WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.000 Hey, what's up, Toby? We've made it to sick to 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:06.719 episode. I almost 60. I'm getting happy over 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:13.080 a year. No, like episode 30. Happy 30. I know 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:16.420 the halfway point to 60 as you point out the 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:18.500 halfway point. We're on our way. Celebrate. We've 00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:21.320 made it. I know we've made it over half a year. 00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:24.440 So that's exciting. Love it, man. Today's topic 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:28.899 is supply chains ripped from the headlines lot. 00:00:28.989 --> 00:00:32.490 So if there is, if there is one thing that moves 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:37.210 very, very smoothly in our world that humans 00:00:37.210 --> 00:00:41.590 actually touch, it is when you manufacture millions 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:46.049 or billions of something. Thinking about that 00:00:46.049 --> 00:00:51.829 for a second, like millions of units, that's 00:00:51.829 --> 00:00:56.570 beyond a human scale. Like that is such in synchronized 00:00:56.570 --> 00:01:00.960 dance. I tried knitting for a very brief time 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:02.840 when I was expecting my first child and my mother 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:04.939 -in -law was like, you can hold water in that 00:01:04.939 --> 00:01:07.739 pot to cozy. I was knitting it so damn tight. 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:10.939 There's no world in which I could bust out, you 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:16.319 know, a dozen pair of Nike Flyknits speakers 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:20.799 in any capable amount of time. Today's supply 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:24.680 chains are powerful. Yeah. Well, and they're 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:27.659 super efficient. Right because when you have 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:33.140 when you have to receive a million form factor 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:38.480 iPhone Cages that the motherboard gets put in 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.599 and I don't know I don't even know all the pieces 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:43.219 and parts, right? Right, but there's someone's 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:46.480 making the camera. Yeah, and It's not Apple or 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.480 maybe they are but they're not making the camera 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:50.379 in the same place where they're assembling the 00:01:50.379 --> 00:02:19.550 thing Yeah one of the Things that I've done in 00:02:19.550 --> 00:02:21.530 my career as I went through a McDonald's fry 00:02:21.530 --> 00:02:27.389 factory Pretty close and what was amazing is 00:02:27.389 --> 00:02:31.370 the lack of people. Oh There was a guy driving 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:34.370 a truck and there was literally a guy with a 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:37.349 hose that was they put all the Dump truck dump 00:02:37.349 --> 00:02:40.229 the potatoes and a guy with the hose was basically 00:02:40.229 --> 00:02:44.229 hosing the potatoes into a little trough and 00:02:44.229 --> 00:02:47.479 Then you got to the end and there was fries Like 00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:50.280 it was fascinating, but there was literally no 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:52.879 people, but like from a process standpoint, it 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:56.979 was so flipping cool. I bet. Like they had, and 00:02:56.979 --> 00:02:59.080 this was, I mean, it was probably a decade ago, 00:02:59.099 --> 00:03:01.219 but like they would fry these fries and if they 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:03.599 had too much sugar, they would either be green 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:06.840 or black, right? Because of the sugar, the sugar 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:10.259 content. And they had a little eye and if they 00:03:10.259 --> 00:03:12.780 saw something that was out of spec from a color 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:16.599 standpoint, it shot air. To like long enough 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:18.680 with the conveyor belt or yeah, so it came off 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:20.479 the conveyor It was like a little it was like 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:24.400 a little fry waterfall and it if it saw if the 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:27.960 little fry waterfall Had like it was too green. 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:30.900 Yeah, or it had black spots It was like little 00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:33.520 air little air guns just shooting the stuff out 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.960 and then I think they fed that stuff to the cows 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:40.020 or something anyway, it was but from a from a 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:44.259 process standpoint you literally have you know, 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:48.680 you have a multi -million dollar facility that's 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:58.259 built on multi -million fry boxes sold every 00:03:58.259 --> 00:04:05.300 day. It was ridiculously efficient. I think about 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:07.780 that a lot, and then with all the trade stuff 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:13.139 that's going on, it makes me think. McDonald's 00:04:13.139 --> 00:04:15.240 fries are still going to be at the factory that's 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:19.779 pretty close to my house. And what happens with 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:24.660 Apple? Obviously they were going to put a tariff 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:26.379 and then they're not. I'm not sure we know what's 00:04:26.379 --> 00:04:29.939 going on, nor do other people that are even in 00:04:29.939 --> 00:04:32.600 charge, which is fine. They'll figure it out. 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:36.259 Something will happen or won't. But if you think 00:04:36.259 --> 00:04:40.980 about those Apple facilities that are in China, 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:44.459 You can't just pick those up and say, Hey, let's, 00:04:44.459 --> 00:04:48.939 let's, let's move to Mongolia. No, that's, that's 00:04:48.939 --> 00:04:53.800 super interesting that the evolution too. Um, 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:56.879 we were talking a few minutes before we started 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:00.100 about this and just kind of laughing about traditional 00:05:00.100 --> 00:05:02.259 supply chains dating back hundreds of years. 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:04.980 Oh yeah. You know, and like the textile business, 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:08.480 one of my favorite examples is Berkshire Hathaway 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:12.779 was not just a holding company. No, they're a 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.339 textile company and a terrible one. Yeah, but 00:05:15.339 --> 00:05:19.180 what a great name. Sure, it sounds very dignified, 00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:23.540 you know. I'm going to go, that's the IZOD holding 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:26.740 company. It doesn't have the same ring, too. 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:32.959 But, you know, so many of our union rights and 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:35.980 labor rules are the byproduct of, I'm thinking 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:39.680 about the triangle shirt factory fires. I think 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:43.399 it was in Chicago. 20s and 30s and millions of 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:45.959 people got trapped because the owners didn't 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:49.040 want them going out and smoking on the fire escapes. 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:53.240 Yeah. Right. And so I hope that's right. Some 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:55.399 some history that will go. Actually, Toby, that 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:59.680 was 1918. And you're peeing off that. I don't 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.399 know. Anyway, the idea that there's a there's 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:06.180 a number of reasons why heavy industry, light 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:08.379 industry left the U .S. as we were trying to 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:11.300 recent regulation and try to bring just some 00:06:11.300 --> 00:06:14.139 of the rampant damage that comes with heavy industrialization. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:18.060 We sent it to another planet, also called Asia. 00:06:19.100 --> 00:06:22.339 And now all of a sudden we don't have those competencies. 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:25.579 I think about what is our supply chain here? 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:30.100 Our farming now is not 40 acre plots to sustain 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:34.379 a family or two. It's... 500 ,000 acre plots 00:06:34.379 --> 00:06:37.339 mass industrialization of corn products so that 00:06:37.339 --> 00:06:41.600 we can put in our gas tanks. It's super crazy. 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:44.660 Well, it's interesting you talk about textiles. 00:06:44.939 --> 00:06:47.259 When I think textiles, I think original textiles. 00:06:47.459 --> 00:06:53.100 I think England. That's where they were in Lancashire 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:58.740 or whatever city they were. And then they move 00:06:58.740 --> 00:07:05.069 to the US. to get closer to cotton. Yeah. Right? 00:07:05.189 --> 00:07:08.009 I ship it across the sea only to produce goods 00:07:08.009 --> 00:07:11.209 and send them back. So you're closer to the source, 00:07:11.790 --> 00:07:16.029 raw material, right? Then to your point, labor 00:07:16.029 --> 00:07:19.129 gets more expensive in the United States. It's 00:07:19.129 --> 00:07:22.230 easy to ship the cotton overseas or have it grown 00:07:22.230 --> 00:07:26.790 overseas. So it goes to China. Right? Then it 00:07:26.790 --> 00:07:30.399 goes from China to Vietnam and China upgrades 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.639 to chips, you know, microchips. And then, you 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:36.620 know, from Vietnam, it's going to go to Malaysia 00:07:36.620 --> 00:07:39.259 or somewhere else. But like, I don't see that 00:07:39.259 --> 00:07:41.879 coming back the other way. I don't think, you 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:43.259 know, China is going to be like, you know what, 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:46.060 let's be a textile producer. Or the US is going 00:07:46.060 --> 00:07:48.839 to be like, you know what, let's get into textiles 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:52.339 or go all the way back to England. Right. Yeah. 00:07:52.779 --> 00:07:55.540 The British are saying, we'd like to take back 00:07:55.540 --> 00:07:59.100 the brad cloth industry. We have a little island 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:01.139 where we can't grow half the things that are 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:03.660 necessary inputs. No, I think they're too smart 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:05.980 for that. But you're right, Chris. Once the genie's 00:08:05.980 --> 00:08:09.379 out of the bottle, once complex supply chains 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:11.680 have let their short, what are the implications 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:14.139 for that? I feel like we're at each of the consumers 00:08:14.139 --> 00:08:18.699 backed by trillions of dollars in natural resources, 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:21.439 but otherwise we're coming bankrupt, you know? 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:25.139 Well, I mean, like we are going to follow, like 00:08:25.139 --> 00:08:28.000 England's done okay. Right, but but ultimately 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.139 our the wealth is gonna get spread out over the 00:08:31.139 --> 00:08:34.919 US or over the world. Yeah, like But if you think 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:37.120 about like even cars, right like cars were in 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:40.659 Detroit, right like right US it was Detroit and 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:42.379 then there was obviously, you know, like it was 00:08:42.379 --> 00:08:45.980 more global because moving a car is easier is 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:49.799 harder than moving assured but Like even in the 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:54.120 US it went to it went to Japan. Yeah Right, or 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:57.779 it went to where's Like, well, now we have so 00:08:57.779 --> 00:09:01.539 much of like Hyundai and Kia coming out of Korea, 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:05.399 right? It keeps growing, right? Because Japanese 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:09.220 also only have so much industry. You hit a maximum, 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:11.460 right? Correct. And then all of a sudden you're 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:14.940 like, we need higher value goods. It's interesting. 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:16.759 What do you think the highest value goods are 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:19.679 that we produce here? It used to be education. 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:22.460 Like we used to be a destination for higher education 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:27.500 and we were producing PhDs and we were keeping 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:30.039 a lot of them and that fed our tech. I think 00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:33.600 I think I think I think it's talent you still 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.580 think it's talent today, but but but but we import 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:40.200 our talent. That's I mean like like how So like 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:42.860 apples apples, you know engineered in Cupertino 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:47.600 right like You know, you've got Amazon Amazon 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.480 web services right like out of out of Seattle 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:53.220 like and it's not to say that there's not a lot 00:09:53.220 --> 00:09:57.620 of other Smart people and you know China They 00:09:57.620 --> 00:10:00.799 got a lot of people there So they will do just 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.320 they will do just fine like the challenge ultimately 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:05.879 is like from a manufacturing standpoint the only 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:09.559 way this stuff comes back is through a major 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:13.340 like a Through a technology shift most mostly 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:15.559 right like trucks trucks have stayed in the u 00:10:15.559 --> 00:10:18.600 .s.. But trucks are big yeah, and in the major 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:21.120 markets in the u .s.. And so it makes sense that 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.480 they would they would stay here Tesla came here 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:30.620 because electric vehicles were a thing. And it 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:34.799 wasn't government incentives. And then the trading 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:39.539 of green stamps, green credits. I know this, 00:10:39.740 --> 00:10:42.299 but that's the heart of the business model, right? 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:45.519 All of their production is creating all these 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:47.480 extra green credits that they can sell to dirty 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:49.289 manufacturers so they'd have... don't have to 00:10:49.289 --> 00:10:51.090 clean up their operations. That's, that's been 00:10:51.090 --> 00:10:55.470 known since early 2000s. Um, and so, yeah, it's 00:10:55.470 --> 00:10:58.769 really interesting, but in the meantime, uh, 00:10:58.769 --> 00:11:00.870 I have, I've done work and know folks in the 00:11:00.870 --> 00:11:06.870 solar, uh, that long solar supply chain and an 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:09.669 early client would import what I would describe 00:11:09.669 --> 00:11:13.470 as dirt, right? But it was silica rich sand. 00:11:13.789 --> 00:11:16.330 They would import from almost anywhere in the 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:18.080 world, but they would bring it. civic Northwest 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:20.200 because we have all this hydroelectric, which 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:24.039 makes our, this is so inexpensive. Yep. And most 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:27.379 significant input for turning sand into poly 00:11:27.379 --> 00:11:31.600 silica is electricity or cycling gas. You've 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:35.000 got to electrify this. And so they would cart 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 it, you know, thousands of miles to take it one 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:41.980 step in the supply chain. We take those raw materials 00:11:41.980 --> 00:11:44.240 and distribute them thousands of miles to get 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:47.620 it to the next. Yeah. And so this has been a 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:50.759 known thing. And so even though, and this came 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.840 out of like the heavy manufacturing long before 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.740 we were in the business of solar panels or computer 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:01.899 chips, all this kind of heavy manufacturing was 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:04.740 already in place. Now that's been disassembled 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:08.460 and shuttered and offshored. So turning that 00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:10.899 key in the ignition is not as straightforward 00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:14.460 as we might want it to be. Well, cuz it's it's 00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:15.919 one of those things where it's like, oh, yeah, 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:18.320 let's just do this and you're like Well, let's 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:20.539 you know, if you just think about a phone. Yeah, 00:12:20.980 --> 00:12:24.240 like what do you have to do to get a phone? Like 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:26.460 from a supply chain standpoint. Yeah, right. 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:29.259 You've got the chip that's manufactured somewhere 00:12:29.259 --> 00:12:31.519 You've got you know, Ram that's probably made 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:33.740 it, you know micron right up the street for me 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:36.360 haven't like well actually funny story So I've 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:38.100 got a buddy that works at micron and they they're 00:12:38.100 --> 00:12:40.720 building building a huge fab. Yeah, right And 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:42.899 we're like, where does that stuff go? I mean, 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:45.759 I'm in Boise, Idaho. We're like, we're five hours 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:47.759 away from anything major, and that's Salt Lake 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:50.360 City. And that's not a whole lot to be happy 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:52.000 about. But if you want to go seven hours, you 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.559 can be in Portland or Seattle. World's largest. 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:57.019 Ten hours a year in the Bay. I mean, there's 00:12:57.019 --> 00:12:59.019 not a whole lot in between us. Anyway, I'm like, 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:02.120 where does this stuff go? One of my other buddies 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:03.779 was like, well, let's put it on a train. Like, 00:13:03.779 --> 00:13:05.519 would you put it on a train? Like, that would 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:09.100 be cheap. And my buddy that works at Micron is 00:13:09.100 --> 00:13:11.879 like, No, they'll just fly it. And I'm like, 00:13:11.940 --> 00:13:15.399 where to China? And he's like, these things are 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:20.259 so small. They'll just put it on a plane and 00:13:20.259 --> 00:13:23.940 they'll fly it to Shanghai or wherever that manufacturer 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:27.960 is because their supply chains are that short. 00:13:29.139 --> 00:13:32.000 Time is of the essence. That's incredible. And 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.259 so I was like, that's crazy. Yeah. So when we 00:13:34.259 --> 00:13:36.279 talk microchips, we're not talking the size of 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:39.929 your thumb. No, we're talking like. Very small. 00:13:40.370 --> 00:13:45.450 That's a suitcase full of microchips. Well, that 00:13:45.450 --> 00:13:49.629 explains everything now, Chris. It was just really 00:13:49.629 --> 00:13:53.629 interesting that they're spending billions of 00:13:53.629 --> 00:13:57.710 dollars, a couple miles from my house, only for 00:13:57.710 --> 00:14:04.690 them to most likely fly the stuff to China to 00:14:04.690 --> 00:14:07.710 put into the Chinese manufacturing something 00:14:07.710 --> 00:14:10.960 or other. It was, it was just very interesting. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:12.279 Like you can't like, cause where are you going 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:14.940 to truck it to in the U S? Like, I mean, who, 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:17.740 who's, who's manufacturing this stuff? I mean, 00:14:17.740 --> 00:14:21.480 you probably will, but like, yeah. The next step 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:25.659 in the chain though, we're in a world where transportation 00:14:25.659 --> 00:14:28.100 is relatively inexpensive now, whether it's whites 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.960 or boats or, you know, we've solved fundamental 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:34.080 transportation. I hadn't thought about them actually 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.899 flying chips. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. 00:14:36.899 --> 00:14:39.460 No, it was really interesting. Now, okay, let's 00:14:39.460 --> 00:14:42.799 circle back to process debt and why we have problems 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:45.820 in our businesses. Yeah, why are we talking about 00:14:45.820 --> 00:14:49.200 supply chain? Yeah, what is going on? You went 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:51.559 totally off topic. You talk supply chain. I love 00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:54.000 supply chain. You do love supply chain. I think 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:57.519 it's interesting in that when humans have the 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:03.500 ability to mass produce something, it is amazing 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:07.240 how efficient we can be. And in our day -to -day 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:11.419 jobs, We don't mass produce that many things. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:14.659 Almost everything is bespoke. And we don't even 00:15:14.659 --> 00:15:18.440 think about our work in that way. Boy, isn't 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:21.139 that true. Back to your potato sorter. Yeah. 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:23.779 Imagine if we had to peel the spuds by hand. 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:26.700 Yeah. Fetch them out of the fry grease with our 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:29.279 bare fingers. That's not a job, but somebody's 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.340 got to do it. And then visually sort it. That's 00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:36.820 impossible. Yeah. Yeah. But you had the same 00:15:36.820 --> 00:15:41.049 output every single time. Yeah. And a human could 00:15:41.049 --> 00:15:43.649 do that. A human could easily sit there and do 00:15:43.649 --> 00:15:46.169 that. But you had that same, you had the same 00:15:46.169 --> 00:15:49.009 input, you had the same output. And oftentimes 00:15:49.009 --> 00:15:55.690 in business to be cute, we have the same input, 00:15:55.769 --> 00:15:58.590 but we have a different output all the time. 00:15:59.889 --> 00:16:05.789 Sometimes on purpose, you want to have an impact 00:16:05.789 --> 00:16:08.850 and you know, obviously our our day jobs are 00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:12.450 political and, you know, you got to put food 00:16:12.450 --> 00:16:14.610 on the table. And so it's a little different. 00:16:14.669 --> 00:16:16.649 But I mean, I just think that the contrast is 00:16:16.649 --> 00:16:18.350 really interesting when your inputs and your 00:16:18.350 --> 00:16:20.990 outputs are always the same. It's amazing what 00:16:20.990 --> 00:16:23.970 you can do. But if you're changing both ends, 00:16:24.590 --> 00:16:27.690 it's amazing how messy it can be. And that's 00:16:27.690 --> 00:16:31.149 why our work can be so frustrating. It's funny 00:16:31.149 --> 00:16:32.549 you say that because what that made me think 00:16:32.549 --> 00:16:35.549 about, Chris, was the power of the ISO standards 00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:41.080 for And yet to your point, everything that we 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:44.519 do as humans, fingers on the keyboard is super 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:48.440 custom. I can't, I can't build a machine that 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:51.080 sends off the emails I need to actively communicate. 00:16:51.220 --> 00:16:52.799 We were talking about last week, right? Process 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.179 and the importance of effective communication. 00:16:55.740 --> 00:17:00.070 I can't do that at mass. Yep. Right. We can spam 00:17:00.070 --> 00:17:03.490 people at mass. We hear all these promises. You 00:17:03.490 --> 00:17:05.130 know, we get these LinkedIn things depending 00:17:05.130 --> 00:17:08.450 on what your channels are. But yeah, that's a 00:17:08.450 --> 00:17:12.410 great call out. So the enormous volumes of manufacturing 00:17:12.410 --> 00:17:14.990 and supply chains really does assume that we 00:17:14.990 --> 00:17:17.009 can do millions of things identically and that's 00:17:17.009 --> 00:17:20.990 the desired goal. Well, and I think if businesses 00:17:20.990 --> 00:17:25.049 stop trying to be so creative with some of the 00:17:25.049 --> 00:17:26.769 standard things that they're always going to 00:17:26.769 --> 00:17:30.650 do, Like businesses are always going to do a 00:17:30.650 --> 00:17:34.289 QBR. Like you're just going to do them forever. 00:17:34.930 --> 00:17:40.970 But why do they have to be Q? And I wrote an 00:17:40.970 --> 00:17:42.890 article on this, I don't know, probably three 00:17:42.890 --> 00:17:45.430 years ago. It's like, just give your people a 00:17:45.430 --> 00:17:49.170 form. Have them fill out the form. Have your 00:17:49.170 --> 00:17:52.089 marketing team make the PowerPoint. Give the 00:17:52.089 --> 00:17:55.769 PowerPoint to the people for them to edit. And 00:17:55.769 --> 00:17:59.650 then you're done. Yep. And then if you do the 00:17:59.650 --> 00:18:01.470 same form the next quarter, you know what you 00:18:01.470 --> 00:18:04.730 can see? What happened last quarter? Yeah. I'll 00:18:04.730 --> 00:18:07.789 tell you, because speaking of textiles at Berkshire 00:18:07.789 --> 00:18:10.609 Hathaway, I was at an energy company that was 00:18:10.609 --> 00:18:13.529 acquired by one of their subsidiaries. Oh, yeah, 00:18:13.529 --> 00:18:17.009 yeah. And the first day after it was official, 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:19.990 everybody got an email that said, reports will 00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:22.329 now look like this. It's going to be in this 00:18:22.329 --> 00:18:25.299 font. It's going to be in this layout. Thank 00:18:25.299 --> 00:18:28.220 you. And think about how big a machine that is, 00:18:28.339 --> 00:18:31.099 you know, to be able to sit on whatever it is, 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.759 7 .5 gazillion dollars in cash while they're 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:37.160 climbing the market. The reason why they can 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:39.960 do that is everybody understands they're part 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:43.039 of this enormous machine that has to work. Correct. 00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:47.319 And imagine like how much mental space that frees 00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:50.220 up. Yeah. When you're not trying to figure out 00:18:50.220 --> 00:18:54.630 like, is this font too big? Yeah. Is this, do 00:18:54.630 --> 00:18:58.029 I have too many bullet points? Like just give 00:18:58.029 --> 00:19:01.049 the people a form. Yeah. And give it to your 00:19:01.049 --> 00:19:03.029 marketing team. Like maybe we should start this 00:19:03.029 --> 00:19:07.029 business, Toby. This is what we should do. QBRs. 00:19:07.029 --> 00:19:11.690 QBR. The QBR form factory is something extraordinary. 00:19:12.509 --> 00:19:15.490 Processed that killer. The irony, Chris, is that 00:19:15.490 --> 00:19:17.349 I would dare say that if you and I jumped in 00:19:17.349 --> 00:19:19.650 a time machine and went back to the early days 00:19:19.650 --> 00:19:22.660 of GE. you know, 30, 40 years in where they had 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:24.759 some routines and process, maybe about the time 00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:28.619 Welsh was starting to come up. I bet the conversations 00:19:28.619 --> 00:19:32.539 around QBRs were at least as competent, if not 00:19:32.539 --> 00:19:36.319 more sophisticated than we have today. Right. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:38.380 Because they didn't have PowerPoint to muddy 00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:42.079 it up. Oh, yeah. Have the graphics guy do some 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:44.819 cutouts and use his protractor and bring in the 00:19:44.819 --> 00:19:47.900 chart. Yeah. You know, it was it was written. 00:19:50.170 --> 00:19:52.710 Not the baffled with bullshit that we have today. 00:19:53.049 --> 00:19:58.609 Yeah. Well, like what's interesting is like We 00:19:58.609 --> 00:20:01.490 you know, I think oftentimes we use PowerPoints 00:20:01.490 --> 00:20:05.130 in in lieu of writing because it's easier to 00:20:05.130 --> 00:20:09.089 consume Yeah, and much easier to deceive. Yeah, 00:20:09.650 --> 00:20:11.789 but not and not not like maybe not even intent 00:20:11.789 --> 00:20:14.150 like even not even intentionally but like that's 00:20:14.150 --> 00:20:16.309 interest you puts, you know, you have to you 00:20:16.309 --> 00:20:19.599 have to clarify something complex on a PowerPoint 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.700 in four bullet points, you're going to miss some 00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:25.019 things. And you're going to say some stuff and 00:20:25.019 --> 00:20:26.579 the assumption, and you're going to have that 00:20:26.579 --> 00:20:29.059 communication break. And then all of a sudden 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:30.440 they're going to, you know, they're like, well, 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:33.079 why, why didn't you tell us that? And you're 00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:35.480 like, I did on PowerPoint on bullet three. You're 00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:37.900 like, that's not how I read it. You're like, 00:20:38.019 --> 00:20:42.059 did you not go to the management notes and disclosures 00:20:42.059 --> 00:20:48.680 on appendix 37C where I outlined. I gave my Safe 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:54.299 Harbor statement. This may or may not result 00:20:54.299 --> 00:20:56.539 in something that actually may happen. That's 00:20:56.539 --> 00:20:59.819 right, Safe Harbor. That's funny. All right, 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:01.779 man. We did it again. I love it. Thanks, sir. 00:21:01.779 --> 00:21:03.640 Good conversation. I appreciate the reflection 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:06.220 on supply chains. All right, buddy. Have a great 00:21:06.220 --> 00:21:08.819 week. See you next week. All right, bye. Bye.