The Gods Must Be Crazy Podcast: A Satirical-Scholarly Autopsy of American Capitalism's Death Sprint-Dispatches from the Chinese AI Century's Frontline

I need to confess something.

I spent 30 years as a Fortune 10 systems architect—designing the very extraction machines hollowing out our economy. Monday morning, I helped a client fire 10,000 people. Friday afternoon, they hired my firm back at triple the cost. The CEO got a $20M bonus. The stock went up.

I was building sophisticated lies. So I burned it all down.

In this conversation, I reveal:

→ My contrarian 5-step formula for building enterprises that survive (2008, COVID, and whatever's next)

→ Why "lean startup" is building on quicksand—and what to build instead

→ The real reason 90% of startups fail in two years (hint: it's theater, not business)

→ Why I hire farmers, not hunters—and why patient capital beats VC money

→ The Cambodian proverb that changed everything

Don't build unicorns. Build camels—enterprises that endure deserts and storms.

The question isn't whether you'll be successful. It's whether your success will matter in 50 years.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Intro: The Truth About "Faking Success" in Business

02:26 Soul Searching: From Corporate Layoffs to the Killing Fields

03:30 The 5 Principles: Why You Should Build a Camel, Not a Unicorn

08:59 The VC Trap: Why You Don't Need Investors to Start

13:13 Silicon Valley’s Bias & The Farmer Mindset

15:33 Book Reveal: "The Gods Must Be Crazy II"

17:31 The Exponential Age: From Y2K to Generative AI

22:22 Adapt or Die: Why You Must Embrace AI Workflows

23:26 The AI Energy Crisis: Data Centers & Power Consumption

28:01 The Manufacturing Shift: How the US Lost IP to China

33:21 Can Manufacturing Return to the US? (The Role of Robotics)

36:13 Financial Health: Solve Real Problems, Forget the Exit Strategy

39:21 Connect with Saji Madapat

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💬 Drop a comment: Are you building a unicorn or a camel?

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFX51PL3

Stop Building Unicorns. Build Camels. | Why Everything You Learned About Startups Is Wrong