2025-04-21_post-staff-meeting_gary-sheng_chris-locke

Chris Locke (0:01) I just don't, Jay doesn't always tell us when Mackenzie's filming, and obviously it trumps her, but we use it when she's not here. (0:08) I wouldn't want you to schedule something, all of a sudden we didn't coordinate with Jay, but we could figure it out if they wanted to use it. Doug Green (0:14) Okay, Dylan, it's on our end, we'll figure it out. (0:18) But yeah, you pursued the David Ruth, and I'll pursue it on this end and see what we can come up with. Gary Sheng (0:26) People would ask me like, how am I doing? (0:28) I'm doing a lot. (0:31) I'm trying my best. (0:33) I've been in situations where... (0:37) People that have been in a place where they want to keep certain ways. (0:43) That's not this place. Chris Locke (0:44) I know. Gary Sheng (0:45) Are you getting that feeling? (0:46) No. Chris Locke (0:47) The hardest part of my career is you don't get a lot of great feeling. (0:50) I just have until you get... (0:52) you screwed up something. (0:54) That's the hardest part about it here. (0:56) And so I want you to... Gary Sheng (0:58) I have to feel comfortable. (1:01) Anytime, well I'm glad that, for example, Garrett and me, we're like, let's come up with the process, and also move your shit over there. (1:09) I actually appreciate that. (1:10) I don't know. Chris Locke (1:11) Right? (1:11) No, no, no, no. (1:13) Totally fine. (1:14) You know what? (1:14) Not that I'm into meeting, but you and I should just try to set, like, just initially, like, some weekly time so we don't have to feel rushed. (1:22) You don't have to feel like you're interrupting. (1:24) I want to be able to dedicate specific time to you. (1:29) However, whatever we need to do. (1:30) Whatever we need to do. Gary Sheng (1:30) We should have an hour of meetings, maybe one. (1:32) That Monday, Thursday or something. (1:34) Works for me. (1:35) We'll figure it out. (1:35) Okay. Chris Locke (1:36) No, I think I'd be, because I'm still trying to under, like... (1:40) Other than you explaining what you did, that's the biggest challenge we have here. (1:45) People get hired and the organization doesn't have a good internal communication process. (1:53) People try to figure it out. (1:55) I'll be honest, there's times I look at what's scary. (1:59) Who's super builder? (2:01) We don't know what we don't know. (2:04) But then you look at I meant to throw it up on the TV in the middle of the meeting. (2:08) Bjorn sent me the latest mock-up of what he's doing. (2:12) It's phenomenal. (2:14) And then it's like, they're so open to our feedback on how it can be on the backend, how we keep track of notes and the progress summaries we have with kids like... Gary Sheng (2:23) And you know how they started working on that, right? Chris Locke (2:27) I don't know. (2:28) I'm assuming you've given that idea. (2:29) That's what my point is. (2:31) Like if we're not talking about that, and we're not able to share it, it's chaos. (2:37) And you see the standards that Joe sets. (2:40) Joe sets a super high bar. (2:42) And it's like, it's not so much guidance. Gary Sheng (2:45) Right. Chris Locke (2:45) And it's also hard because he wants the Garrett's and Jack's kids to be as Joe's high school kids. (2:52) But we get them. (2:53) All right. (2:54) That's not important. (2:57) If they want to be awesome, people give them the structure to be awesome. (3:01) And it's a work constant kind of figure. (3:03) What do we need to do? (3:04) How do we continue to vote? (3:05) And these are awesome conversations to have with bright people. (3:08) And because of the unlocking network, it can be a carrot that a kid will drive to. (3:13) Oh, you want to meet with Ralph Lauren? (3:16) OK, show me this, this, this, and this. (3:18) And then that kid will go hit home. Gary Sheng (3:20) Your invitation for us to. (3:22) We have some more structured relationships so we can systematically problem-solve. (3:27) I would love that. (3:29) Thank you. Chris Locke (3:36) Well, really, I think we all want to help him achieve his vision. (3:42) It's why I'm still here after four years of different things. (3:45) I love his vision and it excites me to come to work every day. (3:49) Is it hard sometimes? (3:51) Sure. (3:51) But the idea that we get to do this. (3:59) We live in it every day, but when you see somebody like Michael who's so connected and just like I would, you hear a heartbeat to be a part of this. (4:08) That tells me we're doing something awesome. (4:10) And I know we're doing something awesome, but it's like, but we can be, we can have processes. (4:15) We can be 10x what we are today. Gary Sheng (4:18) So, the beautiful thing is... (4:21) I'm zero person afraid of any problem that is identified, that you think is worth building, right? (4:32) We can fix anything. (4:33) We can fix any problem. (4:35) The thing is, that's why I was like the meta process. (4:41) And if the process, I would be fine and happy if the process was like... (4:49) We have some kind of problem board, and then Chris is the ultimate decider on what is in the stack. (4:58) Right? (4:59) Because it's not helpful for... (5:05) And you are, Ned, you come up and I think you are someone that wants that input from many people. (5:13) I do think that... (5:17) There's zero percent chance that a duocracy is scalable. (5:21) And I was not hyping you up unnecessarily. (5:30) I was like, Chris is the man. (5:32) He came from a super elite academy to get into the chaos. (5:41) I will be happy to follow a process. (5:45) Chris steps. Gary Sheng (5:46) You know what I'm saying? (5:47) And he needs that though. Gary Sheng (5:50) Because, you know, it was not hard for me to feel like it was not when Bjorn came to me. (6:02) What do I do, Gary? Gary Sheng (6:03) Yeah. Gary Sheng (6:04) It was not hard for me to recommend. (6:06) Well, there's a lot of issues. (6:08) There's a lot of opportunities. (6:09) Yeah. (6:10) One of them is the case of the site. (6:12) It's not going to be about home in the Kaganzaa lot now, right? (6:17) But there's so many things that you would have invested inside on. (6:26) You would save me X amount of hours so I can hope and appreciate you. (6:36) Not that my voice means that much, but like if you were like hating or next Monday or like whatever you want to summon this group, it's like hey, you know realize that there's no way that we can reliably improve things if we do not have this meta process of (7:01) How Gaps are filled how new tech is like It's not that you're above the government people Is that the calling people are waiting for you to tell them to do and it's not gonna work this free-for-all thing. (7:16) Yeah, there's about one person that can handle that It's someone that loves people. (7:22) Yeah loves products Is okay with a little bit of and the beauty But when Mike is calling me, he's such a talented guy. (7:32) Is there any process? (7:35) Who's doing the sports school stuff? (7:39) If I didn't know the Strata Schools team really well, if they didn't come to my birthday party, would I be able to make that connection? (7:48) I should not have to know everyone, though. Gary Sheng (7:50) I can't. Gary Sheng (7:52) Very soon I can't. (7:53) I was, for sure, the most... (7:58) socially connect the guy and call it, but that's just okay. (8:01) There's gonna be another hundred that graduate in three months or four months. (8:06) What do we need to do there, right? (8:09) So, so anyways, I love this conversation. (8:11) Cool, me too. (8:15) I think it's the perfect time to have it because now there's like this broad recognition that the, and now it's been talked about there. (8:26) So it's like, it's not going to be any surprise when people, when the conversation about process happens and like, I'm sure you'll be open to feedback about that meta process. (8:38) But I think you kind of just need, I think you just basically need to To take responsibility for like, we're going to try this out. (8:46) We're trying this myself. (8:48) I'm going to be doing mini scrums for a session like, I want to know what is each, what gauntlet engineers are doing, things that at least I believe are better. (8:58) Link Joe is going to be happy with them with some sort of flexibility of miscellaneous gauntlet. (9:04) People doing not things that you necessarily care about. (9:08) But there's plenty that would want to know. (9:10) What you care about and I know that Dallas Dallas and I have talked about creating a dashboard for you. (9:16) Yeah of like bugs right so like you know apps have bugs schools have bugs Right schools that and some of them are required tech some of them know a lot of them do in the sense of a Very tech-forward tool right and so you should never have to wonder Is there an engineer willing to work on this? (9:37) What's the status of that project? (9:39) I think Dallas would be very happy to project manage over the good thing and be your right man. (9:47) I think I'll make sure that he comes in there just maybe tomorrow, right? (9:52) I'm so glad we're having this conversation because I'm the same boat as you. (10:00) I want to be in a delusionally optimistic organization. (10:08) I think the only thing is like, is it an organization that is also rapidly iterating and improving? (10:18) Not just the growing the size of the free world where no one knows what's happening and no one knows what the point is. (10:29) Broadly, you know the point. (10:30) How are we going to start 1,200 micro-schools? (10:34) I have no idea. (10:40) How are we going to start 1200 micro schools in Texas in the next year? (10:50) So if there's not like there will all be one person micro schools self-guided. Gary Sheng (11:01) Yeah. Gary Sheng (11:01) But yeah, I think like the more that this is my it's funny because we don't even I almost don't even feel like I have any Authority to even make this suggestion, but I think Chris being the one voice that can be like, this is the reality, this is what's improving. (11:25) You knowing everything about what's improving about alpha schools, alpha high, at least. (11:29) Or are you the right person also? (11:33) We're just broadly the middle school too? Chris Locke (11:35) No, no. (11:36) I'm really the alpha high person. (11:39) Have you met Steph Badouria and some of the team at Spyglass? (11:43) You need to. Gary Sheng (11:43) I've only met Gabby. Chris Locke (11:45) Yeah. (11:45) So that's the next step is I'll get you connected with some of the right people. Gary Sheng (11:49) Yeah, that's good. (11:51) But yeah, in terms of the high school, and I guess the biggest delta is like all the tech that's being built that's relates to the high school, you should not only know about it, you should have been the one that was like, yes. (12:07) And that also addresses the issue of like There's one person that is giving and requesting budget, you, right, so that the engineers don't have to be like, politically, who do I talk to for that, you know? (12:29) I have no idea how to ask for budget for something, especially that's like outside of the realm of a particular school. (12:38) And that's also kind of what like, okay, the Doug laughed when I said the thing that excited Joe about hiring me was like, the broadly the idea of scaling awful, but I was like, he was like, what do you want to do first? (12:53) I was like, American Davos, he was like, great, no guidance. (13:00) But then I was like, okay, no matter what I do, I just need to figure out what's happening here and just figure out how to be useful. (13:13) That's all I've been doing is just trying to understand what's useful. (13:20) And so the more that we can make it the case where I still think that an engineer should stop by every so often. (13:29) But the more that the miscellaneous amount of people don't have to be here all the time because they're always being updated. (13:39) Based on, let's say, a joint newsletter about you and Dallas, right? (13:44) Let's say he's the representative of the calendars. (13:47) And you're a representative of everyone else, as well as Dallas. (13:50) And like, you know, that'll be great, right? (13:54) Sure. (13:54) Like a weekly inside alpha, you know, alpha high, at least. Chris Locke (13:59) Right? Gary Sheng (13:59) Is that through the kids? (14:00) Yeah, cool. (14:05) We'll figure this out. Chris Locke (14:06) Let's get that on the calendar tomorrow. Gary Sheng (14:07) So I'll go ahead. (14:08) And then we're guarding. (14:09) Wednesday. (14:10) Yes. (14:12) Speak from the heart, that's all. (14:14) Okay, great. (14:14) So I would say like three minutes or less. (14:16) Sure. (14:17) You don't need to over prep. (14:18) You are Alpha in my view. (14:20) Yeah. (14:22) And basically the audience, if I were to sum it up, is mostly people that have not made their career being teachers or educators, but they are fired up about the possibility of Never having their kids or kids in general, repeating the terrible school experience they had. (14:46) Like these people were successful in spite of other schooling, right? Chris Locke (14:50) And so, you know, if we reimagine it, what could it be? (14:55) What could it be? Gary Sheng (14:57) So part of what I'm going to do is, whatever what I say is like, you, all of you climbed up In spite of often the awful system, right? (15:10) In spite of having variable support, what happens if you were able to teleport back with your connections, access to capital, insights back to when you're five years old, when you're starting elementary school, imagine if you were there to support you. (15:24) Where could you be? (15:25) But also, what if everyone was able to teleport back to when you're five? (15:33) Where could you be? (15:35) Being a billionaire? (15:36) Were you even being a trillionaire? (15:37) Completely out of the question, no. (15:39) Because you would know that if you just put in the work, you showed the deal, I'm not going to say the okay. Chris Locke (15:45) You know what I mean? (15:46) Yeah, of course. Gary Sheng (15:47) Like if you actually earned being connected with the right people, the right opportunities, you think that you couldn't just do whatever your dreams. (15:57) So instead of just forever glorifying Oh, I overcame so much. (16:03) What about if you were just always elevated? (16:06) And then you were able to dream about building a city in the sky or a city on a different planet. (16:17) These are the kinds of aspirations that I believe that we can accept in these kids' minds. (16:29) And so far, I've not been deterred at all in terms of feeling like there's any issue that's not solvable. (16:36) And I mean it when I say like, I kind of see I'm a very vibes oriented person. (16:46) And I just see the deep soulful intent that you have with this. (16:52) And that's probably the rarest thing. (16:58) That in the most important thing, the missing process is easy, right? (17:02) But the meta process is like you feeling like you have the authority to improve any other process that basically streamlines everything, right? (17:13) That allows for it not just to be always having to ask around whether something's okay or not, which slows everything down. (17:27) I really believe in you. (17:28) I believe that. (17:32) This could be, I was talking to a lot of people about this. (17:40) The metaphor for this particular high school is not Harvard, because we're trying to do way better at Harvard. (17:49) And so my little riff is like, how high is alpha high? (17:53) This is Harvard. (17:53) This is maybe mediocre school high. (17:57) This is Harvard high. (17:59) This is alpha high. (18:02) If we're able to really prove that, like, we can have the minimum viable process to constantly improve and constantly increase our ability to scale, that's really, well, it's essential, but I believe in it. (18:21) I really believe in it. (18:22) And I appreciate your leadership. (18:31) I think it's going to be, for a very long time, me making sense to be posted up at this high school. (18:52) Because none of us will have credibility to say that we know how to start a really good other school if this is not leagues above the equivalent of Harvard for which I think it can be. Chris Locke (19:08) I totally think so. (19:12) We're hitting our stride now. (19:14) We've been at always about a year behind K.A. and you know Joe's first focus was K-8 and now he doesn't even know that everybody still meets with us every week because we're not fully there yet but the groundwork is laid. (19:27) At the point in which we are now I truly believe is it's processes, it's systems and it's some things too scalable. (19:35) When we have high school students in other cities how do we make sure we create some of this magic? (19:40) What can we do to utilize? Gary Sheng (19:45) Tech media connections. (19:48) I do want to schedule. (20:03) Yes, let me know on Mondays. Chris Locke (20:07) Well, this is because I have shadows and stuff on here, but like it's the blue is normally like 10 o'clock. (20:14) It's probably a good time for me. (20:16) Okay. (20:16) Monday if that works for you. Gary Sheng (20:18) Let's do 30 minutes. Chris Locke (20:19) Yeah, great. (20:20) And then you were thinking like a Thursday that works for me too. Gary Sheng (20:33) I know this is very fun, but it's good on Thursdays. (20:42) What time on Thursdays? Chris Locke (20:49) Good. (20:49) Just want to just put the same time on me? Gary Sheng (20:52) Yeah. Chris Locke (20:52) Because that allows me to get the day going and have everything ready to run. Gary Sheng (20:55) That's perfect for me. Chris Locke (20:56) Yeah. Gary Sheng (20:56) I look, I look the way too early. (20:59) What time, what time does the first person get in? Chris Locke (21:02) Some of the first person usually is here between seven, thirty and eight. (21:06) Okay. Gary Sheng (21:07) I'd like to come around eight. (21:09) Yeah. Chris Locke (21:09) But as soon as Nate gets back, we'll just get you a card. (21:12) I can get you a hard key if you want. Gary Sheng (21:13) I would appreciate that. Chris Locke (21:14) I can get you a hard key. (21:15) Sometimes I'm literally a hard key right now. Gary Sheng (21:17) Sometimes I wake up at more. (21:18) I don't need to go out and comment on 4A, but sometimes I wake up at 4A, and I'm like, I think I want to be in this environment. Chris Locke (21:31) This key. (21:32) Yeah, no, I have them upstairs. (21:35) All right. (21:36) It only works on the side door over here or on the very back door. (21:43) These glass doors until we get you a swipe card. (21:46) Well, you do you mind? (21:47) I've got to meet with him real quick. (21:49) Chest is one of these two things that an otherwise Emma can let you back in. Gary Sheng (21:52) And then the last quick thing is one would be a good time to do a Explanation, like I said, the fashion designer is like, I lit half of why I brought them. (22:05) The size going to the Wednesday event is to help Tatum be inspired. Gary Sheng (22:09) Yeah. Gary Sheng (22:10) Literally, that's why. (22:11) I heard, I talk to Tatum. (22:13) Tatum wants to be a fashion. (22:14) I'm like, I know the best people in her generation to talk to for this. (22:19) Anyways, I don't need to overly justify. Chris Locke (22:25) Is there a time that we should just do like we could do Tuesday or Thursday of this week at 3.45 unless you want more time. Gary Sheng (22:33) So right after the insights. Chris Locke (22:36) Well, we do insights Mondays and Wednesdays. (22:38) So we could do it. Gary Sheng (22:39) What happens at 3.45 on Tuesdays? Chris Locke (22:41) We either have a closing or we just work till the end of the day. (22:45) But I'd be happy for us to have a closing and introduce it. Gary Sheng (22:48) Great, 3.45 then? (22:49) Yeah. (22:50) And then we could do like an hour long workshop or something. Chris Locke (22:54) Well, if you want to do a workshop, then we should do 3 o'clock. Gary Sheng (22:57) If we do that, let me see if it's free. (23:06) I'll be back. (23:47) Hey. (27:32) Yeah, can I take one? (27:34) Thank you so much.