Call Summary: Isaiah's Return to America & Future Plans

Overview

Isaiah called Gary shortly after returning to America from Japan, currently driving cross-country through South Dakota after starting in Colorado. The conversation covered Isaiah's observations on American culture, Gary's hackathon success, creative consulting opportunities in Texas tech, faith discussions, and Isaiah's Lebanon documentary progress.

Key Topics Discussed

Isaiah's Return to America

• Started in Colorado meeting "erudite people," now driving through South Dakota
• On American culture: "Most of America is such a weird country... Most of the states are not like each other at all"
• Colorado provided good transition back: "It's cool to meet up with some cool kind of erudite people who are interested"
• South Dakota observation: "Full of people don't want to talk your head off about random miscellaneous crap"
• Still prefers abroad overall: "I'd want to stay abroad for the most part"

Texas as Hub for Ambitious Christians

• Gary's pitch: "Texas is like the hub for ambitious Christians"
• Gary emphasized complementary skill sets for tech industry: "The most cracked autistic engineer doesn't have your sensibilities... you have a great personality that I'm sure you could get a decent pipeline of clients pretty quickly"
• Gary mentioned upcoming Applied AI community launch in Austin for business owners
• Isaiah open to visiting: "Regardless, I'll be out there to visit and see what you're doing"

Gary's Hackathon Win

• Isaiah congratulated Gary: "Congrats on the hackathon. It's a good way to end the year, man"
• Gary noted: "I bet you there was way, way more difficult tech that was built during the hackathon. But we had the best video"
• Used Ray-Ban Meta glasses with newly released developer kit
• Gary emphasized presentation value: "I got a haircut before... a lot of tech people especially, they really... it's always just about finding complementary skill sets"

Creative Consulting & Scott Adams Principle

• Gary cited Scott Adams: "You don't need to be top 1% at a specific thing. It's got to be top 20 at multiple things... and be in the intersection"
• Gary's assessment of Isaiah: "You're definitely top 10% humor, writing, etc. Probably more than that"
• Isaiah's self-reflection: "You just got to take that and use your talents and whatever you excel the best in"

Jordan Peterson Academy Reconsideration

• Isaiah reconsidering application with mature perspective: "Once you find what people are strong and what they're not strong at, you just accept it"
• On Peterson: "Jordan Peterson is really good at diagnosing the current state of events... psychological and social and spiritual warfare people are going through. But he's not really good at having that vision projected into... the future"
• Philosophy: "Nobody's perfect. You find people's faults and you go for them. You use the platform"

Lebanon Documentary Progress

• Trailer almost done: "My video editor to get a trailer done that we're gonna pitch to Tucker Carlson, a few other people"
• On Tucker as platform: "I like what Tucker does... he platforms people. Well, it's just that his whole shtick is kind of weird"
• Isaiah's mission clarity: "Nobody has a Lebanon beat right now is ridiculous to me... You got this huge Christian community, this huge Muslim community, got Hezbollah, you got disarmament"
• Gary's encouragement: "After your quick tour of duty in America, if you still feel the same way in a couple months, return to Lebanon, bro, and start the beat"

Faith Discussions

Catholicism vs. Protestantism

• Isaiah's comparison: "I see Catholics as conservatives and Protestants as Democrats kind of... Sometimes you go back and forth between which one is necessary at the time"
• On Catholic worship: "You don't get any worship and it's just... you kind of lose that part of the church"
• Gary: "Where's the Holy Spirit? I mean they talk about the words Holy Spirit, but I don't feel it"

Media Consumption Simplification

• Gary's discipline: "Christian ASMR, educational AI video, and praise music... I've really ruthlessly clicked hide, show less for anything that I don't find really helpful for my future"
• Isaiah's 2026 principle: "God is in the simplicity and the devil's in the details"

Health & Discipline

• Isaiah on 30-hour fast while driving: "I'm in the middle of about like a 30 hour fast right now"
• On American food awareness: "American food, for the most part, I could just stay like... If I eat that, I'm just an idiot"
• Referenced Socrates/Plato: "The soul shapes the body. So if you have a healthy soul, you have a healthy body"
• On diagnosing Americans: "It's so easy to diagnose people in America... Here's like, yeah, they eat too much. They spend too much money at Walmart. They watch TV too much"

Japanese Christianity & Girlfriend

• Church visit in Japan before leaving: "I went to a church in Japan, and very, very interesting. They have their own set of different problems"
• On darkness in Japan: "There is a darkness that lingers over that country" - referencing pornography, hidden crimes, anime gateways
• Girlfriend's first baptism experience: "She enjoyed it for the most part. She didn't enjoy that [baptism]. It could look very cult-like to a person who's going to their first service"
• Still connected to Japanese girlfriend: "I'm still connected as well in Japan, so we'll see how things go"

Nagasaki Christian Community Discovery

• Isaiah's research: "Nagasaki was obviously one of the areas where trade was big in Japan, where the Dutch were trading and where the world opened up through there. And that's why Christianity was huge there"
• Shocking realization: "We nuked Nagasaki. And in nuking Nagasaki, we killed 10,000 Japanese Christians that were there... We killed Japan's largest Christian community. We nuclear bombed it"

Family & Christmas Plans

• Planning two weeks with family until CES: "It's probably the last big Christmas I'll do where I stay"
• Reason: Previous Lebanon/jail experience - "I was in Lebanon, I was in jail. So I must stay and have a good time"
• Biblical perspective on family: "Finding your new family... you got to go out in the world and you got to find the family that you're building that aren't necessarily you're related to"
• Future vision: "Hopefully by like in the next few years be like family building time. Like actual my own family building time"

Beirut Church Connection

• Watched livestream of Beirut church: "I've never been to a church like that before still"
• Prompted outreach: "I thought, I gotta reach out to everybody I've met in Beirut today and send them a message and see how they're doing"
• On Lebanon as best country: "Man, Lebanon's the best country I went to probably my life"

Key Quotes

• Isaiah on American simplicity: "It's so easy to diagnose people in America... abroad, it's like a cue. It's like some things you can't really tell... Here's like, yeah, they eat too much. They spend too much money at Walmart. They watch TV too much"

• Isaiah on 2026 philosophy: "God is in the simplicity and the devil's in the details"

• Gary on Texas: "Texas is the hub for ambitious Christians"

• Isaiah on maturity: "Once you find what people are strong and what they're not strong at, you just accept it. And I think that's kind of like a more adolescent behavior I had"

• Isaiah on platforms: "Nobody's perfect. You find people's faults and you go for them. It's like you use the platform"

• Isaiah on Lebanon mission: "The fact that nobody has a Lebanon beat right now is ridiculous to me"

• Isaiah on AI progress: "It's scary how fast things are moving, man... we are moving so fast"

• Isaiah on faith journey: "Everything is opening up in life since I gave my life to Christ. It's beautiful"

Action Items / Takeaways

• Isaiah to visit Austin and check out Gary's church and AI community
• Isaiah's video editor finishing Lebanon documentary trailer by end of year
• Trailer to be pitched to Tucker Carlson and other platforms
• Isaiah attending CES in two weeks after family Christmas
• Gary launching Applied AI community in Austin - natural fit for Isaiah's creative consulting
• Isaiah interviewing with Jordan Peterson Academy again

Prayer

Gary closed with prayer thanking God for Isaiah's safe travels, honoring his faith journey and courage in stepping into the world "on fire for You," asking for smooth family time during holidays, and expressing gratitude for "brotherhood fundamentally formed on the basis of shared spirituality" as "ambitious Christians."

Isaiah responded: "Two or three are gathered in his name, brother. That's what I think of. And it's crazy coming back. I feel like everywhere I've gone, just I've just seen the power of God and power of Jesus everywhere... Everything is opening up in life since I gave my life to Christ. It's beautiful."