Luis Carbonell - On Cuba.
{On Cuba}.
“But there's a certain behaviour, which I think is drastically different. Here in the US, there's a there's almost a fear of losing the comfort you have. And thereby, it kind of creates this typical response of ‘That's impossible’, ‘That's too hard’, ‘We can't do that’….
And I think in in Cuba, out of scarcity and out of a feeling of necessity, you don't have the option of saying that's hard. Because the alternative is well just, you know, slowly die. So you, you have to have an attitude of, I fuck it, let's do it.”
Originally born in Cuba, moved to America when he was 5. He saw abject poverty in Cuba, he grew up in poverty in America. A gifted brain, he worked on the Riemann Hypothesis when he was 14 years old, enrolled in SAS. He has been homeless, he has started a successfully ran multiple companies in the software development and artificial intelligence space. Currently, he is working at three companies and living in California.
Key Insights from Luis’s Experiences
Through Luis’s experiences there were some key insights.
Life growing up in Cuba
The system in Cuba doesn’t allow for opportunity
The scarcity of information in Cuba
In the United States there is a fear of losing comfort
Luis Quotes
On Cuba.
“You don't have a lot, honestly, a lot of the niceties and things that people take for granted in capitalist countries just kind of don't exist over there”
On Cuba.
“Unlike other poverty in the world it's systemic, and people aren't empowered to help themselves out of it. So if you take like an African country and they're amenable to capitalism… it's possible for all these relief efforts to come in, educate the public, teach them how to run a business, teach them about finances, give them a little bit of capital to get started, and you know, they're off to the races in cumulates, a lot harder. Because that system isn't in place.”
Cuban Wages.
“So I think a well paid Cuban, like a really well paid Cuban nowadays. Might and this is still today the case, right? This is not just back then right. But like, they might make 80 US dollars a year. Yeah. And they'd be on the higher end.”
On Cuba.
“In Cuba there is a period Especialis, which translates out to Special Period. There's literally nothing special about them. It's the government's way of saying, Hey, guys, we over exported. There's not enough rations for everybody. So good luck starving to death and figure it out. Hopefully, you're all here on the other side, if not, you know, we don't really care.”
On Empathy.
“ I think there needs to be a lot more empathy in the world. I also don't think the person who hasn't been pushed to extremes is at fault. I don't really believe in that…. But I think empathy, being empathetic to other people and understanding that there's always something that causes somebody to be rougher. I've met few people who are rough around the edges and haven't had some form of shit childhood.”
On Perspective (the Podcast)
“I think I think it's part of part of what I like, you know, with your podcast, and in general, as people go through life is, is opening up the world more to to let people see what is on the other side, in a way that's empathetic and not just short form content on Tick tock, because then you don't really develop an understanding, you don't really develop empathy, right? It's just more shock value.”
On Observations of the United States.
“But there's a certain behaviour, which I think is drastically different. Here in the US, there's a there's almost a fear of losing the comfort you have. People have this mentality… [a] fear of losing what they have. And thereby, it kind of creates this typical response of ‘That's impossible’, ‘That's too hard’, ‘We can't do that’…. And I think in in Cuba, out of scarcity and out of a feeling of necessity, you don't have the option of saying that's hard. Because the alternative is well just, you know, slowly die. So you, you have to have an attitude of, I fuck it, let's do it.”
On Impact.
“I think people underestimate the impact they can have on the world, in small actions. Especially people in wealthier countries.”
On Information Scarcity
“So you go from this world of this enormous scarcity of information to this endless ocean of content and books and writings and whatever. And you discover, to some degree, for me at least, through reading through Wikipedia, through all these things, the rest of the world. And you discover all the innovation, all the technology that's been developed, and that at that moment, that was when I was like, What the fuck is everyone doing? We can solve every problem on my list with this technology. Why is anyone on earth suffering from this right? Like then then it became angry? Because because that was frustrating, seeing how much was available to us, and how under-utilized it was. That hurt me”
On Impact.
“I think people underestimate the impact they can have on the world, in small actions. Especially people in wealthier countries.”
On Impact.
“So even if you were being a greedy, selfish capitalist, it's almost, and I don't mean this to offend anybody, but it's almost dumb, not to invest in those less privileged and hungrier than you are. Because they're going to work harder. There, and they need it more.”