How You Become Irreplaceable in an AI-Driven World | Ep. 136

Ethan: If it were possible for you to buy a robot for say 15,000 US that is capable of watching your child, changing his diapers, feeding him, um, and it like, you know, that it's 100% reliable, would you do it right now?

Justin: The best part is that anyone listening to this immediately is like, where did this conversation come from? So for context, we are speaking about my son, who is now 11 weeks old. Little, Little Harrison. Sure, that's a good question, Ethan. And yes, yes, absolutely, I would spend that money because we've been going through this process of looking for somebody to help fill a nanny position and trust is like, trust is hard to earn and it's so easily broken. And we've kind of experienced that already and we haven't even found. Well, we thought we had found somebody and now we starting the search again. So.

Ethan: Yeah, because,

Justin: uh, long story short, because now I really am going to sound like a. I'm going to give you the full story because it does make me sound like a bad human. Well, no, this, this, this, this podcast is meant to be raw and unfiltered and, and make us realize where we, we fall short sometimes. So, so the lady that we appointed and offered the position to, she unfortunately had a death in her family. Her mother passed away and she is from Zimbabwe and she needed to go back to Zim, um, for that. And I'll be brutally honest, I had to catch myself in the moment because one of the first things that came to mind for me was like, oh, Jeep, that's a real inconvenience for us. And then I was like, Justin, this lady has just lost her mother. So I very quickly caught myself. So we pushed her, we asked her how much time she, she needed, we pushed the start date out. We, we contributed towards her travel costs to getting back to, uh, Zimbabwe. And then a couple of days before she was meant to be starting again, we hadn't heard from her, so we dropped her message and she said she was on her way back and she was going to be back in Cape Town following morning, which was the day that she was meant to start and she was going to be here, uh, mid morning. So we said, great, thanks for letting us know, but don't worry about coming in on that Monday. If you're only getting back on that day, you can start on the Tuesday. We didn't hear from her. So on the, uh, the Monday afternoon, Monday evening, we sent a message to say we haven't heard anything and we're a little bit concerned about the lack of communication and she just let us know what happening. We got the, the dreaded blue tick Tuesday came, never came to work and we've just never ever heard back from her. So.

Ethan: Wow, she just ghosted you.

Justin: Yeah. So it's, it's un. Look dealing with a huge amount in her, in her life. Just lost her mother. Yeah, but it's, it's, it, yeah, it was a, it was a pity that it happened.

Ethan: I mean, I mean hopefully she's okay.

Justin: I hope so.

Ethan: Yeah. But even when hardships happen in your life, to me that's no excuse for just completely ghosting someone. I'm sorry, I just think that that's rude and I know that that's kind of the culture, maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I think that that is. To just ghost someone I think is completely rude. And I don't know how that became. It seems like it's become adopted as a norm and it's accepted. It's in today's society that, that people just do that. But the least you could do is be like, just reply and be like, hey, it's just not going to work out right now or sorry, I got too much going on in my life.

Justin: Say something, say something. And yeah, it's an interesting one in South Africa because we've just got such a high unemployment rate and so many people looking for work as well. So I mean our uh, interaction with her was lovely. That's why we, then that's why we hired her. And she was very excited about it. But you know, it actually goes a little bit deeper than this, Ethan, because obviously with the work that I do, working with a lot of different businesses and coaching clients, there are so many examples of. Because what I was appointing for context, very entry level position. I mean even from an earnings point of view, very entry level. But even people that are appointing positions in larger organizations and larger businesses, more uh, senior positions, they're having experiences of not only people kind of what happened to us, but people were signing employment contracts and then just not showing up. Ah. Or taking another, taking another job. And now you stuck in this position of uh, what are you going to try as, as the employee, what are you going to try and force? Because you're not going to want, are you going to sue them for damages like financially? And you certainly don't want that person to come and work for you now because they, they've just shown you who they are. So it's, it's just, you take it on the chin and then you, I mean that's a Sun cost, all those, those expenses that you've gone through to hire the person, the time, and I've got to start the process again. And that's happened quite, quite a few times. And something that's, I don't want to say it's become the norm, but I've heard it from more than one client of mine.

Ethan: I wonder why that is. Uh, are they getting money when they sign these employment contracts? Like a signing bonus?

Justin: No, no, no, no. So no signing bonus, but a lot of it. My understanding is people just carry on looking so they are willing to take the slightly better offer. And it seems that there's also a habit of trying to play, uh, potential employees off against one another or even going to get an offer to take to the existing employer and say, hey, this is on the table for me. I need you to either match it or improve on it, otherwise I'm out of here. But they'll go so far as to actually take these other jobs. So, yeah, it's a crazy one. It is a, uh, it is a crazy one that, that happened. Just be a good person, don't be a dick. Just be a good person, don't be a dick. Yeah, and we need robots.

Ethan: We need robots. Robots aren't dicks. Unless you, unless you tell your robot to be a dick, it's not going

Justin: to be a dick. Yeah,

Ethan: so, so back, so, which goes back to the original question because when I remember when they first started talking about these humanoid robots that, that are going to help us out in their homes and people said, well, they babysit your kids and people are like, no, I'll never let a robot babysit my kids. But now here we are. Already if you had, you said, hypothetically, if you had the opportunity and the technology were there today and you could trust it, I don't know, it might be there maybe. I don't know if robots can change diapers yet. Probably not too far off in the future, you know. So if you, and if you look at that cost, uh, so let's say it costs two years of salary that you would pay someone to watch your kid. But now you own this robot and not only can I watch your kid, but also do chores and stuff around the house, to me that's a no brainer. Like, why, why wouldn't you do that?

Justin: Yeah, I'm with you. There is still going to be a period where, because the technology, and you're right, the technology probably does exist, but because we have not been exposed to it, the trust is still not there. So as much as I would need to learn to trust a human that I would bring into this position into my home and to spend time with my child and when we head on out to be trusting enough to leave the child alone with this person, I would be watching the robot like a hawk for the first few weeks or months because, uh, I'd be worried that it's going to not realize that it's ripped off a leg when trying to change a nappy or something and you come home to just a bloody mess. That would be my worry. You know, these down robots, they're pretty strong.

Ethan: Oh my God, that's, that would be a, that would be an interesting like scene in a movie.

Justin: Like.

Ethan: Oh my God, that's crazy.

Justin: Uh, yeah.

Ethan: So there's fears around that. Okay, is the robot going to accidentally murder my child, rip it apart, is it gonna maliciously somehow drop, even if it just dropped the baby. Oh. So I, okay, so I guess babysitting a small child. But let's, let's say your baby could walk and you know, let's say it's a toddler out of the, out of the diaper phase, you know, maybe four years old, more self sufficient to where the robot doesn't need to physically pick up your child. Then maybe it's more plausible.

Justin: Yeah, well, I suppose the one thing that. I don't know, but I mean there's pretty. I, uh, don't know, I don't, I don't know how well you know the, the sex doll industry, but I have no idea how, how, how realistic it feels when you, you're giving a, a doll like that a hug. But I mean your, your humanoid robot looking after your kid would need to be able to give the kids um, like physical affection. It would need to feel like it's hugging a human being. It feels like it's hugging a piece of tin. You're also doing your baby a disservice. So there's a few things that we've got to get, get past here, I think.

Ethan: Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. My daughter, my daughter 16, she just had her first babysitting gig in the, in the childhood. I think it's about two years old, maybe a little, maybe one and a half. Two years old. And uh, this is a complete stranger. So you know, they hired her to watch their kid and it went, it went well. But I don't think she like hugged this child or anything. I mean there was some touch because she had to change the baby's diaper, but it just m. Like I just wonder because of the reliability factor, you know, how soon will we turn to robots for that type of thing? You know, uh, once it makes sense, once we get past the danger zone and its technology is there, like, how soon will we be there? And it's not because, like, people are. People hate AI and robots because it's going to replace jobs. But a lot of times, no, your job's getting replaced just because you're not reliable, just because you're a dick and you're. And you're ghosting people and you're not a reliable person. So that's why you're getting replaced. Don't blame the technology, you know.

Justin: Yeah, I mean, that's very valid point. Very valid point. Yeah. It's going to be so interesting to know how far we are off we are from that. And again, I think, uh, everywhere is going to adopt it at a different pace. A place like South Africa or Africa, we've got. It is going to be interesting because we, for a while we will probably still have some labor here that is going to be cheaper than going. The option of the, the humanoid

Ethan: technology always gets cheaper and better faster.

Justin: It will, it will.

Ethan: I remember when flat screen TVs, when they first came out, they were like $20,000 US, $30,000 US for a TV. And now, you know, people give them away, they don't even want them anymore.

Justin: Yeah.

Ethan: So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I saw this news clip. In China, you can go to a shopping mall right now and buy a humanoid robot just in the mall. And they sell humanoid. I mean, not humanoid, but robot dogs too. I don't know what the dog actually does. Um, I have to research that.

Justin: But it's a dog. It's a dog that doesn't ship is basically what you get.

Ethan: Yeah, maybe it picks things up off the floor. It kind of looked like it maybe picks things up off the floor, but that was the price point. I think they said that the robot, you could buy it for about 15,000. I'm assuming that they were converting it to us, but, you know, depending on what it can do, if you're comparing that to a salary, it's the more and more, you know, as time progresses, it's starting to make sense very quickly. So it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

Justin: I suppose my question here is going to be at what stage do we kind of flip this and say not where is. Where are these, uh, humanoid robots going to be replacing jobs, but where are they going to be assisting those that don't have jobs. And the reason I say that is in, in the U.S. what, what is your unemployment rate currently?

Ethan: Idea? Probably like 4%. I'll ask Gemini real quick.

Justin: Yeah, I mean if you ask ask, I'm curious what will come up as a South African stat there as well? Because it'll be high, but it will be wrong.

Ethan: Let's see. Current US Unemployment rate and South Africa rate.

Justin: All uh.

Ethan: Right, let's see. You said it'll be high, but it'd be wrong. Why? You said it'll be wrong.

Justin: It'll be, it'll be lowballing.

Ethan: Okay, so they say United States 4.3 and South Africa 32.7.

Justin: Yeah. And it's probably closer to uh, I mean I would say north of 40%. It's just we have got, we've. It's very difficult to, to measure. I mean, I mean we've got a country of. I mean we know we're near the size of the US That I must check my stats now but we must be between 50 and 60 million people now. Population A uh, huge percentage of that. I mean we, we've only got a tiny, tiny percentage that pays taxes towards, I mean in, in the country people that earn it up to pay taxes. And then we've got this, this huge, huge portion of our population that uh, lives a outside of. Of cities and then be even in the cities on the outskirts of cities. And you would have seen it in Cape Town near the airport, but in what we call informal settlement these, these locations. And it's very, very difficult to get accurate statistics because of just the type of demographics that we, we have in our country and the, the uh, distribution of people. It's also a massive driver of our uh, our crime is just the fact that we've got such a high. I mean you spoke about 4%, 32%, 33% is high. When it's north of that it is crazy. We are creeping up towards half a population that, that just does not have work, which means you don't have money to, to buy your baby formula to what. Whatever it may be. So sorry, getting a little bit off topic, but if we now start saying okay well we're going to bring robots in and maybe replace some of these jobs. So a lot of these, these individuals, the entry level jobs are cleaning positions in, in people's homes. Nanny positions is, is another one. Those are all the, the entry level positions. So most, most families in South Africa that are kind of a median salary. You would have a cleaner that comes to Your house. Some people have a, ah, full time cleaner. Some people have a couple of times a day like I, I know in other countries around the world to have people come to your house to clean your houses. It's an expensive exercise. That's not a cheap thing to, to do. Where, where here it becomes normal because we've got access to, to so many people that, that need work. So I'm just now wondering if we start replacing that and that that unemployment rate grows, is there a point where the scale has to tip and we've got to say, well how do these humanoid robots then start serving? Or does the government have a responsibility to have companies robots to serve these people that now literally have nothing? We've removed an entry point layer of um, employment opportunities. Right, what is next up? The education. Unfortunately our education, um, system or educational system just doesn't allow that this, this mass of people to have the education necessary to take the next step up from, from these roles. And we just don't have the number of positions available and it's just, it's just, I don't know, it's a, it's a, I get that bit of a perfect storm of I don't know what happens. It's. Right, well we're going to see really

Ethan: soon because it's kind of inevitable. And this is where people are talking about universal basic income.

Justin: Exactly like that.

Ethan: Ah, but then is, is, is South Africa's government in a position for that? Uh, you know what happens when that, that reported employment rate goes from 32% to 50% or higher? Because now those cleaning jobs, those things like you're talking about are replaced by robots. And I could see there being like robot hate going to the point where people like will, will destroy.

Justin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean we've had serious cases. I mean um, I'm making South Africa sound like the wild west here, but xenophobic attacks in South Africa over the years, a lot of serious cases of that happening. And what I mean by that is South Africans, local South Africans being unhappy about people from other countries coming into, into SA and starting small businesses and, and small, small shops selling, selling produce. And it's. How dare you, you come into our space in our um, little corner of the, the, the city or the world or whatever it is and start doing that. And yeah, so it, and that was all about the, well the, the misunderstanding that these people were stealing jobs and stealing opportunities that are rightly South African. Although a lot of the times these were just really good traders, good entrepreneurs making, making a start in. In a different country, but it didn't go necessarily. Always go down well in those areas. So robots, good. Good luck. There'll be some sort of a fight on hand. Very sure.

Ethan: Yeah. It's very primal human response. If you feel threatened, like a piece of your pie is being taken from you, then the primal response is to attack. Wow. So it'll be interesting to see where this goes. Yeah. I don't know. We started catching up and we've ended up on quite a tangent here. So to land this plane, it'll be interesting to see, uh, what the title ends up being. I guess if I had to pull out one king move, it'd be don't be a dick or a robot will replace you.

Justin: Let's just go with I've got nothing. Let's go with that as well. Absolutely. That's a good one.

Ethan: That's a wrap for today's episode of King Moves. Quick favor before we go. If this episode made you think differently or helped you see your next move More clearly, take 30 seconds and leave us a review. It helps the show reach leaders who need these conversations. Remember, in chess, like in business, one right move can change everything.

Justin: Take today's action step. Make your move and build momentum. And if you found value in today's episode, share it with someone who's ready for the next breakthrough. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss our weekly conversations.

Ethan: Until next time.