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- Rebellious Thoughts #80 - 🤘 The weirdest gig of my life
Rebellious Thoughts #80 - 🤘 The weirdest gig of my life
By Gus Balbontin
Edition #80
Hey!
As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game.
Oh, before we start! I’m joining Lucas in one of his OPEN AI Lab Sessions this Wednesday 8.30 AM, and he’s opening it up for everyone who wants to learn about AI in a practical, done with you way. Come have a chat with us, more info at the end of the newsletter.
Alright, here we go:
And when you think you’ve done the most peculiar keynotes in the craziest of places…
- like the time I did one in a private cruise ship in Fiji… or the time I did one in Kalgoorlie -
A new one takes the prize!
Private cruise - pretty wife came with me :-)
Last week I flew 4hrs and drove another 3.5hrs to Rolleston in Qld to do a keynote - to the whole town! - yes!!! - town of 80 people or so at the moment - they came together at the cricket club to have a bit of fun and listen to Gus. Crazy!
When I first heard from my agent “hey Gus someone saw you at a keynote somewhere and they are keen for their town to hear you too” - I was like wtf? Normally, a business or team wants to hear me but not a “town”! Hahaha
Once I got over the town bit of course I started wondering how far I would have to travel to make it to this tiny regional place and the answer was about 8hrs! I can fly to Singapore in that time do a keynote and come back and still be quicker!!!
The whole town!
I kinda half agreed to it, partly cos I love doing regional stuff partly cos I was curious to keynote to a town! But it wasn’t easy, the next challenge was where can I stay and what can I eat?! Is there a cafe or restaurant there? ….. well…..yeah kind of
But..
“The organiser is happy to host you in her house and just feed you!”
And I was like - oh god no I need a bit of privacy and time to recharge and hide away with my thoughts!
So - they told me there was an Airbnb in town I could get - ok cool, that sounds better, let’s do that but I am still unsure - let me meet them online and see what’s the vibe.
What sealed the deal was when I jumped on the call with Alex who saw me present before and was the instigator and Blossy - the matriarch of the town, the woman I want to be when I grow up!
Both women were amazing - Alex full of energy and the biggest smile and Blossy in her hospital bed, high on opioids, post-knee surgery and still happy to have a chat and tell me why I needed to come to Rolleston to speak!
That did it - I had to go and meet these women and the town.
When I get to the counter of the rental car company in Rockhampton the guy says “you happy to drive a something something” - and I was like “sorry what was that?” “something something four wheel drive” - I didn’t really understand what he was talking about, all I heard was four wheel drive and I said yeah no problem
When I went to pick it up it was one of those high vis mining cars siren 🚨 included! Hahaha! I jumped on Google maps and got on the road….everything was going smooth until I got to the dirt road and I started wondering where the actual hell I was going!
My high vis 4x4
I had no reception, about 200ml of water left and a pear. At that stage, I had not crossed a single car in any direction, so I was genuinely wondering if I should just let someone know where on earth I was!
Note the severe fire warning - just to keep things even more interesting!
Luckily, the dirt was only about 30km and I have driven all my life on dirt roads so it was not an issue….but I tell you…for a minute I was thinking where am I going??
Yep! You can see why I started to worry
Rolleston is literally a handful of houses…
Rolleston - don’t worry I captured all of it in this frame - this is it!
The Airbnb was of course Alex’s other house behind her house - ha!
My home for a night - Alex and fam were so beautiful! Cant wait to see them again
When I rock up to the cricket club where the event was hosted I see tables set up on the cricket ground, a band near the tiny stand, and an amazing effort at trying to set up a screen and a projector for me.
I quickly realise this was going to have to be an a capela keynote - no slides - just a handheld and a chat.
When I get there ready for dinner and presentation I see my audience for the first time - the town has gathered.
Fear #1 - the average age was pushing 60-70 - would they understand my accent and even catch how fast I talk??! Faaarck!
Fear #2 - what am I going to actually talk to them about?!!! Normally I challenge humans and businesses to think outside of the box to pull the future towards them…but with the average age I was facing, I did wonder how my content would land!
Fear #3 - I know regional Australia likes to drink - will they even be coherent enough by the time I grab the mic?
Fear #4 - I think the av set up is def going to feedback! I can’t walk in front of those speakers!
Fear #5 - why am I here??? Hahaha
Anyway - it was lovely - warm - welcoming - funny - great crowd!
Of course some have had a bit too much to drink but overall it was awesome.
The peculiar bit? Most of the questions were about AI and the future, and how we protect old wisdom but embrace new futures?
A lot of them are of course growers - and the majority were cattle farmers - what happens when we start 3d printing protein? Are we ever? How is AI impacting our kids? Should we worry?
My view is always one of abundance and positivity - yes yes there is no question that any new technology will have an impact and that some of that impact will be negative - but it’s silly to compare past and future.
It’s like telling nature “noooo that volcano that just erupted destroyed this beautiful valley and killed this endemic species that was specifically growing here!!! Now future generations won’t get to see that”
In a few centuries of course the explosion of the volcano gave birth to new fertility, new valleys, perhaps even new species. And those future generations will struggle to understand or care about how beautiful the valley was that the volcano destroyed.
Bear with me - this is true as soon as we don’t destroy the entire planet which we humans are well capable of…the analogy is more comparable to the printing press or to AI - the volcano is a new way of doing things that inevitably will impact everything around it, some of the impact will be negative but it will give birth to new and amazing opportunities.
Yew!
Love
Gus
P.S. Talking about AI - if a town of 80 people with an average age of 70 were curious about AI… I am sure you have no excuse to not be.
Lucas has done all the hard work to make sure you just get perfect signal - no noise - just solid lessons and practice.
P.S.S.
I almost missed this one:
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:
Spend a day in a town with fewer than a thousand people. Observe. There are lessons hidden there.
Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it last week - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!
Recommendations:
If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.
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