Full Transcript for How Code Ninjas Creates an Experience Kids Can't Wait to Return To

00:03:58.520 Yeah, yeah. 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:04.960 And, and sometimes we, we say this phrase, it's like,"Hey, it's a safe space for you to nerd out." Like, you can kind of bring whatever. 00:04:05.169 --> 00:04:09.050 Like, even if we don't have a program for that hobby, you could come talk about it and share it. 00:04:09.419 --> 00:04:11.430 Um, you know, it, it is your space. 00:04:11.460 --> 00:04:21.769 Uh, but I think even us calling it the dojo kind of, uh, you know, kinda helps the kids detach it from being a, a, a place where I'm learning code or learning how to do things like, you know, at school. 00:04:21.790 --> 00:04:24.500 So, uh, that's another part of the experience design. 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:24.879 Yeah. 00:04:24.911 --> 00:04:28.281 all of your, all of your instructor, instructors are senseis. 00:04:28.312 --> 00:04:28.742 I know my son 00:04:28.846 --> 00:04:29.206 right. 00:04:29.336 --> 00:04:29.896 Detaching it 00:04:29.911 --> 00:04:31.031 said like Mister before. 00:04:31.031 --> 00:04:32.382 He said,"No, it's sensei." 00:04:32.641 --> 00:04:33.211 Correct. 00:04:33.312 --> 00:04:33.932 Correct 00:04:35.242 --> 00:04:52.482 So of the, one of the really special things about franchises is being able to create the structure and the guidance and the guardrails of what the brand is, but then also allowing every local franchisee to infuse some of the things that make their city or their center special. 00:04:52.651 --> 00:05:02.752 How do you kind of balance that so that you're making sure that there's that consistency in the brand, but there's also the magic and the personality and the community-led growth that comes from every individual franchisee? 00:05:03.182 --> 00:05:03.911 That's a great question. 00:05:04.012 --> 00:05:09.112 Um, I'm gonna use food as an example'cause it's the easiest franchising to think of, right? 00:05:09.122 --> 00:05:12.172 Like in food, you can't have variability in your consistency, right? 00:05:12.172 --> 00:05:13.401 It's gotta be the same quality. 00:05:13.401 --> 00:05:14.422 People could get sick. 00:05:14.492 --> 00:05:17.281 I mean, and then people expect the same exact experience. 00:05:17.682 --> 00:05:30.641 I think the beauty and the flexibility of an education franchise is your brand is the curriculum you're, you're delivering and the manner in which you're delivering it, whether it's the platforms, the tools, the people. 00:05:31.002 --> 00:05:34.682 But that gives a lot of room for your own application. 00:05:34.682 --> 00:05:43.492 So for example, um, one of the rules I say is,"Hey, if you're gonna use, um, any of our materials, make sure our Code Ninjas branding is there," right? 00:05:43.502 --> 00:05:49.012 Don't, don't modify it and change it so it's all kinds of weird, like, you know, PowerPoint stars and all that of your own design. 00:05:49.221 --> 00:05:50.062 Follow our brand. 00:05:50.112 --> 00:05:59.601 But it doesn't matter to us if a franchisee will take maybe

half of that content and use it with a student, because that's where a student-centric mindset comes into play. 00:05:59.922 --> 00:06:11.791 We're building content that should be applied consistently, but if a franchisee or, uh, you know, a sensei decides,"Hey, this student would benefit better from taking a portion of this," or me modifying this a little bit, that's still okay. 00:06:12.101 --> 00:06:14.512 So it, it-- that's, that's kind of where the balance comes in. 00:06:14.541 --> 00:06:23.901 We, we set basic rules, but we don't-- we're not rigid about everything that a student has to do,'cause every student's different, so we gotta give that flexibility in the learning path. 00:06:24.446 --> 00:06:30.026 Now, beyond that flexibility, what are some of the differences that you've engineered? 00:06:30.185 --> 00:06:38.406 Because, you know, I feel like there's more choices than there has ever been for every parent when it comes to extracurriculars, after school, summertime. 00:06:38.615 --> 00:06:44.656 I mean, I was like, my, my kids' schedules for the summer is something new and fun and amazing every single week. 00:06:44.946 --> 00:06:50.466 And my younger son was just asking me,"What are all the summer camps you went to when you were a kid?" And I was like,"Uh, we stayed at home. 00:06:50.495 --> 00:06:55.255 We played with our cousins, we rode our bike, and then like one week every summer there was church camp." The 00:06:55.577 --> 00:06:55.887 Yeah. 00:06:55.956 --> 00:06:56.766 end of list. 00:06:57.065 --> 00:07:05.745 Um, so with so many options for kids and parents, what are some of the things that you found really helpful in differentiating Code Ninjas as an experience? 00:07:06.779 --> 00:07:11.949 There's one core message that we think about, and that's tech readiness. 00:07:12.184 --> 00:07:12.194 Mm-hmm. 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:22.839 And that's what drives a lot of our marketing and, and a lot of our engagement with parents saying one of those areas where things are just ballooning and just it's, it's adding extracurriculars. 00:07:22.839 --> 00:07:26.819 It's not just swim, sports, you know, arts, other, you know, type of classes. 00:07:26.819 --> 00:07:32.220 It's now drone flying camp and VR camp, and it's like tech's ballooning by itself. 00:07:32.699 --> 00:07:36.629 Uh, and so it kind of just kind of positions itself,"Hey, we're the one-stop shop. 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:42.870 We, we're, we're building programs around all these tech things." But the idea is let's build curiosity for your kids. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:51.189 So however you're building your schedule, you know, for your-- I'm sure you're more of a chauffeur than you are, you know, actually actively participating in your kids' activities, right? 00:07:51.209 --> 00:08:04.310 So, um, it's-- You can select as many as you think your kids can handle, your schedule can handle, but align it towards what's gonna make your child or children want to learn on their own more. 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:29.350 I, I think an interesting thing I think about with after-school education or any kind of education is that you shouldn't need the service forever'cause if the service is doing the right job, after a few years, after five, six, seven, whatever lo- whatever the subject is, the student's walking away saying,"No, I, I have curiosity and I have the skills to explore this on my own." Um, so, uh, I think I'm starting to go off on a tangent now, but that, that kind of, you know, it's all related in that sense. 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.079 No, but I, that's such a great tangent. 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:32.240 I, I love the idea of that. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:39.639 I would love for you to kind of talk about as a brand, when you have that sort of engineered, we, we do it for a little while, and then the kids move on or they 00:08:39.676 --> 00:08:39.995 Yeah. 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:40.169 I 00:08:40.275 --> 00:08:40.426 Yeah 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:52.480 for you to talk about both from a referral standpoint of how you have not just, you know, the, the, the younger siblings or the younger people in that community, but you've got that sort of word of mouth, and then also the engagement you continue to see. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:09:01.600 I would imagine some of your, some of your franchises have probably been around long enough now to where kids that went through the program are back as senseis, or they're back helping as, as a part-time job. 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:03.710 So I'd love for you to talk about that pipeline a little bit. 00:09:04.220 --> 00:09:05.549 Yeah, that piping's interesting. 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:08.970 Um, it's interesting that we don't actually have a consistent referral program. 00:09:09.049 --> 00:09:18.669 That's one of the flexibility left to the franchisee because, um, I think, I think we're very relaxed in that th- sense where, hey, if we're doing our job right, we don't need to force a referral. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:27.210 The parents are gonna say,"Hey, my kid went to this camp, loved it," you know,"They're friends, our kids are friends, let's go together." So the referral, that word-of-mouth piece is... 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:36.340 I've been in other education business before, and especially for coding, just it's interestingly very organic and very high, right? 00:09:36.669 --> 00:09:41.950 Um, and sometimes I'll just say it works better than our built-in lead generation tools and all that, right? 00:09:41.950 --> 00:09:53.879 Just because if one location ran a great camp for 20 kids, a school might find out about it and say,"Hey, do you guys offer that camp at our school?" And so the natural curiosity, um, that, that's the one thing we thank COVID for. 00:09:53.909 --> 00:09:59.879 COVID kinda did a weird hard reset on the resources for computer science and STEM education in schools. 00:10:00.269 --> 00:10:02.000 Uh, budget cuts, things like that, right? 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:03.210

A lot of, a lot of things went out. 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:11.409 Um, and so schools, communities, they had this, this, uh, need for more STEM programs, for more computer science education. 00:10:11.409 --> 00:10:13.549 So, you know, that word of mouth really helps. 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:16.720 Um, I s- I'm sorry, I forgot the second part of your question. 00:10:17.216 --> 00:10:20.235 I, it was d- the, the pipeline of you said 00:10:20.508 --> 00:10:22.327 Yeah, the sense is, yeah, the kids coming back. 00:10:22.505 --> 00:10:25.836 they move on, and I was curious about that sort of coming back part 00:10:26.166 --> 00:10:26.765 It's two ways. 00:10:26.765 --> 00:10:27.956 Yeah, they come back as teachers. 00:10:27.966 --> 00:10:35.105 A lot of our, you know, as long as the, you know, we meet the state minimum age requirements, uh, the kids can come back to work at 15, 16, right? 00:10:35.105 --> 00:10:42.716 And a lot of our summer camp teachers are those younger, you know, stu- uh, students and teachers who say,"Yeah, I finished your program. 00:10:42.716 --> 00:10:43.176 I loved it. 00:10:43.176 --> 00:10:51.716 I wanna come back and teach." And, and they're, they're so easy to train'cause they're like,"I'm gonna give the same experience I just had." And so it's a really natural self-fulfilling prophecy there. 00:10:52.066 --> 00:11:00.115 Um, another interesting thing that we've been seeing is our first ever students are now old enough to be in college and starting to be past college, right? 00:11:00.115 --> 00:11:01.806 Since the first franchise units opened. 00:11:02.375 --> 00:11:09.446 Uh, and these students have gone off to work for like Unity, the game company, or, or they're studying game design, right? 00:11:09.446 --> 00:11:17.975 So it's not like we have a direct line to that yet that we're seeing, but we're starting to, you know, track down these older students and say,"Hey, what are you doing in life?" You know,"Did, did we help you? 00:11:17.975 --> 00:11:39.475 Did, did-- Are you still pursuing tech in some way?" So, um, I think in Markham, Canada, we've-- we heard of one great example where, uh, one of our centers has turned into a Unity certification center, where our, our students who graduate our program at black belt, uh, they do a little bit more studying, but then they take the level one programmer certification for the Unity company that they give to their employees, and they pass that test. 00:11:39.946 --> 00:11:42.796 So they're certified as a programmer at that point. 00:11:42.796 --> 00:11:43.916 So that's really cool to hear. 00:11:44.395 --> 00:11:46.816 Um, so yeah, that, that's the beauty of education. 00:11:46.826 --> 00:11:48.546 That's the beauty of education in businesses. 00:11:48.895 --> 00:11:56.405 You see these really rich rewards coming out of student accomplishment and then coming back to work for you or, or things they create. 00:11:56.405 --> 00:12:00.375 So, uh, that's fantastic for that, you know, that side of the business as well. 00:12:00.663 --> 00:12:01.453 Yeah, that's very cool. 00:12:01.474 --> 00:12:17.563 My, my son is only a second grader, but Code Ninjas was sponsoring something at his school a couple months ago, and we didn't know it till we got there and he saw the banner, and he immediately sprinted to the room in the school where Sensei Jeff was, and he said,"Can I hang out in here and talk about Code Ninjas?" 00:12:17.881 --> 00:12:18.422 That's awesome. 00:12:18.484 --> 00:12:27.783 Jeff was like,"Absolutely, you can." And there were probably, I don't know, 25 different competing things and classrooms of activities, and I'm trying to get-- I'm like,"Come see this cool art thing. 00:12:27.783 --> 00:12:30.063 Come do this." And he's like,"Mom, I'm working. 00:12:30.114 --> 00:12:32.813 Like, I'm talking about Code Ninjas." And it was so cute and so 00:12:33.105 --> 00:12:33.745 Summer job coming up 00:12:33.803 --> 00:12:34.274 Yes. 00:12:35.533 --> 00:12:48.033 one of the things I would love for you to talk about is I feel like there's a lot of and intimidation and uncertainty that parents have when they think about tech and AI with their kids. 00:12:48.244 --> 00:12:55.094 Just a lot of, you know,"I don't know what the guardrails are, and this isn't something I grew up in, and I, and I wanna make sure I'm preparing my kids, but I 00:12:55.187 --> 00:12:55.388 Yeah 00:12:55.484 --> 00:13:01.844 overexpose my kids, and I wanna give them all the tools." And you know, there, there's so much I, I think fear is probably not too strong a word around it. 00:13:02.134 --> 00:13:05.173 I'm curious, do you find that kids approach it differently? 00:13:05.203 --> 00:13:10.384 Do they think differently about AI and technology than many of the adult, adults that you encounter? 00:13:11.066 --> 00:13:11.985 100%, I think. 00:13:11.995 --> 00:13:20.785 A- and I see this, uh, almost live, like, you know, you know, when I go to centers, um, you know, local center here in Georgia, in Alpharetta, you'll see in the kids there. 00:13:21.056 --> 00:13:25.285 Uh, I'm gonna plug our AI academy a little bit to just, you know, kinda get some code ninjas in there. 00:13:25.285 --> 00:13:36.645 But, uh, we designed our AI academy program with this in mind because Gen Z and A are rejecting AI in a m- in the most surprising way. 00:13:36.775 --> 00:13:54.326 I, I, I hear college students, uh,'cause I'm still part of, like, other K through 12 education stuff from past roles, so I hear older students saying,"I actually feel the not learning part with AI." And, like, it's so apparent that I notice it, so me as a student, I don't wanna use AI. 00:13:54.745 --> 00:13:58.176 So I think different generations are seeing it in different ways. 00:13:58.446 --> 00:14:12.596 We as adults are trying to accelerate our understanding of it as more than a tool, and that's, like, kind of the fear and like, oh my gosh, this thing is so fast and scary because it can

be an assistant, it can be an automated worker, all kinds of stuff, right? 00:14:13.125 --> 00:14:16.155 Um, for kids though, I think they're putting it at a tools length. 00:14:16.405 --> 00:14:21.206 It's like, this is just, like, for my parents and Google, but this is just something for me to use if I need it. 00:14:21.725 --> 00:14:26.275 Um, there are some kids who are leaning 100% into it though,'cause they, uh, they're... 00:14:26.546 --> 00:14:29.485 And I think it's more of a how sci-fi is the kid. 00:14:30.206 --> 00:14:37.966 If this kid is very, very, very sci-fi, AI is like the coming of"Star Trek," you know,"Star Wars" and e- you know, every, you know, sci-fi future they dreamed of. 00:14:38.426 --> 00:14:44.936 Uh, but for the common, you know, everyday person who's not as much of a sci-fi fan, I think, yeah, that's-- fear's a great word for it. 00:14:45.005 --> 00:14:53.025 Um, I think parents should think of it as, is my child ready to adapt to whatever happens? 00:14:53.875 --> 00:14:54.775 It's the adaptability. 00:14:54.775 --> 00:15:01.735 For-- I think for you and me, and like for older generations today, it was do we have the hard skills to repeat, rinse and repeat to survive in the system? 00:15:01.735 --> 00:15:04.716 But for the kids, the system changes almost every week, right? 00:15:04.716 --> 00:15:08.926 So how adaptable is my, how nimble is my kid on their feet? 00:15:08.926 --> 00:15:17.696 If they get something new, are they gonna freak out about it or are they gonna say,"Oh, let me deal with my emotions real quick," and then tackle the logical, intellectual part of it, right? 00:15:18.025 --> 00:15:21.395 So that, that kind of thinking is what drove our AI academy content too. 00:15:21.395 --> 00:15:25.775 We're thinking, we don't wanna teach our kids, like, be AI engineers or masters. 00:15:25.775 --> 00:15:31.365 We don't want them doing this, you know, while, while the parents are like,"What's my kid doing?" And they're plugged in for 20 hours, you know, on a computer. 00:15:31.735 --> 00:15:37.975 It's,"Oh, my, my kid knows how to use AI," and they use it for drawing, but they only use it for writing, you know,'cause they're a great writer, right? 00:15:37.975 --> 00:15:42.556 They know when and how to use it, and that-that's the right intent, I think, currently. 00:15:43.035 --> 00:15:44.975 We'll see where AI goes in the next year. 00:15:45.409 --> 00:15:57.649 Well, I would say I totally agree with that, and the other thing that I think is really interesting with my two Gen Alpha kids is high their level of expectation is for AI, and when things go wrong, how frustrated they get. 00:15:57.889 --> 00:16:02.480 Um, my youngest son was four years old when he fired Alexa. 00:16:02.490 --> 00:16:03.740 He was like,"You're useless. 00:16:03.779 --> 00:16:07.230 I don't want you anymore." Like, he was like,"Why don't we have 00:16:07.484 --> 00:16:07.563 You fired all 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:09.450 in our rooms? 00:16:09.500 --> 00:16:09.830 Alexa 00:16:09.903 --> 00:16:10.104 yeah, 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:11.049 is terrible. 00:16:11.059 --> 00:16:13.649 She can't do anything." Uh, and you know, and he wasn't wrong. 00:16:13.990 --> 00:16:25.019 Um, but watching how quickly my kids make choices in dynamic situations of when they wanna use AI, when they use voice search, when they type. 00:16:25.029 --> 00:16:36.289 Like, it's just really interesting to me to see how Gen Alpha kids expect everything to work, and can very quickly make a determination of what's the fastest, most effective, most 00:16:36.604 --> 00:16:37.024 Yeah 00:16:37.149 --> 00:16:37.889 to solve this. 00:16:38.139 --> 00:16:46.370 Because I think you're right, they look at it as a tool, and they get frustrated when that tool doesn't work the way they believe it should've been designed to work for them. 00:16:46.649 --> 00:16:58.809 And the thing that I think is really cool, and I'm curious your thoughts as, as somebody who's in the education space, my kids don't know a reality where they can't imagine something happening, and 00:16:58.868 --> 00:16:59.018 Hmm. 00:16:59.210 --> 00:17:00.679 feeling like they can build it. 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:05.240 Like, one of the, one of the things that my younger kid loves, um, it's this brand called Snap Circuits, and it's, it's 00:17:05.276 --> 00:17:05.675 Yes. 00:17:05.726 --> 00:17:06.115 Yeah, yeah 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:27.259 he loves that, and he'll be like,"Well, I'm gonna build this," or,"I'm gonna do that." And I just imagine the adults that are gonna exist in, you know, 10, 15, 20 years because of the fact that when they were in elementary school, they could ask AI to create any video they wanted to see, to create any drawing, to take anything they do and animate it and bring it to life. 00:17:27.259 --> 00:17:34.115 And that's what I think is so cool about the skills that my son comes home with every time he does a Code Ninjas camp is he 00:17:34.430 --> 00:17:34.450 yeah 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:41.369 really into stop-motion photography and animation because he did the stop-motion camp last summer, and now it's one of his favorite things. 00:17:41.369 --> 00:17:43.960 And he creates these, like, cool little videos, and 00:17:43.980 --> 00:17:44.759 yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:17:45.029 --> 00:17:47.109 to a how to be a YouTuber camp, and now he's got his 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:47.299 That's 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:48.599 channel that 00:17:48.710 --> 00:17:48.750 awesome. 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:49.710 trying to plug and talk about. 00:17:49.710 --> 00:18:02.420 And it's so cool because I feel like you use curiosity as a tool to teach them the skills that I can tell as a parent are so transferable beyond just, like, that thing that they think they're learning. 00:18:03.672 --> 00:18:04.231 100%. 00:18:04.271 --> 00:18:05.332 I mean, that's absolutely right. 00:18:05.382 --> 00:18:10.801 Um, traditionally schooling has been subject-based.

00:18:11.041 --> 00:18:12.602 Chemistry, biology. 00:18:13.412 --> 00:18:15.392 We're even thinking about this internally for us. 00:18:15.751 --> 00:18:18.021 Our next product line's gonna be output-based. 00:18:18.551 --> 00:18:25.551 Like, if a kid wants to create a very specific thing, let's pull in the pieces and tools they'll need to get them there. 00:18:25.561 --> 00:18:37.761 Let's-- It's, you know, like, uh, you know, part of my background is studying engineering, so, like, you have to learn math, sciences, uh, you know, rigid bodies, all kinds of mechanics and all that just to get to that point. 00:18:37.761 --> 00:18:44.942 But is there a way to get a child to not have to go through all those courses necessarily, but get enough understanding to build the pieces they need? 00:18:44.942 --> 00:18:52.991 So I think that's the, that's the beautiful side of AI or the beautiful side we could get to, assuming all the good players do everything right with it. 00:18:53.442 --> 00:19:00.301 Um, that's what AI's gonna free us up to do, I think, where there's a lot of unanswered questions from kids to adults. 00:19:00.301 --> 00:19:05.682 From a kid taking a Snap Circuit, kid saying,"How come this can't do this?" Oh, it doesn't have the pieces. 00:19:05.811 --> 00:19:07.521 It doesn't have the circuitry built. 00:19:07.551 --> 00:19:08.632 It doesn't have something, right? 00:19:09.011 --> 00:19:15.432 Exploring that is still something humans are still gonna use AI to figure out, right? 00:19:15.461 --> 00:19:17.751 'Cause AI only knows what humans have trained it. 00:19:17.751 --> 00:19:28.251 So if we have unanswered questions, until it can fully infer and, you know, draw those conclusions, I think that's the beauty that we're gonna see in education, is teaching kids, hey, what tools? 00:19:28.261 --> 00:19:29.201 Is it an AI tool? 00:19:29.201 --> 00:19:30.182 Is it a hand tool? 00:19:30.182 --> 00:19:32.672 Is it, is it your parents', you know, brains? 00:19:32.672 --> 00:19:33.011 Whatever. 00:19:33.011 --> 00:19:36.162 You know, what are you using to get to your desired outcome? 00:19:36.162 --> 00:19:43.372 And I think that could drastically change schooling, which is both scary and exciting to think about, right? 00:19:43.582 --> 00:19:43.892 So 00:19:43.950 --> 00:19:44.279 is. 00:19:44.309 --> 00:19:49.279 And I, I love the output base because, for instance, one of the, one of the Code Ninjas camps... 00:19:49.470 --> 00:19:52.900 It's funny, I feel like I should say at this point, I have no- this is not a sponsored episode. 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:56.069 I have no affiliation other than just loving Code Ninjas. 00:19:56.369 --> 00:19:58.170 Uh, and I, and I was, I was, I was so 00:19:58.483 --> 00:20:00.614 No, we appreciate your support of it 00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:02.559 yeah, I'm, I'm just a superfan customer. 00:20:02.809 --> 00:20:07.160 Um, my son, there was, school was canceled for 00:20:07.355 --> 00:20:07.375 Mm-hmm. 00:20:07.470 --> 00:20:17.119 a week because of bad weather and, you know, the roads where we lived were fine after like a day, but it took the rest of the week for the, for the rest of the county to be such that that school could be back in session. 00:20:17.420 --> 00:20:22.950 And so Sensei Jeff threw up a camp for, for all the kiddos to go to for the, you know, couple of days that school was canceled. 00:20:22.950 --> 00:20:26.740 And my son, of course, like anytime he, he knows there's a camp, he wants to go. 00:20:27.049 --> 00:20:31.369 And it was like design and publish your own Roblox game. 00:20:31.369 --> 00:20:41.859 And he created a game in that first day that then all of his peers in class and his friends from school who are on Roblox could play. 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:45.880 And then the next couple of days he was adding new things and he's like,"Now here's 00:20:45.990 --> 00:20:46.009 yeah 00:20:46.049 --> 00:20:55.950 skin packs, and here's my this and here's my that." And he was so excited to come home and show us that it was, I don't even know the terminology, like the Roblox store I guess, like whatever the, where you can see the games. 00:20:56.299 --> 00:20:58.299 And his friends were starting to rate it. 00:20:58.569 --> 00:21:02.809 And he was so excited that he had built, he had, he had come up with this game. 00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:04.140 He had imagined what he wanted to do. 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:09.259 He published it and it was a simple game, but it was, it was really fun and it was exactly what he wanted it to be. 00:21:09.559 --> 00:21:22.099 And seeing how proud he was of that, and also in doing that, he did like 30 things I didn't even know were like know, like the, the- then he's like showing me the choices that he made. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:27.430 So with Roblox specifically, that's one that I know I've had a lot of conversations with our 00:21:27.463 --> 00:21:27.483 yeah 00:21:28.250 --> 00:21:36.119 Jeff, because again, as a parent, you hear all the bad, you hear all of the things, and it's confusing sometimes as a parent to know, okay, what should the guardrails be? 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:36.660 And you 00:21:36.705 --> 00:21:36.986 Mm-hmm. 00:21:37.099 --> 00:21:40.539 I've got everything locked down, but then you, you know, hear some horror story or whatever. 00:21:40.730 --> 00:21:59.369 How do you kind of approach those conversations as somebody who's in this space to balance that we wanna give all the tools that the kids need to, to have that output to be successful, but we have to ensure that they're safe and as you said, sort of depending on hopefully all the players do the right things and, and make the right but also it feels like we can't always depend on that. 00:22:00.067 --> 00:22:00.448 Yeah. 00:22:00.857 --> 00:22:08.728 There, I'd say I tackle this in three different levels, and it depends on how the, how strongly the child feels about that particular game. 00:22:08.728 --> 00:22:10.758

So we'll use Roblox, as you mentioned, as an example. 00:22:12.137 --> 00:22:28.127 My first thought is to try to shift the student's attention to a different game,'cause the idea of creation, of, of building your own custom server and doing your own custom activities, your custom characters, all that stuff, that lives in a lot of other games. 00:22:28.137 --> 00:22:36.258 So if, you know, that could be driven by his friends are all on Roblox, or maybe he could be the leader saying,"Hey, let's try this new game out." But I try to first shift that game. 00:22:36.258 --> 00:22:43.887 "Hey, have you checked out the Minecraft, you know, level stuff?" Or, um,"On this game, have you tried the creative studio abilities?" Right? 00:22:44.288 --> 00:22:51.097 If that doesn't work, then the second thing I think about is, uh, there's the obvious like Surf Watch or whatever parental control you like. 00:22:51.127 --> 00:22:54.337 Veon is a great one you can put on your kid's computer. 00:22:54.337 --> 00:23:03.317 But I think the most important guardrail is first making sure your child understands like the bare bones of what being safe online is. 00:23:03.357 --> 00:23:06.028 It's like,"Hey, only talk to your friends. 00:23:06.698 --> 00:23:07.867 No random people. 00:23:07.948 --> 00:23:11.998 If it's a random person, I need to talk to them first." Like, you know, you put some kind of rules. 00:23:12.567 --> 00:23:23.928 Um, but ultimately, I think that's the benefit of like yourself sending your kids to like these programs'cause they're gonna learn,"Oh, I don't have to join a public server that everyone's joining. 00:23:24.038 --> 00:23:25.278 I can go create my own. 00:23:25.438 --> 00:23:34.377 I can go do this on my own." And that's where some of the risks are, in those public servers where, you know, there are unsafe people just waiting to, you know, check chat. 00:23:34.817 --> 00:23:38.337 Um, one rule I tell, you know, kids I talk to is,"Just don't chat, guys. 00:23:38.798 --> 00:23:41.518 You should, you should be in a voice server with your friends," right? 00:23:41.518 --> 00:23:46.198 "Don't, don't, don't text chat in, in any game server." Like that's a blanket rule I have in any game, right? 00:23:46.617 --> 00:23:49.077 Um, don't let people know you're online, you know, that kind of stuff. 00:23:49.077 --> 00:23:51.417 So it's, it's a balance of that. 00:23:51.417 --> 00:23:52.698 Like what are some home rules? 00:23:52.718 --> 00:23:54.847 What are some, you know, online behavior rules? 00:23:54.917 --> 00:23:57.917 Uh, if you wanna put software on, you can without your child knowing. 00:23:57.938 --> 00:24:01.518 I think that's okay, um, unless they're gonna freak out once they find out. 00:24:01.998 --> 00:24:13.448 Um, but I think most importantly, it's give them the opportunity to learn, hey, you control your world online more than you think, and so you can build and, you know, do your own custom server. 00:24:13.938 --> 00:24:15.488 Um,

that's a fun thing. 00:24:15.678 --> 00:24:19.337 Encourage your friends to build their own server out, um, and build their own custom world out. 00:24:19.538 --> 00:24:27.008 Um, if they invite people and they become the admins, that's a more powerful expression of what they wanna do than just being participants. 00:24:27.097 --> 00:24:27.407 So 00:24:27.713 --> 00:24:28.183 I love it. 00:24:28.253 --> 00:24:38.594 Yeah, I, weeks ago, my son came home and was like:"Look, if you, if I get Roblox Premium, my own server is included every month." Like, he was, he was trying to sell us. 00:24:38.594 --> 00:24:46.693 And I was like:"Okay, wait, so your pitch is that for," whatever it is, like"$12.99 a month, we can get that thing that was 99 cents a month." Like, okay, I 00:24:46.978 --> 00:24:47.258 Yeah. 00:24:47.384 --> 00:24:48.604 I see how the marketing is working here. 00:24:49.097 --> 00:24:49.428 Yeah 00:24:49.804 --> 00:24:53.733 so in general, children are obviously so honest. 00:24:53.763 --> 00:24:55.534 Uh, they are never shy about 00:24:55.740 --> 00:24:56.099 Yeah 00:24:56.104 --> 00:24:56.544 opinions. 00:24:56.794 --> 00:25:04.614 What some of the things that you've learned from children or that kids have taught you about customer experience as you've been in this role? 00:25:05.134 --> 00:25:05.644 Ah. 00:25:09.692 --> 00:25:19.461 This is a joke, but, you know, I think our spy capability is severely underserved'cause kids, they, they can see, observe, notice everything faster, and they say it like it is. 00:25:19.491 --> 00:25:20.521 There's no filter. 00:25:20.781 --> 00:25:22.531 They're like organized chaos agents, 00:25:22.798 --> 00:25:23.219 Yes. 00:25:23.412 --> 00:25:24.912 like perfect organized chaos agents. 00:25:24.922 --> 00:25:25.491 But I don't know. 00:25:25.491 --> 00:25:31.811 I think what, you know, on a real note, one of the more surprising things I learned about children is that they've become more and more... 00:25:31.832 --> 00:25:34.872 Or, uh, I think of it this way. 00:25:35.321 --> 00:25:45.612 As much as a screen gap, the distance to screens has closed more and more and more with generations, so has their, that distance to whether something works or not, 00:25:46.071 --> 00:25:46.271 Hmm. 00:25:46.942 --> 00:25:47.311 right? 00:25:47.721 --> 00:26:01.162 Um, I think we are in interesting times because I think between Millennials to Gen Z and then now to Gen A, we have a transition of where people fit the system, and now Gen A and Gen Z are kinda trying to make the system fit them, right? 00:26:01.551 --> 00:26:07.152 It, it's no longer, you know, like the-- I'm gonna sound so old here, but I'm not that old. 00:26:07.422 --> 00:26:13.602 You know like the days where you would have to open up the man- like those little printed manuals, like the, you know, Casio at RadioShack or something to try to figure something out, 00:26:13.622 --> 00:26:13.781 Yeah 00:26:13.922 --> 00:26:14.961 read the fine print. 00:26:15.412 --> 00:26:18.422 Um, and it was us trying to meet the system where things were. 00:26:18.422 --> 00:26:21.832 But Gen Z, like to your, your point, your kid, if something doesn't work, they're like,"How come... 00:26:22.152 --> 00:26:28.801 Alexa, you're fired." Like it's, it's no longer,"Oh, let me figure out why Alexa's not working." It's,"No, Alexa, you're not working. 00:26:28.801 --> 00:26:29.991 Get out of my life," kind of. 00:26:30.352 --> 00:26:36.182 That, that feedback loop is so much shorter with children, and I think it's refreshing to me. 00:26:36.721 --> 00:26:39.491 Um,'cause I, I'm, I work that, that way too. 00:26:39.491 --> 00:26:42.622 I like direct A to B to C kind of, you know, let's figure things out. 00:26:42.652 --> 00:26:48.932 And so when kids give such direct feedback, um, what they like to engage with and don't like to engage with is very clear. 00:26:49.402 --> 00:26:54.372 Um, I think a second thing is, I think it's our faults 00:26:55.031 --> 00:26:55.271 Okay. 00:26:57.971 --> 00:26:58.082 I 00:26:58.155 --> 00:27:04.006 How they, how, how they, how they en-en-engage with new things. 00:27:04.465 --> 00:27:13.076 There seems to be more of a, not a fear, an apprehension with children to say hi to people that their parents are engaging with or things like... 00:27:13.096 --> 00:27:13.596 I, I don't know. 00:27:13.596 --> 00:27:16.476 I, I can't really form this into words as well. 00:27:16.476 --> 00:27:23.205 It's been something I've been noticing where kids have a different approach nowadays to new things than, than we did, right? 00:27:23.596 --> 00:27:28.586 Um, and so I don't know which side of the fence I stand on with that just yet. 00:27:28.726 --> 00:27:29.965 It's, it's interesting to see. 00:27:30.365 --> 00:27:33.266 Um, but yeah, it's refreshing how direct they are. 00:27:33.306 --> 00:27:34.596 That, that's one of the main things. 00:27:34.635 --> 00:27:41.486 Uh, they say,"This works for me, it doesn't work, and I'm refused to engage with it or I will engage with it." So it's very black and white in a lot of cases. 00:27:41.955 --> 00:27:42.316 So 00:27:42.726 --> 00:27:42.986 I love that. 00:27:43.006 --> 00:27:52.185 The other thing that I've noticed just in the past several months with both of my kids how skeptical AI made them. 00:27:52.892 --> 00:27:53.771 That's a good word for it. 00:27:53.816 --> 00:27:54.796 they'll, they'll see a 00:27:54.842 --> 00:27:55.162 yeah 00:27:55.266 --> 00:28:04.415 or they'll see something and they'll say,"That's AI." And, and I'll either say like,"Okay, well let's investigate or figure out," but even there, there was like a, like a puppy video that one of my friends sent me the other day that 00:28:04.443 --> 00:28:04.453 Mm-hmm. 00:28:04.476 --> 00:28:13.915 was, I was showing, I was showing my youngest son and he was like,"That's definitely AI." And I was like,"No, it's not AI, but like, let's, let's talk about some of the things that would've been

a giveaway, like how would we have known for sure if it's AI?" 00:28:14.115 --> 00:28:14.486 Right 00:28:14.566 --> 00:28:31.625 feel like again, sort of living in this world where now everything is possible and you can just like speak a command and get whatever output you want seemingly, um, it's gonna be really interesting to see how the demands of those children as they have more economic power in the marketplace change things 00:28:31.867 --> 00:28:32.417 Yeah. 00:28:32.657 --> 00:28:33.008 Yeah. 00:28:33.478 --> 00:28:43.617 I think something interesting to track with that too is I read this article the other day with, uh, how the real parallel to follow with AI is the rise of the computer from like back in the'70s,'80s. 00:28:43.617 --> 00:28:53.827 And you know, that there-- it, AI's going through the same thing digital devices first went through then, and there was like this huge uphill battle it had to climb, and then it became just it's an everyday thing. 00:28:54.327 --> 00:29:08.147 Uh, so to your point, I, I could imagine a future where Gen A has grown up and a- as adults, AI truly is like, like a little, a little hologram pet that, you know, follows them around in midair just like, you know, doing things that they request. 00:29:08.478 --> 00:29:09.837 It's like, uh, I guess Iron Man. 00:29:09.837 --> 00:29:13.147 They have their own personal Jarvis, you know, running around, right? 00:29:13.198 --> 00:29:15.538 Um, so it is curious to see how that develops. 00:29:15.567 --> 00:29:21.538 But yeah, skeptical is a great word to use for the skepticism or yeah, not-- hopefully not cynicism. 00:29:21.728 --> 00:29:22.278 Not yet. 00:29:22.397 --> 00:29:23.117 It's just skepticism. 00:29:23.751 --> 00:29:27.471 Yeah, no, I think not yet with, with my kids, but obviously they are younger. 00:29:27.471 --> 00:29:50.912 And, you know, one of the, the sort of AI wearables and, and, and Jarvis future, the thing that I find so promising about that, um, so, you know, I have, I have Meta Ray-Bans and all of the sort of like, you know, ethical concerns aside, um, the thing that I enjoy most about them, other than the fact that the, like, the audio quality is incredible, um, is that I don't have to have a device in my hands. 00:29:51.162 --> 00:30:04.352 And to be able to t-take a picture without having to take, get a phone out of my pocket, or when one of the kids ask me, you know,"What kind of tree is that?" Or, or,"What's this?" Or whatever, just to be able to, like, stay in that conversation, in that moment with them, but have 00:30:04.711 --> 00:30:04.912 Yeah 00:30:04.971 --> 00:30:13.021 AI give me the information that I don't have, it really is, y-you know, to use a very technical term, like the robotification of, of humans. 00:30:13.031 --> 00:30:21.582 Like, it is, it's very, it's, it's very cool, and obviously we're still very early days, but I think that parallel with, with PCs is, is exactly spot on. 00:30:21.741 --> 00:30:21.761 Yeah.

00:30:21.791 --> 00:30:22.221 yeah 00:30:22.231 --> 00:30:24.602 none of us really quite know. 00:30:24.602 --> 00:30:32.592 I think that we can, you know, look at so many different options of, of where it might go and, and different futures that we can see, and we'll, we'll see who wins on the hardware side. 00:30:32.592 --> 00:30:42.741 But, um, I think it's very exciting for me to think about all of the new possibilities reimagining what connectivity looks like. 00:30:42.971 --> 00:30:43.382 Yeah. 00:30:43.392 --> 00:30:46.392 A-and I think-- And so, so I am a sci-fi geek, right? 00:30:46.392 --> 00:30:48.031 I grew up on this kind of stuff. 00:30:48.031 --> 00:30:56.602 So, I mean, I think there is some sci-fi book or creative art or thing that outlines some possible future, right? 00:30:56.602 --> 00:31:06.112 But I think if I can imagine, like, the next technology that will really help accelerate that kind of future, it's light projection, holographic technology. 00:31:06.142 --> 00:31:18.932 One-once I think that comes out, like, you do get, like, even way back when my-- when Minority Report with Tom Cruise showed, like, that holographic screen that they were using, but it was still a glass screen, that kind of exists today, right? 00:31:18.932 --> 00:31:21.672 So I almost see that next evolution to your point. 00:31:21.682 --> 00:31:25.692 We have our, you know, we're, we're robotified in some way. 00:31:26.135 --> 00:31:26.326 Yeah. 00:31:26.615 --> 00:31:29.945 Smart contacts, I mean, that's a really exciting field that's, you 00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:30.579 yeah. 00:31:30.609 --> 00:31:31.430 That's really cool. 00:31:31.660 --> 00:31:32.039 Yeah. 00:31:32.076 --> 00:31:34.425 implications of everything you can do with those 00:31:34.450 --> 00:31:38.480 think that's gonna disrupt like any kind of glasses technology or that's gonna create new glasses tech. 00:31:38.509 --> 00:31:40.160 But I mean, it's cool to see where that goes. 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:40.650 So I think, 00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:40.809 Yeah 00:31:41.049 --> 00:31:46.339 you know, as much as much doom and gloom there is in the news about AI and all that, I mean, there's gonna be a negative side to it. 00:31:46.769 --> 00:31:53.079 There is a huge potential to where it could take, I guess, the way we live our lives in a way. 00:31:53.079 --> 00:32:03.049 But I think our jobs as educators and parents though is we-- I think humans will become more the guardrails rather than written rule and like guidebooks and handbooks, right? 00:32:03.049 --> 00:32:08.799 We'll become more and more the guardrails for Gen A and I guess Gen B, whatever they're gonna call the next one, right? 00:32:08.809 --> 00:32:10.740 So, yeah 00:32:10.763 --> 00:32:15.584 Um, so let's, a, as a, as a sci-fi fan, 00:32:15.963 --> 00:32:16.243 Yeah 00:32:16.403 --> 00:32:19.284 sort of put yourself in, in the future. 00:32:19.630 --> 00:32:19.990 Okay 00:32:20.273 --> 00:32:24.144 do you hope 20 years from now to be able to look back and say, 00:32:24.461 --> 00:32:25.301 That's a great question 00:32:25.544 --> 00:32:29.663 that a Code Ninja student did this or had this experience"? 00:32:29.693 --> 00:32:45.273 Or w- when you think about the legacy your company is creating with all of these children who are coming to you to, to learn, to grow, to prosper, not to sound kind of Star Treky, um, like what, what do you hope that the legacy is a couple of decades removed from right now? 00:32:45.307 --> 00:32:46.978 That's a fantastic question. 00:32:46.978 --> 00:32:47.397 Wow. 00:32:47.978 --> 00:32:48.958 That's another lot of great question. 00:32:48.958 --> 00:32:49.748 That's a great question. 00:32:49.768 --> 00:33:05.337 Um, if I had to put it in one way, I hope that a single child comes out of Code Ninjas in 20 years having created and solved for something that they couldn't solve for with us, but they discovered it with us. 00:33:06.847 --> 00:33:10.508 That would be my ideal kind of int- you know, intangible reward. 00:33:10.508 --> 00:33:18.407 It's like 20 years from now, the, the tech bro of them, it's like,"Yeah, you know, part of my experience when I was a kid, I was at this place called Code Ninjas. 00:33:18.428 --> 00:33:19.198 I was working on this. 00:33:19.228 --> 00:33:26.567 It-- we couldn't solve this because, you know, this didn't exist, and that sparked my race to build this company," or something like that, right? 00:33:26.877 --> 00:33:34.337 Like igniting even one child to become a superstar innovator of the future, that would be my dream. 00:33:34.688 --> 00:33:39.738 So I, I've, I've experienced this once before, and I say it'cause it- it's something, uh, you know, I had in one of my previous roles. 00:33:39.738 --> 00:33:43.218 One of the first students I ever tutored, uh, became a surgeon a- 00:33:43.935 --> 00:33:44.256 Wow 00:33:44.288 --> 00:33:45.577 a very successful surgeon, right? 00:33:45.577 --> 00:33:56.508 So me hearing that like 20 years after the fact, I was like,"Wow." You know, when I caught up with him, he was like,"Yeah, I remember how hard you were with me as a tutor, you know, making sure I got good grades and all that. 00:33:56.897 --> 00:34:01.188 Uh, that kept me going through med school." And I was like,"Wow." Like that's wonderful to hear. 00:34:01.468 --> 00:34:02.667 Like that makes everything worth it. 00:34:02.678 --> 00:34:05.097 So yeah, that's the legacy I hope we have. 00:34:05.468 --> 00:34:06.748 Even one child, if not more. 00:34:07.147 --> 00:34:07.458 So 00:34:07.726 --> 00:34:10.545 I am so confident it will be many, many more than 00:34:10.889 --> 00:34:11.349 Thank you. 00:34:11.385 --> 00:34:11.655 child. 00:34:11.666 --> 00:34:14.175 But speaking of one child, uh, my son has a 00:34:14.300 --> 00:34:14.590 Yes. 00:34:15.070 --> 00:34:15.559 Yes 00:34:15.695 --> 00:34:16.675 wanted to ask you. 00:34:16.876 --> 00:34:17.706 I'll just read it to you. 00:34:18.065 --> 00:34:23.735

Uh, his question was,"What's the coolest thing a Code Ninjas student has ever made out of Lego?" 00:34:25.532 --> 00:34:26.802 Ooh. 00:34:28.561 --> 00:34:29.722 That's a great question. 00:34:29.851 --> 00:34:31.132 wanna use his name when you answer. 00:34:31.161 --> 00:34:34.702 But I know you guys do so much with the Lego robotics. 00:34:34.711 --> 00:34:39.402 He's actually about to do his first Lego robotics thing this summer, um, because he... 00:34:40.411 --> 00:34:44.612 I don't know if he wasn't old enough last summer or he just wanted to do something different. 00:34:44.902 --> 00:34:47.001 For whatever reason, that's like the one thing we haven't done. 00:34:47.132 --> 00:34:48.291 He's done like one-day Lego things, but we haven't done the like robotics camps yet, so 00:34:50.157 --> 00:34:50.498 Okay. 00:34:51.248 --> 00:35:00.438 Look at the coolest thing I am recalling this from now is early when I f- when I, when I first s- joined Code Ninjas, this student had taken over, I think, multiple kits. 00:35:00.487 --> 00:35:04.057 Like, they, they needed multiple kits'cause they, they were a huge Transformers fan. 00:35:04.057 --> 00:35:12.318 So I think in the second or third movie, there's like this massive Trans- uh, like bad guy Transformer that comes, like that's built from like five different Transformers or something. 00:35:12.717 --> 00:35:22.748 And so he built versions of these Transformers, five of them in, in five different little robots, and then figured out a way to make them transform into one. 00:35:23.458 --> 00:35:26.418 But he used a lot of pieces and he had to space it. 00:35:26.418 --> 00:35:34.838 I mean, he was experimenting a lot, spacing it around'cause it didn't sound like they connected to each other like real Transformers, but they would like move and then reshape into the new structure. 00:35:34.838 --> 00:35:36.657 So that was k- that was the coolest thing I'd seen. 00:35:37.103 --> 00:35:37.744 That is so cool. 00:35:37.744 --> 00:35:38.653 And how old was this kid? 00:35:39.108 --> 00:35:41.237 Uh, nine, 10-ish. 00:35:41.297 --> 00:35:41.697 Yeah, yeah. 00:35:41.697 --> 00:35:43.577 But that's the curiosity thing, right? 00:35:43.588 --> 00:35:45.327 They're like,"Oh, I saw-- I love Transformers. 00:35:45.327 --> 00:35:46.047 I wanna do this. 00:35:46.047 --> 00:35:47.608 Let's make it." So yeah, that's a cool... 00:35:47.807 --> 00:35:49.628 But I've seen a lot of other cool things. 00:35:49.697 --> 00:35:51.237 It's not like that's a huge gap. 00:35:51.248 --> 00:35:51.498 There's... 00:35:51.898 --> 00:35:54.188 Kids come up with the craziest things to make with Lego. 00:35:54.387 --> 00:35:55.378 Um, what about your son? 00:35:55.568 --> 00:35:56.248 What, what has he made? 00:35:57.536 --> 00:36:09.126 He has made all kinds of things with Legos, uh, over the years, It's wild as a parent to watch your child, A, ask for, like, an expensive Lego set, and then open it up and be like,"Nah, I don't wanna

build. 00:36:09.135 --> 00:36:15.606 I'm just gonna take, you know, I've got the 20,000 little Lego pieces over here that are in bulk, but I don't want any of those. 00:36:15.606 --> 00:36:21.005 I wanted to buy this specific set so that I could buy something completely different," totally disregards the instructions. 00:36:21.306 --> 00:36:28.326 Uh, which is really fun, but just, you know, ironic that it's like,"No, I wanted this specific set to build something completely on my own." 00:36:29.181 --> 00:36:29.382 All right. 00:36:29.411 --> 00:36:29.822 That's good. 00:36:30.132 --> 00:36:30.641 That's good 00:36:30.695 --> 00:36:34.016 rebuild content, too, I feel like plays into that on, on YouTube. 00:36:34.025 --> 00:36:40.905 Like, they'll, they'll s- y- you know, it's like the, one of the famous examples is, like, Millennium Falcon guy, who, like, will take any set and turn it into a Millennium Falcon. 00:36:41.155 --> 00:36:41.525 Yeah, I, 00:36:41.735 --> 00:36:45.715 got people who will do that with, like, they'll, they'll take a random set and turn it into a Pokemon or 00:36:45.878 --> 00:36:46.398 Wow. 00:36:46.447 --> 00:36:47.128 Yeah, yeah. 00:36:47.838 --> 00:36:48.407 It's so innovative 00:36:48.436 --> 00:36:50.846 from some show, which is just, like, so fun and so creative. 00:36:51.273 --> 00:36:51.574 Yeah 00:36:51.755 --> 00:36:58.835 So Ed, before I let you go, one of the questions I love to ask every guest is, what's something that you are a superfan of right now that more people need to know about? 00:37:00.465 --> 00:37:09.465 Oh, that's such a tough question'cause I feel like in the, in the internet age, everyone has seen everything. 00:37:10.483 --> 00:37:11.164 Oh my goodness. 00:37:11.543 --> 00:37:13.643 No, you know, it's, it, it's two things I'll say. 00:37:13.643 --> 00:37:15.974 One, one's kind of, you know, pranky, I guess. 00:37:16.193 --> 00:37:31.134 I just recently discovered these Porsche, Porsche Pirate Revenge videos, which is these engineered boxes that, like, explode paint on it, and I thought,"Okay, that's an interesting app." It's like a Mark Rober-type application of like, you know, you know, managing, I guess, your community. 00:37:31.514 --> 00:37:39.164 Uh, but I think one thing I wanna encourage more, more of, I'm a superfan of hikes with waterfalls at the end, and I'm kind of flipping back. 00:37:39.164 --> 00:37:42.344 I'm, I'm kind of moving away from s- from social media tech and all that. 00:37:42.844 --> 00:37:44.114 I wanna go back out to nature. 00:37:44.134 --> 00:37:53.693 So I, you know, there's beautiful hikes here in Georgia and, and at the end there's these beautiful waterfalls, and just taking the time to go out and break away from the screen is, is my superfan thing. 00:37:54.094 --> 00:37:55.034 Um, yeah. 00:37:55.063 --> 00:37:56.824 Online trends, I don't know. 00:37:57.273 --> 00:37:58.454 Not a big fan of those. 00:37:58.800 --> 00:37:59.260 Other than 00:37:59.293 --> 00:37:59.673 What's that? 00:38:00.030 --> 00:38:01.280 porch pirate justice 00:38:01.284 --> 00:38:02.014 The Porsche Pirate. 00:38:02.063 --> 00:38:04.204 It just-- I don't know why it popped up on my YouTube feed. 00:38:04.233 --> 00:38:05.353 It's just out of nowhere. 00:38:05.353 --> 00:38:10.474 It's like history of this and then Porsche Pirates, and I was like,"Oh, let me click that." And then just dragged me down 00:38:10.574 --> 00:38:10.603 But 00:38:10.634 --> 00:38:11.483 a rabbit hole 00:38:11.653 --> 00:38:13.884 that, the hike with the payoff of the waterfall at the end. 00:38:13.893 --> 00:38:14.333 Very cool 00:38:14.425 --> 00:38:14.766 yeah. 00:38:14.766 --> 00:38:17.965 Go outside and spend like an hour outside i- in nature. 00:38:18.025 --> 00:38:19.956 I think that that's what I'm a superfan of right now. 00:38:20.195 --> 00:38:21.976 So I'm a little boring that way. 00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:24.960 Ed, thank you again for coming on the podcast. 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:27.369 Where can people learn more about you and Code Ninjas? 00:38:27.840 --> 00:38:29.300 Uh, come to codeninjas.com. 00:38:29.300 --> 00:38:34.309 You guys can, uh, check out my LinkedIn, um, my social media, very rare updates. 00:38:34.340 --> 00:38:38.050 Uh, I don't even know my tags anymore, but yeah, you can find me online, um, and 00:38:38.068 --> 00:38:38.978 and put them in the show notes. 00:38:39.320 --> 00:38:39.340 yeah. 00:38:39.349 --> 00:38:39.550 Yep 00:38:40.898 --> 00:38:41.347 Awesome. 00:38:41.367 --> 00:38:41.838 Thanks, Ed. 00:38:41.838 --> 00:38:42.038 Talk to 00:38:42.269 --> 00:38:42.500 All right. 00:38:42.590 --> 00:38:43.090 Thanks a lot.