonderful city, a collision of sunshine, of creativity, of Mexican and Latin culture, of interesting architecture, of Hollywood, of old Hollywood. I used to live in a silent film, Movie Star's House, Pola Negri, I think her name was in, where was I?

13:50I was in Los Feliz. Amazing. Los Feliz is amazing. What to do, what not to do, what not to do. And the first thing is realize how fortunate you are to be your age and have the opportunity to move to a great place such as Los Angeles. I am jealous. You're gonna have a wonderful time. Well done, amigo. Welcome to Los Angeles, the city of angels, the city of angels. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us.

14:19Support for the show comes from Train Dreams, the new film from Netflix. Train Dreams is a film that stays with you. It's about a man standing alone against the backdrop of a changing America. What makes it powerful isn't the scale of a story, but its simplicity. It's a reminder that a life doesn't have to be big to be meaningful. That quiet endurance, grace, and decency are their own kind of heroism. In a world obsessed with progress, Train Dreams asks us to take pause and reflect on our relationship with loss, nature, and the need to belong. And maybe that's the modern journey. Not domination or conquest, but learning how to live with change, grief, and tenderness without losing our sense of purpose.

14:58Train Dreams captures the tension between progress and preservation, between the machines that build our world and the nature that still defines it. In a time when we're all searching for purpose, Train Dreams feels timeless because the frontier isn't just a place, it's a state of being. Train Dreams, now playing only on Netflix.

15:20In business, they say you can have better, cheaper, or faster, but you only get to pick two. What if you could have all three at the same time? That's exactly what Cohere, Thomson Reuters, and Specialized Bikes have since they upgraded to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. OCI is the blazing fast platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs, where you can run any workload in a high availability, consistently high-performance environment, and spend less than you would with other clouds. How is it faster? OCI's block storage gives you more operations per second.

15:59Cheaper? OCI costs up to 50 % less for compute, 70 % less for storage, and 80 % less for networking. Better? In test after test, OCI customers report lower latency and higher bandwidth versus other clouds. This is the cloud built for AI and all your biggest workloads. Right now, with zero commitment, try OCI for free. Head to oracle.com slash vox. That's oracle.com slash vox.

16:31Welcome back. Question number three. Hi, Scott. This is Steve. I'm probably not in the same demographic mix as most of your followers, but still, I've been a fan for several years. I'm a 79-year-old American living in Singapore with two teenage daughters. Yep, 79, and started having kids when I was 60. and the love of my life. I've been successful in starting and operating for many years a boutique international executive search company in incredibly business-friendly Singapore. I also have the option of operating my business in lower-cost Thailand, where I have a house and a second office. My elder daughter has just been accepted for fall admission at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts with a good scholarship.

17:22My younger daughter will start college in three years. Less any scholarships, I'm facing a million-dollar tab, plus or minus, for two U.S. college educations. I'm realistic enough to know I may not be around to see my daughters launch and grow their professional careers. But there's a quote I read somewhere which says, Children are our gift to a future we'll never see. I like that sentiment. I have two questions for you. I'm not rich, but I'm okay. What financial or investment options exist to help ensure the money I do have is protected enough to see my daughter through college while leaving something for me and my much younger wife to exist on if we need to move to a lower-cost Asian country?

18:16And question two, if you were my age with limited time left, what words of wisdom and advice would you pass on to your sons that they would carry in their hearts for the rest of their lives? Thanks in advance. I'm sort of stilled by that question or those questions. First off, Congratulations. It sounds like you have, you know, kids who love you. You're living in Singapore, which must be an incredibly interesting experience. You it sounds like you were raised in America and you had the courage and the adventure to go to Singapore. um so let me start with investments the uh you're at a stage where you're going to want to limit your risk because you don't have a lot of time to make it back again your risk profile is different than someone who's my age much less someone who is 25 so uh the basic algorithm for economic security and i just wrote a book on this is one focus find what you're good at and find something you're good at that people pay you for.

19:21It sounds like you found that. The second is live below your means. Live like a stoic. Recognize that things won't bring you happiness. Experiences do. And your balance in your life will be a function of some sacrifices early in your life and living below your means. And it sounds like you're still making money. And this is where Thailand comes in. I think Bangkok is arguably, there's always sort of an arbitrage, a life arbitrage by moving. And the two biggest arbitrages I see, and what I mean by that is moving to a place that has kind of the benefits of an urban or an urban sensibility and professional opportunity, but the costs of a more rural or lower cost environment, such that there's an arbitrage there, a lifestyle arbitrage.

20:05The lifestyle arbitrage in the U.S. used to be moving from California, New York to Texas or Florida, respectively. That margin has been starched out as more people move to Austin, housing prices skyrocketed as they have in Florida. I moved to Florida in 2010. I bet the value of our home has doubled or tripled, so it's no longer an arbitrage for people moving. There's an arbitrage in two cities that I see that it's an incredible arbitrage right now. The first is Mexico City, incredible art scene, incredible food scene, still reasonably priced, and Bangkok. I just think it's an amazing city that's very cosmopolitan, interesting.

20:38If you have professional opportunities, I think Bangkok would be an interesting place. Now, at the age of 79, you want to think about things like health care, but Bangkok has, I think, actually pretty good health care if you have the money. But if you could maintain a Singapore salary living in Bangkok, you'd be able to save more money. And then, so it's focus, time, stoicism, or living below your means. And then it's time of which you don't have 40 years. If you start saving$100 at the age of 21 a month, you're going to have a million dollars by the time you're 65. And you have about a hundred thousand if you start saving at 35.

21:15So, you know, just to be blunt, time is not on our side. I'll say that I'm 58. The key for you in one word is simple, diversification. And that is going into a series of investments and there's now bots that can do this and Charles Schwab can help you with this that will help you make sure that you are sufficiently diversified. This is where you do not want to be. You do not want to fall in love with one, any one asset class, geography, sector or much less in any individual stock, because the wonderful thing about the markets is nobody knows. You may think that Tesla is unstoppable and they may be, and they may perform really well and the stock could get cut in half.

21:49You just don't know. So simply put, you want to be incredibly diversified and also pay low fees. So things like Vanguard, ETF, index funds, you know, there's just no, there's not going to be an easy lunch here. I don't think you want to take outside risks to try and hit it out of the park. And it doesn't sound as if you need to. What would I tell my sons at 79? You know, I wish I had been more, a couple of things. I wish I'd been more expressive of my emotions. I was so insecure when I was young. I wasn't affectionate or kind, as kind as I could have been to other people. I wish I'd been more expressive of my emotions, told people when I admired them, told them when I wanted to be friends with them.

22:36So one, just err on the side of being kindness and also be aggressive, express interest in friendship, send emails out to people who you want an interview with, approach, start talking to a woman you're attracted in the line in front of you at Starbucks. There's nothing wrong with expressing romantic interest as long as you make that person feel safe. So I'm trying to tell my kids to be more aggressive, that to be aggressive is fine. One of the wonderful things about masculinity is we are more risk aggressive. So I would say lean into that. And that doesn't mean harassing anybody. That doesn't mean being obnoxious, but it means taking a lot of initiative.

23:14And then more than anything, and this is what my mom, I think there are two reasons for my success. The first is the generosity and vision of California taxpayers and the regents of the University of California that gave me a near-free education from two world-class institutions, specifically UCLA and Berkeley. But the other thing was that I think I grew up with a sense of love, even though it was just me and my mom, and that love translated to confidence. My mom, just every day in big and small ways, convinced me that I was wonderful. She was just so, she just thought I was so wonderful and communicated that through physical and non-physical affection.

23:53What I would want to tell my sons, and I try to tell them, is just how much you love them and how wonderful you think they are. Because I just think that that's something you carry with you the rest of your life as a young man, that your father just thought the world of you and just loved you immensely. Thank you so much, Steve. Best of luck to you. I'm really curious where you end up. Congratulations on your daughter being at USC. She must be very impressive. As much as I hate to admit it, USC is an amazing school now. and the fact that you're 79 and still working means you're healthy. You just sound like you're kind of killing it and living and continue to live a life of richness and reward.

24:32Thanks so much for the question. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at Prop2Media.com. Again, that's officehours at Prop2Media.com.

24:51this episode was produced by Caroline Shagrin Jennifer Sanchez is our associate producer and Drew Burrows is our technical director thank you for listening to the Prop G pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network we will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy No Malice as read by George Hahn and on Monday with our weekly market show support for this show comes from Nordstrom Oh, what fun. Holiday invites are arriving, and Nordstrom has your party fits covered. You'll find head-to-toe looks for every occasion, including styles under$100. Dresses, sets, heels, and accessories from Bardot, Princess Polly, Dolce Vita, Naked Wardrobe, Coach, and more.