Call Summary: Holiday Catchup and Value Philosophy

Overview

Relaxed holiday conversation covering Gary's family dynamics, faith journey updates, dating life, and deep philosophical exchange on the nature of value, price systems, and intentional living decisions.

Key Topics Discussed

Gary's Family Visit & Board Games

• Playing color guessing game (charades-style for colors) and camel racing betting game with family
• Recognized how made-up betting games reveal why sports gambling is addicting
• Shortest family trip in a while (7 days vs. typical 4-week stays)
• Parents showing disappointment at early departure but Gary maintaining boundaries

Faith-Driven Life Approach

• Single-minded obedience to God: "Everything I do is based on that criteria"
• Difficulty relating to atheist family members when faith is central to all decisions
• Waiting for right timing to share faith: "Once I have a lot to show for from a secular lens"
• Vision: "What do you attribute your success to? It's like, well, Jesus"

Blind Boy Healing Mission (New Year's Eve)

• Preparing for high-stakes faith moment with blind boy visiting Liberty church
• Family driving 4 hours, creating meaningful commitment to the journey
• Gary staking reputation on positive outcome: "This is the biggest on a limb I've gone"
• Zero cold reach-outs to sick people have gotten replies yet (Michaela Peterson, Chris Williamson, Ben Sass with stage 4 cancer)
• Frustrating encounter: Woman posting 75 days about autistic child miracle subtweeted Gary negatively after he reached out to help

Dating Updates

• Gary met woman through spiritual community, keeping communication minimal ("zero text")
• She's ex-military with matter-of-fact texting style, previously married/divorced
• Alex dating Armenian woman from LA (34, nurse, virtual movie nights, planning NYC visit)

Alex's Side Project

• Building "free coffee app" using Replit
• Working on it over holiday weekend

Deep Philosophy: Value, Price, and Subjective Worth

Alex on price vs. value disconnect:

• "Value is so subjective... we have a lot of different ways to decipher what value is but it really is a subjective decision"
• $5,000 Dom Perignon might be worthless to one person, totally worth it to another
• Water bottle in desert example: context determines everything
• Travel becoming luxury: "Face-to-face interaction has become so much more expensive"
• Referenced Frederick Hayek's price system as elegant information conveyance mechanism
• Question: "Are we moving beyond price? Is there a better signal?"

Gary's response on values and relationships:

• "Your values have everything to do with who you spend time with"
• Wife selection critical: "You want to find a wife that finds the right things valuable"
• Luxury brands exploit externalized value-seeking
• Mutual valuing of time together is the real exchange: "There's not a money exchange, but it's time invested"

NYC and Living Decisions

• Gary: NYC is "a capitalist hell that I don't want to live"
• Alex staying primarily for family proximity, acknowledging NYC his parents immigrated to no longer exists
• Where you live is "one of the most important questions you'll ever have to answer"
• Determines spouse, friends, work opportunities

Real Estate Investment Philosophy

• Gary interested in making money on real estate next decade
• Core insight: "If you have a point of view of value greatly different than general public but it's what public will increasingly see as valuable - that's the opportunity"
• "Seeing gold where other people see barren land"

Key Quotes

• Gary on faith-driven decisions: "Everything I do is based on that criteria... it feels disingenuous for me to say something like 'it fits my skill sets' but that's not really what I want to say. I want to talk about the bigger picture."

• Gary on healing ministry stats: "Zero cold reach-outs to very sick people have replied to me so far... I'm in the arena bro."

• Alex on value subjectivity: "Prices don't really reflect value anymore... it's very detached from what you're traditionally associated."

• Gary on relationships and value: "Your values have a lot - have everything to do with who you spend time with."

• Alex on life decisions: "Where do I live? Where should I live? It'll determine who you meet, probably the person you end up marrying, your friends, your work opportunities."

• Gary on investment opportunity: "If you have a point of view of value that is greatly different than what the general public sees but will be what the general public increasingly sees as more valuable - that's the opportunity."

Action Items / Takeaways

• Gary continuing New Year's Eve healing mission despite zero responses to cold outreach
• Both maintaining intentional approach to relationships and value assessment
• Alex building free coffee app side project
• Ongoing mutual philosophical partnership on life decisions