the guy the internet loved to hate was a character all along. @chooserich baited his way onto national tv, built a business making millions a year, then got a Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis. his take on optimism is the most grounded thing you'll hear. new episode with @derekjandersen is live, link in replies

Steve Young has been in rooms with presidents, Hall of Famers, and billionaires for four decades. His most admired list looks nothing like a résumé. "To me, the superheroes are the ones that have defied the natural state. The natural state is seeking credit. The natural state is selfishness. When super famous people are authentic in those little brief moments, that's a superhero." "Magic Johnson's a superhero. Arnold Palmer's a superhero."

Steve Young on why great teams with great tactics still fall apart. "A plane can be built and be amazing, but can it fly? You can be great with people, but then what are you rooted in?" "Every human needs credit. But is that the North Star? Is my credit? You can have great tactics. You could have great technology. You could have great product." "That doesn't have a chance to fly because it's rooted in something that's gonna rot." @SteveYoungQB @Divotdotorg

My @Divotdotorg interview this week is with Super Bowl and NFL MVP quarterback @SteveYoungQB. Steve was an elite athlete, has co-managed a private equity firm for decades, authored several books, and is trying to live what he calls the "law of love," fun one.

Alphabet's product incubator leader Astro Teller on leadership: "I was laboring under this delusion that if I just said it clearly enough, often enough, stridently enough, that people would get it and get into that mode." "It took me quite a long time to accept that's not really how humans work. There's a bunch they need about feeling safe and feeling heard before they abandon their own success behaviors." "I might be world-class at describing where we need to go and holding the line on the container. I'm actually not world-class at helping people get there." "I need to surround myself with people who are better sherpas along that emotional journey."

Astro Teller used to give one-hour lectures on innovation. He stopped. Now he does it in 60 seconds. "Choice A, $1M guaranteed. Choice B, $1B, one chance in a hundred." "Everyone raises their hand for choice B. Big smile on their face because they've all passed the math test." "Leave your hand up if in your most optimistic imagination of their best day, your manager, your CEO, your board of directors even remotely supports you choosing choice B." "Every hand in the room goes down." "You don't need a lecture on innovation. You need a new manager."

My sit-down this week is with @astroteller, the entrepreneur and scientist who has led X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, for more than 15 years. Under his leadership, X incubated Google Brain, Waymo, Wing, and Verily. Waymo alone was recently valued at $126B.

The CEO of Alphabet's X spends every single day on rollerblades. @astroteller explained why on Divot. "I wouldn't do that if I didn't authentically love it." "But it also keeps the people around here thinking, I don't have to take Astro too seriously. I can be serious about the work in the long-term sense, but I understand from his wheels that I can be playful as part of how we take the work seriously." "We've told everyone since they were five not to be silly. That if you want to be successful, you have to somehow be the opposite of silly." "And yet silly, humorous, playful is the raw material out of which all moonshots are born."

"Every single human's facing an internal battle. Treat others how you want to be treated. The basics. Honestly, I think kindness is a very selfish thing." I asked MDMotivator to explain kindness beyond just the word. "There's no better feeling in the world than being selfless. I say it's selfish to be selfless." "It's a feeling you get inside when you do something for somebody else that you can't get from anything you do for your own self."

Why is it the most lonely time in human history According to MD Motivator it’s because, "We've stopped talking to each other. These platforms have turned the worst parts of us into the thing we see the most." "Everyone's just trying to take care of their family. I know people in Iran, Palestine, Israel, Latin America. They all have the same need." "Every piece of the technology is to drive you to stay there as long as possible. That seems totally the opposite of what our souls need."

Why does MD Motivator tell every stranger he meets "I love you"? "For two years nobody told me that in person. So I say it to every single person I meet because I never know the last time they've heard that." Someone once told him he can't just go up to strangers and say he loves them. His response: "If you can tell me you hate somebody you don't know, why can't you love somebody you don't know?" He doesn't read comments. He doesn't do it for the reaction. "I do it for hopefully the person in the video. As long as I know it's going to emit an energy that I feel confident I left the situation better than I found it." Positivity on the internet is much harder to emit. That's exactly why it matters.

Why do the people with the least always give the most? "Because they don't want other people to feel how they feel. They know what it feels like." That’s what MD Motivator told me on Divot. "They have their priorities more in check. The core things that matter. Loving your neighbor. Being kind. Family. Faith. Really simple cores that actually make you feel full." "The people going through hard things are essentially the same people that have the most empathy." He's made thousands of these videos, and it still hits every time.

"The best thing that's ever happened to me was free." Zachery Dereniowski (MD Motivator) left medical school after hitting rock bottom. Two strangers saved his life by sitting with him in the rain for 30 minutes. Now 50M+ people follow his work. This is what he said that most stayed with me.

Kindness and generosity are at the center of living a fulfilled life. On @Divotdotorg this week I interviewed someone I've long admired @mdmotivator_. Before his billions of views and 50M followers, someone's kindness saved his life helping change him and billions of others. Timestamps: 03:22 — Medical School, Isolation, and His Darkest Night 06:50 — The 30 Minutes in the Rain That Saved His Life 07:22 — From Blindfolded Hugs to a Global Movement 10:51 — Why Men Hide Their Mental Health Struggles 12:59 — The Selfish Reason Kindness Feels So Good 19:01 — “I’m Not the Kind Person”: MDMotivator’s Real Mission 25:15 — Victor and Queen: The Kindness That Raised $1 Million 37:48 — What the Happiest People Understand About Life 41:32 — Why Zachery Tells Every Stranger “I Love You” 46:29 — The Micro-Goal Method Zachery Uses for Depression 49:39 — The Loneliness Paradox: More Connected, More Alone 52:00 — How $100 Became a Multimillion-Dollar Kindness Machine 59:14 — The Hardest Lesson: You Are Already Enough 1:03:04 — The Legacy He Wants: Alive, Valued, and Loved 1:07:18 — How One Viewer Turned Inspiration Into Real-World Kindness

In a departure from any @Divotdotorg interview I've ever done, I tried to find out why so many of my friends that want to get married are not getting married. I talked to dating expert @datingbyblaine to get answers to all my single friends' questions. :) Timestamps: 03:43 – Why Fewer People Are Getting Married Than Ever Before 05:44 – Why Dating Apps Are Making Commitment Harder 12:14 – "I Felt Like He Was Interviewing Me" 14:18 – The Real Reason She Disappeared After a Great Date 15:47 – What a First Date Is Actually For 23:22 – How to Approach a Woman You Don't Know 31:38 – Why "Nice Guys" Actually Finish Last 34:41 – The Investment Areas Framework 36:21 – Why You're Texting Yourself Out of Dates 39:23 – The Uber Text That Went Viral 49:43 – The Age Men and Women Should Start Taking Dating Seriously 54:44 – Why Building the Perfect Life First Backfires 1:02:28 – The Pretzel Bar That Ended a Date Before It Started 1:08:20 – What Nobody Tells You About Pitching on Shark Tank 1:10:39 – The Failure That Accidentally Built Her Company 1:18:04 – One Idea She'd Implant in Everyone on Earth

For 15 years, this stage has held some of the people who shaped what tech looks like today. Sam Altman. Eric Schmidt. Fei-Fei Li. Jan Koum. And thousands of founders nobody knew yet, the ones still figuring it out, still pitching, still building. That mix has always been the point. The names you know and the names you're about to, in the same room, working on the same hard problems. Next year, the Startup Grind Conference turns 15. Our biggest edition yet. Same core it's always had: AI, startups, and the capital that moves them forward, now at the center of the whole AI economy. 15 years in. The best one is still ahead. 🌟

Some fun @Divotdotorg conversations in the coming weeks with a bunch of GOATs. Left handed GOAT @SteveYoungQB, Lean startup GOAT @ericries, moonshot GOAT @astroteller, giving GOAT @mdmotivator_.

The best takeaways from each: Amjad: "People get rich writing code. I got rich by making code optional." Justin: money can't buy lasting happiness (this one from someone who sold Twitch for $970M). Ashton: "Love thy neighbor as thyself. Everything else is commentary." Full video: piped.video/watch?v=cPnZArgZ…

. @tvmjames brought The School of Hard Knocks to the Startup Grind Conference and did what only he does: cold-approached billionaires in the hallways. @amasad. @justinkan. @aplusk. All in one video 🧵

We've watched too many founders build something great and then wonder why nobody showed up. It's not the product. It never was. The hardest problem in startups is still the same one 🧵

"You can only grow as high as the soil that you come from." @GrantCardone grew up somewhere the word entrepreneur hadn't been invented yet. "When I was growing up, the term entrepreneur did not exist." "You called it out of work. I grew up in the bayous of Louisiana. Nobody talked about banks, debt, getting rich. You can only grow as high as the soil that you come from."