I have three sons three little sons
Oliver is eight Christopher is six today
today’s his birthday so a happy birthday
son thank you thank you
he’s gonna love that and Landon is too I
was having a problem though I was how
many from me oh I love them so much and
so when these problems come up you just
you want to solve them immediately and
in my family something came up and it
wasn’t sex drugs rock and roll not just
yet anyway but it was screen time all
right
video game screen time if any of you
experienced this right I mean you know a
typical evening which I you really
wanted to be relaxing you know a little
Zen was like not now No
shut the computer come to the table it’s
time for dinner
stop fighting with your brother oh this
is not what I was looking for right I
wanted a little bit of peace I wanted to
be able to spend time with my kids
and I wasn’t getting it so I needed to
find out a way to deal with this
I needed a solution and I needed it
right now so I looked back I looked I
guess I looked at what I do I sort of
reached into what I do every day and I
looked into how I build tokenized
economies and I thought maybe there’s an
idea in there so I set my children down
and I said kids I’ve got something here
I’ve got this you can see that it’s it’s
a tiny little gold ish plastic gold
doubloon I ordered these off the
internet I got a whole bagful
and I said that is worth 15 minutes of
game time but then I needed a database
all right because I got to store this
all somewhere and so I went into the
kitchen and I got cups plastic cups
three different colors and I made a
green one for Oliver an orange one for
Christopher and I put a red one next to
the television and I said I’m gonna put
10 of these screentime tokens in your
cups each of you will get five that’s an
hour and 15 minutes of screen time a day
that you’re gonna get to play and you
get to pick right you get to pick what
you play and when you play it and that’s
every morning the tokens will just be
there and that’s pretty much it I
thought that’s enough I’ll try that and
we’ll see what happens well we cut it
loose and it didn’t take very long to
figure out that we might have left out a
couple of things so we sat back down a
couple of days later and I said well
that was interesting we learned
something what do we learn we learned
that there’s not going to be any more
screen time outside of the hours of 7:00
a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
marathon sessions at 4:30 in the morning
while we’re all asleep to go first I
didn’t expect that I know you know I
said you can’t spend your screen time
tokens at meal time we have to eat and
this is important to us to eat together
as a family it’s a real work to eat
together as a family we need to do that
the tokens are going to reset every
single morning remember that and you
must use the timer you see what I didn’t
say was 15 minutes I gave each kid a
timer they put the token in the in the
cup in the red cup they set the timer
and they go when it goes off they stop
or they put another tokens and reminds
me of video games when I was a kid so
this was version 1 and it was it was it
was okay right at this point it was
working but then
as you might guess some other things
started to happen that we didn’t foresee
we’ll call those the incidents so these
incidents started to arise that would
further shape our system the first one
is really interesting because people do
good you want to reward them I noticed
that the kids each individual child
Oliver and Christopher they weren’t just
playing for 75 minutes which was what I
had anticipated right they were playing
for almost a hundred and fifty minutes
each when I audited the system to see
how much they were playing each day you
see we can audit easily it’s an open
system the cups are there the tokens are
there the screen is there the timers are
there we can see everything this is
really important but what was going on I
said well I’ll take a look so I watch
and I see Christopher walk over to the
cop he’s just really cute when he does
this he he takes a token out of his cup
he drops it in the red cup he sets the
timer walks back to the couch sits down
smart right he doubled the value of his
tokens I he’s five at this time he’s six
today so that’s okay well guys it’s
great I’m actually really proud of you
for hacking the system but maybe we need
to dial this back a little bit so what
are we gonna do so this was one of our
first really meaningful talks about what
was going on and we said well you know
we tried two or three different things
how are we gonna dial this back without
really punishing them for sharing
effectively right I mean I was good
doesn’t always happen so what we came up
with was okay well you can spend half
your tokens half the tokens you have in
your Cup on any given day you can spend
them on other people right give them a
controller and dole it out great new
policy this is an economic policy right
that’s kind of interesting they don’t
think of it that way but that’s okay and
we set it loose again and we wait and we
see what happens a couple of days go by
things seem to be going okay
and then it wasn’t again it was totally
broken and I didn’t I couldn’t quite see
what was going on this time I was
observing that it felt to me I didn’t
know I needed data it felt to me like
they were playing too long again the
game times were going on and on and on
and I couldn’t see why so I said well
I’ll just watch and I went back in there
to audit the system I saw Oliver take a
token out of his cup go over drop it in
the red cup set the timer and this time
I’m not smarter I said my timer and I
walked away I went and did some dishes
in this case but then my timer went off
it’s buzzing I walked back in I look at
the timer right just like it still has
like ten minutes on it it’s been 15
minutes and I know we didn’t build a
time machine so what happened I look at
him so what are you doing you have a
rule respect the time use the time he
says dad well you know when the game’s
loading I stopped the timer when we
switch games I stop the timer when
you’re when my brother stands in front
of me I stop the timer
like my gosh it’s stopped more than it’s
going so this is not what we really
wanted and and and this is more serious
right this this incident is corruption
all right
it’s corruption in the system just like
in governments and bad companies and
everything so I said I’m gonna have to
don’t have to be mean I’m gonna have to
take this away and I did I shot the
games off I took the cups I took the
tokens I shut it down I said if you want
to play now you’re gonna ask me this is
not what I want trust me but this is
what I put back in place so the next
couple of days of life were less than
fun but this made us learn scarcity can
do that dinner about two nights later
Oliver leans over to me very serious dad
We Need to Talk I’m like whoa what is
this
are you okay is something happened at
school you know I don’t know what’s
going on he says no no I
Krister different I Christopher and I’ve
been talking and we want our tokens back
I said well Christopher is this is this
true you you and your brother have been
talking you want your toys like yeah I
we had a conversation we elected him to
talk to you to ask to get the talks
about so now we have legislation or
something in the house and didn’t expect
that but you know this is great I was
like I was pretty blown away actually at
this point and so I said to them well
why do you want him back and this is
what was outstanding they said we we
feel like we lost our rights our right
to choose our right to play all right to
not have to ask you if we want to play I
said well that’s amazing
I said well but but I can’t just turn it
back on you cheated and they said well
we have to do as we made a few new
policies yeah so the system is getting
interesting now so if you cheat if you
lie if you steal these are just good
things about being a human right you’re
gonna lose a token you lose it right now
and if you don’t have any more left it
I’m taking it from tomorrow but then the
big one was if you go over or if you
cheat the time I’m gonna take all your
tokens for the next day and if I find
you playing video games the next day
which
it happened I’m gonna take a whole
week’s worth you’re not gonna see the
video games for a while whoa but they
agreed we did this together dinner it
was amazing
put the system back in place this was
fantastic because you see something
interesting here is that these tokenized
economies when you build them right when
you build the right incentives the right
fiscal and monetary policies they
incentivize good behavior
they disincentivize bad behavior and we
were optimizing for allocation of time I
was no longer the time police I was no
longer the screen token police neither
was my wife she was thankful at this
point to and I think most astounding of
all this is that my children are now
they’ve sort of transcended digital
natives their token economy natives they
they intrinsically understand token ah
mcc’s
this is something that we barely
understand all right so it says it’s um
it’s it’s wonderful and I have to share
with you that I said I said a purpose
for myself you heard my earliest version
of it just a moment ago back in 2015 at
a particularly difficult business moment
I said I’m not doing they said anymore
it’s terrible I’ve been an entrepreneur
like six times and I said if I’m gonna
build this technology again I’m gonna
build it to empower humanity with
technology not doing it if it’s not for
that cuz I found myself in an
interesting space and this in the
context of screentime tokens in my house
just made me realize we can’t be scared
of all of this technology we can’t be
like an ostrich and stick our heads in
the sand and pretend like it’s not going
on all around us right we have to stand
up we have to open our arms let’s
embrace the change all of it from
biotechnology to information technology
we have to at least try if we can do
that there’s tremendous promise so much
hope for the future of humanity because
we need this techno
we’ve become part it and it part us and
so I think that’s important and I think
my children are walking away with just a
little bit of that from this little
system this experimental Iran closing I
really want to say thank you to all of
you right because you gave me today a
token of your time thank you thank you
thank you in return you get a token of
my appreciation in my deep love for my
family for my children for the hopes
that I have for them the dreams and with
that I’ll and thank you [Applause]
Oliver is eight Christopher is six today
today’s his birthday so a happy birthday
son thank you thank you
he’s gonna love that and Landon is too I
was having a problem though I was how
many from me oh I love them so much and
so when these problems come up you just
you want to solve them immediately and
in my family something came up and it
wasn’t sex drugs rock and roll not just
yet anyway but it was screen time all
right
video game screen time if any of you
experienced this right I mean you know a
typical evening which I you really
wanted to be relaxing you know a little
Zen was like not now No
shut the computer come to the table it’s
time for dinner
stop fighting with your brother oh this
is not what I was looking for right I
wanted a little bit of peace I wanted to
be able to spend time with my kids
and I wasn’t getting it so I needed to
find out a way to deal with this
I needed a solution and I needed it
right now so I looked back I looked I
guess I looked at what I do I sort of
reached into what I do every day and I
looked into how I build tokenized
economies and I thought maybe there’s an
idea in there so I set my children down
and I said kids I’ve got something here
I’ve got this you can see that it’s it’s
a tiny little gold ish plastic gold
doubloon I ordered these off the
internet I got a whole bagful
and I said that is worth 15 minutes of
game time but then I needed a database
all right because I got to store this
all somewhere and so I went into the
kitchen and I got cups plastic cups
three different colors and I made a
green one for Oliver an orange one for
Christopher and I put a red one next to
the television and I said I’m gonna put
10 of these screentime tokens in your
cups each of you will get five that’s an
hour and 15 minutes of screen time a day
that you’re gonna get to play and you
get to pick right you get to pick what
you play and when you play it and that’s
every morning the tokens will just be
there and that’s pretty much it I
thought that’s enough I’ll try that and
we’ll see what happens well we cut it
loose and it didn’t take very long to
figure out that we might have left out a
couple of things so we sat back down a
couple of days later and I said well
that was interesting we learned
something what do we learn we learned
that there’s not going to be any more
screen time outside of the hours of 7:00
a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
marathon sessions at 4:30 in the morning
while we’re all asleep to go first I
didn’t expect that I know you know I
said you can’t spend your screen time
tokens at meal time we have to eat and
this is important to us to eat together
as a family it’s a real work to eat
together as a family we need to do that
the tokens are going to reset every
single morning remember that and you
must use the timer you see what I didn’t
say was 15 minutes I gave each kid a
timer they put the token in the in the
cup in the red cup they set the timer
and they go when it goes off they stop
or they put another tokens and reminds
me of video games when I was a kid so
this was version 1 and it was it was it
was okay right at this point it was
working but then
as you might guess some other things
started to happen that we didn’t foresee
we’ll call those the incidents so these
incidents started to arise that would
further shape our system the first one
is really interesting because people do
good you want to reward them I noticed
that the kids each individual child
Oliver and Christopher they weren’t just
playing for 75 minutes which was what I
had anticipated right they were playing
for almost a hundred and fifty minutes
each when I audited the system to see
how much they were playing each day you
see we can audit easily it’s an open
system the cups are there the tokens are
there the screen is there the timers are
there we can see everything this is
really important but what was going on I
said well I’ll take a look so I watch
and I see Christopher walk over to the
cop he’s just really cute when he does
this he he takes a token out of his cup
he drops it in the red cup he sets the
timer walks back to the couch sits down
smart right he doubled the value of his
tokens I he’s five at this time he’s six
today so that’s okay well guys it’s
great I’m actually really proud of you
for hacking the system but maybe we need
to dial this back a little bit so what
are we gonna do so this was one of our
first really meaningful talks about what
was going on and we said well you know
we tried two or three different things
how are we gonna dial this back without
really punishing them for sharing
effectively right I mean I was good
doesn’t always happen so what we came up
with was okay well you can spend half
your tokens half the tokens you have in
your Cup on any given day you can spend
them on other people right give them a
controller and dole it out great new
policy this is an economic policy right
that’s kind of interesting they don’t
think of it that way but that’s okay and
we set it loose again and we wait and we
see what happens a couple of days go by
things seem to be going okay
and then it wasn’t again it was totally
broken and I didn’t I couldn’t quite see
what was going on this time I was
observing that it felt to me I didn’t
know I needed data it felt to me like
they were playing too long again the
game times were going on and on and on
and I couldn’t see why so I said well
I’ll just watch and I went back in there
to audit the system I saw Oliver take a
token out of his cup go over drop it in
the red cup set the timer and this time
I’m not smarter I said my timer and I
walked away I went and did some dishes
in this case but then my timer went off
it’s buzzing I walked back in I look at
the timer right just like it still has
like ten minutes on it it’s been 15
minutes and I know we didn’t build a
time machine so what happened I look at
him so what are you doing you have a
rule respect the time use the time he
says dad well you know when the game’s
loading I stopped the timer when we
switch games I stop the timer when
you’re when my brother stands in front
of me I stop the timer
like my gosh it’s stopped more than it’s
going so this is not what we really
wanted and and and this is more serious
right this this incident is corruption
all right
it’s corruption in the system just like
in governments and bad companies and
everything so I said I’m gonna have to
don’t have to be mean I’m gonna have to
take this away and I did I shot the
games off I took the cups I took the
tokens I shut it down I said if you want
to play now you’re gonna ask me this is
not what I want trust me but this is
what I put back in place so the next
couple of days of life were less than
fun but this made us learn scarcity can
do that dinner about two nights later
Oliver leans over to me very serious dad
We Need to Talk I’m like whoa what is
this
are you okay is something happened at
school you know I don’t know what’s
going on he says no no I
Krister different I Christopher and I’ve
been talking and we want our tokens back
I said well Christopher is this is this
true you you and your brother have been
talking you want your toys like yeah I
we had a conversation we elected him to
talk to you to ask to get the talks
about so now we have legislation or
something in the house and didn’t expect
that but you know this is great I was
like I was pretty blown away actually at
this point and so I said to them well
why do you want him back and this is
what was outstanding they said we we
feel like we lost our rights our right
to choose our right to play all right to
not have to ask you if we want to play I
said well that’s amazing
I said well but but I can’t just turn it
back on you cheated and they said well
we have to do as we made a few new
policies yeah so the system is getting
interesting now so if you cheat if you
lie if you steal these are just good
things about being a human right you’re
gonna lose a token you lose it right now
and if you don’t have any more left it
I’m taking it from tomorrow but then the
big one was if you go over or if you
cheat the time I’m gonna take all your
tokens for the next day and if I find
you playing video games the next day
which
it happened I’m gonna take a whole
week’s worth you’re not gonna see the
video games for a while whoa but they
agreed we did this together dinner it
was amazing
put the system back in place this was
fantastic because you see something
interesting here is that these tokenized
economies when you build them right when
you build the right incentives the right
fiscal and monetary policies they
incentivize good behavior
they disincentivize bad behavior and we
were optimizing for allocation of time I
was no longer the time police I was no
longer the screen token police neither
was my wife she was thankful at this
point to and I think most astounding of
all this is that my children are now
they’ve sort of transcended digital
natives their token economy natives they
they intrinsically understand token ah
mcc’s
this is something that we barely
understand all right so it says it’s um
it’s it’s wonderful and I have to share
with you that I said I said a purpose
for myself you heard my earliest version
of it just a moment ago back in 2015 at
a particularly difficult business moment
I said I’m not doing they said anymore
it’s terrible I’ve been an entrepreneur
like six times and I said if I’m gonna
build this technology again I’m gonna
build it to empower humanity with
technology not doing it if it’s not for
that cuz I found myself in an
interesting space and this in the
context of screentime tokens in my house
just made me realize we can’t be scared
of all of this technology we can’t be
like an ostrich and stick our heads in
the sand and pretend like it’s not going
on all around us right we have to stand
up we have to open our arms let’s
embrace the change all of it from
biotechnology to information technology
we have to at least try if we can do
that there’s tremendous promise so much
hope for the future of humanity because
we need this techno
we’ve become part it and it part us and
so I think that’s important and I think
my children are walking away with just a
little bit of that from this little
system this experimental Iran closing I
really want to say thank you to all of
you right because you gave me today a
token of your time thank you thank you
thank you in return you get a token of
my appreciation in my deep love for my
family for my children for the hopes
that I have for them the dreams and with
that I’ll and thank you [Applause]
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