The Raw File Approach to Networking: Morgan Ranstrom Returns TO JUST PRESS RECORD

Every time I talk to Morgan Ranstrom, he works a little idea into the conversation that takes over my brain for weeks. So when I invited him back onto Just Press Record, I expected it to happen. But the perspective he brought still surprised me.

Morgan said, on the topic of AI and (what I now understand to be) my very algorithm-bucking live-action networking show:

You can see me react in real-time. I said: “This is the raw file. It is kind of the whole idea behind the show. You might have just explained something to me.”

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a compression problem.

If you want to go to cocktail parties or crush-it conventions or whatever the successful people in your field are doing, you’ll find that “yes, but what’s missing” feeling. It’s like playing an MP3 - Spotify can get you the song, it works, but there’s inarguably missing data. And that missing data is compounding.

In our algorithmic life, we see compression everywhere. Soundbite conversations. Content that’s lost the emotional frequency range. Connections suggested by probability rather than possibility. Who benefits? Advertisers, in theory at least. Engagement requires predictability, so algorithms narrow the range and serve compressed promises for a fee.

But as Morgan put it: “You can’t get that at chat GPT. You can’t just insert an input and get that output. That’s too chaotic… You crowdsource it through knowledge, and it just gets overly filled. It’s compressed. What this is, this is uncompressed. This is the raw file.”

Just Press Record exists because I refuse to compress human connection. Long-form conversations across industry lines. No soundbite pressure. Cross-pollination that algorithms would never suggest. Morgan returns to the show because that first conversation was uncompressed. We preserved all the data - the pauses, the tangents, the moments where ideas actually compound in real-time.

As Morgan reminded me: “Everything compounds… it compounds against you or it compounds for you.” My network compounds in unexpected directions precisely because I’m not compressing it into industry silos. Each conversation becomes part of a master recording library while everyone else works with compressed files.

This is why your Personal Archive matters. You’re building a library of uncompressed human experiences. Every relationship, every insight, every connection preserved at full resolution. Because as Morgan said: “It’s the experiential stuff… you’re still a human consuming it, so what’s your human experience?”

The compound effect happens because you’re preserving all that data that usually gets lost.

Question for you: What conversations in your network are you accidentally compressing? Where are you choosing convenience over the raw file experience?

Time to decompress.