Episode 981 Scott Adams: A Glimpse of the Coming GoldenAge For the Economy and Humans Too

Date: 2020-05-18 | Duration: 36:46

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Content: We’re living in a world designed for people in the past Whiteboard1: Legacy Living Systems Whiteboard2: Golden Age Yet more coronavirus facts…that aren’t facts

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.

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## Transcript

[0:07]

bum bum bum bum bum bum bum hey it's time it's time for no coffee with Scott Adams because it's too late at night but it is time to find out more about the Golden Age the Golden Age is coming yeah it turns out that this coronavirus was like the third act it's the thing we had to get past and I'll lay it out for you in a moment we're gonna keep the theme alive that at least for the rest of Sunday we're gonna have positive thoughts all positive thoughts are they real are they realistic doesn't matter for today we're gonna wrap ourselves in a cocoon of positive thoughts and I've got a whiteboard to take it home how would you like to see the whiteboard alright here's here's the setup setup is this for all of the time that I have

[1:09]

this for all of the time that I have been alive things have been based on basically something that evolved from I don't know the 30s the house that many people live in if you live in a house type of a structure was probably designed how much different is it than a hundred years ago but our lives have changed completely so we're living in a world that was designed for other people it's a big thought we are living in a world designed for other people people who are not alive anymore our design ideas of what a house is how we live what a community is what a city is what a street is what a school is that is a system and a bunch of systems that work together they were designed for other people we don't live like those people were not those people those people died

[2:09]

were not those people those people died decades ago well but what was what was preventing us from building something for us why were we putting up with these incremental little tweaks to somebody else's civilization that we just happen to be living in well we put up with it because it's hard to change things people things you know have an inertia they just keep on going it's hard to change anything but also our minds were not in that place because did you know you were living in somebody else's world did you ever once have that thought did you get up in the morning and look around say you know everything I'm going to experience today was designed for somebody who died a hundred years ago you know the road was there that you know you know maybe cars weren't there but basically you're living in somebody else's world and the coronavirus just

[3:11]

else's world and the coronavirus just changed that because the one of the things that the coronavirus did that I think will be the least appreciated effect is that it changed how we think about everything when you had to rethink everything from scratch how do I go to school how do I commute how do I work how do I even interact with my own family when you have to start from scratch and rethink everything suddenly it becomes clear to you that you were living in someone else's world completely and you had bought into it like that was okay it was sort of like you know some animal takes over another animal's debt and just moves in but they're not really an animal that lives in the den you know if you're a it would be like being a let's say a tiger that climbs a tree and sees a bird nest there and then goes and lives in the bird nest Tigers don't belong in bird's nests they

[4:13]

Tigers don't belong in bird's nests they don't fit but if the tiger was let's say asleep in his mind you know just didn't know much about his reality and might say well I guess Tigers living yes now it wouldn't know the difference and that's the world that you've been living in your entire life you've been a tiger in the bird's nest mine until the corona virus you thought maybe that was okay because it was just what you're used to so now having been forced to rethink everything so once again somebody's confused about analogies let me pause to clean this up no I have never said elegies are worthless they're worthless for persuasion specifically they're great for describing a new concept which is the way I just used it if I if I go to persuade you and I try to persuade you with an analogy watch how it doesn't

[5:14]

with an analogy watch how it doesn't work that's the lesson yeah it won't work you can see it for yourself if I ever try it's not going to persuade you I promise but as an explanation of something new they're great all right here's what's going to change guaranteed we are living in the legacy systems all of our systems our legacy meaning it's you know something built for a prior time here's the way this can get fixed and this is the way you would design anything if you knew how to design right so you wouldn't whoever said changed my world baby you made me laugh alright so the way you would design anything if you really knew how to design things is that first you would live with a family you would actually embed yourself with a variety of different families and you would actually watch what they do during the day because you're going to try to ultimately design a new place for them

[6:15]

ultimately design a new place for them to live with new systems from scratch so first you see what they actually do and let's say you see one of the parents comes down let's say it's mom mom comes down and she's she starts to leave the door and she forgot her keys so she's got to walk all the way upstairs again and she gets her key she comes all the way back down and she forgot her wallet she has to go all the way upstairs again get a wallet come all the way back down now you're the observer and you're saying what I'll get what's wrong with this system okay how about if we're gonna design this community from scratch how about you never need keys how about it's just biometrics how about so you don't have to ever go back and get your keys how about if we don't have physical money and credit cards what if it's just also biometrics or it could be you know just could be your phone so what if you just get rid of all those things that made mom annoyed for those five minutes and then you keep watching and it's

[7:16]

and then you keep watching and it's everything from the way they do homework so let's say the kids are home in there there's no place to do homework and they're laying on their beds doing homework now a lot of kids like to do their homework on the bed but it's the worst place to do it you should be sitting up properly and you should have a table and you should have a proper light and away from the other noise so that the researcher says mmm couldn't do homework but even more maybe why go to school at all maybe there should be one or two places spaces in the home in which you've got a big enough screen and some headphones and a kid or two could take classes you know and it's actually optimized as a room for learning that's just what it does it's not a TV room it's a learning room now these are just ideas the point is that if you don't stop but if you don't start your process by actually spending time and recording what people do how could you possibly design a better system now do you think that home builders do this do you think

[8:17]

that home builders do this do you think that there's a major home builder who's who's studying things from the from the bottom up to build a perfect house I don't think so here's what I think a home builder does I think a home builder says what's sold well last time what are our competitors selling that is selling well for them and that I think they build the house that they know how to build because you know that's important you don't you don't want to take five years figuring out how to build a house you want to build the house you know how to build that's very similar to the ones that people are buying try a little something see if anybody buys more of those tests your way through it but I'll tell you what they're not doing they're now starting from scratch to ask how do people live in 2020 and beyond but they could so let's say that you've done that and now you know how people live and what a proper house needs to have next would be what I'll call ideal room designs

[9:17]

what I'll call ideal room designs why do we have a million different looks for every room because I guarantee you that there are some room designs that are close to universally right and some that just aren't as good why don't we standardize on some rooms or standard bathroom kitchen bedroom etc living room that can be easily furnished but here's the thing the everything from the light to the colors the textures to how easy it is to maintain it and everything you consider all of these things and then you make each room like it's a separate product alright so a bedroom would be a product and if you wanted to live in a home you could say all by three bedrooms and then you could put them together in an arrangement you know maybe not an infinitely different arrangement but if you set structures so you'd have perfect rooms and then you would get your systems engineers involved to not just design a home because that's that's what

[10:21]

design a home because that's that's what we've done before if all you're doing is designing a home and you plop it in the middle of other homes that were also designed that just to be homes you haven't really designed the system so you need your systems engineers to come in and say okay what's the ideal size for a community won't make it too big won't make it too small what are we gonna do about energy how we're gonna make this thing green yeah what's the best engineering for that should we put it around a you know generation for nuclear power plant you know what how do we do this you probably wanted to have your own banking is there any reason a new community built from scratch couldn't just have an automatic digital bank and just everybody has that bank they could have other banks too but if you're living in the community the homeowners association or the town or whatever just has some software and it's your bank so it's just a software bank maybe you'd have software insurance too and you might have software that's sort

[11:22]

and you might have software that's sort of the backbone of this whole thing you know running it yeah you'd have to make sure that you had the right kind of transportation I'll just throw out some wild ideas if you are going to build a a community today from scratch would you build each home so it could accommodate a drone landing on the roof maybe the drone is just delivering small packages and stuff but would you consider that in your original design that probably drones will be delivering small stuff so you don't have to drive to the store maybe so maybe you'd have underground walkways underground transportation but anyway the engineers would figure that out as well as everything from healthcare to security and figuring out what kind of nature to put around it now I'm gonna start I'm gonna start deleting anybody I'm gonna block anybody who mentions communism or socialism okay because there's nothing and anything you're gonna see that is

[12:25]

and anything you're gonna see that is even remotely like that okay so if anybody starts saying that's communism you're taking my freedom or whatever I'm just gonna block you because you're not ready for this all right so those are the first three phases all very doable I think you can see and then here's the fun part you start building home kits you should be Lego like meaning that you can snap them together should be so easy that you could hire your uber driver to assemble your house for you now not specifically an uber driver but the point is unskilled labor should be able to take these you know blocks and say oh here's the directions here's the YouTube video for today's work this block okay there's only one place I can go boom no cutting would be involved no cutting no sawing no resizing everything

[13:27]

cutting no sawing no resizing everything would be the right size because let's say the floor panels are all squares so you might have different size rooms depending on your needs but they would always be the they would always be true to the the one foot square so you never have to cut them you just add another square or not but you never have to cut anything you'd make it low-maintenance and you'd make it one level because you could assemble one level more easily now I don't know how exactly you would do the the the foundation part to make sure that it's got everything it needs but I think engineers could figure that out and even the the plumbing and the electrical could be just different components where you say okay I need some electrical here so you put in a you snap on a different kind of component that has a pipe in it so that would be the basic idea now you wouldn't build it yourself necessarily like I said it could be

[14:27]

necessarily like I said it could be built by unskilled laborers so you could have your your landscaper you know take the weekend and help you or whatever so you wouldn't have to do it yourself then once you've got some kits you find some places to test them it could be in a brand new location it could be where some urban blight has been cleared allow bill pulled a you know the blade authority you've heard this where large swaths of broken down you know stuff in the inner cities has been removed and and it's just available so why not try something that you probably have to relax the codes and I think the coronavirus helps us there too because if you relax some of the building codes you could do a lot more obviously and I think that we saw so many codes and regulations being relaxed during the coronavirus that we just sort of feel like that's a thing now it didn't feel like it was a thing before right to get

[15:28]

like it was a thing before right to get rid of any red tape but now we just got rid of mass amounts of red tape and had to and we all lived through it and now your mind is a little primed and you're thinking well why don't I get rid of some more red tape that worked out pretty well so there is something about being the right time in the right place which is happening right now I think and then we should also think about the design of the communities in terms of who lives there which might be more important here overall happiness than anything else let me let me give you a provocative thought that I had today that's gonna that's gonna blow your mind you ready this will be this might be the one thing you remember I have this periscope I promise it'll make your your brain hurt here it is do you think that drug addicts have a drug problem or do they have some kind of a less a self-control problem you probably think it's one of those right it's either a drug problem as some

[16:30]

it's either a drug problem as some people would say or it's about the individual there's there's something they need to fix in themselves those are probably the two ways that people look at it or a combination of the two things let me give you a new frame drug addicts are allergic to other people who are not drug addicts the danger for a drug addict is the other people because who brings drugs we're into a place where addicts would otherwise be by themselves not addicts because the kid well let me let me say it in a cleaner place obviously an addict sometimes gets drugs the poison says if you have a city or a community there was nothing but addicts who would build the drugs I'm sorry we would build a liquor store there nobody because you couldn't make any money so if a world was only Avex and there were no non addicts the

[17:32]

and there were no non addicts the addicts themselves would have no problem because they wouldn't be you know they wouldn't be building their own liquor store there would be no place to buy it because the only people who buy it you know should be buying it are the other people so if you think about it the weird situation of addicts is that they need to be away from regular people at least until you know they've got things under control so if you built a place where I was only addicts they wouldn't have the the problem of dealing with regular people in there and there are liquor stores and and there ways now you might also build communities for families or seniors or singles you know there might be a variety of ways to do it maybe some mixed-use you could see some situations where you've already seen this where some college-age students are living with senior citizens because it's really a good combo you know the young person can help them with some stuff the old person has a nice house but it's sort of empty so we're

[18:35]

house but it's sort of empty so we're already seeing that that's that's a trend maybe you could build a community with that taken into consideration alright so here's the bottom line everything about our legacy lifestyle from school to how we live to how we eat everything there's now under a question and I think that people are going to get real serious about designing from scratch and if you can you can imagine the the magnitude of this kind of a change because the thing that we don't get right with housing because we don't really build it to the person and the person well let me let me show you this while I'm talking about it so the golden age is gonna come because we're gonna have super low interest rates which is real good for construction all of our assumptions about how we live has changed because of the coronavirus there's this entrepreneurial gigantic wave this coming largely because everybody had to rethink all their

[19:36]

everybody had to rethink all their assumptions and suddenly they said maybe working for that old boss that just fired me is not a safe job anymore so I think you're gonna see just a huge wave of entrepreneurial action but most importantly I think we're gonna learn that our happiness as as creatures in this universe depends very much on programming our bodies and our brains with our environment and what I mean by that is if you can build a low-cost situation which is designed well but allows you to get your vitamin D because the the need for sunshine is built into it it allows you to get your quiet time because we need that it allows you to sleep well with darkened you know darkened rooms that aren't too loud if it allows you to be safe let's say it's got really good security if it allows you to be less bothered less anxious less stressed every one of

[20:38]

less anxious less stressed every one of these things are things which your physical surroundings can control they can control you with color sound you know the availability of good food good nutrition and and just the impact has on your your wallet every one of these things programs you if you want to be happy you first have to understand that you're being programmed by your environment and then the second thing you need to do is learn to program your environment so it programs you that's the part that's missing and we're so close to unlocking the Golden Age by realizing it so let me say it again if you're just letting the environment program you you're just taking it as it comes you're just living in somebody else's world which is what we've been doing a world that was designed for people in the thirty sort of long long since died but if you want to if you

[21:40]

since died but if you want to if you want to take part into something amazing you have to realize this simple truth about the world you can change your environment and if you do it right it programs you the way you wanted that's the interface change your environment and then it programs you the simple example is let's say you weren't getting enough vitamin D you know whatever you think that does for you science is pretty pretty adamant that that's a big deal so you build a build a community where your physical surroundings will just accidentally give it to you let's say you know that taking a nice walk in the in the outdoors every day makes you feel better by the way if you tried this a lot of you have been taking walks since the coronavirus started have you noticed how much better you feel when you take a long walk right I mean you could really feel the difference and it's because you've used your external environment to reprogram

[22:42]

your external environment to reprogram yourself internally now once you learn that that's sort of the key to life changing your externalities to reprogram your yourself then the golden age is unlocked and you get to go to the next level so we will be I believe in a in a wave of innovation to reprogram our environment so that when you sit down you're sitting in a good place it's not it's not giving you germs it's not making you unhealthy it's not stressing you we will figure out how to build a civilization that for the first time the first time was designed for you that's the gold beige my friends so that's what's coming one here are some other fun stuff I know you do so as we're watching yeah somebody's

[23:45]

so as we're watching yeah somebody's saying UV light exactly you probably would want to put some UV light into your home of the future get those viruses right out of there that's just one example all right so you know how we're not trusting any information about the corona virus it seems as though everything you find out turns out to be wrong later and now there's some question about asymptomatic shedding apparently we don't exactly know that asymptomatic shedding is a real thing apparently we're just kinda sure it might be now that's a pretty big deal it's a pretty big deal wouldn't it be nice to know that the other thing that apparently we don't know for sure and I think I told you the other day Ann Coulter was all over this so apparently we don't know that that virus came from the Wuhan lab according to

[24:46]

came from the Wuhan lab according to Mike Pompeo recently I guess he went from really darn sure we got plenty of evidence that virus came from the lab all the way to we don't really know where it came from that's a pretty big distance isn't it from yeah it came from that lab too you know had to be honest we have no idea no idea pretty big difference the Chinese ambassador to Israel who was newly assigned was just found dead in his home how often do Chinese ambassadors die at home does that seem a little sketch to you is there any part of you that says Chinese ambassador dies a home in Israel maybe maybe okay so is wondering today

[25:51]

maybe maybe okay so is wondering today how many intelligence agencies are watching me and yeah I'm pretty sure you know the United States keeps an eye on me and I know of a few others that I'm pretty darn sure or keeping an eye on me but I was I was wondering what would be the criteria for some Intelligence Agency in another country to keep an eye on you now obviously if you're in politics or the military that would be obvious but don't you think that they probably watch at least some people who are not politicians or in the military just because they think you know there might be something they can learn there and I'm wondering how could anybody watch American politics and and watch it closely enough so they know who all the players are if anybody watched me for the last few years what don't you don't you think they would have intelligence assets watching me by now just to figure

[26:55]

assets watching me by now just to figure out what the hell I'm doing and I I don't know I mean I don't know what the the odds of that are my guess um I guess just based on things I've seen and and heard is a baby forum that I know of but I'm just guessing so Jake Tapper was talking about President Jake Tapper did a little piece and he was talking about president Trump's quote unprecedented smear campaign so he was talking about how I guess Don jr. made some kind of a joke on Twitter about pedophilia and Joe Biden now of course Joe Biden has never been accused of that and and Don jr. you know immediately said you know duh you should be able to tell like it was a joke so is it about any kind of a serious accusation I know what you're thinking he sniffs air but that's that's

[27:56]

he sniffs air but that's that's different so those were the two examples were that President Trump accused a a TV news person of a possibly murder and I thought because he didn't name who the person was Jake didn't I thought to myself did Trump accuse a News host person of murder I thought oh yeah Joe Scarborough actually yeah you didn't actually say Joe Scarborough may have murdered somebody but though this issue of a dead body in the office or something in the past and and Trump Trump did suggest that there is maybe a story here he didn't say he didn't say directly that the Scarborough was a murderer but so here's what's so funny

[28:58]

murderer but so here's what's so funny to watch so you know cNN has just been running like one one hoax after another for the last four years I guess you know everything from the fine people hoax to the Russia collusion hoax to the you know to the drinking bleach hoax the Ukrainian hoax there's one hoax after another and then when when the trumps turned it round and and they're like well okay after four years the thing we've learned after four years is there's no limit to what you could say about the other team there's no limit if you look at what what they've been saying about Trump for four years you'd have to say where's the limit there's no limit you could just make up anything now anything oh yeah he works for Putin okay oh yeah he's a he's a spending time with children all right yeah let's let's

[29:59]

with children all right yeah let's let's just put that out there see if anybody believes that so what's hilarious about this is that anybody can complain about the other side making stuff up we are so past the point where it means anything to complain that somebody is making stuff up because it's just all made up that's all made up anyway that was fun and my last page of notes doesn't have anything on it so so there's that somebody says birtherism started it well did it because I don't know but birtherism did it I don't know well thank you somebody says they enjoyed this tonight hope it did put you in a better mood and somebody says Joe is not the nominee it'll be Harris and Obama with Obama as

[31:02]

it'll be Harris and Obama with Obama as vice president I think so
Hooper Greta on the krona panel and why well wasn't a CNN's panel and why is apparently she's interesting you know you know the trick of doing something a little bit wrong intentionally when CNN put Greta Sundberg on the coronavirus panel do you think CNN was just dumb and they're like oh she's an expert we'll put it on the panel nobody will know the difference or do you think they were smart because they knew it was just a little bit wrong and it was gonna draw people in I'm gonna go with smart all right and obviously I have plenty of credentials of you know criticizing people when I think they're not in the media especially I'm going to say that the Greta Tareq thing if I'm being

[32:05]

the Greta Tareq thing if I'm being consistent with my ongoing theme which is I will separate the technique from whether it's morally or ethically appropriate because that's your decision you know I'm not gonna tell you it's morally or ethically appropriate Who am I
I I'm not your Pope so you can work on their moral ethical stuff yourself doesn't mean I'm ignoring them it just means that I'll make my decision you make your decision on that but if we're just talking about technique was a good technique for CNN to put Greta tog berg on a panel where it doesn't quite make sense why she's there and the answer is yeah absolutely don't you think that she got more eyeballs because of that I'm sure she did I'm sure they did so I would call that a success you know I'm not I'm not gonna mock CNN every time they do something that work if it works it works somebody says it's only a little bit wrong well yeah I think actually I think it is a little

[33:06]

think actually I think it is a little bit wrong because you know let me let me do something that I know y'all hate I have the same opinion about Greta as as I do some of the celebrities who weigh in on politics if they're just a tourist and it's just some celebrity or something and there's coming in to say something and go back to their life I don't have a lot of respect for that although everybody gets to say their their piece so I don't disrespect it just it's sort of about nothing but for those people who actually commit and and Greta is one of those people she's committed I can disagree with everything she says and still respect it because there's a degree of commitment there that is more important than being right in my opinion because you know it's a big world and we all have different opinions I don't know which ones are right oh how do I know if we've just watched a year of all the experts being

[34:06]

watched a year of all the experts being wrong about everything what do I know so so being right maybe is a goal too far but certainly being interesting Matters getting people to engage on it matters and I would say that Greta has I think she earned her place on the panel I'm gonna I'm gonna say that because no matter what you think about her anything you never scientific knowledge or anything no matter what you think of anything she is committed she's passionate she brings she brings an audience she represents a generation that's gonna be impacted by this and I think her opinions might actually be newsworthy so you know I maybe you didn't expect me to go full progra which is completely different from agreeing on what she wants to do with stuff but I absolutely welcome her voice

[35:10]

stuff but I absolutely welcome her voice as well as anybody on the other side who's got an opposing opinion so long as their they mean well and they're passionate and they're willing to Duke you down in public and try to make the world a better place somehow so that's all yes I know some of you rubbed the wrong way by her but there's plenty to like and today we're just gonna do optimism all right somebody says you've lost me she's a tool well people don't like it when I don't go after people if you notice they don't usually go after people that's very intentional because I think going after people is maybe the lowest it's the lowest level of politics I'm sure there's something lower than

[36:12]

I'm sure there's something lower than that but there are lots of times when you want to go after the person and for me if the person means well I won't take that so if somebody means well and they're putting in the work I'm good with them every time so that's my rule you could have a different rule all right that's all I got for today and I will see you in the morning and we'll have more good fun then I hope you enjoyed it today see that