Episode 596 Scott Adams: VP Pence Visits Border, Kanye Building Homes, Audience Questions

Date: 2019-07-13 | Duration: 1:08:40

Topics

Vice President Pence is underrated and under appreciated They asked him… Are conditions at the detention center acceptable? Independent watchdog function needed for detention centers Kanye and housing designed for the future Audience questions

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## Transcript

[0:07]

but pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom hey everybody get in here you know what time it is and so do I it's time for coffee with scott adams i'm scott adams you already know what coffee is and if you're smart and prepared and good looking you probably have a cup of coffee already ready might be another beverage could be tea could be something else but whatever it might be
be grab your copy glass your mug could be a tanker to chalice or Stein it might be a thermos or a flask and for our men and women in uniform grab your canteen and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine hit that gets the rest of your day just go and great I call it the simultaneous sip join me oh

[1:08]

call it the simultaneous sip join me oh no stretch try this oh you know the key to stretching if you didn't already know is you have to make the noise too loud go oh that's what a good stretch looks like all right I think we're ready are we not let's talk I'm gonna take some questions in a bit so if you have some questions go ahead and get those prepared because I want good questions keep your questions short and I will be happy to answer them alright let's talk about a few things so Mike Pence went down to visit some border detention facilities which I'm happy about and Mike Pence continually underrated Mike Pence is continually underrated that guy's got a lot of game now he gets a lot of fire for his you

[2:12]

now he gets a lot of fire for his you know let's say let's say not current views on LGBTQ one hope so he's upgrading those opinions as part of the Trump administration so he's got some baggage but he's got a lot of game and the first thing I say I said this about him all the time he has never embarrassed the president he's always been right on point and it's hard to be a vice president I would think and to do it with class and dignity and all that and he does it he does it very well and he did something so smart in his trip to the detention centers that I thought I wanted to call it out persuasion wise maybe politically wise in persuasion wise and it is such a simple thing just just listen to how simple this is and Mike Pence got it right and a lot of people haven't gotten

[3:12]

right and a lot of people haven't gotten this right all right so Pence was asked asked by CNN whether the conditions for the detained single adult immigrants were acceptable all right so Pence is representing the administration there's been this contest of are the detention centers doing a good job say the Democrats or are they doing a bad job saying the Democrats or are the detention centers doing a good job says the administration that's the way a used that's the way it has been up till now which was the wrong the wrong framing from the administration's perspective here's Mike Pence getting it totally right all right so he's asked whether the conditions for the single adult immigrants were acceptable pence said no it's not that's the right answer that's the right answer followed by that's the reason why we demanded that Congress give us 4.6

[4:13]

demanded that Congress give us 4.6 billion in additional support to Customs and Border Protection right right that's the right answer you know it's the wrong answer oh I think you you're exaggerating the wrong answer is telling the Democrats that what they saw they didn't see telling them that oh no it's fine we're doing a great job down there even if you are even if we are doing a great job we asked for 4.6 billion dollars did we ask for 4.6 billion dollars because everything was just the way we wanted it no no if you can ever agree with the people who are criticizing you do it do it it's always the best play so so pence so far the smartest person who's talked about this issue says are things acceptable no that's why we're

[5:15]

things acceptable no that's why we're asking for money are things acceptable no it's bad the conditions are not acceptable you know they are not acceptable they're not acceptable to Democrats they're not acceptable to Republicans they're not acceptable to human beings that's why they want the money to make it better every time that they disagree and say well you looked at the wrong facilities you exaggerated or whatever certainly certainly you could disagree on maybe some details but you should agree as hard as you can with the Democrats that things are unacceptable and that's why you're trying to fix so Mike Pence gets it right will he gay will he get credit for that who knows but he got a right so credit him
here's what is not optimal so far all of our all the reports that we've seen

[6:16]

our all the reports that we've seen about the various detention centers are all the same stupid thing here's what's stupid you've got a bunch of different detention centers one assumes some are doing great some are not doing so great so somebody will visit some politician will visit one that's doing great and will say hey I visited I went there myself it looks pretty good somebody else will visit the one that's not doing great and they'll come back and say hey these detention centers are not working it's all terrible conditions and we the public who are the bosses remember you're in charge it's the politicians aren't in charge we elect them you know we can tell them what to do by our opinions you know as people get polled the politicians aren't going to go against the polls forever you know temporarily they can but in the long run they don't so you're the boss you bosses you citizens of the United States what

[7:19]

you citizens of the United States what do you know about the detention centers in general nothing not a damn thing you're the boss you're in charge of this you use the public and you don't have any information that's reliable I wouldn't believe anybody who said that things are going great I wouldn't believe anybody who said they're not because in all likelihood it's going great and some and not greater than others because it's like everything else in the world so I'd suggest the other day that the only solution for that is some kind of independent third party who visits all of them unpredictably meaning somebody you can visit any of these facilities at the drop of a hat whose job it is to do that who is independent
it was independent and can just report to the country the bosses right you're the boss I'm the boss we run this country where were the voters and we'd

[8:22]

country where were the voters and we'd like to get some actual useful good information about what's going there now it wouldn't probably change my opinion too much because I agree with the Democrats and I agree with Mike Pence is it acceptable no it's not acceptable it's not acceptable whatever is happening down there it's completely unacceptable and any other answer is ridiculous if you're asking for billions of dollars to fix something you don't say it's fine the way it is all right I guess I mean at that point way too many times but the good news is apparently there's gonna be some kind of some kind of independent pediatrician who is going to be tasked with visiting the facilities its pediatrician so obviously the focus will be on the kids and it seems to me that the independent physician pediatrician

[9:25]

the independent physician pediatrician pediatrician is probably going to get us closer to something like a good result but the very first thing the Trump administration needs to do is to is to focus on what's wrong instead of focusing on doing a good job I mean it's great I do like that you know the Border Patrol people get credit for the things that are going right so we should you know maybe highlight the ones that are doing a great job to give some balance but we're trying to fix a problem you don't fix the problem by focusing on what's going right let's let's let's look at the ugly show me the ugly if you show me the ugly I'll help you fix it all right so we got that going on there's a story in sorted in Breitbart and I think it's in some other places apparently Kanye West is moving forward with trying to design and build some

[10:26]

with trying to design and build some homes for the poor now you have to assume that anything you hear in the world these days may not be exactly accurate so I'm not saying the part we know is that it looks like Katya is very very interested and very involved in designing homes what we don't know is exactly what he has in mind and it was there for where they'll be isn't that sort of stuff but the reporting said that it would be maybe based on some kind of a Star Wars design you know the little igloo Hut's from Star Wars I don't know if that's true it could be that maybe that's a starting point but I would like to caution Kanye given that there's a nonzero chance that he'll he'll hear this I don't know what the odds are but he's I know he's seen some of my periscopes because he retweeted them a few years ago but let me tell you

[11:29]

them a few years ago but let me tell you what I think might be a problem with what he's doing the problem with all housing at least in the United States is probably the same everywhere else they all suffer from what I call the same problem and I don't see anybody fixing it and as and for based on what I know I don't know that Kanye is fixing it but he could he's the kind of current person that could fix the thing that's never been fixed before and it's this here's the worst way to design a house get a really good designer really good architects really good engineers and then you design a house maybe you work with who's gonna live there to get their requirements etc and then you design the house that's the way all homes are built you get the people who know how to do it together somebody gets gives them money and then they design as far as I can tell Kanye's effort until we find out differently I'm gonna

[12:29]

until we find out differently I'm gonna assume that anything that Connie does is gonna be a little different than the way anybody else does it that's what he does so I'm not gonna assume he's gonna do it this way but if he did the same thing that would also be a mistake and I'll tell you why in a moment but it would be a mistake to simply get smarter people and say hey these homes have not been designed well in the past only smarter people and we'll do it right still the wrong system here's the right system we don't know how to build better homes let's try one you build it you put some people in it and you say in 30 days tell us what works and what doesn't thirty days later the people the family that moved in says you know we love this place but there's no closet for our brooms I have to walk you know to the garage to get a broom to sweep the floor so the next version you take all those little fixes and he builds it into it and then

[13:32]

fixes and he builds it into it and then you move a family in for 30 days and you say how about this one and they say you know it's a little loud in this room because it's a little too close to this room and we find that the kids like to play in this room and then we can't sleep so then you say fine let's build another one right next to it you build another one put in a little insulation with a little dog door because they forgot something from the dog put it a little different kind of table because the table and the other one got scratched or fell apart so the point is if you're starting with a goal in mind and goal thinking versus systems thinking is being highlighted here if your goal is to design a better home and the only way you do it is get some experts together and design a home you did it wrong you did it wrong because all you get is a home that's maybe a little bit better than other homes because it's the same people who built all the bad ones are probably gonna be the same people who build the new one it

[14:33]

the same people who build the new one it might be a little better but that's it so the the way to build a great home is to build 25 bad homes let me say that again the way to build a great home let's say you're building it for low income people the way to build a great one is to build 25 that aren't so great each one of them iterating toward the better one or you could have several projects each of them iterating in different ways one of them for small family is one with kids one without kids that sort of thing so I am very much in favor of all the people who are trying different things and big fan of Kanye especially taking on a big big challenge like that but I hope he's looking to iterate and I hope he's got that built into the system because without that it's just another person building a house and even as innovative as Kanye is likely to be it's

[15:34]

innovative as Kanye is likely to be it's you can't really guess what's gonna work for people you can't get there just by being smart being smart won't get you there all right so kudos to Kanye for even taking that on that's that's why we that's why we love all right there's a report end of China that they're working hard on fusion and apparently they have some kind of breakthrough for a fusion energy now the breakthrough is giant magnets that can keep the the reaction from touching the edges of the container so I don't know anything about this stuff so might just assume that I'm giving you the more on description of enough nuclear fusion because I am but the idea is that whatever the whatever is happening with the plasma on the reaction whatever it is they have to keep it from touching the walls of anything and the only way to do that it

[16:34]

anything and the only way to do that it was with super powerful magnets that will keep it from floating instead of touching walls they have not science has not been able to achieve that until recently so it looks like it looks like a American Chinese group working on this collectively it looks like they have some big breakthrough but even with a big breakthrough China is looking at building their first full fusion plant in 2050 so they're still looking at 30 years to get a plant built but that was still pretty pretty good now we have lots of other nuclear options between now and the time we get our first fusion plant you know generation 3 potentially generation 4 but nuclear power is the way to go and I saw that Rick Perry just appointed somebody in the Energy Department I don't know I forget the details but they brought in somebody who

[17:35]

details but they brought in somebody who who's an expert at government and private industry nuclear collaboration so the government is doing the right stuff they're bringing in the right people and they're bringing it building a system which means they're doing it right instead of trying to build a specific plant the government rick perry's group is saying let's create a system where the government can be very helpful to spur this industry so and to make nuclear benefits better faster cheaper safer sorry so they're doing the right stuff that's all good I'm gonna take some calls so anybody has some questions this would be the time to do it let's see you is out here Jacob I'm gonna bring you on

[18:36]

Jacob are you there Jacob technology please work okay Jacob is processing Jake up are you there good morning do you have a question for me as pertains of rural areas but I find that a lot of people have homes especially where I am in Atlantic Canada but they don't have jobs or pads or careers and everything they used to have was taking things from the earth fishing logging and asbestos it was actually huge here well in which have been deemed unacceptable to extract Natalie so I've been racking my brain because they I mean the majority of the contrary is these small areas but they have to fly or leave their families for weeks or even months like my father did just to apply to work somewhere else

[19:37]

just to apply to work somewhere else they kind of congregate in only one province of Canada Alberta and I've been trying to think like how can we give these trades people because most of them are trades people a path in the rural areas well that's a real good question obviously you we're gonna have to get away from taking stuff out of the ground as our you know primary way to get paid so I don't know if there anybody has any easy answers to that I mean some of it might be the few people who can learn to do something with technology into it at a distance but that's not really a solution I think a huge part of the solution is lowering cost I think we don't focus enough what would it take to lower the cost of a high-quality life because if you lower the cost of living then your opportunities for making money expand because maybe maybe for example just just use a bad example but let's

[20:40]

just just use a bad example but let's say you had considered being a telemarketer something that you could do from your home wherever you are but the most you could make was I don't know 30 or $40,000 a year so you wouldn't do it because it just wouldn't be enough and you'd be spending your whole day doing it but what if it was enough what if it were enough what if 30 or $40,000 a year and let's say your spouse is also working what if it's enough so I think we probably have to solve getting expenses down that's part of the answer part of the answer is things you can do at a distance and a big part of the answer I think is going to be relocating I'll tell you my my almost guaranteed prediction so I'm gonna make a prediction that I think is just a certainty I just don't know when but it's the answer to what you're talking about and that is I think we're going to start to build entire super cities from areas where there's nothing

[21:41]

cities from areas where there's nothing because fixing a city that's already there is monstrously difficult could you imagine saying hey let's rebuild New York City to make it more livable you just you almost couldn't do it for a hundred different reasons it would be so impractical but now imagine saying hey there's a lot of room in this desert were playing or this state there's just plenty of room let's designate this big area as our new city start from scratch and use design to do what money can do and what I mean by that is if you design this any right it's going to be low cost very good to live in solve a lot of your problems low maintenance you know do good transportation and all the things that you need to live but by design so if you do design right you don't need to spend as much so my my view of the future is at some point there will be a number of super cities super towns or super cities being designed from scratch there will

[22:43]

being designed from scratch there will be so amazingly livable and we'll also have lots of access to employment because they'll they'll design that that consideration will be part of the design then people in the rural areas will be able to find these cities and apply to them and move so I think probably in the long run people in the rural areas that do not have access to employment and well designed homes will probably just move to where there are those things and their lives will be immeasurable immeasurably better but that might be a 2050 thing you know it might be a year 2040 things so it's it's not a quick fix a lot of people in the comments were suggesting things they move where the jobs are gonna have to relocate someone said not everywhere is meant to be inhabited but it is hard to think there's over half a million people in my problems I know that's not a lot but there are only two cities out of the hundreds and hundreds of communities so

[23:44]

hundreds and hundreds of communities so it's kind of hard for me to think that all these men and women just have to come to the two cities and try to you know make an event and a lot of they hate the cities they feel that it robs their culture their soul you know and again weird excuse but a lot of us do get identity from the small areas our songs are even our type of parties you know and they just they want to avoid the cities you know well I mean it's everybody's got to make that choice I'll tell you I grew up in a very small town my graduating class there were only I think 40 people in my entire graduating class yeah and I and maybe 2,000 people in the entire spread in town you know you could drive down the street for a long time without seeing another car so when I graduated high school and I went to a nearby college that I could drive to but when I got out of college the first thing I did was I literally traded

[24:45]

first thing I did was I literally traded my car for a one-way ticket to California with with with nothing on the other end I didn't have anything waiting for me got the other end now my brother lived in California already so I had a literally I had a couch to sleep on so I sold my car for a one-way ticket to California to go sleep on my brother's couch and borrow his car during the day and go look for jobs which which I did now eventually I got a job at a bank in San Francisco long story and and that led to here but the very first problem I solved was I said to myself if I stay where I grew up if I stay in this small local place and don't go to places that have cities in traffic and you know crime and all that even if I prefer my small-town lifestyle there's no opportunity here so the first problem I solved is location and I recommend that to any anybody who's you know graduating

[25:47]

to any anybody who's you know graduating from school in any of those small rural areas get out you should get home before you before you have ties you know yeah only time I'm something of a success story I did say I packed my car moved in with nowhere to live found an apartment that night I'm a industrial mechanic and welder by trade but I am literally learning to code right now I mean yeah you can't you can't there's no amount of advice that creates you right there's no event there's no amount of advice that would create me you and I I mean I can tell just from you know one minute of talking to you I can tell that you know we you we could drop you from the plane you know with the parachute onto any island anywhere in the world and then come back in five years and you're doing okay because you figured it out right because you it's obvious that you're a guy who figures it out I don't know what

[26:48]

guy who figures it out I don't know what to do I'll figure this out now go I'll go do what I need to do I'll do the hard stuff I'll put it into work I'll figure it out so I'm the same guy if you drop me on the island I was I always use this little story as a way to understand myself I use the island of prisoners and I always say this if you were to drop me on the island of prisoners where there's no law it's just you know people committed terrible crimes live there they're put there because they can't escape if you drop me on the island to prisoners on day one I would get you know beaten up and raped on day two be beaten up and raped again on day three I'd be beaten up and raped again but but if he came back in five years I would be running the island yeah and and the difference is being beaten up and raped every day for a year isn't gonna stop me that's not gonna stop me because

[27:49]

stop me that's not gonna stop me because because my mind is already on the other end of that it's like well how long is this gonna take do we have a month of this is it just a two-month situation I don't care I don't care if it's a month a year at the end of it you're all going to be dead it's it's probably a dangerous philosophy because I keep it with me when I'm in dangerous places too because you know you'll see you'll see situations for people and you'll say to yourself okay this person might want to hurt me or rob me or kill me and I always have this little this little recording running in my head which is I feel sorry for this guy sure enough this person could hurt me if they wanted to they would just have to want to and they could hurt me but if I didn't die yeah I'm yeah I really I really feel sorry for somebody who hurt me badly and

[28:49]

for somebody who hurt me badly and didn't kill me cuz that's gonna be that's not gonna work in a well alright I'm gonna take another call thanks so much all right god bless station all right I love Canadians don't you let's take T bar T bar coming at you T bar can you hear me
and do you have a question well I was enjoying Bill Maltese daughter philanthropy and I thought is there a way to allow people to donate their time and services those who needed such as elderly who need errands run or their yard cut things like that well um I don't know if there's an easy way to do it through Twitter philanthropy because Twitter goes to the whole world but you won't you need to talk to people who are local there's an app called next door if

[29:53]

local there's an app called next door if you ever heard of that app yes I am on that app oh okay so that's the most local social media thing because it literally goes to your neighbors so you can always put out the word and say I've got some time if there's somebody need something you would almost certainly find somebody recommending a neighbor and elderly person I also had a question about you have the gem for development idea for North Korea do you think that idea would work as a negotiating tool in Iran yeah I think anytime you can throw in a variable another variable it gives you a little bit more opportunity to make a deal because and especially you know a Gen 4 nuclear development site in North Korea would make perfect sense the North Koreans would be able to use their nuclear expertise they need they need cheap energy just like everybody else does and and it's it's good for the

[30:53]

does and and it's it's good for the world so yeah III think there could be something there if they want but it's it's in any event it's smart to throw it in the mix is something that should at least be discussed because it yeah it would be a good export for their you know diversifying their economy because you know so much their economy is linked to oil energy if they could diversify to Gen 4 that would be yeah yeah I would think North Korea would be all over that if they could so yes I expect that will be part of the conversation thank you so much excellent thank you let's take another let's do Nikolas Nikolas Nikolas Nikolas come at me are you there hey I can hear you what's your question Nikolas I was wondering it like with all those shadow banning and things you know down voting and all that on YouTube is there any possibility that it's just purely profit driven because

[31:53]

it's just purely profit driven because like YouTube has never been profitable and so maybe by like limiting your views and the first day or something like that they're just trying to make more money
hmm I never rule out the profit motive and and I make this following point often people don't do things for one reason when we talk about why people do things will often say they had that one reason and maybe it means that's the one reason to put it over the top or the one reason you didn't expect or the one that you didn't know about but people don't do things for one reason so I would imagine that YouTube being like any other company has a profit motive that absolutely is influencing them but they also have you know they might have some political bias in that mix as well so my guess is that if if the political let's say if the financial motive was

[32:56]

say if the financial motive was overwhelming to let people stay on the platform let's say if let's say all the conspiracy theorists happen to be the most profitable creators on YouTube I think you'd find that they would they would figure out some way to have more more conspiracy theorists not less they would just label it better and you know call it entertainment instead of news or whatever they needed to do but the fact that the the people who were a problem for youtube if you added them all together probably not more than 1% of their total total revenue and viewership you know most of youtube is people looking at make up tutorials and you know funny animal stories and you know all kinds of stuff like that so the the entirety of all the people who are the politically problematic ones all of them together are probably not much of YouTube's

[33:57]

are probably not much of YouTube's revenue so I think that they have the ability to maintain their profitability and still operate in ways that might be philosophically compatible with them but not with you meaning that they might that they might put a little bit more bias against some groups than others because because of where their own political bias starts from so yes the money I think is over it's always going to be the biggest variable after legality so a big corporation is going to first ask is it legal yeah they have to ask that and then is it profitable next and then if you've done both of those things right or at least as much as you can do profitability wise then you might look at the smaller problems which is a maybe if we put our thumb on this a little bit we'll get a political result we want to but so yes thanks for the question thank you let's take

[34:59]

the question thank you let's take another caller here and we're gonna go to bum phone I don't know why I even decide I'm using no no criteria whatsoever to decide who to indict here it's pretty random
color can you hear me what's your name my name's Matt he met you have a question for me yes in regard to your position on women's sports and sports in general in terms of unfairness so it's my take that women's sports were created with that exact intent which is the great fairness and that they're merely a subcategory of sports in general not yours your sound is fading out I don't know if other people can hear you but can you say they get a little bit louder sure
it's my position that Europe your take on women's sports and regards that

[36:00]

on women's sports and regards that fairness is incorrect that women sports are a subcategory of sports in general with the specific intent to institute a fair game does that change your mind at all in terms of the fairness aspect of yours no because even if it's an objective to create a fair sport it's not possible because all of the individual players have wildly different skill levels now I heard somebody you say why don't we just do away with the male-female difference just period if there's a woman who could make a you know a top NBA team it's just the top NBA team it has a woman on it and that's okay so one of the one solution for the transgender thing is to just say all leagues are open but the but you'd have to go pretty far down the league levels

[37:01]

to go pretty far down the league levels before you get the first team that's mostly women and but that would be fine because if you wanted to watch a sport there was mostly women you say oh I guess the a league or whatever is mostly been but a woman could play there if the woman who were qualified let's say it's football and maybe there's a punter or something was a woman but once you go down to say the B or the C League and I don't know how far you'd have to go down before 15 roll boys are not the best players but you get to a point where you'd have more women than men or or maybe men didn't even want to play on those teams because they weren't good enough and the only the only downside is that you know the locker rooms situation you might need to need eda men's and women's locker room but you already have them so I think that would be fine what my my take on this is that sports do try to have a level game so that you don't always know

[38:02]

level game so that you don't always know who's gonna win and they could still do that and has nothing to do with who is male and whose female you could always say well this team's got some men this one has some women there's some transgender women on this team and it just doesn't matter all you're doing is making sure that the two teams that are relatively is the same get to play would that satisfy your fairness III think men's sports is kind of a misnomer I think men's sports are sports in which anybody can compete including women I don't at women are prevented from competing in the NFL or NBA to the extent that they're good enough to play in those leagues I think women's sports and age bracket at sports were created with a specific intent of creating a fair game and to interject somebody into those games that doesn't fit the specific intent which is fairness in those leagues to me is wrong it's a corruption of what the intent was to begin with that's why the rules exist

[39:02]

to begin with that's why the rules exist would you be in favor of a really good female player on a team of all females sure I wouldn't know you just you just said you're not you just said that if a transgender were on the team it wouldn't be fair that transgender is by the rules of society a woman just happens to be really good but suppose it was not a transgender it was just a woman who was just amazingly good is it fair to have that woman on the team Scott that's a very very incredible point that you just made I totally understand now what you're saying it's it's it's my position that a woman that has experienced the monel profile of a man throughout the entirety of their life is not necessarily fair but again that's another arguable point and I and I kind of kind of see what you're saying now I think yeah so so I think that I think actually you people are really sick of this conversation by the way so you and I are enjoying this but the audience's

[40:03]

I are enjoying this but the audience's is throwing up an announce and saying move on move on but I think you hit on something that will make most of the audience happy on this because people pretty much everybody in my audience hates me for this opinion but let's put it this way because I think you hit on the crux of it the problem is not transgender people competing on the wrong teams or the right teams or whatever the problem is that the rules have not the rules probably needs to be revised so that you get a better result so it's not a transgender problem it's that the rules and the transgender in the history are a little out of whack but could easily be fixed so absolutely that's my take is that as long as everybody's gaining a fair game and the audience doesn't know who's gonna win that's all you need absolutely okay I think we're pretty close at this last week all day andrew yang for trump VP that's it okay thanks all right we won't talk

[41:05]

okay thanks all right we won't talk about that one again I know it triggers everybody here so there's no point in that let's see what dear Ock has to say do you rock do you rock can you hear me I can do you have a question oh thanks for taking my call yeah I have actually a kind of a more I guess like hearted question I see you have boo and a little dog are you a cat guy or a dog guy oh that's a good question I would say that I I love them equally and I've had more cats than dogs but they are really they're really different animals the the big difference between a cat and a dog and I've talked about this before is that a cat a dog actually tries to understand what its owner is thinking what your intentions are so your dog will try to sort of read your mind the same way people try to read

[42:06]

mind the same way people try to read people's mind in the sense that we only understand what they're doing because we've taken a good guess about what they're thinking when they're doing it the cat doesn't care what your internal thoughts are the cat is only looking at what your body is doing and and the pattern of what your body has done before so once you realize that the cat is a sociopath and the dog is an empath yeah there are completely different creatures but I love them for their own their own qualities separately but thanks for the call oh thank you fact all right take care
Stu let's do I'm looking for whoever might be the most dangerous person on here I want somebody dangerous all right Geordi abusing totally unscientific methods to figure out who might be dangerous Geordi are you there I'm

[43:09]

dangerous Geordi are you there I'm hoping you have a dangerous question for me do you have a question a dangerous question does it have to be okay okay um I this is a might be a sideways tangent here how do you square the ideas of your user interface theories with your lack of freewill theories they're completely compatible so one is the the idea that you can manage your reality if you know where the user interfaces and the other is that you have something called free will but they're not really incompatible because what whatever our world is if you don't have free will you're gonna do what you're gonna do and what you're going to do might be pushing the human interface buttons or not so I think they're completely compatible why would you think they're incompatible it sounds like the user-interface implies a degree of control over your

[44:12]

implies a degree of control over your reality or at least the feeling of it may be well let's say that you were a robot driving a car and the robot was just programmed they had no free will but it could still operate the the user interface of the car so freewill is unnecessary for the robot in the car and in theory for the same reason it would be unnecessary if if we have no free will we're still going to be pushing those buttons or not pushing those buttons just like a robot in the car that makes sense makes sense this sounds like that the robot would have a predetermined path when it's pushing the buttons to drive the car although the user interface makes it feel like that we can determine our own goals but maybe that's not true yeah yeah freewill is is a perception it's your assumption all right thanks for question thanks got let's see let's bring on I think Andy looks dangerous bring it on Andy

[45:14]

Andy looks dangerous bring it on Andy Andy could hear me Andy are you there Andy oh good that were you hanging in there so this is actually more of a cat dog type question too in terms of it's more lighthearted okay ever been to and by the way I'm the I'm the comic book artist let's talk to you a few times or email Oh Andy yes yeah I've seen you work here your work is amazing what give us your your URL oh it's uh Andy Smith art at.com Andy Smith art at what no it's just Andy Smith art com.com yeah you do you do primarily a comic book art right yeah yeah I've been drawing comic books since 1991 yeah I saw you I saw you a web page it's phenomenal you're very talented so if anybody's looking for that sort of thing go to his website alright what's your what's your question Andy have you ever

[46:14]

what's your question Andy have you ever gone to comic-con uh I did I think I did once yeah I did once and I did it as a wait was it comic-con yeah I did a book signing at one it was it was quite a zoo and it was scary and I think pretty much nobody showed up for my book signing do you remember how long ago that was uh
five years ago ten years ago so about that the only reason I ask that is because it was I was trying to trying to gauge on popularity of Dilbert at the time like if it was in the beginning when like a first book came out it might be like oh who's this guy but I you know five years ago or so I think I I believe I believe I did I did it twice once was when I was at the height of the comic book fame and there were lines as long

[47:16]

book fame and there were lines as long as you could see and then once maybe five plus years ago whenever it was and I literally had zero people like I I was just a book signing was standing by myself and and nobody came which by the way is not that unusual I've had lots of book signings where I had lines around the block but other ones where literally nobody came and sometimes there's no real explaining it but yes it probably won't be going to another one well you could represent me I'll do that all right thanks Andy take care but let's see we're gonna take Heather coming at you if our technology works but it looks like it's Heather I do you have a question for me Dolan

[48:20]

I do you have a question for me Dolan and the kids were in the car and the dad chased him down and caught him in traffic and beat him up so bad that he died in the hospital later yeah I understand some other people joined in the beating so I just feel sorry for that guy and imagine how scared he was in the raid you probably couldn't control himself yeah yeah imagine how you'd feel if you saw somebody drive off with with your little kids in the car and you don't know if you'll ever see those kids again yeah and then you run after him and he literally ran after the car but the car has stopped in traffic and he dragged him out and by the time he was done other people had joined in and they literally beat the guy to death and my understanding is no charges are filed not yet I haven't heard of him yet and and and even if you know can you imagine yourself being on that jury and let's say the prosecutor has decided to get

[49:21]

say the prosecutor has decided to get tough and they said you know you didn't really need to finish him off because once you got him out of the car you were sort of done but killing him was going too far so we're gonna have to charge you with murder put me on that trial put me in that jury you're not going to get a conviction right right and any any psychologist right is gonna order a dress is gonna say the rage blinds you thank you yeah you know and and I'd be sitting on the jury and not just be saying I don't care I I don't care that you could have stopped I don't care that you know maybe somebody else should have stopped you I don't know I don't care I literally don't care then he killed that guy and there's not there's nothing that you could say or do there would make me convict that guy if I were on the jury it just wouldn't happen if somebody steals a car for only your kids and the father finds you and kills you that's the end of the story there's nothing else to that story except a good job dad that's right

[50:24]

except a good job dad that's right exactly hooray the kids were unharmed no you do all right I see a lot of stars coming in because people just loves the violence alright let's let's go to Tom Tom you're gonna be coming at me in a second here Tom can you hear me Tom Tom Tom Tom you there hello are you there Tom good do you have a question for me
oh I love that question that's a diabolical question what do I like the most what do I like the most about being me now are you saying in terms of my personality or character or just about

[51:24]

personality or character or just about my life yeah I'd say it's more your life the way you have to the prayer your time and what do you look for all right I like that question maybe the rest of the audience will care less about hearing about my personal stuff but I like talking about me so thanks thanks for asking at the moment you're catching me at probably just this wonderful golden age in my life meaning that a lot of things would go in my way I've already made my money I'm having tremendous fun doing this periscope stuff talking about persuasion I've got a new book coming out in November if you've if you've ever seen pictures of Kristina my girlfriend you know that that part of my life is going sensationally and we're you know we get along great life is good and I get to I'll give you an example I woke up this morning

[52:24]

an example I woke up this morning without my alarm which is the way I wake up almost every day I wake up whenever I wake up I get my cup of coffee and I feel great I mean I wake up feeling great no you know I have to have my first sip of coffee to feel really great and then I think to myself I think I'll look at the news and then I look at the news that are all these amusing stories that I want to talk about but of course it's you know it's 7 a.m. by the time I start these periscopes and my times up and I haven't really talked to any human beings who were away cuz I'm just in my own home in my my office here and I so look forward to hitting hitting the start button for a periscope so that I could connect with all of you people I absolutely love it and I wouldn't do any of this except for how much I enjoy it you know that that's the overarching

[53:26]

you know that that's the overarching thing so my morning is terrific and when I'm doing work work I'm doing something like writing comics that I'm good at so it doesn't hurt I'm drawing which I like it's you know I can watch TV while I'm doing it and I have to tell you that this this specific phase of my life is so rewarding it's almost indescribable because at this point I have a few books out that people have found are changing their lives so a typical day several people will contact me social media or other ways to tell me that usually it's usually in my book had to fail at almost everything and still win big and they'll say the the book changed their life they lost they lost you know 40 80 pounds they got a new job they you know everything's working out they're healthier and you have no idea how good that feels because I put a lot of work and sweat into that book and now exactly as I planned

[54:27]

book and now exactly as I planned it's starting to pay off in terms of the the results that people are reporting so that's just amazing the way it feels just to be helpful and you know when Bigley I get the same kind of comments etc and when I'm doing these periscopes I'm trying to be useful that's the sort of the one word that guides what I do just try to be useful you know I've taken care of my own my own needs I don't I don't have a lot that I need personally I've got that pretty much dialed in at this point so anytime I can make somebody else's life a little bit better whether I'm you know helping build Pulte on the blight Authority or on his Twitter philanthropy giveaway or if I'm giving somebody some life advice or if I'm helping clarify something in politics just feels tremendously good but I also think that I have some you

[55:27]

but I also think that I have some you know there's a Spider Man saying about with with great response know with great power comes great responsibility yeah the and I actually I actually live that philosophy because I'm in a position where a lot of people will watch my periscopes and pay attention and like ants playing with my microphone here sorry and no boo stop it go away and because I have a unique voice in terms of my window on persuasion and I can predict things and frame them in productive ways I find that of a productive part of the conversation on a national level in that I can see my influence working its way through the system by the way here's the question for those of you still here how many of you have seen my influence express itself in the larger world I'd be interested in your comments if you

[56:28]

be interested in your comments if you have any examples I'd like to see them there are the things that you've seen me influence in the larger world that you can identify pretty accurately I'm seeing a lot of yeses go by in the comments
good because that's that's what I'm trying to do I'm trying to add something positive and I think I hope you I hope you'd agree that I try to add some AUSA tivity try to give you some some optimism give you some techniques teach you about systems now goals put things and frames that are useful and make you understand the world so what I'm doing that stuff is just amazingly rewarding so to answer your question I would say the best thing about being me is that I have the sensation of a successful life arc and the way I explain that is that when you're born you're born perfectly selfish and you should because you're a baby you know somebody else needs to

[57:28]

baby you know somebody else needs to give you milk etc but as you get older you can start taking on some jobs maybe you're a teenager you can help Mo's long but she's still got to take care of yourself go to school learn how to be a good adult someday maybe you have some kids and you're giving more to the kids than you are to yourself and then I'm at that part of my life arc where I've taken care of myself and those closest to me and now I'm trying to trying to expand that helpfulness the usefulness to the larger system and as you saw in the comments apparently I'm having some success because those of you in the audience can actually see the impact on the larger world in real time you can actually see things I suggest become part of the real world in 24 hours and you've probably seen it a number of times so I almost can't even express how gratifying that is and somebody in the comments just said you literally make my life better and when I hear and Thank

[58:30]

life better and when I hear and Thank You Erica and when I hear stuff like that that's that's my fuel well it makes me feel like I'm exactly where I should be in terms of my biological nature my social purpose the meaning of life all of those things are coming together right really well and a lot of it is is more rewarding because all of you who are watching this are part of part of the process in other words the only reason that anything I do can have an impact on the larger world is because of how many of you are watching this periscope right now without that you know if three people watched the periscope I wouldn't do it but because anywhere from I would say between YouTube and the podcast and stuff let's say sorry my cats getting in the action anywhere from fifty to hundred thousand people probably watch a typical

[59:30]

people probably watch a typical periscope and and that means that it's enough people with enough enough clout then if I come up with any idea that's worthy of looking into I can be sure that there will be somebody on that periscope who took you seriously and said huh I think I will think about that a little differently and alway that away that option so thank you for the question that was my long answer but there was an excellent question I appreciate that all right thank you yeah let's take one more
I'm gonna take Oh let's see who we've got here let's just go for a round feeder if I'm pronouncing your name correctly for on V Eric and you hear me I can did I pronounce your name anywhere close to accurate that was very good actually you can also call me in Perham okay as you know plans for about 20

[1:00:36]

okay as you know plans for about 20 years and there's literally one thing I've ever disagreed with you on so let's see how if I contain your mind you can change mine okay unfortunately it's on the transgender in women's sports question the thing I disagree with you on is when you start talking about the topic you spend some time on it pushing back on Twitter I think you spend about two three days and then there was a periscope where you said hey I pushed back enough now people who are disagreeing with me are just you know biased or racist against transgender people so that specific thing is what I disagree with you on I think you call that a little bit early I think people just oppose you because they want sports to be fun and if you put a transgender woman on a female team it stops being fun for them right and said I thought you called that one a little bit early well there's no two situations or two people alike so it could be true that there are people who

[1:01:36]

could be true that there are people who are operating from their bias and then they're rationalizing you know they're starting with the bias that they're they just don't feel right about it and then they're saying well there must be a reason I guess the reason is fairness and my point is that because the fairness is a real issue but so solvable that it's not a real issue in other words it's a fake because meaning that when people say they want sports to be fair and they're adding a transgender athlean make something unfair that part is true but so solvable and so trivial that it makes me think that the real reason is something something deeper now keep in mind that my view of the world is that all of our reasons are rationalizations you know sometimes if we have no if we have no emotional connection to the topic well then we can be rational so if you're balancing your checkbook you're just doing math there's no opinion no feeling about it you can

[1:02:37]

no opinion no feeling about it you can be rational about that but when you're deciding who to marry where to work what you think about politics what you think about the transgender athletes any of those topics go right to your biological emotional self and the normal way that a person would react is to react emotionally first form an opinion and then after the opinion is formed make up some total BS explanation now in this case the total BS explanation is a hundred percent logical what you're saying there adding adding somebody who's especially good you know transgender woman Steve that that would create a sense of unfairness true it would cause you as the the audience to perhaps like it less true it would cause somebody on the team who otherwise would have been having a better you know spot on the team might cause them to lose their spot true

[1:03:39]

might cause them to lose their spot true all of those things are true and they can still not be the reason so my view of the world is that all of those things can be technically accurate but if you were at if you were to add them all up they end up they add up to a peanut they add up to a you know a grain of salt they're true they're completely trivial but in our minds we've blown them up to something bigger than the arts and one of the best evidences of that is I hear people say hey I think that if you allow transgender athletes to compete there will be a whole bunch of men who are not even really transgender who are pretending to be transgender because they'll get an advantage in sports to which I say okay there's your tell that's the tell for this not being an actual rational response because I don't think we're gonna have a national problem with men pretending to be women

[1:04:40]

problem with men pretending to be women to win as sports I just don't think that's anything to worry about sure there might be one and it will be a fun story and some people will be annoyed and that's what makes it fun but it's never gonna be a big problem and as other caller said if there is some momentary imperfection and the you know how equal the teams are it can all be easily fixed because you could you could re you could reconfigure the rules so that everybody can play on every team you could make new levels so that everybody's got a level they could play on and the level that's inappropriate it's normal business for sports to try to make adjustments as things get unequal so the most normal thing in sports is that when it starts getting less fun they'll change something so this didn't work out was to add a new rule let's let's let's fix this so we can never decide you and I whether your decisions whether the way you're thinking about it is the the rational

[1:05:41]

thinking about it is the the rational reason and the rational reasons are that all that mattered to you or if you were triggered by an irrational sort of reaction to it and then you rationalized it with things that are true those things are true there would be some problems there would be some inequality there would be some people who would be worse off but because they're true it doesn't make them important that's the difference now let me just put a cap on this I had a little journey myself with this topic because my first reaction was same as yours which is hahaha this isn't any fair you can't put them on this team this will be inequality bah bah bah bah bah and there was a point where I realized that my reasons weren't real reasons that I was just reacting and of these these the transgender athletes are not what I'm used to it's not it's not

[1:06:42]

not what I'm used to it's not it's not what I'm adapted to thinking about it's just out of my comfort zone and that I was making up reasons to justify why something was making me uncomfortable but the moment that I realized that the problem was me that my discomfort is not the way you should organize sports then I was free to say ok if you added all these good reasons together and I'm gonna say that all of your reasons are good every one of them is solid if you say adding the transgender athlete will cause some inequality true true will somebody try to cheat in the whole world over time true somebody's going to try it all of it together isn't very important because you could have made the same argument about integrating the you know remember there was the same conversation with black athletes not too many decades ago we were having the same conversation well you can't can't add black

[1:07:42]

black athletes to professional sports look look at all the problems that's gonna cause you know that there were a racist saying that not too many decades ago in my lifetime and so what I the realization I had was that my feeling about transgender athletes probably was very much like some bigot from decades ago who started with the this is a bad idea and then rationalized why it must be true and and we've seen of course that black athletes dominate most of professional sports so everything that everybody thought about that was just completely wrong all right we're losing all our audience I'm going to thank you for the call and I'm going to sign off now and thanks everybody for joining me and we'll talk less about transgender issues in the future because I know it triggers everybody bye for now