Episode 184

full
Published on:

10th Mar 2026

Is the American Work Deal Already Dead?

The deal was always simple: school, degree, stable job, good life. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley launch their Work In Progress series by asking what happens when that pipeline stops delivering. College is outdated and overpriced, trades aren't the universal fix everyone claims, and entry-level hiring is quietly seizing up. People in their circles feel fine — but Jerremy's 16-year-old son can't land a fast-food gig. The hosts press listeners to get close to revenue-generating work before AI finishes the job.

Timestamps:

  1. (00:00) New series launch – the old American deal and why it no longer holds
  2. (01:56) College revisited – "okay" but unaffordable and stuck in a one-lane model
  3. (03:34) Trades aren't the fix – gig economy gaps and a broken pipeline
  4. (06:17) Who feels secure – current workers are fine but new hiring is freezing
  5. (14:33) Gig work stigma – freelancer vs. gig worker and why the label matters

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Transcript
Jerremy:

For generations, Americans followed the same unwritten deal.

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Go to school, get a degree,

land a stable job, build a

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family, and have a happy life.

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But that contract is dissolving

in front of our eyes.

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We were holding the sand in our hands,

watching it slip through our fingers.

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Employers can't find workers.

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Workers can't find employers or stability.

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A generation carrying student debt

can't afford a home, and the trades

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are being sold as the obvious fix.

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But the reality's more

complicated than the pitch.

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The economy freedom and delivered

insecurity, and underneath all

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of it, AI is repricing the laptop

class faster than any employer,

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university, or government can respond.

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entering 2030 without a replacement

deal, and we think we need to write one.

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name is Jerremy Alexander Newsom.

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Joined as always by my damn sexy co-host.

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He made me read that.

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Dave DC Conley and this podcast

is solving America's problems.

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We're kicking off a brand new series,

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Dave: Woo hoo.

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Jerremy: called Work In Progress.

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The American dream is changing jobs, and

if you've been with us for a while, we

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don't just pick topics, we pick problems

that do not have any clean answers, and

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we get to find out why this one has been

sitting with us since we wrapped up our

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last series, maybe even before that.

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I'm quite confident.

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Dave, this could even morph into of the

ones you've been really excited about.

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The problem of AI and do we solve it?

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How can we solve it?

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You battle with AI overlords every day.

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Dave: There's

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Jerremy: I think I

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Dave: yeah.

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Jerremy: at the intersection of the movie.

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I Idiocracy.

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The Terminator in the Matrix and

Dave Conley's is in the Venn diagram

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in the middle of all three of

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Dave: With a flame thrower.

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Jerremy: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Dave: So, yeah.

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So last year actually, it was sort of, it

was among our first, series that we did.

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We, we did a whole series on

whether college was worth it.

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And we started that

thinking like, no, hell no.

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like that there's no way

that college is worth it.

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And actually, we came out of it

a little bit different than that.

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We were looking at debt, the

misaligned outcomes, and the

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degrees that weren't delivering

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Jerremy: I,

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Dave: we were asking a pretty blunt

question, is the whole thing a scam?

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Jerremy: yeah, like is college a scam?

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Yeah.

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I mean, my answer was still

is kind of yes, mostly.

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specifically, but I mean, we we're

gonna need some type of big shift, dude.

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We're gonna need a big shift.

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And by the end, after we did all that,

after we had all that big conversation,

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we said, listen, college is is okay.

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We can make a shift.

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Dave: It's fun.

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Jerremy: it's, it's, it's okay.

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I, if I said fine, I think

it's, it's, it's okay.

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I would say college is a

lot like vanilla ice cream.

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Dave: Oh, I love vanilla ice cream.

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I really do.

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I do.

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I love it.

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That chocolate.

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Everybody loves chocolate.

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I mean, chocolate's fine, but

you get a really good vanilla.

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I'm like, wow, that's killer.

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I love vanilla ice cream.

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Yeah.

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Jerremy: You're the best.

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Well, I, I will say this.

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We ended up, we ended up

at we, we ended up at this.

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It's the affordability,

it's an outdated model,

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Dave: Yep.

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Jerremy: the country is basically one

lane for most people, and that the

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country says, Hey, get in this one

lane, it's gonna work for everyone.

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Dave: is nonsense, right?

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And then we have all of

these other things going on.

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So we got like the gig economy going.

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Trades.

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Everybody's like, trades

are the greatest thing.

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Well, you need to send

everybody to the trades.

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And I'm like, I was

researching this topic.

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kinda, I mean, it's like, because it's,

it's, we gotta talk to some trades

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people because I'm, that, that's gotta

be in our lived experience, slot because

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I'm, I think it is a real answer for

a lot of people, but I'm not sure it's

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the answer we're all bargaining for.

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that's, that's what I'm excited about

for this series because it, it's not

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saying if college is worth it or not,

really, as you put it, look,:

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is four years from now and everything

is saying this system is isn't working.

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like it's not working for the

vast majority of Americans.

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So what do we have to do?

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What are the policies?

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What are the things that we

have to choose, differently?

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Because for decades it's been,

go to college, get a job.

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Well, that's clearly not working right?

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So.

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What, what do we have to do?

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And it's not, this isn't

just for young people.

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So if you are like, a teenager

or you're in college, yeah,

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this is, this is for you.

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But this is also for everybody

who has a job, which I'm assuming

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just about everybody here does.

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it's going to be, anybody who's like,

okay, well, I trade my time and my

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treasure for doing something in the world,

so that I can do other things, right?

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Like, there is something that I do.

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How is that gonna change?

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Because it is all changing

from underneath us now.

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And that's the whole point of this series.

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Jerremy: That's the whole point, ma'am.

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Yep, absolutely.

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And really, we got some questions.

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I mean, we're gonna kick off some

questions to ask the audience.

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For everyone out there who's listening on

YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, the socials,

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: with us.

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Dave's AI clone does a great

job of answering your questions.

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Dave: No, that's me.

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That's me.

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If you get an answer, it is actually me.

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Jerremy: And, I need, I still

need your AI clone to come

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help cook dinner at my house.

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speaking of jobs that, that where

are needed, but what I will say for

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everyone who's listening, we encourage

you to not only answer these questions

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as I ask them, but post your own.

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And let's continue that conversation.

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Keep in mind that this podcast is open

and we love to have guests come on,

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have debates, have conversations, come

up with solutions, detail problems.

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And one of the best parts

about this podcast is we want.

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We can fully, beautifully have

an incredible disagreement and

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go, I still love you as a human.

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Keep that information coming and let's

create and inform our opinions because

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that is how you become an adult.

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So here's some questions.

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Here's some questions.

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Kick us off, no right answers.

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We're gonna go through

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Dave: Mm-hmm.

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Jerremy: tell you where

you and I and me are.

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And we are.

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And by the time we're done, maybe we'll

know exactly what biases we're walking

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into the series and then every single

one of our listeners can hold it to us.

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Alright, so Dave, let's, I'll hit you up.

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Dave: Question one.

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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The people around your life.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: with.

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Your boo, your friends.

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the people in your life feel

secure in their work right now?

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Dave: Oh.

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yeah.

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Yeah.

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They, they do, most of the people I

know are, are, late career, have their

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own, companies or, in fact, I was just

talking to my brother from another mother

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on this and he was like, yeah, he's a.

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He's a very high end contractor in

a very specialized field, and he,

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and he, and he works for fun, which

is like the best part about it.

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He could retire tomorrow

and, and be fine or not.

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And he's young and he was just

saying that, one of the companies

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that he contracts with got

acquired and they are super excited

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about using AI for everything.

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And, and Joe's been doing, development

work for his entire life has been

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like, okay, yeah, that's great.

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It's really good for a few things, but

it's really terrible for the one thing

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that you really like doing, which is,

moving atoms, not electrons, because

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he, he works on pinball machines and he

builds all, if you've played a pinball

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machine, you have likely played one of,

something that he's been a part of because

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he's, he's one of those guys where, the

software underneath it, he's like the man.

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And, they, they want to use

AI for all of that software.

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And he goes, look, an AI won't,

can't currently tell you.

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If a machine plays well, if you're

excited about it, if it's, if it's a

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physical thing, like you have to be

able to move the elect, you have to

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move the, the atoms, not the electrons.

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So he's, he's, he's feeling fine.

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Another buddy of mine who's a, who's

a developer, he is like, yeah, we're

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seeing a lot of, a lot of AI coming in,

but he's a senior person so that like,

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they're using it and they're getting

more out of what they're already doing.

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So they're, they've grown the pie, right.

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like they haven't eliminated jobs.

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They've been able to take the people

that they currently have and they've

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been able to do a lot more and, and do

it quickly and do it, at a higher level.

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So maybe they're not hiring, but

at least the people in my life are,

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are feeling, feeling fine today.

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What about, what about you?

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Jerremy: I agree.

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I mean, I think most people that

are in my day-to-day life, generally

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the majority of them, kinda like you

said, business owners, entrepreneurs,

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: they kind of are

doing their own thing.

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And that's in a way, a mindset

too of like, Hey, whatever is

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coming, I'm gonna figure it out.

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they're figuring it out, right?

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They're like, Hey, things are gonna shift.

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Things are changing.

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I'm changing.

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The whole world's changing.

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We gotta change with it.

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Dave: Mm-hmm.

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Jerremy: And they are adapting to that.

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Now, again, the people that are not

in my life as entrepreneurs, but have

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trade jobs, they feel perfectly secure.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: I haven't.

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Noticed anyone right now that like

my job is being affected now, I

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have received a couple text messages

from a couple friends who are like,

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Hey, my, my buddy just got fired.

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Do you know anyone who can hire X, Y, Z?

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So on and so forth.

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That's happening and the jobs report

came out and the market's not that long

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ago, and last month we lost as a country,

whatever, 92,000 jobs or something,

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which mean, that's such a small number.

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It's almost, almost insignificant.

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But it did spook to market

for like eight whole seconds.

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of course, which rampage higher again,

I think right now the answer is yes.

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Most people that I connect with or

talk to feel secure in their jobs

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presently, and I don't, I, I still

don't know how much AI is coming.

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their jobs, but I also don't think that

a lot of people have sat down and really,

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really listened and thought and understood

how fast some of this is changing.

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Dave: Yeah, they don't know.

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Yeah,

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Jerremy: yeah.

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I think we're kicking

the can down the road.

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Like, ah, it'll be, five years in

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Dave: no way, man.

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Jerremy: it might be five months dog.

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Like, I don't, it's changing

so rapidly, so quickly.

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Even with our podcast and you being a

world renowned computer technician and

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specialist, like you're over here like,

dude, the things AI did three months ago

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and now is mind alternately different.

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Like,

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Dave: It changes just about every

week, in, in different ways.

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It's crazy.

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so I think you're absolutely right.

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You don't know that the, the.

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The, the tide has gone out on the tsunami

and you're just waiting for the wave.

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Right.

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like, it's, it's gonna happen all at once.

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it's what they, I read that 1929 book,

man, if you, if you want just a crazy

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ass book, you gotta read that 1929 book.

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like they, they didn't realize that like

the, the tide had gone out, and then

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all of a sudden it failed all at once,

like it was holy smokes, it was weeks,

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it was not, and so the, the shifts,

I think my niece, who's, pretty new

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in her, in her, professional career,

she's having trouble finding a new job.

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She hates where she's at and she's fine

where she's at, but she doesn't like it.

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So she's having trouble in her field,

finding a new job, which is, weird.

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it's New York City.

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Jerremy: yeah, yeah.

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Well, I will say this, that that is one

thing that most people feel good in their

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jobs presently, but finding jobs I, I

have noticed, is more of a challenge.

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I mean, randomly, right?

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But my son's now 16, Gabriel.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: I have been with

him and he has applied

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: physical jobs.

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'cause I think that that's probably

what he needs in his life right now is

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a physical schedule and things to do.

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Dave: Love it.

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Jerremy: Bro can't get a job.

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No one's calling him back.

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No one's hiring him.

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I, I helped him with his resume.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: doing the things and

obviously, it's Wendy's and

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Burger King and McDonald's and

all the, all the places like that.

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But he is posting and applying

and they have slowed down hiring.

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Don't know if that's a good thing or

a bad thing, but like, if you have a

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position right now, you probably are good.

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But I will say if you currently have a

job that someone else is paying you for

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Dave: Damn.

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Jerremy: and they're not your best

friends or, or wife or husband, you

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should have a conversation with someone

in that company about how you can

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learn and become more prepared for how

AI is revolutionizing your industry.

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'cause it is, and you need to

be on the forefront of that.

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Dave: So I, I'll, I'll give the

audience exactly the kind of,

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advice that I, I give my niece.

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and that is you have to be as

close to money as humanly possible.

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So the closer you are to actually making

money in your, in your, in your, company

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or your endeavor, the better it is.

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So if you're in a support function like HR

or even, sales and marketing, like those

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are, those are not making money, right?

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Like, the things that make the money

are the products and the services

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that your company actually does.

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So if you're on top of that piece.

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You're good if you're

not on top of that piece.

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And that goes for developers too.

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There are lots of developers that don't

work on whatever the main thing is.

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like they'll be in the back office or

there'll be like some ancillary stuff.

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No, the, the, the Google engineers

that work on search and AI are fine.

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The Google engineers that,

that work on, Roomba?

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No.

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Not so much.

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Right?

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, I mean, I, I have heard of,

like I said, I, I got a couple

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messages from people whose jobs

got eliminated now, was eliminated

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'cause they're bad or eliminated.

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'cause they're, they have ai.

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I don't know that, that

part, I don't know.

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But I do know some people that got let go.

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Dave: Yeah.

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What'd they say?

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Are they freaked out?

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Jerremy: I mean, no, they're

not, they're not freaked out.

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I mean, I guess they're as freaked

out as anyone who gets fired.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: or loses their job.

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So I don't know if it's like, oh

my gosh, it's the end of the world.

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I don't, they haven't done that yet.

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And that's natural for it.

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Dave: You're, muted.

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I don't know why.

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Jerremy: No.

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Dave: Yeah, you're back.

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Jerremy: that button is sensitive.

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Oh my goodness.

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I breathed too hard and it muted.

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no man, I, I don't think they, yeah,

no one, no one got more upset than

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they would get upset for just losing

their job and, having security

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: them and being, being

scared and afraid and worried.

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but again, I, my advice to them is,

Hey, go be, go be an entrepreneur.

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Go be a freelancer.

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Go be a, a gig employee

because there's so many

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: opportunities out there.

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I mean, when you hear someone

say that they're a good work gig

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worker, what is your gut reaction?

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Dave: It's not negative,

but it's also like my, my.

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In my head, I'm, I'm, I'm

usually saying, okay, well

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what's the job you actually want?

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Right.

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like, what, what's the

job you're not doing?

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And so I never think of like, gig, gig

economy or, DoorDash, drivers, Uber

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drivers, the people that I, interact with.

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if they're contractors,

I'm like, yeah, I get it.

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like there's a lot of people who are

contractors, but if they're actually

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doing gigs right, they're, they

are summoned by an app somewhere.

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Yeah.

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I'm, I'm, I'm always wondering, like,

you, you probably have a master's

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degree in something and I, I feel

kind of bad for them, sorry for

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them, but it's, it's, that's on me.

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like, that's probably not their reality.

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I don't know.

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What do you think?

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What, what do you, what do you

get when you get a Hear a I always

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think there's gotta be something

that they're not really doing.

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Yeah.

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I don't that they're

not doing it by choice.

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Jerremy: I would agree on the age part.

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I think it's an age thing.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: using that word specifically.

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If someone said, I'm a gig

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: have to assume

that they're either younger.

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Or they have a lot of talents

and they are spending a lot

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of time on Fiverr and Upwork.

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I mean, I just hired a new person

on Upwork today for, $10 an hour for

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something, and I'm, I'm cool with it,

like I hire people with gigs all the time.

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I think it's a, I think it's a cool word.

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I would probably suggest to them

to use a different word freelancer.

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Sounds cool.

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I own my own consulting business.

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Sounds really cool.

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I wouldn't have them use that word

frequently because I think it's

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just, it sounds a little young maybe,

or naive or, or not as powerful

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as it could, but I think, I think

it is probably a young thing.

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Alex: Jerremy tells gig workers to

ditch the LABEL and call themselves

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consultants—but rebranding won't

fix what's broken underneath.

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Next, Dave and Jerremy turn

the lens on themselves...

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and the advice they'd give at twenty-two

cuts closer to confession than coaching.

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About the Podcast

Solving America's Problems
Solving America’s Problems isn’t just a podcast—it’s a journey. Co-host Jerremy Newsome, a successful entrepreneur and educator, is pursuing his lifelong dream of running for president. Along the way, he and co-host Dave Conley bring together experts, advocates, and everyday Americans to explore the real, actionable solutions our country needs.

With dynamic formats—one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and more—we cut through the noise of divisive rhetoric to uncover practical ideas that unite instead of divide. If you’re ready to think differently, act boldly, and join a movement for meaningful change, subscribe now.