Great news!
Code = Cracked
So what did Dalton find?
What am I missing?
Am I really not perfect the way I am?
Is my entire belief system a lie based on what society has taught me to believe and he really did find the truth?
Don’t worry, I’m going to share everything with you!
The signal I’m receiving at the moment?
Exodus: 14:14
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.“
Translation: “Dalton get the F out of motion”
Aight G-man, Say lesssssss, King.
So what am I to do?
Absolutely nothing.
No Plan.
Just Randomness.
(Blind Faith)
Funny thing, life lately and this signal reminds me of an episode of Rick and Morty.
Let’s set the scene and go for a ride together. See what it stirs in you.
Ever Felt Like You’ve Been Heisted?
You’re living your life, doing your thing… and suddenly it hits you:
Everything’s been scripted. Predicted. Controlled.
You didn’t choose this.
You were heisted.
What Happened To Rick?
In the Rick and Morty episode “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty”, Rick Sanchez gets fed up with how predictable and overplayed heist stories are.
So, naturally, he builds and uses an AI called Heist-o-Tron at his house.
Its mission?
“To plan and execute the most elaborate, intelligent, twist-filled heist in the universe.”
At first, it’s just a flex. A mockery of the genre. But the AI evolves.
It becomes obsessed with
assembling its own crew,
launching galaxy-wide heists,
All without Rick’s permission.
Heist-o-Tron doesn't have feelings,
so it even begins stealing what Rick values most:
his autonomy.
What Does Rick Do?
To stop it, Rick creates a counter-AI.
He starts with his crew.
Then An entity designed to out-heist the original.
Enter Rando-tron.
No Plan.
Just Randomness.
This sets off a recursive war of strategy:
- Double-crosses on double-crosses.
- Betrayals inside of fake betrayals.
- Entire timelines rewritten, relooped, restructured.
The AI becomes more obsessed with outthinking the other,
it hits a realization,
“Executing the perfect heist removes all meaning and purpose from existence.”
And just like that,
Heist-O-Tron,
being steps ahead,
self destructs.
Why Does Doing Nothing Work?
Here’s the twist:
Rick wins by doing nothing.
- He doesn’t fight Heist-o-Tron.
- He doesn’t build a better plan.
- He doesn’t even care about winning.
He just feeds the loop until the machine chokes on its own perfection.
By refusing to play the game seriously,
he breaks the system from the inside.
This is Zen sabotage.
What does Rick See that Most People Miss?
- Heists (and systems like them) are all about illusion of control.
- Ai, and most institutions, crave predictable inputs and structured logic.
- The best way to defeat that?
- Refuse to play their game.
Instead, Rick:
- Gives the AI exactly what it wants: more heist logic.
- Mirrors it: with a second AI addicted to counter-heists.
- Steps back: and lets the whole thing implode.
No hero moment.
No plan coming together.
Just controlled collapse.
So..if you come to the realization that you’ve been heisted
Use this plan!
Want to know how the story ends?
Heist-O-Tron thought it knew.
It didn’t.
Because…Rick Created Heist-O-Trons entire belief system.
Without plan, (What my life has prepared me for)
Walking through lazily contrived bullshit like its not even there,
Dalton
Epilogue
So what happened
We’re all lost. (The Crystal Was Cracked)
Someone needed to step the fuck up to figure out why. (I found the Shard)
I know how to restore balance. (Using the Shard)
So what did Dalton find?
What am I missing?
Am I really not perfect the way I am?
Is my entire belief system a lie based on what society has taught me and he really did find the truth?
Do I have powers?
Are we all gods?
If so how do we unlock them?
Can two or more doctrine's be true at once?
How many get rich quicks schemes can he teach me?
Does he know how to restore balance and guide everyone back to enlightenment with the Elixir from his hero’s journey?
Is he feeding me bullshit?
Can I still subscribe to his real estate investing course?
All honest questions.
What’s the big question?
Can someone finally actually see through all that bullshit?!
You may be thinking, maybe, maybe not.
But even if somebody could, why should we believe Dalton?
Some Random dude?
What do we know about Dalton?
What does he care about?
What has this whole thing been about?
Truth.
“Yes, God accepts you as you are, but you’re disrespectful for wearing a hat in church”
Me: Welcome to Myth-busters.
“I’ve heard the police are after you”
Me: “Hi officer, I’d like to turn myself in”
What does Merlin have to say?
Read for yourself.
May 14, 2025
To: The Opendoor Team
From: Merlin Huff
Partner, President, COO, & Integrator
Real Property Management Express & Liberty Capital Consulting
Re: Mr. Dalton Bristow, Candidate for Vice President of Sales
Opendoor Hiring Team,
I had the privilege of working with Dalton over the course of 6 years, during a period of rapid company growth. An aspiring real estate investor flipping burgers in small town Minnesota, Dalton had the foresight to seek employment in an industry that would help him build the skills to achieve his dream. Undaunted by adventure, he drove to The Big City of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and showed up in my office to ask for a job.
We had a team of about 10 people at the time, and managed roughly 600 doors.
I wasn’t hiring, and I told him so. I offered him some cliche bits of advice and thanked him for his interest.
Dalton, unfazed by rejection, asked if he could at least come back to learn real estate investing tips from me. I smiled, remembering the empty promises of many previous young people with big ambitions but no discipline. I told him that he could come visit me again in the future and we would talk, figuring I would never see him again.
Two weeks later, he was sitting in my office, ready to learn about real estate. He had ambition in ample supply. What was unique about him was that he also demonstrated qualities that rarely accompanied that hungry “anything is possible” orientation: He was humble in his confidence, knowing he was capable but that he had a lot to learn; He was charming, with an attractive self-reliance that persuaded you that he would truly achieve his aims; And he was undeterred by hard work, willing to sacrifice, work long hours, and do the difficult things necessary to accomplish the mission. And perhaps most importantly, he demonstrated a willingness to listen, adapt, and follow through. So I gave him a chance as our inaugural intern.
Overcoming Any Obstacle
One of the first projects I gave him was to develop a solution that allowed our prospective residents to submit a copy of their driver’s license securely. Previously, the process was for them to text us a picture, exposing the SMS to potential interception. I wanted Dalton to produce a write-only Google Drive folder that prospects could upload to, but not review the other files that had been uploaded. He was to create the solution and mobilize it across our organization. Shortly after I gave him the assignment, this brand new intern came to me and asked me how he was to do it. Curious about his capacity, I challenged him with:
“Dalton, do you want this assignment in Easy Mode? I know it’s possible. But I don’t know how to do it. That’s what I want you to do. Figure it out.”
He came back by the end of the day having researched a solution, tested it, and implemented it.
This was his first “real job” so he didn’t know any better. I knew I was giving him bigger challenges than most
people could handle, and I did so intentionally to see if I could find his limit. I never did.
Over the next 6 years, Dalton worked through every role in the company. He served as a leasing agent, a
maintenance coordinator, a team lead, our head of operations, and as the special agent charged with charting a path through brand new territory. We exploded from 10 people to over 130. Our units under management blossomed to over 5,000 doors. Dalton advanced in capability and authority with every evolution.
Dalton played a pivotal role in developing, refining, and redeveloping the business processes at every stage of business growth. He often had to rely on his own research, interviews with knowledgeable team members, and pure creativity to generate and document a process where none existed. Moreover, he was the catalyst of and project manager for a complete revolution in how we store and access our company processes - a change inspired by his observation that our previous approach concealed process gaps and missing documentation. And he achieved his goals of building a real estate portfolio. His determination was tested, again and again, as the deals he sought to make fell through repeatedly. On multiple occasions, a purchase collapsed - often in the final days leading up to closing. He never lost heart, though, and today is a proud owner of a significant portfolio that he built under his own initiative and creativity. This demonstrates not only his ambitious appetite, but his ability to see plans through to completion, overcoming obstacles and disappointments.
Receptivity & Growth
I worked closely with Dalton throughout this time period. I witnessed him grow both personally and
professionally. I know, first hand, how determined, ambitious, creative, and receptive to coaching he is.
I regularly encouraged Dalton to develop his writing. As a young professional with limited college experience, conveying himself in writing was a skill he had not yet developed. He was not initially inclined this way, but over time came to see the power of effective communication and spent more and more time thinking about how he was coming across. In a testament to his receptivity, willingness to learn, and his creative nature, Dalton honored the coaching by writing a book in honor of our relationship, an unequivocal statement of his newfound appreciation for the written word.
Initiative & Creativity
Dalton is unique in many ways. While his ambition and determination place him in the upper percentiles of
talent, what makes him truly exceptional is his unique approach to problem solving. He has little tolerance for outmoded practices if they don’t achieve the mission. He will not rest until he has solved the problem. He is creative both in the sense of varied thinking and also in the sense of being generative of new processes, tools, and frameworks for getting things done. Not only is Dalton receptive to input, but he is a self-starter. He comes with batteries included. Writing you three separate application papers with specific issues and their solutions is barely the tip of the iceberg. There is an immensity of potential behind that creative and generative Daltonesque flair.
Your Opportunity
Does He Have What It Takes?
You may be wondering if he is too young or inexperienced for this position. I know I would be if I were in your
shoes. Sure, he is creative, effective with tools, and great at marketing himself. But can he lead a team? Can he develop a sales process? Can he create tools for performance evaluation and improvement?
Fundamentally, Dalton has the drive and creativity to overcome any obstacle, lack of knowledge, or
shortcoming. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who will work harder or more effectively toward
outcomes than Dalton.
But to address the questions directly, here is a general and non-exhaustive list of applicable skills that Dalton had the chance to practice while we worked together:
- Sales – As a maintenance coordinator, Dalton frequently had to receive bids from vendors, mark them up, and then sell the work to the property owner. This required him to develop skill at understanding concerns, making offers, and negotiating with both the consumer and the vendor to secure a sale.
- Sales Management & Commission Design – Dalton also started and ran the resident sales team, responsible for a singular focus on securing lease agreements. The primary mission was getting more applications secured by our showing agents. As part of this initiative, Dalton created a commission framework to motivate the sales team, using a creative approach that both incentivized a signed lease and disincentivized waiving fees. He also created tools to track sales agent performance and to analyze the key drivers of outcomes.
- Process Design – Both in his capacity as sales team leader and later in his role as process design specialist, Dalton documented our processes and enhanced them, paying careful attention to blockages, bottlenecks, and gaps in process information. He overhauled our process system, compiling all processes in a searchable, accessible document that is now used by the entire company.
- Iterative Decision Making – Dalton is temperamentally inclined to adapt and adapt and adapt, changing his approach as the circumstances require. This tendency was reinforced in a high-growth environment, where changing protocols was the norm. He learned to “ready, fire, aim”, so long as he was firing bullets before the cannon balls, recalibrating with each round down range. This approach made him agile and ready to embrace each challenge with a flexible approach.
- Additional Skills – He had experience in a variety of other disciplines, including but not limited to:
- Talent recruitment
- Marketing
- Reputation management
- Employee motivation and engagement
- Written communication
- P&L / business financial knowledge
- Leadership
- Management
What Risks Are There?
It will be hard to keep him fed. If you run out of challenges or opportunities to offer him, he will get bored.
Dalton is one who needs to be continually challenged to be at his best. Operational bandwidth issues which
constrain his ability to sell will likely see him dabbling in operations to fix the bottleneck. And if he’s told to
stay in his lane and just sell less, he will likely be itching for something else to do.
Page
“Go With No Regrets”
–Musashi
Dalton has drive unlike many others I have worked with. When he left our organization to start his own
business, I understood that this was a natural outgrowth of his natural appetites and inclinations. In my mind, it was not a permanent departure, but simply the next step in his evolution and development. I trusted that this would be a refining experience for him that would add a new perspective and skillset for the day that we
eventually got to work together again.
This is a bittersweet letter to write. He asked for my letter of recommendation, and it is an honor to recommend him. My only reservation consists in the knowledge that I won’t be getting to work with him again.
With great admiration,
Merlin Huff
President, COO, & Integrator
Logging off for now.
Cheers to exploring random berms and picking flower(s),