Conversation Summary: Gary Sheng and Lamar Cannon (2025-05-19)

Context

Gary Sheng and Lamar Cannon met at a Vietnamese restaurant, ordered food, and then Lamar drove Gary to Soho House. Their conversation covered office dynamics, personal updates, business strategies, and future plans.

Key Topics & Insights

Office Dynamics and Internal Politics

• Tensions with existing staff: Lamar observes that there's increasing tension between Gauntlet participants and existing staff who perceive them as threats.

  • "Everyone's being, like, a little bit more edgy towards us."
  • Gary noted: "The funny thing is, right, we've literally done nothing. I'll just speak for myself... The people that could totally help them can be their allies. They try to demonize and almost intentionally misunderstand."

• Confirmation about Gauntlet's purpose: Arthur reportedly confirmed to Gary that Gauntlet was specifically created to replace existing staff.

  • Gary: "This past weekend, where I got greater insight that Arthur is not clueless, he's been informed that Gauntlet is here to replace the previous staff."
  • Lamar: "Bro. That's what I've been thinking. But I guess I confirmed it."

• Office environment: Lamar described the office as quiet and sterile.

  • "Everybody's just like, on the computer, spread out. But one of the reasons is because at [Gauntlet], we were like that, but then you have lunch. And then everybody's like, together. And they talk... And then at dinner, you come to chill and go back. And then like, everybody can be like, more friends and shit."
  • "Now it's just like, you're just fucking pissed, locked in. And then someone comes up on Gchat and then everybody starts arguing."

• Strata project: Lamar is concerned about maintaining a positive perception of the Strata project.

  • "I try not to interact, except like, if somebody's like, talking shit about Strata because I want to have a good branding, a good view of our project because eventually we're going to just hire everybody eventually, probably, in my mind."

• WorkSmart tool: Discussed the limitations of the WorkSmart monitoring tool.

  • Gary: "If you're actually coding every day and you don't use WorkSmart, probably not a good sign, but it's probably obvious to anyone that's talked to you that you're not doing shit anyway. That's kind of my general thought about WorkSmart. It's like almost just a confirmation thing if you're already being investigated for not doing shit anyway."

Individual Colleagues Discussed

• Roger: Described as "melting down" and struggling.

  • Lamar: "Roger was just wanting to disclose talking about how the restaurant was just kind of shredded, right? Like, shredded the fuck out of us... I'm like, bro, he literally did not."
  • Gary: "Roger is melting now. Yeah, he is."
  • Lamar suggests Roger's age and lack of accomplishments are factors: "If you're like that age and you haven't accomplished anything in your life, then like, there's probably a reason."
  • Gary mentioned he's planning to "execute Roger" (presumably meaning remove him from a project).

• Benji: Described as not evolving and displaying unusual behaviors.

  • Lamar: "He does, like, do Japanese head nods all the time, every time I see him."

• K: Described as always being first to spot Joe arriving at the office.

  • "K is the one that's like there like every single time. He's like the first one there to see Joe come."

• Female colleagues: The office appears to have very few women.

  • "Leigh White comes sometimes... her and Terry. That's it. I think the other girl, the young girl, Amelia, I think she's there, but I've only seen her in the office once."
  • "It's really crazy to be like one year in a sorority in Florida, and the next year you're working with 100 dudes making 200 G's."

Gary's Recent Activities and Future Plans

• High-level connections: Gary discussed his recent trip where he met with influential people.

  • "The only thing left is I'm not afraid of JD bands. I'm not afraid of meeting with Donald Trump. I can literally just be helpful to them."
  • "It's literally just me authentically saying what I think needs to happen."
  • "Literally, the next day after we met, he invited me to meet Conor McGregor on June 24th."

• Potential advisory role with Paula White:

  • "With Paula White, who's Trump's White House faith office director. She wants me to advise her."
  • "It's a volunteer position, but... And she's volunteering, but not that she needs the money."
  • "I would be helping with youth engagement and AI. I'm also just good at, like, ecosystem building."
  • "Trump has put a faith office representative in every agency. So if you become close with Paula White, you become close with every agency. Which could lead to grants from every agency for office members."

• America's 250th anniversary celebration: Gary expressed interest in taking over planning for this.

  • "For the US. I want to just take it over. It's just like a side quest."
  • "The reality is that DC is like a city of whispers, where if there was something cool actually happening, people would be talking about it. No one was talking about it."

• Financial challenges: Gary mentioned he's been self-funding his activities.

  • "So far I'm negative $25k."
  • "I'm literally sending an impact report to Arthur be like, just give me a company card that's not fucking AZ's card. To be able to just travel and do cool shit."

Lamar's Perspectives on Business and Delegation

• Delegation skills: Lamar acknowledged the need to improve at delegating.

  • "That's like that's the thing I have to get better at. I'm starting to get better at is realizing like bro, you don't have to do everything. Other people can do shit too, you just have to orchestrate it, architect it."

• Documentation issues: Noted that staff often lack documentation of their processes.

  • "When you're marketing, do you guys have any, like, documentation of, like, the processes and how you do it?... Do you have something that says this is our process for marketing when a new person shows up?... Because I'm trying to get all the processes that everyone does... and get it out of everyone else's brain and put it into an AI's brain."

• Business acquisition strategy: Discussed Joe Liemandt's approach to buying software companies.

  • "It would just be to buy software companies, fire everybody, automate everything."

Personal Updates

• Gary's dating life: Gary shared about a new romantic interest.

  • "She's tall, beautiful. Oh, but she's young. That's the only, like, issue."
  • "She's 23. Come on. She finished grad school at Howard. She went to UNC and then Howard."
  • "It's definitely, like, an improvement on, like, my hips. We had all sorts of health issues. Like, a D1 volleyball player."
  • Gary mentioned planning to fly her out soon and potentially seeing her on the 31st.

• Traditional values: Both showed interest in more traditional gender roles.

  • Gary: "I don't actually care if the girl works at all. Well, I care if she's not just a dead meat, just sits at home all day. I want her to care about something... I want her to not be tired when I get home or something. I want her to be nourishing."
  • Lamar agreed: "Having a caring girl is the best."

• Lamar's girlfriend: Brief mention of Lamar having a girlfriend who was understanding of his sudden late-night office visits.

  • "She was like, I wasn't even worrying about it... I knew you had to go do some work or something."

• Social skills development: Lamar discussed how pick-up techniques helped develop his social skills.

  • "If you take a Zoltan and then add, like, all the pick-up stuff that I could learn and practice, then that equals me. Just feel me without all that shit is like a Zoltan."
  • Gary seemed to relate: "I kind of feel the same way like that, too. And I felt super awkward at night, too."

Soho House Discussion

• Membership interest: Lamar expressed strong interest in becoming a Soho House member.

  • Lamar: "No, I want to be a member."
  • Gary: "Why? Bro, have you been there?"
  • Lamar: "That's like the best person I've ever seen in my entire life."

• Cost and potential sharing: Discussed the membership cost and possibility of sharing.

  • Gary: "It's like 3 G's a year."
  • Lamar: "Bro, something like 2 G's a year or a month? Wait, that's it?"
  • Gary suggested splitting it: "Well, you're the one that wants to be there every day. I don't need to be there. Well, we could literally split it then."

• Networking value: Both recognized the value of Soho House for networking.

  • Lamar: "I went there once and I was like, bro, this is where all the best girls hang out."
  • Gary agreed on the networking value, mentioning he was meeting someone there who did "the Gigafactory deal."

Notable Quotes

• Lamar on office dynamics: "Everybody is like, tripping right now in the office because they like, it's not anything like comedy. It's just like a quiet, sterile place. So it's like an insane asylum?"

• Gary on his approach to high-level meetings: "I just tell the truth. It's been paying off. To just say shit like what I actually think needs to happen."

• Lamar on delegation: "You don't have to do everything. Other people can do shit too, you just have to orchestrate it, architect it."

• Gary on deal-making: "They're never going to get the deal without me anyways. And it's important for you to let them know that you know that. When structuring the deal and literally they're just fucked without you."

• Lamar on existing staff tensions: "Everyone's being, like, a little bit more edgy towards us. Like, a little bit less..."

• Gary on the purpose of deal structures: "The thing about deals is that you do a sufficiently big deal you make 10 times, 100 times more than you made in your entire life."

Observations

• Both Gary and Lamar display confidence and strategic thinking about navigating the Alpha/Gauntlet ecosystem.
• There's a clear sense of "us vs. them" regarding Gauntlet participants and existing staff.
• Both prioritize relationship-building and networking as key to their success strategies.
• Gary is focusing on high-level connections and diplomacy, while Lamar is more focused on the operational aspects of projects like Strata.
• Both recognize the value of delegation and orchestration rather than doing everything personally.
• They share personal updates comfortably, suggesting a strong trust and friendship.

Next Steps/Action Items

• Gary was heading to Soho House to meet with Matt Holm, described as "the guy that did the Gigafactory deal."
• Gary plans to send an impact report to Arthur requesting a company card.
• Potential future shared Soho House membership between Gary and Lamar.
• Gary plans to see his new romantic interest around May 31st.