Episode 977 Scott Adams: Ego Management, SPOX Level Absurd, Talent Stacks and Fun

Date: 2020-05-16 | Duration: 34:13

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Content: The concept of “a little bit wrong” Dan Bongino’s talent stack is extraordinary Kayleigh McEnany is next-level brilliant at slaughtering the press Project Warp Speed vaccine to be delivered by the military

If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topics to build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:07]

hey everybody come on in do you ever have one of those days when all the little stuff just doesn't seem to work right well having one of those but I'm gonna be out of it soon watch this if that printer makes a noise now print print well let me tell you what kind of a day is bad do you have these days where every little thing doesn't work I I had this weird day where everything that was big and important worked really well today so on all the big parts of my life sort of a crazy good day but every little thing didn't work you know every device didn't work didn't have a battery the printers not working neither computers working I'm trying to print out some notes I was just having some

[1:07]

out some notes I was just having some popcorn with Christina and it was like we popped this corn and the special little popper and I'm like really looking forward to it and the popcorn goes on the floor and I'm thinking what are those days but it won't last have you noticed that you get in those you have those days when you are not relaxed so watch this correlation this will be the freakiest thing you've ever heard right now right now when you hear it it won't be freaky when you first hear it maybe but eventually you're gonna have a moment when you think back to it and it's gonna go like this when your environment is not is not conforming to you you know every little thing doesn't work is that a place is just off one it's out of paper the battery's gone the car is out of gas and all he said once it always happens when you're in a certain frame of mind and that frame of mind is if you're tense when you're

[2:09]

mind is if you're tense when you're tense everything goes wrong now ask yourself this after you've watched there for a few years this will take a few years to sink in after you've watched it for a few years ask yourself if you're making it happen now when I say make it happen I don't necessarily mean at the the real level of reality but maybe the the bubble that you put around yourself can either be a happy one or not happy maybe you maybe you just always have the same amount of problems and you just don't notice have you ever noticed that you have the same amount of problems but sometimes they don't bother you sometimes you just put paper in the printer sometimes you just put gas in the car go on with your day so ask yourself how much of it are you bringing on yourself all right we got a bunch of cool things to talk about how many of you saw my obnoxious posting that I just did let's put something in front of this light there we go much

[3:10]

front of this light there we go much better so I posted a picture of Snickers on Twitter and there's more to this story so that's the fun part it'll lead them to something else so the picture shows me reaching down to pet Snickers and you may have seen that there was sort of a big reaction to it and of course that was some more planned so there are two elements of this picture besides Snickers who's popular there are two elements of it that tell a story one is that people quite rightly said hey are you really showing that because you're armless looks muscular in the picture and the answer is yes the second part of that is hey are you sort of humble bragging because you have an elevator in your house and you took the picture at the elevator and the answer is I didn't really think about that that was just where the lighting was good but I didn't think it was a problem now here's what you want to learn from this

[4:11]

here's what you want to learn from this if you want to build a following on Twitter or if you're in some creative world or even if you're in the business world the person who stands out is the one who gets all the attention what our and let me tie this to another point about ego now knowing that I would be mocked for putting that there was it worth it because I knew that people would say hey you you arrogant whatever are you just bragging because you you were working out during the coronavirus now since I knew that it would be that kind of reaction and the trolls would be all over me and they'd mock me and they'd say bad things about you know my fiance everything that actually happened and of course I knew that would happen why did I do it so why did I do it if I knew it was going to get people worked up and people would be like a little jealous that I have an elevator and they might be you know you think you're so arrogant and the answer is the answer is

[5:17]

arrogant and the answer is the answer is because it works it's a little bit of wrong so dr. Carmen Simon I talk about her sometimes she's an expert on memory if you want somebody to remember you or to remember your PowerPoint slides or to remember anything about you or to remember your product to remember just anything the only way to do that is novelty and the best kind of novelty is when somebody processes something as a little bit wrong but not so wrong they have to do something about it so when when people saw that picture there was it was very much designed so that would people say this is bothering me a little bit and I don't know why I don't know that this was really appropriate for him to do that is he is he trying to make me think that he's showing the muscle or is he trying to make me think that it's accidental so I created a situation with this

[6:17]

so I created a situation with this picture entirely intentionally in which you would have many questions and it just you know brings energy my way now there are three people that I want you to consider and I'm going to give you a strange thought one is me one it is President Trump and the other is Mike certain I like using Mike for lots of examples he fits into lots of examples for some reason and think about what if you were to think of the three of us what qualities would you imagine we have in common now I'm not looking for compliments like blah blah they're looking for a negative quality what what seemingly negative quality would be coming to me President Trump and Mike sort of itch now no positive qualities obnoxious good you're going in the right direction ego arrogance brag a lot good abrasive

[7:22]

ego arrogance brag a lot good abrasive bragging braggarts ego cocky that's the word I was looking for so all of those words were in that that that same general alright so I guess I shouldn't have been worried that you wouldn't know what I was talking about I guess I didn't have to worry that you wouldn't know what we have in common all right here's the here's the kicker I would propose to you that when you look at the three of us or individually and you say there there's a show-off there's somebody who has an ego problem or there's something wrong with their ego or they need to feed their ego or they have thin skin I would suggest to you that is exactly the opposite and that what the three of us really have in common is we can do any thing in the world right in front of you and we don't care that's what we have in common and that is exactly the opposite of an

[8:26]

and that is exactly the opposite of an ego an ego would have prevented you from doing the picture I just talked about because you would have said to yourself Oh somebody's gonna think I'm kind of a douche did that stop being it did not it did not because I wasn't worried about what anybody thought of me because it's not an ego thing so I would say that in CERN of itch and I operate on almost an an energy level which is if you can move energy where you want it that's all you needed to do if you're worried about the details you're worried about the wrong stuff and that and that when you see somebody who can embarrass themselves in front of you time after time after time do you think that Trump is worried about being embarrassed I mean he he does more more things that bring him more scorn and criticism than anybody you've ever seen in your entire life he seems to be able to brush it off

[9:26]

life he seems to be able to brush it off now you say to yourself but Scott there is so much reporting the president Trump is thin-skinned and it really gets gets in his head and when he gets criticized he's really angry and stuff really who is it who's inside his head who knows that let me give you an alternate explanation for everything you see with Trump he's competitive explains every observation if you're competitive and you have a bad day let's say the bad day is you have bad headlines so the news didn't go your way if you're simply competitive how do you feel about it pretty worked up you might swear you might get angry you might raise your game it might be part of like building yourself up to perform better but a competitor gets angry about being behind on the score is that ego is a ego to be

[10:29]

on the score is that ego is a ego to be competitive and say alright but this is the game if we're all competitive than you have capitalism if we're all competitive if you have you know a democratic system there's nothing wrong with being competitive I even tell my I even tell the leaders of other countries you should be competitive because I'm going to be competitive so if you listen to the way Trump talks about competition it's very clear that he sees things as competition which is a very different model then my ego has been damaged my god on thin-skinned I must lash out that's just that's just the CNN MSNBC you know baloney story so I would suggest to you that being able to take great deal of criticism is sort of a superpower and that I am fully aware that some I don't know large percentage of the people watching this just got really turned off by me doesn't matter no because I would prefer especially

[11:31]

no because I would prefer especially since this is an entertainment medium that the that whatever energy that created I prefer the energy so few people loved it right I'll bet a few of you loved it when you heard me twist the ego thing around to just competition somebody you said oh that's not for me I don't get this guy totally good trade off because I'll always take the the positive energy let the negative energy do elsewhere let me talk about some people who are really getting the talent stack thing right lately if you haven't watched if you're not watching dan bungee know this week oh my god you're missing the show oh so Dan bungee no of course I would say one of the one of if not the most capable person for explaining everything about the you know the legalities and the ins and outs of the Obama gate you know Russia collusion etc but because

[12:32]

know Russia collusion etc but because you but because events have gone his way
it's especially good and today I saw it today I don't know I think Iran today I won't give away his latest thing but he sounded discrepancy in this whole unmasking thing that you have to hear now he doesn't yet have nor does anybody I think have the the direct evidence like the thaw thing but man he's so close he's so close that he can see it and smell it and he's sort of a predator you know I think some people are just predators and because he's so close to his prey that he's been you he's basically you know stalking this prey for what three years or something and you can see his eyes are gigantic because he's almost there it's almost there anyway what I wanted to say is Dan buns you know impresses me on a whole

[13:32]

buns you know impresses me on a whole bunch of levels but the main one is that he's he's it's clear from just observation I think you'll agree with us that he's built a talent stack that's ridiculous because he isn't just you know good on TV he's you know he's obviously into fitness and stuff so it keeps his energy high he knows how to you know be fit it gives him charisma gives him gives him everything you need on TV you know you could obviously you can see he's learning like politics he's added that on top of his analysis of you police enforcement and how the government works and stuff he's just watching it layering he's just layering skill on top of skill you just see him doing it in real time and you and I just go well that's exactly how you do it like if you want to be something in this world and I take he does you say to yourself what's it cost I've told you this before the best advice you'll ever get something I heard from some rich guy can't remember his name you said that if

[14:33]

can't remember his name you said that if you want to be successful find out the price and then pay it now you think to yourself well can it be that easy no the hard part is paying it that's the hard part it's easy to know what to do the hard part is doing it but apparently did but you know can do it because it doesn't seem to be too hard for him to just keep building those skills on top of skills on top of skills so it's just it's a pleasure to watch honestly now if you were to pick if you were to say what was the one thing that Dan bungee who does better than anybody else that's the magic nothing the magic is nothing but you put together that combination and who could do who could do the show that he did today maybe nobody maybe nobody I mean Hannity's the energies got an incredible talent stack as well but he's sort of a different vibe so he found a way to make himself special make himself provocative

[15:34]

himself special make himself provocative build skills BAM let's talk about Cayley mcaveeney Cayley mackaninee I can never remember her name she's go to those names that sounds too much like other things that I have to really go through my categorization in my head where I store names I go oh that's one of those it's one of those was spelled differently which boxes I put that in and then I have to reassemble her name every time I try to think of her so she should change her name that's my advice so is it my imagination or is she just next-level I'm alright have you have you watched her first several appearances now I don't think Trump has ever made it better higher than that you know it took him a while to narrow down and by the way I think I thought all of his prior press secretaries were great like I know Sarah Sanders great I thought they were all

[16:35]

Sanders great I thought they were all great I didn't have a problem with him but she's a little bit next level and I was trying to figure out exactly why and I think it comes back to the talent stack because if you're trying to look for that one thing that she has again I don't know is there I don't think there's one thing that she's the best at but man did she put together a package of individual talents the one I haven't seen before is she has some kind of level of super preparation and organization so she's got some kind of a I don't know a a book of talking points or something except instead of being dumb talking points it's like kill shot after a kill shot I normally they have just talking points well the president sure loves the country he loves the country yes he does and anything you say that says the president does love the country well that's the faint news because he loves the country you know it's just you just think it's a bunch of nothing but I feel

[17:37]

think it's a bunch of nothing but I feel like every word that comes out of her mouth like lands like a dagger Wow that's not the sound of a dagger but I sort of combined a angry cat and a dagger so if you imagine a dagger that sounds like an angry cat I forget it but the point is and and I was also looking for technique so aside from the fact that she's so organized that when you can see the question is asked and you see this twinkle in her eye and then she turns the page and you know what's coming like she's she's created a pattern now it's like that there I swear that I think the reporters get afraid when they see this I'll try to for those of you who are watching on video I'll try to do it she'll be there waiting for the question yeah just smiling and then then she'll hear the question and she'll know it's one of the ones that she's got five zingers for it or prepared book and you see this this is just a little smile and then she looks dead in a book

[18:38]

then she looks dead in a book she turns one page and that's the funny part she never turns two pages she's always one page away from five kill shots and she just looks at you and she'll and then she looks down and you know it's gonna be it's gonna be five minutes of pain for the press because she was just she's just slaughtering them it's just not even fair and and the thing that well what was the thing she did today well the thing that she did today was was brilliant was so of course Trump gets blame for not being prepared enough and you know gosh darn the Obama administration left a whole detailed plan of what to do in a pandemic and it's all chaos and you know blah blah blah so Kael immaculately he goes out there and instead of doing this which you'd expect what you're expecting us she'd say no we did pretty well we actually performed well look at our ventilators like that's the normal thing right you just say no it wasn't that

[19:40]

right you just say no it wasn't that chaotic we did really well here's here's so several examples no she doesn't do that she says yeah we cleaned up Obama's mess what what she completely reframes it and to them cleaning up his mess now if that's all she had said without being able to back it up I would have said all right that's just sort of a clever framing that's it's not that clever right it's just that but she backs it up with this she talks about the supply chain now that's strong because the supply chain basically was the whole problem not only was it the problem getting the the PPE and and meds and everything else but it highlighted a problem with China just the whole China relationship so you know Obama not only was behind whatever was not good about the China relationship according to you know the Trump administration but also clearly

[20:42]

Trump administration but also clearly the bad guy in terms of the supply chain and our inability to get what we did so so instead of just defending that oh it wasn't that chaotic we got you all kinds of ventilators and stuff you know everything was fine she goes full out we had to clean up Obama's mess and then when you think you can't possibly support a claim that outrageous she says look at the supply chain and you go yeah that was bigger than everything else if you added up everything that the Trump administration did wrong if you took it all add it all up and multiplied it by ten it doesn't really come close to equaling the massive of the supply chain being in China I mean there's nothing that's really sort of it sort of like that that's that's fundamental so the fact that nobody had been able to pull that framing out yet until she popped it out so this is what

[21:45]

until she popped it out so this is what here's the bottom line generally when the press secretary for the president makes news isn't it usually the reporter who's making news right because the reporter gets the trick question in and then you know there's the awkward answer or the non answer or then the reporter doesn't a little star turn and everything so the press the the whole press event is supposed to be according to the reporters an event an event for them to shine and southern killing back in AD has turned it into an event for that for her to slaughter them on camera while we're all watching I mean she's basically turned that whole audience into a wet market I have a button the first person who ever said that because pretty proud of that anyway so the the the president has made two incredible hires recently one is you know Grinnell ambassador of Grinnell as

[22:45]

know Grinnell ambassador of Grinnell as Acting DNI and the other is his new his new Spock's so he's really on a roll for some of that stuff let me ask you do you believe I talked this morning about Sorento therapeutics saying that they have literally a cure for a corona virus and my thinking at the time I explained this morning was that no CEO of a company that recently turned down a billion-dollar offer so must be something to the company no CEO in that position would tell such a bold lie to the public and basically risk everything unless he thought it was true but you should do your homework on that company because let's just say I don't own that stock anymore now it's not because I have any specific reason to distrust them but after yeah

[23:45]

reason to distrust them but after yeah after owning the stock for a few hours and looking at it go up I said to myself do I want this free money which is laying on this table or do I want to find out in a few weeks that this wasn't quite what I thought it was because if you were to look at the big picture and say okay how often are things not the way you think that they should be or they don't turn out the way that you hope well it's most of the time isn't it sort of most of the time things don't work out right so anyway I got out of that stock don't take any advice from me I'm financial stuff I'm just giving you full disclosure because I mentioned it this morning I think it would be fair to say that what do you think about these Trump vaccines and they're gonna deliver them with the military they got a great name project warp-speed here's the here's the thing I like best about the plan I do like that it's sort of a Manhattan Project for vaccines because doesn't that feel right you know as of everybody been saying since the

[24:47]

everybody been saying since the beginning whenever there's a crisis somebody says well let's do a Manhattan Project of something I'm sure there's a Manhattan Project that will fix everything and there's something about knowing there's a Manhattan Project that makes you feel like you're getting some progress right so so Chuck does this Manhattan Project project called Project warp-speed where they're gonna you know the government is really going to go in and make sure that the vaccines are produced in volume even before they know they're tested and they work so pretty impressive but here's the best part the best part is that the president has if this works you know and I I'm a little skeptical that we'll have any kind of a working vaccine that quickly but let's say it does if it does what he's got lined up is that the military in his words it's gonna use every plane plane and truck and I don't know boat or

[25:48]

plane and truck and I don't know boat or whatever to deliver it so he's got the military lined up to just like blanket the country with the vaccine now there are probably other ways to deliver vaccine wouldn't you say probably other ways to do that like FedEx can get it to you tomorrow can't they I mean it can't be that hard to deliver a lot of vaccine with just our normal existing things but yeah you're ahead of me you're ahead of me what does the country need more than that like what would be cooler than the military delivering the frickin vaccines I don't care what that costs like you know that's the sort of thing where I'd say to myself shall we price that out because you know FedEx is pretty reasonable too and but in this case no no we should not price that out the military needs to deliver this it's just so perfect it's just so perfect I

[26:50]

just so perfect it's just so perfect I don't know what they think of it if they don't like it then I'll change my mind but I do love how I do love that visual if it's good for the country it's just good for the country
suicide is down in Japan remember I predicted the what I call the Cheryl theory you know Cheryl's law that when there's anything that's just a big change people pause what they were gonna do anyway and I and I thought that if the lockdown was brief you might actually see a reduction in suicides obviously the longer it goes that's gonna reverse and I'm sure we've gone long enough now that there's probably a crossover point we're probably passed unfortunately but in Japan suicides went down and I think I'm the only person who predicted it was even possible so we'll see if that holds in the United States there's too many things that are different but it would be worth looking

[27:51]

different but it would be worth looking at so I was thinking of zooming instead of periscoping I think I can do that right I think I can zoom and it still still goes to periscope I have to look into that because what I want to do is some split window stuff and I'm not sure if we're there yet all right those were the comments I was planning to make and what do I think in the LA mayor you know I don't think he's killing it I don't think he's killing it you know I don't live in Southern California so I'm not closer to that situation anybody have any questions anything else you'd like to oh I'm sorry I promised you something and I didn't deliver so let me deliver I promise to tell you why in a tweet I said that tonight I would tell you why even ugly music musicians have groupies

[28:52]

even ugly music musicians have groupies now the obvious answer why I'm ugly let's say ugly male male musician just to keep the visual now obviously they might be successful and rich and talented and those things would would appeal to people but there's something else I figured out that in the process of playing drums now I've talked to you a lot about how when you add talents to your talent stack sometimes the talents will have some weird intersection that opens up a door and you can see something clearly that you wouldn't have seen if you had one talent to the other but when you mash them together it's like oh you put these two together what am I saying and what the two that I put together intentionally is you know are no persuasion and I know what persuades and one of the big elements of persuasion one of the biggest by far is pacing and leaving pacing meaning matching your bodily your bodily rhythms your your

[29:52]

bodily your bodily rhythms your your breathing your emotion your posture matching you in any way matching the way you talk so you pay somebody that way just match them and then they more easily can be influenced because once they get comfortable with your same rhythm then you can sort of lead them that's the pacing and leading and that's what music is so music basically is the musician is pacing the audience until he can lead and once he could lead well your defenses are down and the the groupies and the groupies are coming so my my insight here if obviously it does make a difference that they're famous and talented and whatever so those things are attractive as well but I'm pretty sure that there's something about the music itself that makes musicians uniquely attractive to people because they've been pasted now here's the gears of the trick it's it's the same problem with you know hypnosis as it is with

[30:52]

with you know hypnosis as it is with music you have to first match people but how do you match all kinds of different people who are in different moods and different modes well the beauty of it is that now we have music that people self-select so people are selecting music that already matches their mode their mood or maybe one that they want to get into so people are already pacing with the music they do that themselves and if you were let's say a DJ and you're reading the crowd you would want to start out with what what kind of music feels like the mood of the crowd if you can hit it then you can take it to the next level so the DJ is trying to match you with your rhythms and your beats and your moods and the vibe and then once once you've been matched then he can take you to a higher level and that's you know a successful show so that was an insight that would not have had except for the marriage of the the fact that I'm learning drums now and

[31:53]

the fact that I'm learning drums now and and when I'm feeling the the beat and the pattern I'm thinking to myself hey this is just persuasion it's all just pacing and leading and you know it's it's clear when you've studied persuasion you should do group hypnosis somebody says you know it doesn't work as well it does you can do a little bit but because everybody is in a different place hypnotizing a group is kind of hard the only thing you can do that it works is relaxation I would say you can get a group to relax all at the same time do I have musical rhythm I'm trying to find that out I would say there's no indication of it there's no indication that I have rhythm but when I use my metronome and I you know if I pay attention I can match it perfectly but how hard is that I mean everybody could do that I think somebody says I'm stuck

[32:53]

do that I think somebody says I'm stuck on the toilet can you help I can so what you want to do is make sure you've got a nice seal and then flush and that'll cause a suction action that once it reverses will was higher-pressure papi right off that's worth a try someone who was saying Starbucks is not taking cash I would imagine that's true I can't imagine anybody will be taking cash pretty soon do I dance like a lane pretty much do I know Anthony cools I do not is Elon Musk a master persuader totally yeah he's his own thing I don't think that he would conform to a lot of a lot of the base technique that I talked about but he's yeah he's operating on another level then the

[33:56]

operating on another level then the military will deliver the kill shot very good I'll give you credit for that all right that's all we got from now I'm going to go do something else and I hope that you have an amazing amazing day and I'll talk to you soon