Episode 813 Scott Adams: The Strongest Democrat Presidential Candidate, and an Inspirational Story

Date: 2020-02-08 | Duration: 46:43

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Sam Harris has updated thoughts on President Trump The Democrat debate and Presidential candidates Coronavirus update, first American citizen death Amir Attaran’s Tweet about Jordan Peterson’s situation One small act of kindness and endless ripples

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

[0:11]

hey everybody come on in come on and gather round grab a seat it's time for coffee with Scott Adams weekend edition which is exactly like the weekday edition except better for undisclosed reasons well today we've got lots to talk about and I'm going to give you an inspirational story toward the end so make sure you stay for that but before we begin is there something you're waiting for something you expect something you love yes it's the simultaneous it but all you need is a cup or mug or a glass a tankard chelators tide a canteen jug or flask a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine the end of the day the thing that makes everything better the simultaneous sip go yeah I can feel

[1:14]

the simultaneous sip go yeah I can feel the Lyon energy just going through me it's like it's like Tiger blood but different alright let's jump into the stuff all the stuff that's happening I was listening yesterday to a new podcast by Sam Harris I mean a new episode now those of you who have been following me for a while know that I famously had I had an appearance on Sam Harris's podcasts in 2016 I think it was in which I was talking about why President Trump that then candidate Trump was better than people thought in other words I described his persuasion ability and it made the case room now that podcast got a lot of attention and people talk about it literally every day I still hear about it every day some mentions that they heard me on that so

[2:14]

mentions that they heard me on that so it made a fairly big impression so it was interesting to hear Sam's sort of update you know most current thinking about the president and I thought I'd update you one of the things and I and I think this is interesting and it's one of the things that makes Sam Harris special and notable and worth listening to which is that he acknowledges the TDs is a real thing and and the acknowledges that he might be suffering from it now I gotta say that if if you have the intellectual firepower to rise above your own bias and then look back down on it and say yep there I am down there with my bias that is a higher level of thinking than most people can accomplish but it doesn't help you get past the bias because the whole point of bias is that you can't see past it if you could easily see past it well it wouldn't be

[3:16]

easily see past it well it wouldn't be bias so he acknowledges he has it but then he makes his argument and apparently his his feelings about the president have crystallized around this thought and he offers a provocative challenge and this is where it gets fun he his theory about Trump is that he's essentially the Chauncey Gardiner candidate now if you're not familiar with the movie and book at the same game called being there it was about somebody who had no skills it was not not smart but through an amazing series of lucky coincidences becomes President of the United States and the whole point of the Chauncey Gardiner mythical story is that these coincidences were so unusual but they were all strung together and they ended up in this being the president so

[4:16]

up in this being the president so Sam's belief is that it was just Locke you know just a coincidence of the way the variables lined up that we got a president who is a that's my word but in effect that's what Sam Harris is saying and here's the fun part do I have something on my lip here I was just eating a little chocolate bar I think so I got it okay so Sam makes this provocative challenge if you will he said in effect that he would only need to hear Trump talking like a regular person with a full vocabulary like a normal adult just once in order to believe that the that the face we see in his rallies and his tweets and everything else is not his real one and that he actually is a normal person who simply chooses to communicate in a way

[5:16]

simply chooses to communicate in a way that's effective for the people now that's an interesting challenge isn't it yeah all it would take is five minutes or even less I suppose I've seeing president Trump talk like a normal education person now here's the fun part I've had a private conversation with President Trump most of you know I got to meet him in the Oval Office in the summer of 2018 he invited me in because I'm a supporter and which is common he invites in other supporters just just to make sure that he's you know supporting his supporters essentially and I have I have a window into this the Sam Harris does not which is I had a private personal conversation with President Trump in the Oval Office that was there was one other person there you don't

[6:16]

was one other person there you don't need to know the details but it was a private conversation essentially and I'm here to report that when you talked to him privately he is a normal educated adult
surprise surprise when you talk to him personally he's just like every other normal college-educated adult you've ever talked to no difference and when he goes on there's you know it goes on stage for his rallies he takes on his stand-up comedian provocative personality he lowers his vocabulary and and he becomes that person now there's a legitimate question of you know at a certain age are people slowing down or whatever that's a good question but I like Sam Harris's challenge only because I have a little insight into it in the sense that I've I've talked to him and I know that he's just a regular

[7:17]

him and I know that he's just a regular normal educated college-educated adult who knows a lot of stuff you know no difference at all all right of course the news today is that VIN Minh and Sundlun got fired this is sort of a non-story you know the anti-trump errs are trying to make it into a story about he's abusing his king-making or his dictatorial powers to get rid of his critics and then of course everybody who sports the president's as some version of this what's wrong with that what exactly is wrong with getting rid of somebody that you don't trust on your staff I'm not getting the criticism here like if there's something wrong with that I haven't heard it so of course he has the power to do it he has the right to do it it's actually I would argue it's his responsibility to do it because we want a president whose team generally

[8:18]

we want a president whose team generally he can trust so that's a non-story you'd expected it happened here's a little update in the confirmation bias the world there's a there was a surgeon and his girlfriend I guess they were like he was like a TV TV doctor for a while and they were accused of being serial rapists of luring women in the two of them and then drugging them and having sex with them the the charges were just dropped because they couldn't find enough evidence that there would be credible so think about that they're accused of being serial rapists it's not just something that he was accused of doing one time but apparently a whole host of similar rapes and when they were done the prosecutor looked around and said um turns out we don't

[9:18]

around and said um turns out we don't have enough evidence for this yeah they were swingers somebody says and so I think they admit that they you know had relations with those women but it was now it was a consensual now here's the thing we don't know what happened to do what didn't happen I'm gonna assume innocence because that's the country we live in if you're not guilty you're assumed to be innocent but this reminded me a lot of the the the McMartin preschool case and it's it's a if you don't already know the McMartin preschool case it was the 70s baby which a preschool was accused of having an underground satanic worship room that they were taking kids down there and abusing them and teaching them to worship Satan or whatever it was and they got brought into court and there was so much evidence I mean because it was you know there was just tons of

[10:22]

was you know there was just tons of evidence because they interviewed the kids and the kids actually said it was happening now it turns out that they have led to witnesses and when and when the replays of the interviews were were shown people who had my skill set in other words they were hypnotists or they understand how that world works they saw that the questions were leading the kids into an imaginary world and the kids were just speaking with their imagination and the police took it as fact and tried to prosecute these people but in the end there was not even any room under there the preschool and it turned out the whole thing fell apart and there was no evidence at all so it went from a mountain of evidence that all said the same thing - oops there wasn't any not any there was zero evidence in the end you had ruined their lives etc so I'm looking at this case of the California surgeon his girlfriend and who knows who did what right you and

[11:23]

and who knows who did what right you and I can't tell who's guilty who's innocent from a distance but this looks a lot like that you know if I had to if I had to place a bet I would bet that there was tons of evidence and then one day I looked into it there wasn't any that's my guess is how that happened so keep an eye on that that's this one that tells you something about the world you live in all right let's talk about the the democratic debate I tried to watch it I can't falling asleep so I watch as much as I could in between napping that I caught up with other people's opinions in the clips this morning here's my take first of all it was the most generic stuff I've ever seen in my life so generic oh my god they were all talking about high-level concepts nothing seemed

[12:23]

about high-level concepts nothing seemed to be about me you know as a citizen I kept waiting for the the the fact or the detail or the proposal or the policy that would have some direct effect on me and they did talk about health care but not in a way that I could connect it to me except that it would make my taxes go up so I watched all night and I could only identify one thing that would actually affect me personally my taxes would go up I said that's all it was and so I thought well that's not good but let's talk about the winners of losers so the first thing to realize is that none of them were interesting that's that none of them were interesting and whoever it is is going to run against the most interesting person in the history of civilization Trump running for re-election so I don't know how you run uninteresting people against the most interesting person we've ever known but that's their challenge so let's let's talk about the

[13:24]

challenge so let's let's talk about the individuals there's some notable things is that steyr he had this argument he said that you have to be Trump on the economy because all of the Democratic candidates have essentially identical policies they all want universal health care of some kind different details they all want the Oh more gun control more and more lots of stuff that Democrats want so steyr says we're basically all alone all the same and so you should pick somebody who can beat Trump on the economy because it's the economy that people care about that's the part that touches people now do you think that steyr can beat Trump on the economy I'm thinking to myself that might be the worst strategy I've ever heard in my life because sure sure sure steyr can make the argument that you know we make the argument that it's not Trump's doing the things are doing so well etc but

[14:26]

the things are doing so well etc but it's not the way voters think the voters don't understand economics they just say who's the president how's the economy going that's it who's the president Trump how is the economy doing amazing amazing that's the end of the argument there is no way this tire is going to beat Trump on economics it's just not gonna happen it's the dumbest strategy I've ever seen but he does point out that the all the candidates are kind of similar on the policies I think Biden is the only candidate who has a solid chance of bringing in the black vote but he's so weak as a candidate it's hard to imagine him getting there
we have to has a chance oh well let me give you this take it's basically I'm triangulating from the networks so I

[15:28]

triangulating from the networks so I looked at CNN Fox and MSNBC this morning to find out who they thought won alright and it's it's very interesting to watch who the network's thinks who they thought one because that sort of tells you how that the coverage is going to happen and how they're gonna persuade the voters so over at CNN Chris Alyssa wrote you know the the main article about the debates was written by Chris ilysm and here's his ranking he said that Budaj won he was a winner in clover char too and then lower down were Sanders and Bluebird so basically as winner was Buddha checked Buddha judge and number two Klobuchar so that's CNN over at Fox they had a woman named Leslie Marshall don't know much about her wrote an opinion piece about the DEM the debates and her two winners were Klobuchar and Warren now here's what I would note is

[16:28]

Warren now here's what I would note is it unfair to say that CNN is the most Pro LGBTQ Network wouldn't you say I mean MSNBC obviously is in the same realm but I think you'd be fair to say and this is not this is not in any way a criticism it's just a statement of fact all right would you agree the CNN is the most Pro LGBTQ network at least in terms of the people they put on the air the way they cover story is it cetera and again that's I'm not criticizing I'm just stating a fact and why would I criticize that anyway it's just stating a fact now CNN picks the only openly gay guy who is running does that a coincidence if you work for CNN and you know and and sort of neck and neck between Klobuchar and an openly gay man if I worked for CNN I'm gonna say boo to judge wand right because you sort of always have to

[17:31]

right because you sort of always have to you're working for your boss and you're working for your co-workers you working for your company more than you're working for the audience then over at Fox a woman writes an opinion that two women one so here again you know the the skeptic in me says there isn't a coincidence that a woman writes an opinion about the debates and she says that the two winners were the women maybe I mean maybe they were maybe that's unbiased but you have to you know put a little asterisk next to that then over at MSNBC Chris Matthews was calling out Klobuchar for looking looking presidential so if you look at the three networks Klobuchar was either number one or number two think about that Klobuchar just went from what Beth and the voting

[18:33]

just went from what Beth and the voting to all three networks called her as number one or number two there's something's happening here all right but there's more when I watched the last night before I'd seen any opinions I'm watching in debates and my personal opinion without any influence from any other pundit was huh it looks to me like Klobuchar just won hard I I thought she won unambiguously that was my opinion I thought she unambitious Lee won the night but I wasn't sure you know if my opinion was matching with a buddy this morning I check Twitter I see Dave Rubin famously open-minded you know person so he's you know he understands the left and the right he's he sort of straddles worlds and he said Klobuchar one and then I then I see a tweet from Greg Gutfeld also one of the people who would

[19:35]

Gutfeld also one of the people who would be willing to say something good about the other side if they did something good you know also one of the more open-minded people in this realm and he picked Club a charter that's a lot of club a char for one night now let me let me break down I'm gonna give you my take from best to worst of which of the Democratic candidates would stand the best chance chance against Trump okay so this is not who I like you know it's not my preferences I'm just saying who would be the strongest matchup at the top of my list is yang Yang's at the top of my list because what would be the only bad thing you could say about what the yank because think of them in terms of their flaws because whatever flaws they have either real or imagined president Trump is going to find their flaw and then he's going to magnify it until you can't imagine voting for him

[20:36]

until you can't imagine voting for him because that's what he does so you got to find somebody whose flaw is the most defensible what is Yang's flaw lack of experience as a politician he's a successful businessperson oh wait oh wait Yang's flaw is that he's never been in government but he'd be running against the guy who proved that's not important that's a good matchup if yang ran against somebody who had experience you know been a senator and a governor and like that that'd be a real problem because I'm not sure yang has enough firepower the way Trump did to break through and become an inexperienced president the way Trump did so I think Yang actually has the strongest natural situation and then he also has the the best the best attack against Trump

[21:38]

best the best attack against Trump because he doesn't go so much from the racism and the easy the easy social justice warrior things he talks about those things in the right ways but that's not his emphasis he's more about solutions and the future and robots and technology and use of science and stuff and there's nobody who doesn't like that stuff literally everything yang says both sides say it's pretty good and there's a thousand dollar thing it would be easy to test you know you could test this small and find out if it works and if you asked Andrew yang Andrew do you think this is something we should implement you know nationally this thousand dollar a month idea or should we test it and then decide well I don't know what he'd say but everything that I know about him suggests that you would say well of course you test it first of course you know he even tried to test the first on his campaign giving away money to some people not not a good test but at least he was thinking in those

[22:39]

but at least he was thinking in those terms I I don't think there's a chance a yang will have enough support from the Democratic machine to get through and get the nomination so he's not a risk of getting nominated but he would be the strongest candidate against Trump and he's also the only candidate who could pick up Republicans without them feeling bad about it right I think yang could pick up Republicans who just say you know some of those ideas I haven't heard before they kind of they resonate and I like his pro-science look he doesn't offend me too much so I think he picked up some of those all right number two on my list of strongest candidates is Klobuchar unlike yang she could actually get nominated I don't think it's the most likely outcome but it's it could happen yang is harder to imagine getting nominated but kilometer could especially after last night when you've got all

[23:40]

after last night when you've got all three networks and a lot of independent observers saying huh that was pretty good pretty good now let me tell you what's the best thing about Klobuchar she doesn't have an obvious flaw the kind that you already believe about her and then Trump just you know magnifies it almost everybody else has something except yet they have something that he could just pick on and blow it up and that that would be the end of them most of them are one nickname away from oblivion if you think about it so Club which are simply by not having an obvious flaw meaning she's not too socialist she was actually the only one who raised her hand and said it'd be a problem having a candidate who was labeled as a Democratic Socialist she's the only one so she's shooting right for that middle and that does give her some possibility of bringing in some moderate Republicans and independents so

[24:42]

moderate Republicans and independents so simply now here's her flaw if I could say it's a flaw she has no excitement whatsoever yeah she has she has no charisma and no excitement whatsoever but and that's a big deal when you're in the in the primaries because she's trying to break through the crowded field but what would happen if she got the nomination it would be one on one how much excitement would Democrats bring to a candidate who actually had a shot somebody who actually had a chance and they don't totally hate her well I think the progressives are absolutely gonna say yeah she's not saying the stuff we walked about healthcare and stuff but we're certainly not going to support Trump and we want him gone so she would get all the progressives and she would get all the people in the middle and she'd pick up a few independents and she wouldn't have to be that exciting she would just have to

[25:43]

that exciting she would just have to show up and just you know be presidential which she has accomplished she accomplished acting presidential I believe she's she's worked her way into the gravitas of that situation so congratulations Amy Klobuchar I think she took the tortoise and the hare approach where she just hung in there and didn't make mistakes she's yeah she's dull but that's not gonna hurt her when it's one-on-one being dull is a big problem if you've got all these exciting candidates and you're trying to stand out but as that as the field is is winnow down and you see that the other candidates don't have much to offer or they have fatal flaws if Democrats water win she's their best bet so that's my career thinking I could change that tomorrow after her I would say boo de jedge but he's got a black voter problem that I don't know he can overcome then there's Bloomberg who has guess what a black

[26:44]

Bloomberg who has guess what a black voter problem and I don't think he can overcome anybody who has a black voter problem I don't know how they could beat Trump this Trump probably will get more more black male votes at least than any Republican ever got that's my guess then you've got next down the list Biden plus a good VP now if if you just think you Biden he doesn't have any chance against Trump really none but if you paired him with a strong younger VP person the color accomplice type somebody interesting yeah you could give it a shot because he could at least get the black vote but he's so vulnerable to just just being I don't pistol-whipped by Trump every time Trump goes in public that I don't think Biden could survive that then down the list you've got a ward and Bernie they both have the same problem and Mike certain of it's called the doubt succinctly on Twitter today he said that when he talks to his

[27:46]

said that when he talks to his progressive friends he asked them how you could have both open borders and free health care well how do those two work together you can have one or the other but how just logically just explained to me logically how both those things could coexist I don't think anybody can explain it so both of them are dead the minute Trump says these candidates want to take your money and give it to people in other countries for their health care but not for yours you know because it won't be much left or some person in that you won't you always say that there's none for you just because the others want universal health care but all he has to do is say we're gonna pay for health care for illegal immigrants and that's sort of the end of the election and then there's steyr who's dead last he has no real chance alright so that's how I break them yang although he cannot get the nomination he'd be the strongest klobuchar solid chance and then it

[28:48]

klobuchar solid chance and then it starts going in too hard to imagine them winning buddha james bloomberg good center all right update on the coronavirus the numbers keep going up into scary numbers 86 people who died in a single day in China then one day 86 people died the death toll stands at 724 there's a whistleblowing nurse who says that even a while ago that there were 90,000 cases but there were 34 thousand that are reported in 27 countries etc and we have this news that there's a first u.s. national fatality but it didn't happen in this country it was a six year old woman who was in Wuhan and she died from complications from the virus I hate to be the only person in the world saying

[29:48]

be the only person in the world saying this but I keep waiting to find out if there's anybody dying who is not ethnic Chinese you know I am asking right because it's it's so conspicuously absent from the story now if I'd read so this is an American who died but this American was a woman living in China what are the odds that she was not at least by background Chinese but an American so she had probably Chinese ethnicity because she was living in China that's just a guess I'm speculating so yeah the first USA death was reported but it wasn't in the USA it was just a US citizen living in China who might actually be ethnically Chinese so I'm just waiting for the first report of somebody who's not Chinese now there's a report that a Japanese citizen died but there's some ambiguity because

[30:49]

died but there's some ambiguity because they couldn't confirm that that was the cause of death and it's not quite clear so that was a little gray area waiting for that and so we wait and I ask you this the the United States keeps saying that we're safe right there are our government keeps telling us on it's under control we're doing pretty good and we were actually kind of slow closing the airports and stuff well what is it about this virus that would make us think it's a gigantic problem in China yet would not obviously become a gigantic problem here is it because we're so good at you know taking care of stuff or is it because our government knows it doesn't treat everybody the same maybe maybe your DNA might be one of the you know one of the markers for whether it's going to kill you or not so that's these are just questions it's all speculation I don't want to start any

[31:50]

speculation I don't want to start any conspiracy theories but it's so obviously missing from the story of whether it's affecting everybody the same I got asked about it all right there's a horrible story in the news about Jordan Peterson now apparently he's gone through some tough times with his the story if you don't know it Jordan Peterson apparently was prescribed some benzos because his wife was diagnosed with cancer and he was having a problem with that and then he got a physically addicted but he had here's your's they just incredibly bad part about this apparently the benzos had what's called a paradoxical effect meaning instead of helping him they made things much worse apparently that can happen it doesn't happen often but it's covered enough that it's a thing it has a name and everything so the worst case scenario he got addicted to the drugs that were also

[32:52]

got addicted to the drugs that were also making him much worse oh my god like that doesn't get any worse right so I guess Western or Canadian and American hospitals couldn't help him he tried to get off he tried to you know wind down and get often all the ways he do it didn't work he ended up in Russia because Russia had some kind of treatment not available here that apparently has worked so he seems to have gotten off the benzos and seems to have been the worst of those effects but there's some lingering some kind of lingering damage we don't know what it is but here's here's the part that is just mind-blowing there's some gentleman named Amir at around who tweeted this hashtag karma Jordan Peterson Oracle to gullible young men preacher of macho toughness and hectoring bully to snowflakes is addicted to strong drugs and his

[33:53]

is addicted to strong drugs and his brain will riddled with neurological damage I don't know that that's true that's just something he's saying in the tweet and then he says he deserves as much simple simple as he showed others what that's like the worst thing I've ever heard anybody say that is really that is dark I mean I'm not above enjoying a little revenge when it's when it's appropriate I'm not above a little shot in Freud if something bad happens to somebody that I think deserved it but what the hell did Jordan Peterson do other than try to help people why was he addicted in the first place it was because of his empathy for his wife all right and when he could when he says young men he goes Oracle to gullible young men let me ask you this

[34:53]

gullible young men let me ask you this what young man is not gullible it's sort of built-in to be you know everybody everybody young is gullible so first of all that's that's not fair everybody young is gullible compared to older people there's no exception to that and because of a preacher of much toughness no no I I wouldn't call it macho toughness at all that's not how I would label it and a hectoring bully to snowflakes so is that a crime he's telling people to take more responsibility for life and toughen up and you know do things according to you know ways that we know work and are biologically compatible none of that seems like anything there should be a cause for hatred I mean this is amazing so I think he's a professor up in Canada somewhere all right so that's the most hateful thing I've ever seen

[35:53]

seen probably the worst thing I've ever seen on the Internet here's my prediction about Jordan Peterson he's going to come back stronger because going through this situation first of all he's learning a lot that probably didn't want to learn but he's going to come back stronger so watch for that all right I promise you I'm telling you a inspirational story are you ready a little Saturday inspirational story there's a quote of mine from one of my books or someplace I don't know where it came from but there's a quote of mine this becomes semi-famous and it's something I said decades ago but it still gets passed around the internet every now and then and the quote was that there's no such thing as a small act of kindness because every action has a ripple effect to infinity in order to tell you a story about a small act of kindness they had a

[36:55]

about a small act of kindness they had a ripple effect there's fun to watch alright the first part some of you have heard in 1988 before I was a cartoonist but I knew I wanted to be one I sent a letter to a cartoonist would who had a special on TV about how to be a cartoonist his name is Jack Cassidy and I asked him for advice I had not drawn in any comics professionally I was just wanted to know how to get into business and his first act of kindness he had nothing there was nothing in it for him there was nothing to be gained by him answering my letter but he did he wrote a two-page handwritten letter he told me what materials to buy told me what book to look at to know where to send my examples etc so I got the book followed the directions did what he said send out some comics to the big magazines that publish comics cartoons and that I got rejected by everybody and I put my materials away and I thought well at

[37:57]

materials away and I thought well at least I tried and I just forgot about it a year later I got a letter from Jack Casady a year later I hadn't even thanked him for his first letter so we'd had no communication at that time I got to my mailbox and weirdly there's a letter from Jack Casady again the follow-up letter and he said that he was looking he was cleaning his office and he found my original letter to him from a year ago and he said that he was just writing to make sure that I hadn't given up that's it there was nothing else in the letter he only wrote to make sure that I hadn't given up now in his first letter he told me it was going to I would get a lot of cancellations or a lot of rejections and he told me don't give up so his first letter said don't give up and then I gave up his second letter said I just just just making sure you didn't give up so I got my materials

[38:59]

you didn't give up so I got my materials out of the closet and put together some sample cartoons that were roughly based on my experience in the workplace and that cartoon was called Dilbert and I submitted it and the rest you know so that small act of kindness in 1988 created a billion dollars of you know total activity and that's that's not the part I earned or anything close to that but you know if you look at all the publishing all the effects that Dilbert's had you know the secondary effects and third effects etcetera one letter that took him probably 15 minutes put a stamp on it tiny tiny act of kindness causes a billion dollars changed my life now most of you have seen that certainly at this part of my life and by the way I am currently at I think approximately the age that Jack Casady was when he gave me his advice Jack Casady by the way is a

[40:02]

his advice Jack Casady by the way is a veteran I think it was I'm not sure to which war he was in but he's a veteran so he has he has a you know a history of service now the thing that I don't tell people is that while he made my career his small act of kindness no it's not Jack Cassidy the actor it is Jack Cassidy a cartoonist somebody you probably have never seen his work he wasn't famous as a cartoonist so here's the thing even though he changed my life and he's in some ways responsible for everything good that ever happened to me after that point he also pursed me they came with a curse and the curse goes like this I have to help other people I have to I could try not to but it

[41:03]

have to I could try not to but it doesn't work because of the curse so throughout my life I've tried to help other people when when the situation made sense obviously I can't help everybody I can't even help everybody you ask for it but I can pick my shots so so I wrote my book had to fail at almost everything and still win big and that was primarily to be helpful and I hear every day about people who have changed their lives and lost weight and people have gotten off on drugs because of that book I'm just amazing things this all came from this one letter in 1988 but it's better after Dilbert became successful and then this is going back to I think the mid-90s or so the syndication company that handled Dilbert was introducing new comics regularly and of course most new comics don't do well and they just sort of you know they make a small splash and

[42:04]

of you know they make a small splash and then they die so probably 99 to 20 new comics don't go anywhere and there was this new comic called pearls before swine and the syndication company looked at it and they decided well you know it's not good enough to put it in newspapers but we have this new website that has you know good comics but also lesser comics yeah we just have lots of comics there so they said well we'll put it on the website they put it on the website that didn't make much of a difference you know not many people noticed it but I saw it so and I saw it and I thought there's something about this comic that's not like the other ones there just isn't there this one's special and even though it wasn't it wasn't fully formed there was something special about it I can see it in the writing there was there was some intelligence that came through the writing that you don't often see so at the time I had this newsletter that I was something out

[43:04]

this newsletter that I was something out they had just tons and tons of people read it and I so I called out that comic and I said you know this is great and gave a link to it so people who go to see it it almost immediately and entirely just because I recommended it to my readers it became the second I think the second most trafficked comic on the website now because it became the second most trafficked of all their comics they had to rethink it the syndication company and they looked at in the Santa with all this attention maybe we missed something so let's give it a give it a run and see if it works in newspapers and it did it's one of the top cartoons in the country right now so Stephan Pastis was the the author of the comic and the other part of the story is that he has an amazing talent stack which he continues to he was an attorney before he became a cartoonist so he had that talent and he he met with me thanked me and picked my

[44:07]

he met with me thanked me and picked my brain about technique and how to be a cartoonist and he's the only person I know who's asked me for cartooning advice and then took it you can't imagine how many people have asked me for advice and and lots of times I give it I would say the total number of cartoonists I've given direct cartooning advice do it's in the hundreds hundreds I know several hundred over over my career but as far as I know and I you know haven't surveyed each one of them as far as I know he's the only one he took my advice he incorporated it and his comic became one of the hottest sellers but that's not the best part so I opened up my computer today just check-in the news and I see I see a hashtag trending and the hashtag maybe you saw today but the trending hashtag is for a new Disney movie called Timmy failure have you seen that yet so it's

[45:09]

failure have you seen that yet so it's about a young boy who's like either pretends or he's a detective I guess and he's got a gigantic polar bear who is his companion now here's the thing Timmy failure is it's a Disney movie and it's going to scream on their new streaming service so you know how great is it to have a Disney movie this Disney movie is based on a series of very successful kids books called Timmy failure written by Stefan pastas Stefan pastas has left cartooning and now he's a movie he's successful in movies all of this happened because Jack Casady did one small act of kindness in 1988 that caused me to succeed it caused me to write how to fail with almost everything

[46:09]

write how to fail with almost everything it caused me to help Stefan bosses because the curse he cursed me I had to album as Stefan bosses helped other cartoonists yes because he has the curse he doesn't have a choice he doesn't have a choice I cursed him the way Jack Casady cursed me so Timmy failures great movie and you should all watch it and that's all I have for today I'm gonna leave it on that note one small act of kindness it's a big deal