Episode 678 Scott Adams: Taking Guest Calls on Any Topic. Critics Welcome

Date: 2019-09-29 | Duration: 1:17:46

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK goes on sale 11/5. Pre-order: https://bit.ly/2NRammu Ask Me Anything Episode Guest questions included Outrage Theatre, Persuasion, Politics, Nuclear Energy, Climate Change, Presidential Candidates, and more

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

[0:08]

oh hey everybody wake up wake up come on near it's time for coffee with Scott Adams today will be an off-the-hook episode totally off talk because I'm gonna take calls from guests and if you haven't noticed I've got a few critics lately yes I do hey Bill come watch the show it might be a might be a lively one today now part of the reason I'm taking questions is because there's no news whatsoever all the news today is just a repeat from yesterday just if you look at the news is you just say you see yesterday that's about it but before we get going I know you want to enjoy the unparalleled pleasure of the simultaneous if dopamine hit that makes everything better and all you need is a sing along sing along a copy of lager glasses sign a challenge detector to thermos Alaska Cantina Grail a goblet a vessel of any kind fill it with your

[1:09]

vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee join me now for simultaneous up go all right as promised I'm gonna take some calls any topic you like the only thing you can't be is long-winded and boring got it so it can be any topic but well I'd probably stop you if it's something x-rated but it can be any topic any criticism it just can't be long-winded or boring let's see we got all right it's looking for somebody who who's looking for a fight I'm gonna I'm gonna prefer people who show a picture so let's add Tucson Toussaint well that may have worked Tucson could hear me did I

[2:12]

have worked Tucson could hear me did I pronounce name anywhere near correctly yes to font that's exactly what I said perfect alright what is your question for me I have a question regarding because I read your book when Bickley talked about and and you talked about movies in your head yes and all the movies told you that trump was gonna come to win correct but you recently said that the movies in your head was we're telling you that Kamala was gonna win but now she's on the ropes no the so I've made predictions based on different strategies for predicting so when I've used persuasion as the primary variable when when there was something special about the situation where that one variable stood out which is rare normally everything is a multi I'm

[3:13]

normally everything is a multi I'm trying to keep my cables away from my cat was going crazier normally there would be lots of variables and you'd have to assess them all and that's difficult in the case of Trump running for president his his toolbox of skills was so extraordinary it was sort of like watching somebody go to a stick fight but instead of bringing a stick you brought a flamethrower so in that very special case it was it was a mismatch so that's what allowed me to to call that correctly now in the case of Kamala I did not make any predictions based on her persuasion because I didn't really know what it was I hadn't really watched her enough to know if she had any persuasion game turns out she doesn't she has no persuasion game one of the worst I've ever seen in a politician I was basing that entirely on what the Democrats would think would be their best chance to win which would be somebody who who checked enough boxes you know senator California a woman person of color had some experience as a

[4:15]

person of color had some experience as a senator who was young enough so it was a demographic call which under the the only way that I saw that that could go wrong was one of the ways that went wrong so either something weird had happened and she'd pull down to then I'd be wrong and of course you can't predict that the other thing that I suppose I should have been more aware of but I didn't see coming you know I had a blind spot for it is I really didn't imagine any candidate who could be that bad it's actually it just jumps off the page when I see her in public I think oh that's worse than every person who did an interview on every news station today every pundit every senator every Congress person every every non-political person who was just a pundit a hundred percent of them do better everytime they appear on TV then come with us any time she appears on TV I was a local on Twitter and I hate to see pictures of her laughing it's so

[5:17]

see pictures of her laughing it's so unpresidential it's crazy yeah and I don't know if she has any friends or advisers who can tell her directly it's your cackle you got to get rid of the cackle that doesn't work for anybody did I ask you a question yes thank you very much all right thank you
you yeah and we will look for another guest and don't be afraid of being a critic looking at your pictures looking for whoever looks like they might be contentious so Alexander coming at me who apparently Alexander has left he's left in the building let's go for Richard Richard come at me can you hear me don't worry yet do you have a question for me well I'm wondering about Adam Schiff and here's a testimony of the other day wouldn't that be perjury unless he like

[6:17]

wouldn't that be perjury unless he like laid out that it was priority before he did it or after he did it even now no because it was close enough to being obvious parity that he'd have a defense you know you don't really you can't convict people I'm a ambiguous stuff you know things like that would have to be really really dried and that wasn't even when I listened to it I remember listening to it the first time before I knew it was parody and I even I could tell well if he's making stuff up and then when he got toward the end and he explained why he was saying it was obvious to me whose parody so if there's somebody who's a a regular watcher who can tell it's parody it's not a defense that maybe somebody else couldn't so so does that answer your question well that's kind of the down bag that everybody takes away though and it's it's pretty dishonest I would think oh

[7:19]

no it's dishonest and it's unethical it's very effective but it's also what both sides are doing all the time he did it in a particular way every time either side makes some wild exaggerated claim you know they're all even if they become falsified later the claim is still out there yeah unfortunately that you just have to look that look at that as persuasion but it does fall into a protected class he is legally allowed to do that with no penalty whatsoever except whatever whatever penalty voters want to put on James but there's that yeah it's already bad yeah all right thank you for the question thank you take another and by the way you can come at me don't be shy if you get a problem with anything I've done and I'm sure you must all right guests can you hear me thanks Ron what's your name Daryl Daryl what's your question for me

[8:21]

Daryl Daryl what's your question for me Darryl well I was gonna comment on the Adam Schiff thing also just how effective it's gonna be as the persuasion but the other caller covered that and so the the two movies thing what can we do to try to merge the two movies because it looks like the country is just so completely divided and living in two different realities how what can we do to try to bring that more together you can't just impossible yeah no you can't you can't bring the bulk of the people anywhere people are so locked into their team and because it's a team sport the people who were let's say the thought leaders on each side I don't want you to change teams so as long as your team is saying no no don't go to that other team they're all bad and we will mock you and the people you love will no longer care for you if you go over there people are locked in there there's some few people who were

[9:24]

there there's some few people who were in a strange situation in the middle who may be from whatever reason haven't committed maybe they have a single issue that would flip them one way or another I mean I could think of if I thought about it for a minute I could probably come up with a single issue that I would care up care about enough that it would swing me probably pretty easily I could do that but no it is not a reasonable goal to try to bring it all together into one movie and by the way it's never been one movie there's never a bet in time that that was true the only thing that's different is that we can they're both teams at this point can see it's a different movie yeah and and remember for those of you have been watching this is what I predicted and would happen so in 2015 I predicted we'd be here you know roughly in the next few years because of the way Trump was teaching us about the fluidity and subjectivity of truth now what I mean is his style was

[10:25]

truth now what I mean is his style was so free willing in terms of the facts that he completely ignored you know the details of is this technically true and most of you said well nobody could get elected under those circumstances and I said not only will he get elected but he's gonna change how you see reality and this too movie thing is the primary change I think before if you'd said why do people disagree and and fact check beyond this use your own memory say five years ago if the two sides disagreed what would you have said about the other side you'd say they're stupid they're uneducated they're they're selfish and they haven't looked into it hard enough and you would just say well there are smart people and dumb people in the world thank God I'm one of the smart ones meanwhile the people you're talking about would be having their own conversation and it would be just like yours well they disagree with me because they're stupid and selfish and they haven't looked into it right so that has

[11:28]

haven't looked into it right so that has changed now and we understand that people of similar intelligence are on both sides it was never about intelligence and it was never about how much you understood or researched those things changed nothing and you can you can demonstrate it by watching person after person who does the research and you know and there are smart people on both sides there's just no there's no way to defend the idea that all the smart people ended up on one side because it's objectively observably not true so the model that now people have moved to is they even smart well-educated well-informed people can be in a bubble and they can see the other bubble but here's the change that's coming they couldn't see their own bubble that's what I'm going to change with my upcoming book loser think so loser think is designed so that you'll be able to see other people's bubble pretty clearly but you were already there you know I think most of

[12:29]

already there you know I think most of us could see the other people's bubble well you can't see is your own so I'm gonna help you see your own at the same time you're seeing the others so you'll see your own through the process of seeing other people in their bubbles and then you'll you'll learn that maybe you're the one in the bubble on some topics not every topic I also have a guest recommendation okay if you could get back Brad parse gala lon talk about social media and what they're gonna try to do I think that'd be really informative further that's real good that's real good idea oh I will add him to my short list yeah cuz what they're going up against Google and Facebook is probably gonna be the biggest challenge the talent paints gonna have yeah for sure all right thank you so much thank you Scott all right we'll take another color yeah Brad par scale would be a great guess with me

[13:30]

this is Swift yes missus Swift live hello are you there okay I am there do you have a question for me well yes you did such a good job I thought with your letter to the children regarding climate change you know I was wondering if you would consider doing something like that about a talent stack for children for example in school kids are given goals and I encountered a kid the other day who said well I'm not gonna do any more because I reached my goal of doing you no problem yeah I'm saying you need a system to go forward not just a goal just wondering if you could facilitate that with a letter or an essay or something like that well so I wrote I wrote my book had a failed almost everything and still win big so that book was written for somebody who's 14 or older and it has these systems versus

[14:32]

or older and it has these systems versus goal and the talent stack and a lot more to put it in context so it's really written for somebody who has learned a lot might have potential but they haven't figured out how to have a strategy to put together all the things they do into something good and I know that a few people have summarized the book if you can believe this there's somebody who who writes books that are a summary of other people's books and puts it on Amazon so if you had to read you can find this shorter the shorter book version and I think if you googled you could find other people have summarized it but you make a good point there might be some kind of entry level right summary of that that could go to go on to pages and we make it digestible by that class I'll think about that that's actually a pretty good idea thank you all right well your signal is breaking up so I'm gonna go to another color so that was an interesting idea I might I

[15:33]

that was an interesting idea I might I might do that if I get a little bandwidth as I say let's go to Hansel can you hear me Hansel are you there do you have I'm good do you have a question for you first thing yeah I like to say I'm a big fan of your work thank you from Singapore so how do you think the geopolitical situation would pan out given all these sabre-rattling by the Democrats presently Oh which situation in particular the current move oh well I would you know I think the I see we lost your connection but I'm gonna guess that you can still hear me or you can hear it on playback I don't I don't think anybody thinks impeachment is going to happen in the sense that it

[16:34]

is going to happen in the sense that it would go all the way through the Senate and the president would be removed from office so I think most people see that as a political effort there may be I don't know what percentage of Democrats are oh there you are again Hansol like we lost the connection but I'll give you the answer publicly here I don't think there are too many Democrats who think this is really a an impeachable rises to an impeachable situation and anything that the president is doing but for political reasons they want to they want to act like it is so I think it's mostly theater and by the way have you ever tried calling people out for theater I've done it and it just stops people cold you can stop a conversation like that when somebody has the fake outrage online or something and suddenly say my god
god my god how could this person have possibly said that can you believe it Oh

[17:37]

possibly said that can you believe it Oh what words the words are hurting me with their word Ness oh you get that person online have you ever just said you know your your theatrics are noted your fake outrage is noted I've sometimes use this your your artificial outrage or your fake out your phony outrage is noted when you call somebody out for phony outrage it stops it like that you should try it at home and the next time you get the phony outrage just say your phony outrage is noted and don't don't treat it like it's more than that because it is it's completely phony outrage when people are outraged on behalf of other people they're not how raged that's theater people are socially acting out their outrage in a way that they think will position them well with whoever's watching so if you call it out as

[18:38]

watching so if you call it out as outrageous theatre it stops it immediately because everybody knows that's what it is when they're doing it
so you probably have noticed or even been disappointed that I rarely give in to outrage the theatre we're now I'm outraged I want people to die I mean like I have a real outrage so for example when I'm outraged that China is sending us boatloads of fentanyl and killing tens of thousands of merit of Americans I'm not that's not pretend outrage when you hear me say that when I say that I want Chinese citizens dead that's literal I want them actually not breathing anymore I want them executed for killing tens of thousands of Americans so when you see me outraged I try maybe maybe I failed one point or another but I certainly try to make sure that I'm not going to pretend I'm outraged unless I want somebody dead or you know removed from office or something important otherwise

[19:41]

office or something important otherwise if it's just because somebody got upset I'm not going to be more upset for them than they are than they are for themselves if if you've offended whatever group or entity maybe you could be offended and maybe you have a good reason to but I'm not going to be more offended than you are on your behalf you know third party offense isn't a thing so call it out
out call out the theater of outrage it stops it immediately it's it's a good trick all right let's take somebody else let's go to Stefan or Stephen I can never tell but we'll find out Stefan or Steven are you technologically connecting to me it doesn't look like that's gonna happen okay oh there we are Stephan Stephan is a staff nurse even steven I know I do that's cuz I have a friend named Stefan all right anyway so can do you have a

[20:44]

all right anyway so can do you have a question for you did I lose you what bad connection Oh boom let's try somebody else somebody has somebody has an account name to the Jacob wall bravery museum I'm not gonna pick that one well that's pretty funny I'm a super badass I'm I'm choosing people who have actual photos for their profile hello you sir can you hear me caller you very well great what's your name Thank You Sergio okay have you do you have a question for me yes the mr. Saab Maria and can you say that again and what oh the word drifter drifter drifter or grifter yes yes yeah okay so you mentioned a few days ago that you noticed that it was being used a like a

[21:44]

noticed that it was being used a like a weapon and you saw sensibly and you said I'm gonna deactivate the world right and I saw that you started using it hidden there clever you know if you had seen that if you had been working for Trump 2 years ago and yet seen Sheldon used a dark and right word what would you have done back then to the activator or or is that what you're going to do now and well the the dark word is really hard to deactivate because it's a tough one to turn against your enemy you notice that the fake news is something that the president has been using quite effectively to D legitimize his critics both in the press and otherwise and fake news was originally used against Trump and Trump supporters so it was originally used against him but he since he has the more powerful voice he gets

[22:45]

he has the more powerful voice he gets all the attention he's good at branding he just took the weapon out of their hand and said no your fake news and I'm gonna make that my thing about you and he did it was one of the greatest persuasion moves of all time he's taking the phrase fake news snatching the gun out of their hand turning it around and using it effectively now you couldn't really you couldn't really do that with dark because dark is designed to fit a specific candidate right there's something about Trump that people were worried about in general and then they put a word to it it wouldn't have worked as well and Hillary would need a different word that people already were primed to think about her but grifter is such a let's say such a fresh word and and it's flexible enough that it kind of works on everybody which is part of its power but part of what allows you to deactivate it is that it can be overused you know in other words dark is something that people on Twitter are unlikely to call

[23:47]

people on Twitter are unlikely to call each other it was a very specific word that kind of couldn't work for anybody but Trump at that time whereas grifter you can call everybody grifter so by overusing it you can you can essentially dilute it until it's this homeopathic a bunch of water that means nothing all right uh-huh thank you for the question thank you all right I thought I was gonna get more critics here but I suppose that's okay if I if I don't all right these a lot that you could hear me Lisa do you have a question for me I wanted to push back a little bit and something that you said the other day about Greta turn Berg a criticism I hope all right go ahead so there was a word that you had called her and people like her they have that are

[24:47]

and people like her they have that are on the autism spectrum uh but you are talking about how these kind of people can't really lie oh they can they can't it's just it's it's very different than their situation was you were just gonna fact-check me on that a lot of people like that my family and I can tell you that they absolutely can lie no it's really really well but they just happen to believe there there lies yes I that would be a fair thing to say yes everybody can lie I don't think you know there probably not many exceptions to that but the difference is that people on the spectrum are more likely to be socially honest because it's a little less obvious to them that you might take it wrong so what I'm talking about they can't lie that's really more in this social context but anybody could let's say if they you know wrecked their car and they needed to lie about it stay out of jail or something whatever the situation was everybody could do that

[25:47]

situation was everybody could do that yes you're absolutely right okay good correction that was what that was worth saying thank you let's take uh let's take Raoul Raoul
if you connect in a minute your technology is working Raoul are you there hello do you have a question from here a little bit of a critical side just to give you a little more of that that perspective thank you yeah just to help you know the conversation one thing I'm really concerned about is what I call conflating the bad guy with people who what I call you know the bad guy what they've done that's bad a perpetrator or whatever and with people who share the same characteristics such as the same nationality ethnicity or particular

[26:49]

nationality ethnicity or particular characteristics such as gun owners for nationality to be Chinese and what I mean specifically is it if for a lot of people as a foreigner myself and I have my background is I'm particularly sensitive this but as a foreigner myself I what happens this a lot of people don't they they don't really make it necessarily a distinction between losing you a connection a little bit I think where you're going with that was we should speak with more precision about when we're talking about the government of China versus the people of China the people of China as far as I know are awesome as far as I know I mean the people the the Chinese citizens who immigrated to this country you first generation second generation while awesome some some are members of my family as it turns out so yes it's it is that's a good that's a good that's a good practice every once in a while to

[27:51]

good practice every once in a while to step back and say you know when I'm railing against the Chinese country that's about the government and that's about the government situation but the people love them I'm always careful about that when I talk about Iran because the Iranian people are amazing people and we would love to be closer to them it would be productive and beneficial for everybody but the government of Iran is a problem I could do that better when I talk about China and you're absolutely right I think that's a good good correction I will take that correction and I will look for opportunities to make sure that I'm clear about that I think that's a fair statement all right let's go to dan dan just jumped in here he's ready to go dan dan dan can you hear me Dan hi thanks for taking my call what's your question Dan well I don't know if you

[28:55]

question Dan well I don't know if you remember I asked if I you give me 90 seconds and I could change your mind and I didn't but that's okay i you're very influential and I appreciate all your work and I just wanted to know if you made any decision on changing your mind on support of the death penalty why would I change my mind what nothing's changed since I made my mind up but the reason I ask is because I noticed that your statement basically is if you support the death penalty if found guilty and no but um let me that's not exactly my view so if you're going to go to criticize that you need to stop and let me give you my view and then see if you still criticize it okay okay sure yeah the only cases that I would be in favor of the death penalty right would be if the crime is somewhat horrific and I'm not going to stop to you know identify the dividing line between what

[29:56]

identify the dividing line between what is horrific enough but let's just say conceptually something horrific enough for example if you were a major offense and all dealer and responsible for you know a dozen deaths that would that would be the death sentence in my mind that would be horrific enough as just just as one example but here's the thing in order for a death penalty to be effective this is my own personal view you should need something that would guarantee the person was at least present at the at the time of the crime like a DNA as opposed as opposed to a an eyewitness that's unreliable so if you can't place the person scientifically with let's say a video a picture DNA a fingerprint then I would not be in favor of it even if they got a conviction because that would leave a little bit too much doubt in my mind that you got an innocent person I would never ever support the death penalty based on an eyewitness account alone or plus you know eyewitness plus some

[30:57]

know eyewitness plus some you know trivial information is supported it so given that distinction there you'd have to know the perpetrator was in the room at the time of the crime and connected to it go ahead go ahead do you so that's fine but if you're aware the amount of people that are actually put to death by the state that are actually found innocent afterwards so even the people that are being released even today can read articles about people being released and the mind being police putting thoughts and into witnesses heads and yeah that's why my my rule is to work against that because the the odds of somebody being convicted for a murder and they were in the room coincidentally but they weren't the murderer that's pretty low so yes that's not really the argument though is the if found guilty part I mean there's clearly innocent people being put to death right

[31:59]

innocent people being put to death right that's why that's why my rule that you have to have some scientific way to place them pretty sure that close to maybe a hundred percent of the people wrongly convicted to die was based on eyewitness testimony what do you say and no well yeah but in competent legal system lawyers who are on or incompetent bad policemen I mean there's a lot about you yeah you need all that but it's actually happened I don't believe I don't believe there's any case where they had somebody's DNA at the murder scene of the of the can they accused I don't believe we've ever had somebody who had their DNA found at the murder scene and then later was found to be innocent I believe that situation I was like sounds like we're on the same same side

[33:00]

sounds like we're on the same same side there thanks to a question that was one of those cases where we're on the same side by acting like we weren't I gave in those situations a lot where people imagine they're disagree with me but they're not so let's see if amber has something trying to mix up the gender selection but I've got more men than women listening to this amber can you hear me do you have a question from the amber actually I want to sneak too and if I can the first one is a personal thing I was really intrigued by your description of coffee after you've got your sense of smell back and I I've wondered about in particular what it was like to get your head shaved by Christina after you had your sense of smell back or if there was any other incident that was particularly interesting yeah so when I got my sense

[34:01]

interesting yeah so when I got my sense of smell back after a decade or so of not having smell or taste that that happened recently if anybody's just joining us it was at first overwhelming and I'm not sure that my sense of smell came back in let's say in as a whole or if it kind of came back in parts or something because for the first several days everything's smelled flowery and perfumey to the point where was grotesque yeah like there was just so much smell and then and then it started to settle down a little bit which is what I expected I expected that my brain had not been used to filtering these new inputs and it took a while to take the you know the avalanche of you know smells that were coming at me and my brain presumably this is just an assumption needs to know how to filter it to keep it from intruding on my thoughts all the time you know it's sort of sort of just you know filters it down until I'm just smelling things that I

[35:03]

until I'm just smelling things that I care about or that are different or or you know something that might be dangerous I suppose so I'm achieving I'm a little closer to that but my sense of smell is crazy now you know I'm like my ability to pick up a smell when I enter the room I can enter a big room and go and I can see a like a little bottle or something in the corner and I know exactly what's in it it's like it's crazy no I don't know this is the last yeah what was the second question well the second one was I saw an article from American Thinker about Hillary did you see that one I did not oh well it was kind of interesting because it was talking about how she seems like she's getting back into her fighting sort of image and that she seems like she might try to get back in the race once Biden gets booted out so it's just I didn't put a lot of stake in it but I just thought it was interesting to think about yeah there's one new way

[36:05]

to think about yeah there's one new way that she would find her way back in no I I think that the odds of Hillary giving in are zero but Hillary being smart and Hillary apparently liking the the limelight and she apparently enjoys the speaking and the writing of the books and the attention and the interviews and stuff I assume she wouldn't be doing it unless you liked it there's something in it for so it's sort of a perfect situation do you remember in the last election when Mark Cuban uh sort of publicly flirted with the idea of running for president yeah I said at the time that it was a brilliant thing to do because it put him in the conversation as president so even if he decided not to do anything which he that's what he decided at least that cycle we all started thinking thinking of him as a legitimate political candidate because we'd been talking about it so I always said it was brilliant to make the country talk about it even with no maybe

[37:08]

country talk about it even with no maybe not to a serious consideration of running that time because it sets him up that if he ever decides to run in the future well the public's already primed they've already had the conversation about him and he hasn't worn a sound by actually running for office yet so it's kind of brilliant and the way are you trying to say that it's just not ever gonna happen or do you think it's that she would never really try like I think there's no chance she'll try my take on it is she knows that if she didn't start early and put her best effort into it and line up all of her advisors and everything it wasn't going to happen and I think she knows the country's a little bit exhausted with her but it's still very smart for her to make us talk about it because they're talking about it is what gets her and her speaking fees up but what's what makes you want to buy a book
all right thank you for that we're moving on and next caller is I'm gonna

[38:09]

moving on and next caller is I'm gonna pick temperature let's see how closely I came to pronouncing that name right temperature come at us will your technology work yeah it's spinning and it's doing nothing if it doesn't do anything we'll we'll try something else okay that one went away let's try a slow night slow night hello night slow night can you hear me I can hear you what's your question for me today so it's a two-part question Scott okay on one hand what do you think is the most efficient way to elect a president and the second part is being that a lot of people don't have knowledge of sufficient knowledge of politics why should they even be allowed to vote okay the most efficient way to vote I

[39:11]

okay the most efficient way to vote I would think would be some system where you could vote with your electronic device your phone your laptop or whatever but here's the key there while you're voting a video a live video is taking of you voting your face and your fingers touching the things that you wanted to touch and maybe giving you some kind of receipt and then also maybe giving you some way to electronically check later to see that your vote was recorded the way you the way you did it so you could have some kind of a password fingerprint system or something so that you as an individual could check after the votes have been counted to make sure the the database that has your vote you know you'd have some kind of a connection to it you can see it got recorded and recorded correctly now as long as every person who votes has a video of their device of their actual face in there in the in the motion of voting they can always check themselves to see their video was correct and

[40:12]

to see their video was correct and anybody who ever wanted to check the validity of a vote could check against their ID for example and against the actual video and they could look at the ID and look at the video and say this isn't the same person and and maybe your your device is giving you a location at the time of your vote so let's say if you're not if you're not within the voting polling range that you would have walked to maybe it doesn't count unless you say you're an absentee were something so in other words there probably is an electronic system there would be way better than what we're doing like way way better because right now you saw in Project Veritas I think it was James O'Keefe on the last election he walked into a polling place without his ID and they said sure you can vote but you don't need any ID like that actually happened you could completely eliminate that with an electronic one that there anybody could go check now your second part of the

[41:12]

go check now your second part of the question was remind me the second part oh we lost them can somebody remind me the second part of that question it was and make the voting better efficient I was a good question - can somebody remind me in the comments all right well maybe if let's see if he came back if he did I might have to ask him back in pom-pom pom-pom problem we lost the connection to badges darn it that was a good I remember it was a good question I was going to do the first one so I could get to the second but let's think another one Nancy can you hear me coming at you Nancy you don't sound like it Nancy hey sure I kind of I'm in my 50s and like

[42:14]

sure I kind of I'm in my 50s and like the last few years I kind of hit the wall and I mean you know I know everyone's different and I'm just trying to figure out a way of you know he said you hit the wood you hit the wall in your a career you mean or in your life enough physically Oh energy wise yeah well I was sweet we've got a bad connection here so I'm gonna try to answer your question without hearing all the details if you don't mind so my book had a failed almost everything and still win dig I talk about systems for your for your diet and sleeping and fitness my observation is that when you're young you don't need to do anything special you've got more energy than you actually need but when you get older right you know you need to do just about

[43:14]

know you need to do just about everything right and by everything I mean you really need to take care of sleeping and having a system for sleep for example I'll just give you a sense of it part of my system is I always get up around the same time real early and I always try to go to bed around the same time don't ever do the well it's the weekend so I'll stay up till 3 a.m. because I can sorry my cats getting in the way here so you need a system you need a room that's completely dark you need a you need to not do other things in there besides romantic things plus sleeping because otherwise you associate those things with your bed you don't want to associate your bed with reading and watching movies and stuff because then that's that's why your body gets used to and it keeps you awake instead of going to sleep so they're a whole they're a whole bunch of things you know you could just google how to get better sleep but likewise you need to make sure that you're not eating too many carbs the other day just as an example I had

[44:15]

the other day just as an example I had some french fries for lunch which I would normally just never do and it ruined the rest of my day now once you start noticing that if you eat the wrong foods for lunch the rest of your day is toast it takes you a long time to realize that that's not a coincidence and there probably wouldn't even be noticed if you were if you were 19 you probably wouldn't even notice the difference but in my current age if I eat french fries for lunch I'm done doing everything for the rest of the afternoon if I don't take a nap my whole days go on and so look for that correlation between bad carbs and you know sugary things and simple carbs and your energy and then the other thing is work on your fitness because if you I would say it once you reach a certain age and maybe you're there already it's better to do something every day than it is to push yourself to whatever your physical limit is so I no longer exercise to the point of exhaustion I exercise to give myself energy and vitality make all of my you know my body

[45:18]

vitality make all of my you know my body work just the way it's supposed to get you know get the the fitness sort of flow going so that your body is used to processing at a higher level and so I would say it's a combination of probably five or six different things and then here's my super secret trick for keeping your energy up for you ready yeah you should have something in your life that you look forward to so that when you wake up and you know if you like most people I don't know must be a while just say myself when I first wake up I don't know who I am like literally the first second I don't know who I am and then it comes to me uh on this guy it was a cartoonist I live in a certain place I have the certain life and you know what the next second it comes to me but somewhere around the third or fourth sentence or third or fourth second of waking up I think about what I should be doing that day and I like to have at least one of those things that's

[46:20]

least one of those things that's exciting even if it's unlikely which is the key so I always have a few things going on in my life and always have in every age well with a lot of things I want to do I have it's like my ambition I have all that and it's just like it's it's harder to activate that oh okay then you need my new book looser thinking I'm going to give you a preview so you have exactly the problem I've got a chapter on and here's the trick it's a it's a hypnosis trick you ready so I'm not going to hypnotize you I'm just gonna tell you something that a hypnotist knows if you could get somebody to do something small such as tell them that their pinky is moving you know they feel a pinky twitch then you can get them to think that their hand is moving and there's light and that's floating so the hypnotist will start with the smallest thing that's true they might say your eyes are blinking because your eyes usually blink they might say you feel a little something in your your hand because just the

[47:21]

your your hand because just the suggestion makes you think I think I feel a little something I don't know what it is so they start with a smallest thing and then your body can be easily coaxed into bigger things including getting up and doing something right you can do that with yourself when you are locked what I call couch lock sort of a STONER term but when you just on the couch you like yeah there are 10 things I need to do I can't do anything here's the trick you ready I talked to your pinky literally say to your pinky twitch and then move it then say the rest of your fingers wiggle then say to your hand move your arm and then stand up and as stupid as that sounds watch how well it works you can take yourself off the couch in five seconds when before you were just locked in because your brain was saying I want to I don't know why I'm not because you actually don't know why you're not you can't even answer to the question to yourself right I want to

[48:21]

the question to yourself right I want to get up I want to do these things I have this list of things to do but I noticed that I'm not why am I not move your pinky move your hand move your arm stand up and then ask yourself what's the smallest thing you can do toward one of those goals really small say yourself okay I can't do the whole goal it's too big and I don't have that much time but I could look something up and write down a phone number so that when I do have time I can call that phone number if yes that makes sense in your process or I can do a little research or I can set up a time to have lunch with somebody smallest smallest thing you're willing to do what you'll find is that bond a to you'll do a second small thing and you'll say I've done two things by the time you've done four or five things you start feeling the feedback mechanism you feel hey I'm a guy who did five things toward my goal and it felt pretty good I actually feel some satisfaction and

[49:22]

I actually feel some satisfaction and then it becomes self-sustaining after a while occasionally you'll have to go back to moving the pinky and to move yourself back in it but always always take the big thing that's stunning you into inaction and shrink it down into its smallest micro step it's the micro step that works I always have probably 20 different projects going in any time because I like to stay busy but most of the time I can only do a micro step with each one once in a while and when I have that chance I'll take the micro step so for example I have a bunch of things I need to fix in my house you know just reach that age so I've got I couldn't think of all the things I had to fix it was too big so I said okay I'm gonna buy some note cards the next time I'm in CVS so I buy some note cards actually I think I just ordered them from Amazon because it was even easier take my phone out give me no cards and they arrive and Mail

[50:22]

me no cards and they arrive and Mail next day I take my note cards and I open them up and I say you know what I need to do with these note cards I wish I had a pen right next to the note cards so I get a pen a sharpie and I put it next to the note cards and that was it that was my work for the day was taking a Sharpie from from the place it was moving across the room and putting it next to the the note cards that's how small a step I'm taking next time I'm out there I see the pen and I see the note cards and I think of a task and go uh I'm gonna write down to a task on one note card and then I'll put one task on each note card and that's it I wrote down two tasks and I did something else all right so you see how small the tasks can be all right I think that's the answer the question let's take another caller here [Music] let's take Ken Ken's got his hoodie on there in the picture looking dangerous with his beard in his hoodie ken are you

[51:24]

with his beard in his hoodie ken are you there hey do you have a question for me
[Music] do I believe in climate change well I would not put it in those terms of belief here's what I would say what we know is that many scientists believe it's well well we know is that the basic chemistry is probably true in the sense that there there's some elements of climate change which are more credible than others so the more credible part is that they probably have the physics and the chemistry about right what is less credible is the economic projections that tell you how much you should care about it those seem unlikely to be true but and this is the coolest thing about climate change it doesn't matter because what you should be doing is exactly the

[52:24]

what you should be doing is exactly the same whether climate change is real or not which is getting aggressive with nuclear getting staying aggressive with green technology until we can get that as right as possible you know some would argue green isn't as green as it should be
be but everything gets better over time so I think we should be pushing on every door all the time especially nuclear because even if there's no climate change risk if you're in that camp it doesn't matter you still need lots of energy and you want clean air and you don't want to be burning coal and you'd rather have clean electricity so nuclear is the answer no matter what so from a risk management perspective you can actually say it doesn't matter because we should be pushed as hard as we can on everyone in these technologies and you have the the free market is working on I think there at least half a dozen companies probably probably 25 I just don't know about them that are working on various carbon capture technologies now before somebody jumps in and says the plants the carbon

[53:26]

jumps in and says the plants the carbon you can't take the co2 out of the air because it's Plateau before you say that let me say that I have confidence in humanity that we would unplug the carbon capture machines if we started taking too much I think we catch it in time so
the the market is basically taking care of the problem and even if you were to take the worst-case scenario by the UN the official the most official estimates is that they would in decrease our GDP by ten percent in 80 years which we wouldn't even notice because by then our GDP would be if things are just normal if we just go into the future in any way that is recognizably similar to anything that's ever happened in the past our economy will be about five times bigger than so we'll lose ten percent off of what it could have been but you won't even notice so we'll have so many resources we'll have robots that can

[54:27]

resources we'll have robots that can relocate buildings from from the beach we'll have desalinization that can suck the ocean water out and put it somewhere else I mean what we'll have so much but what's that about the threat of climate change for 50 years well the government depends who you're talking about there when you talk about climate change there's no such thing as the government there's just lots of government entities with different opinions and some of them have been that it's going to be too cold and some that it's too warm I don't subscribe to the theory that because they've been wrong 50 years in a row which i think is roughly true climate predictions have been wrong 50 years in a row I don't subscribe to the fact that therefore it's wrong now unfortunately that doesn't follow because there are plenty of examples in history where something wasn't true until it was we went thousands of years of history where people tried to have human flight

[55:28]

where people tried to have human flight you know putting wings on themselves and various contraptions and it never worked until it did and then one day it worked fusion is likely to be like that we may go a hundred years without developing a fusion energy reactor but then we probably will the smart people say that it's down to an engineering solution not even a science solution excuse me um so that's my general answer is that you don't need to solve for whether it's true or false climate change because all of the solutions are identical either way thank you for the question
all right let's go to Pablo Pablo are you there I can what's your question this may be a

[56:29]

I can what's your question this may be a suggestion on your topic when you talk about gun control and I don't I don't disagree with most of what you say I just I like the line of thinking and I kind of wanted to tap on to it or tagged on to the end of it now I one of the places I disagree is in digging into the actual statistics of how these things are happening because if you really want to solve the the I guess get the number down like you usually kind of address it as far as getting the number of deaths down then I think I I think it's important to dive in there and find you know particularly solutions to each kind of problem because sayin a killed Rijn accidentally you know discharging firearms that's going to have a different solution than you know gang violence in Chicago right I really like to find intriguing but I like to kind of go in that direction yeah yeah you make a good point it's it's not there is no one change to the law unless they took all your guns which is really practical there's no one

[57:30]

is really practical there's no one change to the law that fixes all those completely different problems like you said that's problem with a kid getting a hold of a gun versus a criminal versus anything else so yeah you have to you have to chip away at all of those things so I think in the case of the children getting a gun well there should be you know gun locks and gun safes and stuff like that but yeah that's a good point we we should not treat it like it's one solution that could fix everything all right thank you thank you let's say Carlos Carlos are you there Carlos can you hear me all right Carlos disappeared a little shy guest syndrome there let's try Matt Matt Matt Matt I'm good you have a question for me

[58:35]

professor Richard Miller Berkley he's a physics professor very pro-nuclear okay you've heard of him but no very probe nuclear for a long time there's a vein solutions for like disposing of the waste so okay that was just a suggestion for what a guest I guess okay all right you had a question sorry do you think Trump is purposely not talking about so during the general election when asked why aren't we doing something about climate change he can just go I've been trying to fix it for four years what you've been doing well I'll tell you what I know I know that within the White House and certainly within the administration people are pro-nuclear and I know that Rick Perry and the is a the Department of Energy is that the official name but he's funded through the Department of Energy new testing facilities for nuclear fuels and some I think he's also funding some carbon

[59:37]

think he's also funding some carbon capture technologies etc so within the administration they are actually doing what look like exactly the right things I don't know if they're doing enough of it or or it's big enough but they're certainly doing the right things that that's unambiguously true so Rick Perry's sort of nailing it over there it's it's funny the because Trump is president he gets all the attention but he's got some some cabinet type people who are really killing it Rick Perry is one and Health and Human Services there's another that are just really knocking the ball out of the park lately they should get more attention well Justin's out there maybe not getting a lot more inches what's allowing them to do so well because no one's yelling that than we're saying there this that or the other yeah yeah maybe maybe their lack of attention just was helping him that's true all right so now the question is why Trump is he's I know he's mentioned nuclear but it seems like it's always at

[1:00:38]

nuclear but it seems like it's always at the sort of the end of a long paragraph yeah a nuclear power that's your impression of a - right yeah he here's here's my hypothesis because I'd been puzzled by it myself because the day that Trump says out loud nuclear energy is the right answer with or without climate risk if he says a sentence like that the election is actually over let me say that as clearly as possible if Trump ever comes out and says in clear language you know the climate risk is something that people will always disagree with but the one thing that what the Democrats and the Republicans at least the ones who have looked into it because Cory Booker yang Biden they're all pro-nuclear a lot of a lot of folks are pro-nuclear Gates Bill Gates's so Trump could say the one thing that we know is the smart thing to do no matter how big the risk is is we should

[1:01:39]

matter how big the risk is is we should be as as aggressive with nuclear as we possibly can and look we've already started in the Department of Energy we've done these things it's the way to go will you join me and it'll take care of my problem which is keeping the economy running keeping energy costs low which may which is basically a raise for everybody if you lower energy costs every every low income person Reyes does they know quality of living increase quality of living right so if the president came out and said look I'm gonna build you a world with the best technology the current generations of nuclear power have never had a problem we do know how to figure out how to at a store waste and process at etc and we can get better at it as well join me in solving all of our problems you know I'd like the economy to be humming I'd like the low-income people to get a raise what you'd like to have enough energy I want clean air I want clean water and nuclear gives me all those things if you're concerned also about climate risk I can solve that for you without even

[1:02:42]

I can solve that for you without even paying attention to it in other words having a robust nuclear program is sort of the only way you can solve climate risk if you believe that's a real risk yeah so but yeah let me let me just finish the thought I don't believe that President Trump feel and this is just speculation I can't read his mind right I don't believe he feels comfortable about the topic meaning that the it took me a long time to be able to summarize that complicated topic the way I just did so I can say because I've looked into it enough you know and Mark Snyder and Michael Shellenberger have helped me a lot to understand that there are different generations of nuclear the old stuff was dangerous but we don't make that anymore the new stuff has never had a problem and the newer stuff the generation for stuff that's coming online can't even meltdown if it tried if they design it the way they're they're hoping to they're they're hoping

[1:03:42]

they're hoping to they're they're hoping to designer so that if there's a problem the new generation will just stop working they won't melt down because they can't it won't be the design won't allow that to happen
SS 2g yeah okay so for liquid sodium I think right so but but you're giving that's a good example of why I would imagine any politician and Trump in particular we're talking about would not feel comfortable talking about it because the last thing he wants to do is be up there and say yeah I'm all pro-nuclear and then have somebody ask the question what about s tu G or whatever you just said and then have them say I I don't even know what that is because remember then this topic is really complicated and it's really hard to boil it down to the old old technology was bad current technology has never had a problem future technology can't have a problem because it will be built so you just couldn't even have a problem and that we're really close to that and

[1:04:43]

that we're really close to that and that's not even fusion that's just generation four so if you add that to the fact that there's no other source of carbon free clean energy that's even competitive when nuclear and the fact that it's very complementary with wind and solar because it fills in the gaps etcetera it's I believe the president could get to a point where he could simplify nuclear down to build the wall now he might have to oversimplify it in the way that build the wall is a is a gross oversimplification of what immigration requires but it might be what sells it so the trick would be how do how to make president Trump comfortable speaking on the topic in a way that he can shrink the complexity down to you know a visual slogan or something that he can sell and still not get kneecapped or court off guard that somebody's got a clever question that you can't handle so it's sort of a sort of ik I can see why he wouldn't want to venture into it because it's gonna scare

[1:05:44]

venture into it because it's gonna scare some people and it comes from him and my sound extra scary etc but if you imagined if you imagined Bill Gates meeting with Trump talking about and by the way this would save that here's a suggestion for saving the world you ready uh-huh I don't believe or at least I've never heard of this happening there Bill Gates has ever had a meeting with President Trump while he's president to talk about nuclear power I don't believe they've ever met to talk about that subject I'm sure they've met at some point in the past so if they did that would give Trump all of the let's say intellectual curve he would need to go full throated pro-nuclear the moment he does it he wins re-election and I wouldn't say that about any other topic there's there's no other button that says Stark as this one because it takes climate change off the table and it's sort of all they got

[1:06:45]

table and it's sort of all they got right yeah because because they're only scary thing is climate change and you can't win without scaring the other team so if you're not if you take the scare away they're they're disarmed and the president could do that but he's got to bring in either a Michael Shellenberger or he's got to bring in a bill gayde ideally both of them and and then use that meeting publicize the meeting and then after the meeting do a statement Bill Gates is standing next to you and you say I just met with Bill Gates I got to say he's very persuasive bill tell us what we talked about I tell the people would then Bill Gates gets up there and goes well you know and says essentially what I said which is nuclear is the only way forward and it's the new stuff that'll bring us there and then the president says you know Bill Gates Bill Gates says this is a way to go and Bill would you agree with me that you should do this no matter what you think about climate change and then Bill Gates says absolutely because he would

[1:07:46]

Gates says absolutely because he would because nuclear czar right the solution either way at that point the election is over the election is over it's over because if you take climate change off the table but at least in the sense of having the only legitimate plan so what happens but it happens by the way that happens to match yang and cory booker's plan and even Biden's plan a little bit that's it that's the end of the conversation the the election is over if trump meets with gate with Bill Gates and they do a joint statement that's that's the end of the conversation you wouldn't even have to wonder at that point all right did that issue a question yesterday thank you so much thank you good one all right let's take another one it's interesting that Bill Gates literally could save the planet if
if climate change is the risk that people say Bill Gates could save the

[1:08:47]

people say Bill Gates could save the planet hello caller can you hear me hello do you have a question for me well like to say thank you so much for doing these periscopes and I get and I think all most people do get a total charge out of your day'll impression and wondering has and I'm not trying to put more work on your plate but I'm wondering have you ever considered doing a political cartoon using Dale as the character because I know you don't do commentary is through Dilbert but it's just so effective amplifying and highlighting how we're rational the far left can be and I think you bring a lot of credit bill obviously you bring a lot of credibility to the argument because you claim you're even more far less than Bernie yeah well I've thought about political

[1:09:48]

well I've thought about political cartooning of course because you know I'm a professional cartoonist and you can't not think about all the ways that you could be a cartoonist but I find political cartooning sort of too simplistic you know you work all day to make one point that people were already thinking which is what makes a political cartoon work you're just amplifying what people are already thinking if it was something that they weren't thinking and it was outside of what they would like to think or might think it just doesn't work so political cartooning is as a creative endeavor it's too small whereas when I do this you can see that we could just go everywhere to conversation it's just such a hoot and the Pope was very good - well thank you very much they're

[1:10:50]

good - well thank you very much they're the recurring characters I appreciate that thank you all right let's take another call Jonathan looks like he's full of vim I don't know if him is but Jonathan are you there I said I said you're full of vim and then I don't even know what vim is it's like vim and vigor but I think it's a good thing it looks it looks like you're lively for me so I have a common end question so literally rewatching a You Tube periscope of yours I was compelled to make coffee to participate in a simultaneous sip with coffee I didn't even want to make thought about not being persuaded by you the more determined I became to make that pot of coffee you're not alone I'm sorry about that now for you know full disclosure I

[1:11:52]

that now for you know full disclosure I think everybody who watches these note you know that I'm a trained hypnotist and I write about persuasion right and it's no surprise nobody should be surprised that the simultaneous sip is overtly I'm not trying to hide anything it's it's meant to have an influence on you and to develop a habit which you would find pleasurable now part of the problem is that your brain is saying I don't want to do this but the other part of your brain is saying if I do I might enjoy it more because that's how I've you know I developed a habit then I just feel like I'd enjoy it a little bit more with coffee now it turns out that coffee increases your mood so you're you're improving your mood at the same time you're watching my show and then those two things get paired so one of the basics of persuasion is pairing things so any good feeling you pair it with whatever you want somebody to feel good about and they the feelings conflate so I am and I hope it's obvious everybody so that nobody feels like they're being manipulated or tricked because I'm doing

[1:12:53]

manipulated or tricked because I'm doing it as visibly as possible associating you know the goodness of coffee along with some feeling of camaraderie one of the things about periscope that's different from any other medium is that this is personal and mass broadcast at the same time I don't know that anything has ever been like this before because I'm mass broadcasting but yet this feels like a one-on-one conversation like literally right now but all the time because I'm looking at real people's comments and I'm thinking about real people I'm feeling your feedback in real time I'm responding and to the feedback in real time it's it's like this connected entity and I try to do my part which is to make it pleasurable and enjoyable and make sure you get something out of it and so the coffee association creates this little habit there should and not just shut it obviously is working overtime with reinforcement and the reinforcement is what makes it powerful

[1:13:53]

reinforcement is what makes it powerful you'll feel a sense of connection to the other people you'll feel a sense of completing a task maybe it's like hey I did my my SEP and you'll you'll feel the little rush of that the beverage gives you even if you're drinking another beverage you like so it should over time have exactly the effect that you described for something like you know a third of the people you know they're always going to be other people who are just dipping in and out people who have never had the first sip of coffee etc but for about a third I would predict would have a pretty strong attraction to having the simultaneous scent so thanks for coming oh well and to be fair I only participate about 50% of the sips that's that I do have a question so Mark Cuban did mogul support at Wired and answered questions over the Internet and his last comment was responding to yang running asking him to run for president

[1:14:54]

asking him to run for president so Cuban yang 2024 what's your take well I don't see Cuban getting into it this time because twenty four twenty twenty four twenty twenty four yang Cuban probably would be impossible to beat I would agree I they've already got my mood yeah and and here's the thing it's not entirely clear to me that they would even be obviously Democrat or obviously Republican I feel as if they're carving out a new category of pragmatism you know nobody's tried that as weird as that sounds no nobody's tried pragmatism meaning if there's a science to it to follow the science if there's no science to it see if you can find the science and if you can't do the science maybe you can test it in a small way test it so if you put a putting a yang and and a

[1:15:58]

so if you put a putting a yang and and a Cuban together and by the way do we assume that Cuban would be present in this arrangement or you assuming yang okay all right good okay we're on the same page Cuban would be far far more likely to be the you know the the president candidate of those two I for one would be really really interested in a pragmatic set of candidates and I wouldn't really even care which party they ran in as long as they as long as they were let's say intellectually and otherwise committed to following the facts and and testing and educating the public and you know maybe testing something small you know they're just a rational set of ways to move forward that would look really really appealing to me I gotta say that would be really appealing because we don't have anything like that and and

[1:16:59]

don't have anything like that and and it's because we don't really have the you know the personnel in place they could pull that off could could Mark Cuban and yang pull off a the first rational administration I think they could I think they could they're both special personalities you know you don't get you don't get a Mark Cuban every day right you don't get a Trump every day you don't get a Andrew yang every day there they are special characters and I think that they could have a special role 2024's could be interesting and if mer cuban decides to run in 2024 I'd hate to be running against them I'll tell you that so that's all for now and I'm gonna end it here and I will talk to you all later thanks for joining me