Episode 899 Scott Adams: Answering You Questions and Swaddling Like a Pro. Blankets On!

Date: 2020-04-08 | Duration: 1:03:09

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Content: Back to work strategy Alyssa Milano’s dilemma with Joe Biden President Trump puts hold on WHO funding Viewer questions

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## Transcript

[0:11]

hey it's time for your evening swaddle grab a blanket come on in you know how to swaddle you were born that way and we're gonna talk about some of the events in the last 12 hours since last I talked to you things are looking up yeah and I'm gonna tell you how they're gonna look up even more yeah even more and you don't need to worry about anything because so far everything I've predicted has happened in terms of this coronavirus situation and so I'm gonna make some good predictions the kind you get to enjoy and they go it goes like this number one
what would happen if the top 1% simply spent a little bit more money once we go

[1:12]

spent a little bit more money once we go back to work now keep in mind that the problem of having tremendous income inequality is when you get a situation like this pandemic the people were at the bottom of the economic tree gear first the most and they're in a dire situation the people at the top might lose you know a third of their wealth but they won't even notice it so that's the bad news but what about the good news the weird good news of this at least potentially and maybe you could tell me why you think this wouldn't work but the biggest determinant of how quickly we get back to a normal economy is demand because supply is going to be pretty easy because we already have the factories built the companies exist the employees just need to walk back in to the jobs but only if somebody's buying stuff if

[2:12]

but only if somebody's buying stuff if nobody's buying it thing nothing's gonna work so and then we have the problem that everybody from you know say the upper-middle class down just you know probably had a bad few months so this entire bottom I don't know eighty percent maybe less maybe seventy five percent I would say the bottom seventy-five percent of the economic ladder is going to have a tough few months you know some worse than others but it's gonna be tough for maybe three-quarters of the country but three-quarters of the country all added together probably don't add up or even close to the wealth and the income of the top twenty percent 25 percent listening so here's the math question I give to you given there we're gonna go back to a to an economy in which we have

[3:12]

back to a to an economy in which we have exactly one problem not enough people with money to buy stuff am I wrong that's really the only problem now because if people are buying then even people who you know bring up some debt can get loans etc because they can say look I have all these customers business is good bank says alright you could have a loan that doesn't fix every problem but it certainly gives you reason to believe that the least the top 25 percent who still have plenty of money but most of them didn't even lose their jobs you know maybe their portfolio went down by a third they don't even know the difference so the top 25 percent could easily take it upon themselves voluntarily to say oh wow I came out of this thing okay I'm just gonna pour a little money into this that would be great and I've said this before I don't

[4:13]

great and I've said this before I don't know if there's a way to execute this in time it'd be great if there was some way to commit in advance to you know overspending when we get back to to work say in 2021 and then and then the businesses could use that as evidence to go get loans and staff up and everything else yeah but I don't know how to do that in a way that people would follow through necessarily how would you record it a credible way for restaurants you could just you know book a reservation a year in advance I suppose and there might be other businesses where you could book a business a year in advance so there might be a way for the people who came out of this well to simply increase what they're doing 5% give me give me a sense without without doing anything math without being an economist will just see you know if there's any wisdom in in the crowd so all of us being way too

[5:17]

crowd so all of us being way too ignorant to know the actual answer to this let's see if we can come up with an answer anyway maybe there's some kind of you know magic average that that isn't crazy so here's the question for you if you accept let's say as an assumption except that the top 25% still would have plenty of money and still could spend more if they wanted to in 2021 and with that because the top income group has so much money relative to the bottom that even though it's the top 25% they still have most of the money so even though it's 1/3 less it's still most of the money so how much would they have to spend more in 2021 compared to whatever baseline you imagined they would have spent under normal conditions how much would the top 25% have to spend more in the coming year to basically refill all

[6:17]

the coming year to basically refill all the pipelines with orders you know maybe not a one-for-one because the things they're spending money on or not exactly the things other people were but in terms of dollar amount would you say oh I'm something I'm looking at the numbers I see 8% but I see twice as much I'm really off some of the numbers 2010 5 30% 5% now if if you take the wisdom of the crowd to be something it looks like it's settling in that 10% range I'll just read a few more often you say well now they look a little bit bigger 15:33 2010 all right so 100% 33 here's my intuition my intuition is it's closer to 10% that it is - it's probably below 10% because remember the the trick here is that the top 20% are gigantic you know if you

[7:17]

top 20% are gigantic you know if you added up all their money it would be this much for those of you can see me and you're not watching or not just listening looking at visually so the top 25% have this ball of wealth just look where my hands are that's how much they control the bottom 75% controls something like a little golf ball-sized that little golf ball shrunk by 75% just just making them numbers here - you know like a marble size how much would this giant ball have to spend extra - reinflates eyes of a golf ball and the answer is that that very big thing the top 25% of all the money probably a 5% flex completely makes up for all the money that the entire 75% bottom of the income lost

[8:18]

entire 75% bottom of the income lost now again it's not one for one it's not like everybody would get made whole but it would certainly tell you that the the ability to get back to where we want it too quickly is entirely psychological would you accept now the premise that getting back to where we need to be is now boiled down to a psychological problem because if the top I'll just keep saying 25% if they could be convinced to say patriotically spend a little extra or or even just be convinced that there are a lot of bargains or it's a good time to you know buy some stock because it's a good price or maybe you know pick up an apartment building or something so it seems to me that if you could manage the psychology of the people who came out okay they would become your extra buyers and we're all fine all right that's my optimistic thought of the day I suggested this buy buy

[9:23]

of the day I suggested this buy buy tweet and I know how corny this sounds but just just bear with me this will be the corniest idea I've ever suggested but also the best I think and the suggestion is that when whenever President Trump picks that day to go back to work that may be the morning of or the night before that he simply goes on television and announces it or maybe he's already announced it but before we actually go back to work and or whoever goes back to work whatever subset that he goes on live TV and leads the nation in the Pledge of Allegiance now cordierite a lot of people would say yeah I'm not gonna take no pledge of allegiance and then other people are saying well I'm just I'm home in my living room I'm not actually going to stand up and cover my

[10:23]

actually going to stand up and cover my heart and do the Pledge of Allegiance you know if I'm all alone in my home or would you or would you I think you might I think you might if you were all alone if you were there with the family it would only take one one member of the family to stand up and the rest are you gonna stand up except you know the teenage daughter she won't stand up but everybody else will stand up now here's the the power of the idea in order for the president to give the okay I've said this before it really is very important for the public to have fully weighed in with their opinion of what level of danger they're willing to take for themselves and also what will level of danger they're willing to accept on behalf of their fellow citizens so everybody would be asked to take a very large risk whether they like it or not

[11:25]

large risk whether they like it or not and everybody's already taken a very large you know piece of pain even if only psychological in some cases but we all we all sucked it up took a lot of pain and here's the thing when we go back to work the rewards are not going to be equal some people might just slide back to where they were some people a little bit more slowly some people who don't have a job to go back to but worse some people especially the older and the people with conditions are going to have problems that they wouldn't have had if we didn't go back to work when we did whatever that is so the Pledge of Allegiance is simply a way to remind everybody that were connected there were not a bunch of individual people making individual decisions where that also that means you don't want to lose that part we are also

[12:26]

don't want to lose that part we are also that individuals making individual decisions that you know in a free country it's less free at the moment but it's free in general but you don't you want to be reminded that the difference between you wearing your mask and keeping your social distance is there somebody on your team might die that there's somebody in this nation who is vulnerable who could die if you don't take it seriously and you know keep your distance and do this stuff you're supposed to do so the Pledge of Allegiance would just be a very American way for the presidents remind everybody without it doesn't have to get into the details just remind everybody that you're on the same team and and it is life and death it's literally life and death all right
I've been saying that the best way you can protect the president is by bouncing

[13:27]

can protect the president is by bouncing around some numbers of how much extra death you're willing to accept in order to get get the economy running again and I've got an update on this so I won't just be repeating what I said this morning and I did a little poll online and I said you know would you would you be okay getting back to work if it's under fifty thousand extra deaths caused by getting back to work early or under 100 under 200 and but my larger argument was this the larger argument isn't until the public starts really wrestling with those numbers and having an honest disagreement about it in public ideally about what's enough and what's too much and and just gets as a dolt as we can be until the public displays some adult behavior the president is sort of handcuffed because you don't want your leader to signing who who dies and who lives I mean it's it's not the position

[14:30]

lives I mean it's it's not the position you want to put your leader in and shouldn't be in that position you want your public to really wrestle with it anyway the update is this I was just watching Lindsey Graham what show was he on was at Laura Ingraham show but anyway Lindsey Graham got on and what I liked was he actually used the number of fifty thousand so he used the number of fifty thousand in a hopeful way you know that he hoped we could find a way to get back to work and also you know keep desks under 50,000 and as soon as I heard it like I I was reminded again why I like Lindsey Graham so much I know I know you can all find something that time he did the thing and he didn't agree with the thing and he voted wrong and you know I get it you can find a thousand things to say that you don't like about Lindsey Graham he's been around a while so he's probably done something to annoy everybody but I got to tell you yet when it comes to messaging and

[15:31]

it comes to messaging and sort of a clear-eyed view of things and being able to explain things in a persuasive way you know he's got that at that attorney gene you know that he just knows how to put things and when I heard him throw out that number what I immediately felt is that he was laying cover for the president which is exactly what you should be doing we should all be laying cover for the president you know forget about the Republican Democrat thing it doesn't matter who the president is it's that's irrelevant you know forget the politics forget who the president is we're being asked to make a decision in which some of us will die we owe the president a little cover that we've we've really understood the risk and collectively we talked about it there's some kind of consensus and ideally the president and the experts would work with that consensus to come

[16:33]

would work with that consensus to come up with something that makes sense for everybody so I know there's at least a little bit of support for the idea that the public should be involved in in figuring out where do we go back to work I guess rush limbaugh mentioned mentioned my tweet on that topic today and he didn't say too much about he was just mentioning it I think in a in a way that he thought his audience would be interested in he didn't say much about it in terms of opinion but just the fact that he thought it was important enough to mention it on the show to 20 million people suggests that it's worthy of consideration right so I'm not gonna say rush like this so therefore you should like it it doesn't work that way but certainly with somebody of his stature if he says this is worth you seeing it's

[17:33]

if he says this is worth you seeing it's probably worth you saying so that was good because you know I come up with a lot of ideas and it's hard to know it's hard to judge your own output you have to look at something objective so until it gets a little traction in some way with somebody who's credible I don't necessarily think I have anything but let me let me go a little bit deeper on this all right this is gonna be kind of fun you'll like this next part and I'm going to use a trick that a that a drug dealer taught me and I've talked about this before but it's such a perfect way to prime you for the next next part of what I'm gonna talk about that if you've heard this before I I'm sorry but you got hear it again it goes like this so what I'm gonna do is tell you a little story about solving the psychology of something and then I'm gonna extend that to getting back to work is really about solving a psychology problem as much as a as a health problem so let's say you were in

[18:35]

health problem so let's say you were in college hypothetically and you and your friend put in some money and you bought some some marijuana marijuana and you wanted to divide it up because you just go you know one little quantity of it but you're you don't have a scale so how do you how do you divide it up in a way that you're both happy that you got half now you say to yourself well if you make it look about right that's good right well back in the day when I learned this trick there were things called seeds in your marijuana and lots of twigs and leaves and some of the buds were better than others and you couldn't really look at two piles and really know which one was the good one because there were a little too many variables going on it's less true today but in those days and so what is the site what is the trick you know what's the hack to make both

[19:37]

you know what's the hack to make both people happy that they both got a good deal when you can't measure it and you can't even tell by looking at it and you don't want people later to think and I think the other one got the good one and here's the trick it's so simple that you laughs and the trick is this one person divides the two pile all alone and then the second person picks a pile that's it it solves every problem because the first person is only going to divide them in a way that that person thinks looks fair so that person doesn't care which one he picked because that person thinks they were divided fairly the person who picks gets their choice so if perchance they thought one was better than the other just pick it now there's there's a second part of this story the the person who shall be remain nameless a college friend of mine taught me not only that trick but this

[20:40]

taught me not only that trick but this next thing which you know how sometimes very little things stick in your mind forever it's just the smallest interaction and it just rewires your brain forever and that happened the first time that that we did this trick so the two of us divided it up and I was the divider so I was the one to go first so I divided him into two piles and here's what my friend and ex classmate at college taught me next so he was supposed to come over and pick the pile that looked good he walked over and then conspicuously without looking chose one by just scooping it off the table until you know whatever so ii ii ii thing he taught me was that once i had divided the piles he didn't need to look at him and it was just one of those little moments where you realized that what he taught you is that he also trusted you

[21:43]

taught you is that he also trusted you and he didn't even need to look it was such just minor little just the smallest little interaction but i remembered it from the rest of my life because it was just the you know display of trust that I wasn't expecting anyway so here we have the psychology problem of going back to work because any way you look at it we have to decide how many people are gonna die and so I would suggest this mechanism for for having a decision that incorporates what the public wants and thinks has been fairly considered a system that they can support even if it's not exactly the way they would have done it because that's the important thing you want the decision to be made in a way that even the people who disagree with it agree that the way it was made was fair that's what elections get you at least fair elections even the people who lose go ah yeah but at least

[22:44]

people who lose go ah yeah but at least that election was fair so I'll support the system I'll just try harder next time so you need a good system alright here's the system that I would suggest I think the public needs to take the lead in deciding who goes back first and in what order so in other words the public should be presenting to to the administration or vice versa maybe they could flow some ideas and let the public react but the public needs to weigh in on what order of things we think were comfortable with and then also what level of death were comfortable with and then ideally the government would tell us when to go back to achieve below that level of death so there would be two separate decisions you'd let the experts you know the foul cheese and the doctor burps and stuff you'd let them tell you

[23:45]

burps and stuff you'd let them tell you when to go but you would tell them what you want to achieve so the public would say collectively you know just let's say we really deal with it and a consensus emerges that we'd like to keep it under fifty thousand deaths net you know the 50,000 new no worse than years before we'd sort of like to go in in this order and and then foul she says when so we say we want to keep it under 50,000 and then the modelers come back and foul she and dr. Brooks look at it and we go okay the public has spoken they will accept up to but not more than 50,000 deaths give me a model that tells that tells you when to go back to work to get to that now of course you have this problem where you might have to try something and pull back and you might have to do that multiple times I read something

[24:46]

that multiple times I read something from somebody smart this said likely what's going to happen is will probably try things and pull back try things and pull back so there might be a lot of throttling but at least we'd be edging forward I think so that is my suggested process public says what order to go in and how many deaths we accept and then the experts say when to go back to work to achieve the level that the public decided and you and then you take then you take Trump and of the decision of who dies and how many died just not fair it's not a good system to have the the leader the person who is supposed to protect all of us to be put in a position of deciding which of us die you know in in the military context of course has to do it but not in this not in the civilian context all right so I mentioned today that I saw this chart that I thought was bogus and I asked

[25:50]

that I thought was bogus and I asked people to look at it it was a chart that showed or seemed to show that the compared to prior years the number of pneumonia I guess diagnoses where was it deaths deaths I think maybe the number of pneumonia deaths seemed to go up like normal and then suddenly around January just fell sharply off and it's never done that before and then the implication being that maybe some things are being Mis Mis coded as coronavirus that any other year would have just been pneumonia so I don't have an opinion about that but I said that my BS detector said it was probably faked so a bunch of people looked at it in the comments and here's the conclusion I don't know I'm not sure I'm not sure but I can tell you that 1d bunker said reproduce the graph by putting in the

[26:51]

reproduce the graph by putting in the data on the same day as in prior years and it showed that all of the all of the other years would have shown the same decline if it had the same lag of data and they did and they actually did have that lag so if you had looked at those other years the same day they also temporarily would have looked like they were sloping down but once all the data came in that's the slope would go away so 1d bunker using the database the same data from the the people who produced it showed pretty clearly I thought that you know it was debunked it was just a lag in the data situation but because it's the Internet and because it's 2020 was that the end of the conversation no it was that the D bunker was immediately debunked so there was the graph I was suspicious of there was a D bunker who

[27:53]

suspicious of there was a D bunker who had a very solid debunking of it followed by a D bunker of the D bunker and then as these things always go I sort of lost interest and I couldn't quite follow the argument after that so I'm not quite sure if the D bunker or the D bunker of the debunker won the argument I'm still leaning toward the debunk so I still think it's fake it might be real data I'm not saying the data is wrong but there might be an artifact in there of time lag and you know it's just the day that it was measured it's not that it was wrong per se Joe Biden did another little video in which he referred to our leader as a president strong Snickers Snickers that's the cat you always bark at the cat you act like stickers you act you act

[29:03]

you act like stickers you act you act like you've never seen the cat of course you've seen the cat every day so he's the same cat you need not barked alright I think we got that sorted out back to me yeah so Joe Biden referred to our leader as presidents Trump he corrected it but how many times is he gonna mispronounce a world leaders name before Alyssa Milano says they've had enough so the other funny thing is that well it's funny tragic or funny interesting I don't know it's not funny in the and the haha way but still interesting so yeah I I'm not on the side of most of you who are watching this I think based on what I know about my viewers many of you had a

[30:04]

know about my viewers many of you had a have a negative opinion of her political activism but I don't I don't agree with her positions in many cases but I liked the fact that she is sincere and trying to help and her intentions are good and she puts in the work and she's got skin in the game and I just I just respect activism if people have good intentions and she does but she got a kind of trapped by running out of candidates that were sentient beings so she sort of by default because she can't be a Republican and I guess she doesn't want to sit it out cuz she's sort of an activist so she needs to have a candidate as he was left with whatever's left of Joe Biden who I believe is a saddlebag full of old letters and she's she's doing her best she's doing her best to be supportive

[31:05]

she's doing her best to be supportive and I think they she said she's known him for years so I guess they're you know they have some kind of personal connection that goes back for a while so I guess I admire her loyalty but she has to know what's going on right she has to know cuz we all know there's nobody who doesn't know that he's not up for the job and again I'm not making a Democrat versus Republican comment whatsoever you know if you told me you know Andrew Cuomo was gonna be the candidate I would say well pretty strong choice that'd be interesting at least at least we'd have some real competition then so it's not like I'm gonna you know mock every Democrat or something if anybody's new to my my periscopes that's not what I'm about but I mean seriously Joe Biden doesn't matter what party were talking about he's just not capable it's

[32:08]

talking about he's just not capable it's obvious but she's doing her best to defend him and then it just gives worse so then there's this you know me to allegation against Joe Biden for something that allegedly happened years ago and the problem of course is that the allegation has every hallmark of credibility you know as these things are judged because you know the story held together it's clear that you could put them in the same room apparently she told people about it at the time and they and they they back up the story so it doesn't mean any of it happened right so that's that's not how it works but it does mean that it meets the at least the initial tests where according to the rules of me to somebody who is a an activist should be backing the woman's story in every other situation you'd expect that to be true but Alyssa Milano has she's decided to choose loyalty over

[33:12]

has she's decided to choose loyalty over consistency I guess which is yeah I again I don't even criticize that I'm not even gonna criticize her for choosing loyalty or even choosing if she decides that an old saddlebag full of letters is a better president than president Trump and yeah maybe looking a strong vice president so it'll all be fine you know whatever she's thinking I don't even criticize it but what a position to be in like I feel so bad for her cuz again she puts into work like she's worked so hard to you know to be you know part of the influence you know to be a positive you know positive force in society and then she gets trapped defending Joe Biden and then he gets a me-too thing that she's gotta she still hanging in there god bless her anyway president said that

[34:14]

god bless her anyway president said that he's gonna put a hold on the funding for the World Health Organization I tell you this president knows knows what's popular because putting a hold of the the World Health Organization funding is very popular right now cuz I don't know what's up with that group but it's not good there's something rotten there but here's the part that I found the best you know do you remember when people made fun of president Trump's simple speaking style you know it was simple half sentences and there's repetition and using simple words and stuff but it is so powerful that I swear when when I'm watching him sometimes I mean he does a lot of talking in public and I'm not gonna say it's all it's all brilliant but he has flashes of brilliance and flashes of humor that

[35:14]

brilliance and flashes of humor that really are special and this made me laugh when he was talking about putting the funding hold on the World Health Organization you guys were putting a hold on it it's a powerful hold a powerful hold was that what makes a hold on funding powerful because all you have to do is tell the Treasury not to write a check is there a weak form of that what's the weak form of putting on the hold well minuchin maybe you could consider like I don't know maybe slowing down ish maybe putting a hold on the funding well would that be the opposite of a powerful hold or is a powerful holds like venusian we shouldn't get over here put down your briefcase manoosh you come over here you put a hold on those funds I'm not talking about a regular hold I'm talking about an extra duty hold I'm

[36:15]

talking about an extra duty hold I'm talking about metal platinum silver gold we're going for everything this is the hold of all holes this must be powerful I'm talking 220 volts serious power hook it up to the Tesla and floor it powerful powerful hold some other news that's no news at all but it's interesting is that adviser Peter Navarro we're learning now wrote a letter warning about the dangers of the coronavirus back at the end of January I think January 29th was the key letter and so the so the press is trying to turn this into a story but there isn't one there and they keep poking and prodding and slicing but no matter how they look at it and no matter what kind of light they shine on it there's literally nothing there now there's new

[37:16]

literally nothing there now there's new information but they're looking for you know who did some wrong or who didn't listen to somebody or was there an internal debate there I mean they're looking for some meat but here's the best they can get and the president's doing a good job of you know swatting this fly away here's the problem Navarro was completely right because now some time is going by and we can see that anybody who is warning about it in a dire way at the end of January they were among the people who were the most right most early now I beat him by a few days but who's bragging I am but Navarro was right and so now because it's hindsight we could say totally right like that guy that guy totally nailed the risk and he he warned and tried to warn the right people now the president said he didn't see the memo which I think you could conflate with you know didn't remember it it

[38:19]

with you know didn't remember it it could have been summarized to him could have been summarized to him from another aide who forgot to mention what the memo was from somebody could said hey Pete Navarro says this but then the president forgets who said it first yeah there so there are a million possibilities that are reasonable explanations of why the president doesn't have a specific memory you've seen letter he's a busy guy a lot of opinions flying around there so they're trying to find something that's wrong with the timing except Navarro's letter warning about it happened to be just about exactly the same time that the president closed closed the flights from China so there's just no space to find the disagreement because even though Trump says he wasn't aware of Navaro his opinion he says navara was really smart and he was thinking the same thing at the same time and it's obvious that he was because he acted on it he closed closed the flights so

[39:20]

it he closed closed the flights so there's just nothing there but man watching the press pick it away at this is like if we get the you this maybe describe it differently we can find something in the way you're saying it that it was just somebody should have done something differently in the past as if it matters now but it doesn't alright I'm gonna take some questions I believe my technology will work let's see who is waiting to ask me a question and if you've been here for a while you may be thinking that you're surprised that you're gonna be added Harrison do you have a question for me hello Harrison Scott is gone good good do you have questions for me yeah do a quick question on skill stacks I know something you talked about a lot of curious if there are any emerging skills within a skill stack that you're seeing happen over the past couple of

[40:21]

seeing happen over the past couple of years that you might anticipate being important in the future persuasion I would say persuasions the big skill stack and I'm a big fan of design because you can learn the basics of design sort of 80% of it in about an hour it's the other 20% they have to go to school for four years four but you could get the basics because we're all designers now we're all you got to build a website you got a comment and somebody's after developing you know you've got to put together a PowerPoint slide deck so yeah so I'd say design and persuasion you know communication and writing in general writing and speaking but did you notice that because of the coronavirus you've got all these people doing video stuff like I'm doing now and
did you notice how many people are not good at oh yeah yeah and even the people who were experts at being on TV let's

[41:23]

who were experts at being on TV let's say a Joe Biden if he put Joe Biden in a classic you know television situation he performs well but that little bit of transition into the live streaming world with just just that little bit of difference in what it is you found that some people can do it and some can't and watching the watching the people who can make the transition who can't so I think the world of appearing on video is going to be far more important obviously because we'll do be doing more remote stuff and people who are good on video will have a big advantage so I think I think learning to do this like literally what I'm doing right now learning to do this even if you're just talking to your core kurz are presenting to a customer or something it's probably gonna be one of the biggest skills because talking on on a camera situation is different than talking in person different than writing a memo etc alright so anyway thanks

[42:23]

a memo etc alright so anyway thanks thanks okay can I follow that up with how do you weigh that with kind of a quantitative skill set so quantitative economics the the real financial modeling that comes with that it's required to actually present the information and visual perspective where do you weigh that in terms of importance well it's not so much importance it has more to do with fit so it'd be like saying what's the important ingredient of your minestrone soup and the answer is well what makes it good is that they're sort of all together as it's the blend that makes it good it's not because the beans were so so awesome so that's why your skills that guess it's it's not that there's some boss of all skills that you know you should just always start with this one and number two should always be this one I like to start with whatever you're already good at and say all right that's my base stuff the stuff I'm already good at what can I add to that that quickly gets me to a superpower but you know in general

[43:24]

to a superpower but you know in general I think economics and business are good to add to every skill stack as is persuasion and communication there's some that go there just always are good you know adding design communication those sorts of things to anything is good alright thank you thank you let's see once we got here we've got James see what James has to say
James James do you have a question James James why do you have a question James is gone I never know if somebody just hits the wrong button or they get they get camera shy let's see if people named Charlie are never shy that's my rule Charlie well Charlie disappeared so I

[44:28]

Charlie well Charlie disappeared so I guess that that ruled in lasts very love let's see if James wants to talk James James well James do you have a question James good
fantastic I I really really love that good but so before you were it's a question about how to control emotion how to stop myself from running away with like anger if you have a trick that's similar to the 22nd yeah let me tell you the bad way to do it the way I did it most of my life is I would break something and observers would be very upset because I'd have just some frustration about nothing important yeah just some out of the printers out of

[45:29]

just some out of the printers out of paper or something is the last straw and I'd find that if I just like smash something to pieces something that wasn't expensive yeah it was something I wasn't gonna miss not my computer or something like that but just break that crap out of something or let's say your printer is old and you're thinking of replacing you there anyway well I'd throw it at a second-story window that sort of thing and I found that it would instantly take my stress away in a way that I don't think anybody could understand if they were observing because it would look like I was so mad as soon as I break something I go Oh like you know all these endorphins just fill me and I'm just completely good after that now the problem with that is it scares the heck out of the paths and anybody else in the house so don't do that it was very selfish thing because it worked really well but you can't do it if you're a social creature in the world so let me give you some more practical advice some of it is from Mel Gibson

[46:31]

advice some of it is from Mel Gibson actor Mel Gibson now you may have your opinions about Mel Gibson but he had this one little tip or at least I heard it from him they learned an acting school and an acting school they taught him that if he wanted to to portray an emotion that the way to get into that emotion is to breathe the way that you would breathe in that situation so if you wanted to get you know bring yourself into a state of let's say anxiety because you know that the ghosts are chasing you or something you would breathe the way you would breathe if you were in that situation and that puts the rest of your body into that mode it triggers it so but that can work the other way as well so if you concentrate on your breathing let's say you're starting to get angry and you just go and you say okay how would I breathe if I wanted to not be angry like I'll just pretend to breathe like a not angry person and what will happen is it makes you not angry because

[47:32]

happen is it makes you not angry because your your your mood and your attitude is so so automatically connected to your breathing and you don't know it you know in a conscious level you're not aware of it but if you move one it moves the other because they're almost handcuffed together so that's a little trick so you just go right to your breathing you don't have to you don't have to breathe let me say it this way all you have to do is pretend to be relaxed and do like you're an actor just pretend to breathe freely and you will the other thing I find is that when you're angry your your body tenses up so sometimes you sometimes you just have to you know broaden your shoulders and stretch your back you know move your neck around and just take the take the tension out of your body sometimes you just got to walk I find that you know the the general tension level you can take off you know 20% just by taking a nice walk

[48:33]

you know 20% just by taking a nice walk by yourself with no tension and then everything's easier you're not going to get that mad in the first place so in the comments we have another suggestion a couple of bomb hits but that would be up to you and your doctor so those are the big things and the others just practice you know I I definitely have a quick temper you've probably some of you have seen them but here's the thing you need to know I never let my temper get that high unless it has utility so if I'm doing it on periscope it's because it's something I I'm especially interested in making an impression over so I let it go but I'm conscious of ramping it up and renting it down and so I always feel I'm in control of it even if it doesn't look look that way so it's very intentional if I let myself in fact you've seen it

[49:33]

if I let myself in fact you've seen it happen you've probably seen it where I warn you that there's some swearing coming at the time that I'm warning you I have not ramped up to full anger yet I just know it I just know I can and so once I've warned people to send the children away I just let myself go and I can I can feel a raising like a like a temperature going up 200 and I can do it almost instantly but I can also you know bring it back down pretty quickly so it's not it's not too scary what it happens anyway I hope that helped a little bit absolutely thank you so much I'll try that all right here there's a good question let's see what Kathy has to say Kathy how are you
do you have a question free I do so three years ago a friend of mine was here we were having

[50:35]

a friend of mine was here we were having a pool party and she left a bag of marijuana and I placed it under an ottoman in this baggie under enter an ottoman in my back rustic room next to it fake pine tree true story and I the other day I remembered it was there and I pulled it out and looked at it because it's probably been 25 years since I've smoked I looked at it and it's all these buds and it looks drier than dry though I was wondering yeah what do you do throw a leaf of moist lettuce in there and let it sit overnight or because I'm thinking if there's ever a time to get crazy well I I would of course being responsible I never I never recommend anything like that that's for your doctor I thought

[51:37]

that that's for your doctor I thought I'll answer this scientifically so the scientific answer is this in all likelihood it still has potency I don't know if it's a hundred percent but I'm sure it would get the job done no does good doesn't it more important and assuming that it was sealed and in the bags and nothing there were no bad things that got in there in all likelihood the dryness will just affect the flavor but nothing else is my guess so so if you don't care about the flavor not too much no not at this point I don't think I think we have enough flavor going on so that's so somebody's suggesting cooking it but I never suggest that because everybody I know who's had a bad experience it was from animals yeah I get why I don't I understand you know the advantage

[52:38]

understand you know the advantage but the disadvantages are pretty big all right no if it was still or if it was gonna pop snap you know crack blow up in my face that kind of thing I I'm not a doctor I can't I can't wreck recommend there's safer now safe all saying the only thing I know for sure is that it would still be potent that's the only thing I could be sure you're welcome all right bye okay getting interesting questions tonight let's see what Brian has to say Brian do you have a question for me right now they especially had a failed almost everything was was amazing I thought thank you you're welcome

[53:40]

I thought thank you you're welcome but the thing that occurred to me actually is when you talked about the two like the two screens thing with they're gonna debate for the end of time is this a real problem or did we actually stop the problem and so it's not like not a lot of deaths manifested did we dodged a major bullet by having the persuasive power of a conservative president Trump instead of a president Hillary because in my mind a president Hillary Clinton could never could never convince conservatives to not think that this was a government takeover oh yeah are you going well yes but I'm not sure you can give the president that kind of credit because you know he just happens to be a Republican and it just happened to you know do what he did but but you're right if this is if a if Obama let's say had asked everybody to stay home and crash the economy you're right I don't know if conservatives would have gone along for

[54:41]

conservatives would have gone along for the ride so he already pasted them and he pasted the conservatives trust him more than probably
well and the other thing he has going for him which nobody's talking about and I don't know why which is that it's entirely possible he bankrupted himself to save the country or you know to save you know a million people or whatever and I don't know if that does so first of all I don't know if he's gonna bankrupt Trump properties but it looks like all the you know the Resort Hotel properties are gonna struggle but you know we hope they do okay but the fact that without even blinking without even blinking at least you know in public we didn't see it I think he I think he destroyed his entire family business to save people he doesn't doesn't know now and that's one of the greatest stories

[55:42]

and that's one of the greatest stories but of course the way things are well we'll never see it that way it'll always be cast in some you know small selfish way but if things work out the way I think and here's the other thing that I haven't seen anybody say I always say that there's no such thing as bad presidents and good presidents with the exception of Jimmy Carter it should be Carter might have been a bad president but rather I say that by the time anybody gets to be elected president they have a certain skill set you know they're not idiots so is more about the certain personality and skill set being matched to the time you know is that the right person in the right time I thought Obama was actually a good president for his time he was well well sued but what would be the best president in the world for recovering quickly from a pandemic I'm sorry say what you will about you know president

[56:43]

what you will about you know president Trump make your criticisms whatever you want but there is no president you can even imagine who is more suited for the moment the moment being the moment after we get back to work the moment where he has to convince us that everything's okay and getting better because it's that convincing us that everything okay that makes it okay literally the psychology of the economy is what will make it or break it and we've never had a better salesman for the economy now his critics will say hey you're lying you're exaggerating you're missing the facts it's hyperbole and he'll look right at you and say and it's working right I'm a cheerleader for the economy he said that you said it like several times this week I'm a cheerleader for the country I'm not gonna apologize for it I'm gonna keep doing it because it works and guess what it works it totally works even when people say well I think

[57:44]

works even when people say well I think he's exaggerating a little bit he's still talking happy talk he's still you know convincing enough people he doesn't have to convince every person the things are going right but if he convinces enough people it starts movement and then the other people say well looks like things are going in this good direction so anyway I think he's a perfect president for the next moment in the same way that I've said if I'm being honest he was not the perfect president for the very initial stages of this in the in the empathy and you know making sure that the country knew he was feeling the right feelings and stuff he wasn't perfect for that but man is he perfect for this this next part so that's actually gonna be fun I'm looking forward to just watching that thankfully

[58:49]

thank you so much take care all right we're gonna do one more and then I'm gonna go we're gonna take Patrice yes Patrice has good technology and strong Wi-Fi Patrice hello do you have a question for me Patrice yes so um first thing yeah thanks for your books and periscopes you you make me and everyone I talk to feel so much better about all of this going on my question is do you think that face masks are really like going to be in our future and permanently I always hated looking at these poor Asian countries and thinking oh they gotta have these masks and I really I'll tell you what you know we don't like things stuck to our face but suppose we got used to it you know I've worn glasses all my life now the first you know a week or two that you wear glasses for the first time it's pretty annoying it's hard to get

[59:49]

it's pretty annoying it's hard to get used to it but I'd say at this point in my life I'm completely unaware of it so you can kind of get used to things so that's the first question could we get used to wearing masks maybe not exactly the masks that are on the market but let's say let's say them the market started delivering better masks view that's a fashion sense and maybe so I'm a seamstress and I'm kind of looking at you know I've been waiting for studies of efficacy about what to make that's actually helpful and I'm also kind of thinking well maybe I could take advantage of the fact that this might be around for a while and you know I could I could I have something I can offer the world you know well I don't know how long it'll be and of course the big companies will jump in and you know take all the profit margin and eventually but the years where I was going with this and by the way hello Christina I saw you sneaking in there my fiance just came on watching us so here's where I think have

[1:00:51]

watching us so here's where I think have you noticed that we're we're slowly moving toward becoming cyborgs because you know I I've done this example before so first of all you know cyborg is part machine for a human so already I have you know corrective lenses and someday they'll have you know augmented reality in them I've already got my you know my ear buds so you know if I have these in their microphones and earphones and I can see the mask turning in to have more more functions it would be easy to imagine that a mask is just always clear cleaning the air I mean I can imagine them building in a little lie electronics so that you're actually breathing cleaner air than the air that's in the room I could imagine having a microphone built into the mask so that you could talk on the phone and it would be muffled enough that the people around you couldn't even hear you which would be really cool I don't know if that's even possible but it'd be really cool so the the long version is we are slowly turning into cyborgs and I am convinced

[1:01:52]

turning into cyborgs and I am convinced that whether these regular face masks last or not there's gonna be just more augmentation than the head and you know arm and leg area you know everywhere we can add some advantage in technology and adaptation I think we will so I think Mass will be around probably for a year and be a fun thing for you to you know rip off a few good mask I would put I would go for an American flag keep it you know keep it you know patriotic yeah there's one way but you know everybody's gonna want their own version of it so you know have fun with it anyway that's all for tonight I am going to wind it up now thank you for the question and want to see if let me see if Cristina

[1:02:52]

Cristina why don't you ask to be invited on there's a guest so I can bring you on well I don't think that's going to happen all right that's it for tonight I will see you in the morning and I will hope you have a great night