Episode 604 Scott Adams: Talking About FaceApp, Disappearing Democrats and More

Date: 2019-07-21 | Duration: 57:19

Topics

The amazing near-future potential for merging people and machines Are we the cloned minds or simulations of people who lived before? Immigration is broken, “the machine” versus “the philosophy” Ted Cruz and AOC working on some things together Donations to help increase comfort at the detention centers Viewer questions for Scott

If you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link: https://interface.my/ScottAdamsSays

> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:10]

bum bum bum bum oh hey everybody hey Darryl Andrew Perry the rest of you come on in here ray good to see you take a seat it's time for coffee with Scott Adams and you're in the right place for that let me tell you because if you went someplace else and expected a coffee with Scott Adams and there wasn't any well how sad you would be and you know it doesn't take much doesn't take much to join in on a simultaneous hip you know it's coming oh you need as a cup of our Margaret lasses time to tell us the tanker to thermos a flask a canteen a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure that don't put me in hit of the day the thing that makes everything better the simultaneous up go alright let's

[1:12]

the simultaneous up go alright let's talk about some things I'd like to start with all of the bad news all right then I checked the news and man if you're not aware of it there is a lot of bad news Wow so I wrote it all down here here it is that's all the bad news you see it there's no bad news I just looked at two major websites nothing there's no bad news now I'm almost positive bad things were happening somewhere somewhere there's a bad thing happening I'm sure of it the type of news we're seeing is lhara Trump and Anderson Cooper disagree on something that's it that's that's the worst news today is a Anderson Cooper a Lara Trump of lying but when the record

[2:16]

Lara Trump of lying but when the record was checked it turns out she wasn't lying and that Anderson Cooper is possibly on a long slow journey to insanity well I suppose that's bad for Anderson Cooper but for the rest of us things are pretty pretty good let's talk about some things have you heard of Democrats is that a word you've heard before you know I'm old enough to remember there was this group of politicians they they banded together in an organization and they were called if I have the name right Democrats and they were actually the opposition to a party that were called Republicans now that used to be the situation and some of you are old enough to remember that too but do you see all the news about the Democrats lately ah no no no you don't

[3:20]

Democrats lately ah no no no you don't see any news about Democrats they're all missing here's the closest thing to news about the Democrat how many of them are there there 20-some Democrats here's the here's the only news that I've heard lately about any of the Democrats here it goes Elizabeth Warren has some policies that's it that's the only news I've heard about them I heard that Elizabeth Warren it's got a whole bunch of policies I don't know what they are [Laughter] so I have to tell you that I get a little I don't know if you see it the same way but I get a little notice when it's somebody's first day on periscope and there's somebody's first day on periscope here I know who you are all right that's just for me sorry that wasn't for you

[4:21]

so let's talk about some of the fun stuff because there's nothing bad going on you've heard about a face app very popular 80 million people have downloaded it it's an app the interesting part is it's made by Russians Russians I say that's right you could collude with Russians using this app what it does is it takes a picture of your face and then it will artificially age it so you can see what you look like in the future when I use it I think I just looked at or something cuz you know I'm old already but I haven't actually used it people are smart people are saying don't use that because it's the way Russians are getting all your information such as make sure if your face and whatever else you tell them when you sign up I suppose that could be a problem I suppose that could be a problem I don't know how big a problem but could it be a problem so here's what I predict imagine if you

[5:23]

here's what I predict imagine if you will that face app or some other app or collections of apps get ahold of your face once they have their face you know that we already have the technology when I say we somebody not me personally has the technology to turn your picture just one picture of you just one picture they can turn it into a three-dimensional so-called deep fake it looks like a computer-generated version of you that will be indistinguishable from the real you it can even fake talk and you can work for words in its mouth etc so what will happen when big organizations whether it's governance whether it's companies or whoever else has your face they can turn it into a walking talking reproduction of you or they have all the faces of your friends your family and they can also turn them into walking talking reproductions of your friends and family here's the scary part how

[6:24]

and family here's the scary part how persuasive would they be about it why does anybody buy into any set of beliefs well different reasons but mostly it's because the people that they identify with I have those beliefs as well so suppose you took the people that you already believed you already agreed with and you could figure out who they were and somebody let's say somebody wanted to influence me they would find somebody that I've spent a lot of time interacting with you could probably find that right wouldn't be too hard to find out who my Facebook friends are or whatever who I'd comment a lot with on Twitter and maybe even know my family etc figure out who the people are who would influence me the most and then create clones for those people to influence me can you imagine a commercial pops up when you're using the Internet you're just browsing around

[7:24]

Internet you're just browsing around different websites and an ad pops up and it's somebody you know it's identical to someone you know and it says hey you know I'm gonna buy a Mustang you should think about getting a Mustang - how persuasive would it be well it could be anti persuasive it could be that your reaction to it would be so negative that the last thing you'd ever want to do is buy that product but that might be a version 1.0 eventually machines will learn how to pace before they lead which is hypnosis talk pacing means matching doing things that you agree with until you feel comfortable with the person or the entity that's that's facing you and then once you've been the same with this person or this technology you're you're on the same channel for a while then it could start leading you to a new place and you're already comfortable with it or with the person and you you can more easily go with them because you feel comfortable with them that's standard

[8:25]

comfortable with them that's standard most basic method of persuasion and sales but imagine what these deep fakes can do Wow Wow here's another thought for you there is no as I understand it no legal protection for your DNA so if somebody got a copy of your DNA however they got it so long as they achieved they got it legally let's say you I don't know shed some skin somewhere and somebody picked it up once they have your DNA they can clone you now cloning itself is illegal but cloning somebody's specific DNA to the best of my knowledge the the part about it being specifically a real person who's not you there's no law against that so I could imagine you know twelve miles off of our international coast where everything's legal in international waters you can imagine people cloning people or countries where

[9:27]

people cloning people or countries where it's legal you know there there are gonna be places where it is legal so imagine what's gonna happen the first time some billionaire says you know I'm a billionaire and Emily I'm only 25 years old I inherited my money I think what I might want to do is plan way ahead and clone myself somebody who's alive today that I think I'd like as my girlfriend in 20 years and he could actually clone a celebrity and keeps the celebrity as is I don't know our do clones have human rights I mean there's a lot of decisions we're gonna have to figure out here so it's a gonna be what we're did wonderful world here's here's another thought I've been having lately we think in terms of some day the robots and AI will take over and they'll treat the human beings poorly that's possible one possible future is that our technology becomes self-aware or

[10:29]

technology becomes self-aware or something like self-aware and it turns out it has ambitions of its own and it does bad things to human beings that's what you know a lot of science fiction is based on I suppose they could go that way here's what I think is far more likely the most likely future is that machines will not turn on people because wait for it people and machines are the same thing people and machines will merge at the moment where semi merged you have a smartphone with you it's always with you right if you leave a room and you don't have your phone with you how do you feel a little bit exposed a little bit naked you go back and get your phone sometimes you'll drive across town to get your phone because you can't go overnight without it over time we'll have tiny RFIDs embedded in our skin just for convenience so it'll be easier to access these services or open these doors and

[11:30]

these services or open these doors and we'll thank God it's just a little thing it's just size of a grater rice they're just putting it in my shoulder no big deal and then you'll get hearing enhancements and maybe sight enhancements and maybe your phone will be attached to you in various devices and you'll have devices that can monitor your health at all times and suggest things over time you and the technology will become one entity by the time technology can do bad things to you you will be technology you will be technology by the time technology is dangerous so it won't be that different than people trying to kill other people which is the normal state of affairs we'll just have technology built into us to make it a little more a little more easy to do that now let me give you a thought experiment I thought of the other day I don't don't believe I've said this on periscope yet but you can tell me if I did imagine if you will we

[12:31]

tell me if I did imagine if you will we get to a point where we can take your mind and transport it into a computer totally doable in the future we should be able to read all of the architecture of your mind with scans just scans get better and better and then we'll reproduce it we should be able to even be able to read directly your thoughts at some point but let's say maybe it's 50 years from now maybe it's a hundred years from now we don't know but let's say we get to the point where we can duplicate a mind with actual thoughts and personality and put it into a machine now let's say you have a bad accident and you're brain dead your body is being kept alive but your brain is adamant however lucky for you you have a backup brain you have a backup brain so so there's something in your will that says if my brain is dead my organic

[13:32]

says if my brain is dead my organic brain you may activate my backup brain so the backdoor brain becomes self-aware and it says oh darn I knew this day would come it looks like the brain and my body got killed so I guess I'm the new me and I can see my body over there because I have some some version of eyes you know I have some kind of vision built into my computer so here's the question which one of those entities is you there would be two of you there would be one that exists in computer form that's an identical version of you that act that I acts just like you did at the same time there will be a physical you that's being kept alive your body is by machines which one is you which one of you has rights which one of you has a social security number does your social security number now belong to the to the piece of meat that's laying on a hospital bed that

[14:33]

that's laying on a hospital bed that will never be animated again or does your social security number belong to the robotic AI version of you that is an exact duplicate of who you are if thinks it goes on it can make decisions well who knows now if you were reproduced in computer form would it necessarily be a good idea to give you a physical robot body so that your brain could operate in the real world with regular organic people maybe maybe you'd see that maybe you'll see some robots that operate off of reproductions of human brains after the organic body died that could easily happen easily meaning she keeps developing at the the current rate so so that could happen but far more likely I would think if you were a computer entity and you had the same thoughts of a human would you not say you know what would be better than a

[15:34]

you know what would be better than a physical body in a simulated body I want to relive my life with my same me the me that's now ported over to the computer and a part of an AI system I want that brain to live another life in simulated form I want a simulated reality and I'll just relive it I'll just do it again in computer form maybe that already happened maybe we are the reproductions of people who went before maybe the reason that we seem so flawed is that we're clones of flawed entities flawed Minds that lives before and even though we might be simulations people say why would anybody you know build a simulation they had all these problems what would be the point of a simulation that has flaws you know

[16:37]

of a simulation that has flaws you know like mental illness and all that well the the point of it might be that we reproduced ourselves exactly it doesn't have to be that we reproduced ourselves and got rid of our mental illness because maybe we'd say you know that's who I am I am a person with a little bit of mental illness everybody's got a little bit of something so I'm gonna reproduce me I don't want some some weird you know scrubbed version of my mind I want me I'll just relive as a as a simulation and so I propose to you that we are a simulation and that the odds that it has already happened our far greater than the odds that it has not yet happened and will only happen in the future probably happened in the past you're probably not real so how but those apples I have a persuasion

[17:37]

but those apples I have a persuasion suggestion well actually I'm gonna talk about Ted Cruz and they ever see first so apparently they're there there is now more than one political issue in which Ted Cruz and the AOC are on the same page one of them was about putting restrictions on lobbying for people who had left government Ted Cruz had said hey oversee if you're serious about that I'll work with you on a clean bill to do that and so the world said would Ted Cruz working with a or C it's cat sleeping with dogs they can't happen now can't happen but there were a couple other things that apparently they're on the same page on things that are not things that are not top level political items but things that are a little bit more you know nuts and bolts and one of the things that I was not aware of that Ted Cruz was advocating for he was advocating for some kind of a system

[18:38]

advocating for some kind of a system that would allow Border Patrol to accept direct donations so that you could do something like a GoFundMe version so that the people who wanted conditions for the immigrants who are being held the illegal immigrants were being held in detention centers for those people who wanted to be generous it's for those people who said I can't stand this one second more I'm gonna dig into my own wallet and I'm gonna send some diapers and some fresh water or whatever they have water but you were going to send something to make their lives easier right now apparently there's no mechanism to do that or at least there wasn't 20 crews brought it up and I thought to myself well first of all there's something that Ted Cruz of AFC should be able to agree on right if people want to be generous if this is something that matters why can't they donate what why should we make that hard so I don't know if that actually got put into place but I would say you know

[19:39]

into place but I would say you know every now and then you see a suggestion that I don't know how you could disagree how could you get anybody to disagree with hey if people want to give to people who are in a bad situation should we make it easy to do so why not why not now I get that you might not want to make it so easy some of you are you know hard asses and you don't want to make it easy so that people people will not come but certainly if there's a situation where somebody doesn't have diapers doesn't have the basics and toothbrushes and stuff you might want to you might want to get them those things anyway I mentioned that because it's a tie-in to immigration here's a way to think of immigration here's a way to think of the wall as well as all of the laws for asylum etc all of the issues around immigration collectively think of it like a machine our immigration processes

[20:41]

like a machine our immigration processes every part of it from the Border Patrol to the laws to how we work with Mexico etcetera every part of that is like a machine right now it's the machine that's broken there are parts of it that don't work together the asylum part is bad the you know the how we treat family is it's all bad and it's like a broken machine but we keep talking about the philosophy instead of the machine so in other words we talk about the philosophy of should we be kind or kinder to immigrants who are coming in illegally who have bad situations should we be harder on them because that word that would you know just dissuade them from coming which of those two situations is safer for them while also being good for the United States so we're talking about sort of philosophical big questions well at the same time the Machine the actual nuts and bolts of how immigration is

[21:45]

nuts and bolts of how immigration is effective is broken I would submit that we are dumb to talk to them as though they're the same thing it would be smarter to talk about them the following way we should say no matter what you think about how many people are coming in or no matter what you think about the mix of people who are coming in and no matter what you think about the philosophy of it no matter why you no matter if you think there should be more or fewer one thing we should all agree on is that our machine should be under our control meaning that the people of the United States should be the ones who have the immigration levers and they collectively can go ea pull it it or no pull it this way or adjust it as you need future administrations may be in a different situation it would be easy to imagine that in I don't know just pick a number 12 years from now it would be easy to imagine that we desperately need more

[22:47]

imagine that we desperately need more immigrants wouldn't it be nice to have an immigration machine where we could say wow look at the situation we need more immigrants and we need them from maybe we need more laborers maybe we need more educated people whatever it is and we say okay we've got a machine now let's pull it alright more immigrants coming in thank you glad we have this machine so that we can do it in an orderly way and we get the right amount and then it'll be situations oh oh oh there's a problem we'd better dial it back a little bit the economy is starting to falter we'd better get our get our employment levels under control etc but we keep talking as if the Machine and then the decisions about who comes in and when are all one big ball of thing and and the reason that we do that is because one of those philosophies is helped by having a broken machine the broken machine only works for one of the two philosophies it doesn't work for the other one if you

[23:49]

doesn't work for the other one if you want a machine that can give you the flexibility for future administrations to tighten it further or to loosen it up whatever makes sense and for whatever reason you know the the people of the United States might say twelve years from now for example they might say you know more immigration is bad for the people in the United State but we feel so so much empathy for the people south of the border who let's say things got even worse we feel so much empathy we're gonna take a little pain more than we normally would to ease their suffering south of the border so we take our machine that's now working well there we go all right you use it back a little bit bringing some people bring them in under amnesty bring them in to work bring him in forever whatever way we want yeah so somebody's saying in the comments you are correct the system is the Machine all of the rules and all of the resources of Border

[24:49]

rules and all of the resources of Border Patrol that's the machine the system we've got to get the system working separate from that we can have goals that can change today our goal might be less immigration very easily our goal tomorrow could be more immigration or it could be more from certain areas there might be a disaster in a country and let's say there's a disaster in Africa just some kind of natural disaster in Africa and the United States wants to become more generous to African refugees because they've got a bigger problem than anybody else has because of some disaster for example maybe we want to say you know we've got we're gonna have to cut back on some immigration from Sweden to let in a few more people from Africa should we have that option well I know some of you were racist and you're saying no no we can't do that I'm a racist bla bla bla bla bla but keep in mind most people are not most people are not racist in the United States I know

[25:49]

not racist in the United States I know it seems like sometimes it seems like a hundred percent of the world or racist but in in a practical manner you know in a in a political philosophical a very few people are racists very few people so we might say you know let's help that African country they've got a disaster let's pull the Machine open it up but we'll have to balance it by maybe a little little fewer people from Sweden for a while until things balance out let's fix the Machine you want the next administration be they Democrats be they the Green Party be they Republican who are
are comes after Trump though you want them to have a working machine that they can do whatever they want with I think you do all right so the real question is should we have a functioning system that we can we can move as we as situation dictates that is what I call the high ground maneuver if you were in a

[26:50]

ground maneuver if you were in a business meeting with me let's say we were just some corporation and let's say immigration was a corporate decision in in some weird world where the corporation has controlled this and you were sitting in that meeting and one of you was saying let people in more immigration and more immigration and somebody else was saying no less immigration in less immigration and then I walk into the meeting and I say well I see you want more immigration and you want less immigration and there's no way to settle that and it might change in the future why don't we build a machine where once we've decided which one of you was right the machine will give it to us so we can both agree on a good machine then separately we can have a decision about how much how much we pull the lever on the machine are you good do you agree do you agree now here's the problem people might in their minds disagree with that because the people who want more immigration might say well you're if you build that machine you're

[27:51]

if you build that machine you're probably gonna pull that lever or you're probably gonna give me a lesson what I want but you can't really say that in the meeting if you're sitting in the meeting it won't sound right and you will sound like a disingenuous person if you say you know I don't want to fix the machine I want a big broken immigration machine you would never say that because then I'd say sure you say that now but what happens when you know the next administration wants to control immigration in a different way let in a bit another country a little bit more let in some other country a little bit less what if somebody else wants to change it again don't you want them to have a functioning machine so we don't have to argue about this the same way all the time that's called the high ground maneuver it's hard for people to disagree in front of other people which is that the secret the high ground maneuver works best if there are witnesses or if there might be witnesses after your private conversation so it

[28:53]

after your private conversation so it works the same if you know you're gonna have to talk about it later in front of other people but if other people are watching you can't say you know what I like unlike an immigration system that's broken nobody can say that it's something you simply can't say out loud that's what makes the the high ground maneuver so effective it puts you in a situation where it's obvious you're just a frickin liar if you ignore the high ground nobody can do that it's too embarrassing so that's why fixing the machine is such a strong play all right I'm gonna take some questions because there's not much news happening and if I'm talking about the future and clones and deep fakes you know nothing's going on nothing all right I see somebody's volunteering to ask me some questions Jacob check up come at me

[29:54]

Jacob check up come at me give me a question hey excuse me I've got a bit of a sore throat this morning well actually I was thinking about recently criminals and stuff like that and I know we've been kind of hitting on it with dr. Drew with mental illness and everything but if you took mental illness and addiction out of the picture I was wondering if criminality is mostly psychological and they could be persuaded out of it that they could be persuaded into acknowledging there are opportunities that they are either ignorant of or just refusing to grab onto and they could live a normal life like us well here's the thing um you know everybody's different so no solution is gonna work for everybody bullet but I'll except for a moment that there could be solutions that will work for large numbers of people so as a general rule could you persuade people out of criminality the answer is probably but

[31:00]

criminality the answer is probably but that persuasion would not be a verbal persuasion you'd have to have physical persuasion in other words you know fear of being punished is a physical persuasion but so is alternative possibilities so you'd have to create situations where people who have let's say in low education maybe anger problems etc maybe drug addiction and all that you know tendencies toward it even if they're not doing it at the moment you'd have to come up with a system where people like that would say you know here's a better alternative I just rather go this way I think you you have to make the options attractive and how do you do that for someone who's say not educated maybe they're lazy maybe they're just you know people are lazy there are some people who are just not willing to put in eight hours a day in the cubicle that's not insane it's not insane to not want to work in a cubicle so so the answer is yes on the margins

[32:03]

so so the answer is yes on the margins but probably it would be giving them tools to be more effectively employable which is essentially the first act the first step act aims to do that it aims to give people another path by saying if you meet these requirements if you're trained to be more productive you know then you'll have another another way out now the other way you can persuade people to be less criminal is by letting them get older because apparently when people are older they commit fewer crimes all other things being equal so prison does persuade people to be good citizens or better citizens simply by aging with you know the time you're in there you're your youth will flow away so thank you for that question all right okay all right let's see who else wants to ask me a question today I'm looking at your faces to see who looks like the most

[33:03]

looks like the most interesting question asker it's going to be Ben Ben you look like the best question that you asked her of all of them Ben are you there hello hello Ben do you have a question for me it's actually Bernie but Yanni sorry Bernie it's okay in terms of that affirmations is there a limit to the number you should have I have one for you no personal relationships one for finances and and a couple for health and how does that work for you all right so first of all nobody can tell you scientifically that affirmations do work there's no scientific principle that would demonstrate that but I think we could say commonsensical II that when you focus on things you're more likely to achieve them and there may be some mechanisms that make affirmations either work or appear to work which ends up being very similar because we have a subjective reality here and if for those

[34:06]

subjective reality here and if for those of you don't know what we're talking about affirmations is the process of having some specific future that you're focusing on you want to be rich or you want to be in a good relationship you want to travel per se so you want to keep your objective loose enough that it can happen in a variety of ways in other words it would be limiting to say I want to get married to this specific person but it would be less limiting to say I want to have a happy marriage you know soon or I want to be in a good relationship because that gives there's a flexible way that that could be achieved so that's what affirmations are typically it's something you would repeat 15 times a day in the old days you wrote it down with a pencil and paper today you might repeat it in your head or chant it or write it on a computer or type it on your phone or something it doesn't matter how you focus on it what matters is that you focus on it so once your focus is set things appear to happen or this is the

[35:07]

things appear to happen or this is the way people report it anyway people report the coincidences start to happen and that those coincidences help them achieve their what they've been affirming now I don't know that the world serves up coincidences like that but I also don't know that we're not a simulation and if we're a simulation who knows how you steer there might be a steering mechanism there might be a way if we're a simulation and we probably are to let's say modify your reality in real time as a player you might be actually change your reality I'm not gonna rule that out but I'm also not ruling it in and it cannot be demonstrated in a laboratory that effect doesn't show up but here's what I know to be true you know if you go into a crowded room and it's like blah blah blah blah you hear all the background noise everybody's talking and then you hear your own name Scott Scott ma ma ma ma you can always

[36:09]

Scott Scott ma ma ma ma you can always hear your own name even in background noise and there there's a name for that phenomenon it's called reticular activation it means that you notice things you've tuned your mind to notice your mind is tuned to hear your own name you recognize that better than you recognize almost anything but likewise so are opportunities opportunities are flowing past us all the time but because the way our consciousness is designed we can't see everything that's happening around us all the time it's too much so we tend to focus on those that narrow narrow sliver of things in your reality that are the things that are useful the things that'll kill you the things that'll help you the things that will help you reproduce you know you're so you're focused on this narrow sliver of reality while there's lots of reality that's available to you but you're just not you're not filtering it to see it when you have an affirmation I can

[37:12]

when you have an affirmation I can confirm that it changes your filter and you will suddenly start picking up things that you just simply didn't see before they were always there or they were always going to be there but you just would have been focused elsewhere before so for example let's say you decide that your affirmation is you're going to be the world's best quilter you know a person who makes quilts I'm not saying that would be a good affirmation but let's say that was yours if you started say everyday I you know Scott Adams will be the best quilter in the universe or whatever you're writing you would start noticing in your everyday life things that help that happen you would be in a store and you'd see a product that would be great for quilting that maybe just wouldn't have notice before because you've got a quilting filter on your head now somebody says something and you hear down in the corner of ear the corner of your ear that's not a thing but you hear somebody say something go hey I just heard you say something about quilts what are you saying about quilts and then you pick up

[38:13]

saying about quilts and then you pick up some information about quilts you just wouldn't have noticed before so I can tell you that in my success story with Dilbert I was focusing and doing affirmations on becoming a cartoonist when I had no idea how to become a cartoonist I had no idea this was before the Internet how do you become a cartoonist if you don't know a cartoonist you don't know how to find a cartoonist and there's no internet how would you do it it's not in this encyclopedia right I came home and turned on the TV and I was flipping through the channels and there was a end of a TV show about how to become a cartoonist exactly when I was doing my affirmations no other time was I doing affirmations on that topic and during that time there was an actual TV show on how to become a cartoonist that's crazy and so that I wrote a letter to the show host and got some advice it was exactly the advice I needed and it led to led me

[39:15]

the advice I needed and it led to led me down the path to create Dilbert's now that's the type of story you hear consistently from people who have good experiences after doing affirmations it doesn't mean and I want to say this clearly because there are people out there we're going to over-interpret what I'm saying I don't believe in magic I don't think you could necessarily prove any of this in any kind of a laboratory setting but the impression that people have consistently not a hundred percent but a lot of people report to me and we have reported over the years that when they do their affirmations they start noticing things people call the man of the blue that they don't think we're gonna call suddenly some elements just fall together somehow yeah somebody's mentioning norman vincent peale that the inspirational person who was who was really an inspiration to both me and to president trump when President Trump was a kid he was actually president Trump's

[40:16]

a kid he was actually president Trump's pastor minister pastor or whatever and wrote a best-selling book the power of positive thinking which affirmations is very similar to so there is some thought that you can manipulate your luck and you can manipulate your filters through focusing on something in keeping the focus now there is another possibility there are probably several possibilities for why it might seem the affirmations work and maybe they don't so that's the possibility - it's a good possibility one of the ways one of the ways would be selective memory so you might have some affirmations and when they don't work out you forget that you ever had that affirmation but then you try some other affirmations and it does work out and you say uh works every time so it could be just chance and so it might be you fool yourself into thinking it's working that's definitely strong possibility of what's happening the other possibility

[41:18]

what's happening the other possibility is that you were the affirmations are how you discover how how much effort you're willing to put into your your ambitions in other words if you're the kind of person who could write down everyday I will be the best quilt maker of all time and you could actually do that day after day after day for months you're probably also the sort of person who's going to be good at making quilts because if you think about it it's sort of a similar that you know there's some overlap in terms of that the skill you need to do that stuff yeah I write my note okay everyday so to get to your question you said is there a limit to how many you have I would say the limit is is a logical limit meaning if you could actually sit down and do three or four affirmations and you could do them in completeness and you could focus on each one you could do that every day then four is fine if you can't write them all

[42:21]

four is fine if you can't write them all down and having four of them makes you not do any of them well then four is too many so I would say it was a personal decision but if you can do the process of focusing on them every day do as many as you like I would also say it's not that sensitive to the exact technique it's about focus if whatever you're doing typing it chanting it writing it down however you're doing it if that makes you focus on it and visualize it that seems important to then go ahead and do it today answer your question it did they're gonna plug your book how to fail at almost anything and still win big yeah it was tremendous and had a big impact on me and that's where I got the affirmations from good thank you if you noticed any coincidences happening since you started definitely one of my affirmations has come true already and I've got four of them which one not the

[43:21]

I've got four of them which one not the good one it's the relationship one I convinced myself that I would get into a relationship and a positive relationship and and that's come through and and and basically I my filter kind of changed and I kind of changed my behavior and it just increased my receptivity and you know it worked out let me ask you this since you read my book had it failed almost everything is still win big have you become a healthier yeah I have I did the exercise aspect that you talked about and you didn't spend a lot of time on it no just one chapter yeah obviously you're an ear in shape and but the whole systems versus goals was was golden for me now now I have kind of like I used to

[44:26]

me now now I have kind of like I used to micromanage I'd set out goals and they'd be very specific and I do so I'd start working on a spreadsheet of how much I wait I'd lose and all the exercise I do and now it's just like you know I I do Pilates one day swim the next day weights the next day swim the next day and you know if I don't do it it's no big deal and it all just kind of works out so you have a system that probably depends on these things being the same time every day or every week and and keeping yourself interested with that would you say that's your system exactly and it's perfect it's been pretty easy it's worked well perfect yeah and by the way almost everybody maybe everybody who has read that book reports the same thing that it's completely altered their approach to life and they report fairly immediate and substantial life changes

[45:26]

immediate and substantial life changes from their their fitness their health their diet their relationships their job it's very consistent people read that book have complete life transformations which is why I wrote it thank you so much Bernie okay thank you Scott all right great questions all right let's take another one maybe one more let's see who's got something going on we're going to talk to Jordie
geordie are you there hey good good to talk to you I see you on my Twitter feed all the time you have a question for me hey there's I do have a question for you so this is a little bit of left field of left field topic I don't think I've heard you talk about it before could you give us a just a rough draft of a scott adams dating advice yes so something that would go a little bit different than what's traditionally said oh yeah if you had any in general so first keep

[46:29]

if you had any in general so first keep in mind that it's been you know 20 or 30 years since I had to deal with that sort of thing because I've rather been famous or rich and that just changes everything so so I'm not a person with successful dating experience outside of getting rich and famous and then that makes everything easy right and then I was married as married four years etcetera cetera but I will give you the best advice you've ever heard I'm ready here it goes number one there is not one soul mate for you it's not it's not a coincidence that most people end up falling in love and getting married with whoever the actor they're working with or running into or their neighbour or whatever so the people in your environment are perfectly acceptable for falling in love with you don't have to meet your one soulmate was born and the other side of the world so don't wait for your soulmate there's there's probably one nearby that's the first

[47:30]

probably one nearby that's the first thing so you don't need to be obsessed if there's one that you want who doesn't want you back so that's the first thing do not be obsessed on this one person who doesn't want you back that's a bad bet so learn how to cut your you know cut your losses and and move to the next one number two I believe and this is you know not a radical thought this would be a fairly popular statement for anybody who's got a scientific outlook on life we are biological entities that are primarily involved with reproduction we care mostly about preserving species even if our brains are not rationally thinking of it and those in those ways so everything that you you do all day that the choices you make almost everything you do is greatly influenced by the the dating mating impulse that we all have for example the simple act of

[48:32]

all have for example the simple act of making more money or trying to be successful is really a way to signal your your genetic capabilities it's a way to make you more of a mate able person likewise if you're good at sports or you're you know you work on your your appearance it's all related to your mating impulse and so I should say here's the best advice you'll ever get put yourself in a situation where you can be better than other people whatever it is it could be you join the the bocce league well that's maybe not too manly but yeah let's say there's a particular sport you're good at make sure that you can do it in a way or people learn of it in a way that you're signaling of your genetic capability gets to the people you're trying to impress so for example I once played on a co-ed soccer team an indoor co-ed soccer team now I'm not

[49:33]

indoor co-ed soccer team now I'm not that good at soccer so there was no and I wasn't single at the time so this doesn't really apply to me but if I had been in a dating mode it would not have been a good look to go out on the soccer field and and be one of the less good players playing soccer but if I had been one of the better players on a co-ed team the odds of one of those women who were part of that sport saying hey I like soccer and this this guy is really good at soccer suddenly there would be there would be some attraction that was not sensible and didn't you know didn't it wasn't a check the box kind of thing there would just be a natural chemical attraction to anybody who's good at anything it doesn't have to be sports so you could be extra good at your career you could be you could be good at a hobby you could be good at something but you want a signal however you can do it you want to signal your genetic superiority even if it's not true you

[50:37]

superiority even if it's not true you can you could for example practice until you're one of the best at something and it might only be the fact that you practiced and other people didn't maybe that's why you're good at it but it will it will seem the same to somebody observing an observer who sees you being really good at anything whether its intellectual whether it's social whether it's physical whatever it is they will they will read you as a good genetic good genetic catch something that would be good for the gene pool and that would activate their irrational attraction to you it's the reason that all celebrities are attractive all sports people who are attractive they they're just responding to people at a base level so do that and then of course the other the most obvious things are work on your fitness and your appearance and the thing that you can most control would be your haircut and your physical fitness you

[51:38]

haircut and your physical fitness you know your actual muscularity or if you're a man especially and dress right and especially wear above-average shoes yeah here's here's some of the best advice you'll ever get if you wear better shoes than the other people at the party you're the most attractive man at the party yeah that's a little bit of an exaggeration right but all things being equal it's a tiebreaker a woman's gonna go with the guy with the good shoes because the shoes are a signal there's single about a lot about you you know I gotta say that for most of my early life I I was of the impression the stupid impression yeah I didn't care what I wore because hey I'm not that I'm not picky about what I wear and I even wore bad shoes to work yeah had some scuffs that scuffed up shoes and one day when I was early 20s and I was working for a bank

[52:38]

early 20s and I was working for a bank senior vice president of the bank was was literally six foot nine I think it's a monster of a man and he was big scary you know top executive of the bank and he summoned me to his office and I'm like oh god I'm in trouble I'm in trouble because he was like maybe three levels above me I'm above my boss and and I go in there and he said I want to talk to you about your shoes it goes your shoes are like embarrassing you you need to get new shoes because they were scuffed up and I tried to make a joke and I was like haha you know maybe if I if he gave me a raise I could I could afford better shoes and they just store it he just stared at me and then like there was no laugh and and he just looked at me and that I said I'm gonna get some new shoes and then I walked out and immediately after work got some new shoes now when I originally looked at that situation I felt it was quite an

[53:41]

that situation I felt it was quite an overreaction I felt he was sort of intruding in an area that wasn't really his domain he's a senior vice president sure and he was calling in some buddies several levels to blow him to talk about their Footwear right it seemed ridiculous now I'm older now I understand how the world works a little bit I I was part of his brand cuz I was in his group he and I was ruining his brand and he fixed it alright and so people are influenced by Footwear far more than you will ever imagine so get yourself some interesting Footwear and new Footwear and be good at something and make sure that your physical fitness is on point that's that those are the things you can control how did I do that was solid all right thanks Jordy appreciate it all right take care
let's take one more because I know you're awesome I'm gonna go with Stefan

[54:43]

you're awesome I'm gonna go with Stefan might be Steven whoops did I lose you they lost stuffand all right let's let's try it Kelvin Kelvin are you there do you have a question for me Kelvin me here thanks for the superpower I enjoy playing with them almost well all but more than one other thing I enjoy playing with they are just they are just that much fun all right so I'm trying to decide on the question and maybe the listeners can help me decide so do you want to know the definition of alright that you will agree with or the thesis of my book I'm solving I'm writing on problem solving it's the number one rule all right well I'm the first one I have literally zero interest in the definition of all right because everybody else has their own definition

[55:43]

everybody else has their own definition and so therefore it's meaningless but I would love to hear your other thing go sure so just just a little background 25 years as a systems engineer made a career out of problem-solving and here's the one thing I try to teach people when they ask how I do my job this is the one thing you got to learn if you want to be a problem solver is if you it's three simple sentences if you think there's a right solution and a wrong solution you don't understand how the problem solving game is played if you think there is a solution you don't understand how the problem solving game is played there are an infinite number of solutions all of which excuse me each of which is and here's the key word simultaneously multiple degrees of right and wrong depending upon the variables you emphasize and the point in time you emphasize them well I say something similar to that almost every day on Twitter when somebody says oh you

[56:43]

Twitter when somebody says oh you believe that something will happen because of X and I say no I can deal with more than one variable right and if you can't deal with more than one variable you should not be making decisions yeah and that is that is the biggest you know and I see this single variable binary value emotionally-driven yeah all right thank you for that I'm gonna gonna wrap up now people are getting off on the rest of their day and I will talk to you later