The Scott Adams School - 05/11/26 HOME TEAM Monday! The Meaning Of Life w/ Scott

Good morning. Are we there yet?

Good morning.

Are we there yet? Good morning, everybody. Happy May 11th. I think everybody's going in the chat. Sorry I couldn't start it as early today, just a little bit later, but I think it gave us time for everybody to come on in. So come on in. And we have— oh, we have a special show for you today. We We have a nice lesson from Scott on the meaning of life and it'd be a good time for that. I have some ideas about the meaning of life myself and I wanna see if they're aligning with Scott. So let's get this Monday going with a simultaneous sip. Ready everybody?

Well, you know, if you wanna enjoy Coffee with Scott Adams, you need to also enjoy the simultaneous sip and you don't need much to enjoy it. No, you don't. All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or chalice or stein, a canteen, jug, or flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better, the simultaneous sip. Go!

Mmm.

Breathtaking. I know you feel the same.

I did a little shimmy shake with his "whoa." Excellent, excellent. Owen and Marcella, how are you guys doing? How were your weekends?

Good. It was wonderful.

Yeah. Tell us, Owen, how was your project during the weekend?

Oh, my son was graduating from college, so it was a big milestone for the family.

Congratulations.

Congrats. It was great spending time with him. And, you know, we— my— his older brother and his grandma came up with us, so it was good.

Oh, I love that. And Marcella, you crushed it on the after party. You filled in for Owen. Is that a good time or what?

That was a good time. Everybody was great. Everybody had good opinions, you know, about all sorts of things, and I'm happy they all showed up because I was like, the after party is nothing if I'm alone by myself. So I'm always glad when they always come up. 7 in the morning for me, so, ah, um, and lots of people have things to do on a Saturday, so I'm very thankful for everybody that was there. Erica was there for a bit, and, uh, it didn't last as long as usual, but it lasted 3 hours and 30 minutes or something.

Oh, that's, that's plenty, I would say. It's a busy weekend, and you know, I think a lot of people were prepping for Mother's Day. I hope anyone who had Mother's Day festivities had a good time, um, and happy Mother's Day. Okay, so You guys, some people will say this is AI, but I'm gonna say this is a dream. You decide.

Oh my God, there's so many! Where do they keep coming from?

They're a nightmare.

What is this city?

I'm telling you, I was like, I'd put like $20 in that thing. Oh my God, can you imagine?

They're so cute.

I know, they're so cute. I love it. Um, so that was just my— that was my little animal story of the day. But then I thought, like, so my friend and I had a whole discussion about this. I was like, well, then this, like, big puppy vacuum comes at the end of the day because they're not real, and they vacuum up all the puppies, and then you can do it again the next day. Oh my gosh, Owen, you want a puppy vending machine?

Um, I don't know that that would be a good, good idea. I think, you know, puppies are a careful investment. Yeah, you gotta be— it's a lot of responsibility unless you are going to vacuum all— vacuum them all up and just get rid of them. But that sounds kind of grotesque to me.

But they're not real, they're not real. Freebird said that's how Somalians are made in Minnesota. Oh my gosh. Okay, so I had to get that out of the way. You guys know I like a little animal something. Um, Oh, and you had some, uh, story. Was— what was that about this morning you were talking about?

Well, amazingly, there's a study that shows that coffee is good for your brain and your gut. I know this is shocking.

What?

And, and something we probably never talked about before, but there's some new research that says that coffee reshapes your gut microbiome and boosts your mood, your cognition, stress reduction, and focus. And they're claiming even decaf versions work. I wouldn't know 'cause I don't drink decaf and I would not recommend it to anyone. But apparently there are some things outside of caffeine that are also helpful. So it's not just the caffeine, it's also all the polyphenols and other things that are in there. They've have some specific findings about certain types of bacteria in your gut that are higher in coffee drinkers and they help with digestion and fight bad bacteria. So Drink your coffee.

Are you going to tell me next that it has to be black coffee?

I won't tell you that. I do think there are some studies that say that, but there are other ones that say it's okay. So, you know, to put some things in it, but I do think there are some of the health benefits that they say are either counteracted by sugar and milk or, or, you know, things like that. But I think I'm guessing you still get a lot of the benefits.

Okay. Even with those things, some are getting in there. I just, please, I just, That's the only fun thing about coffee for me, and I don't want to put vitamins and minerals in my coffee, and I need my little flavor. Um, okay, so I think it's an acquired taste.

I will say that I used to drink milk and sugar in my coffee, and, and then I think it might have been in the Army where, you know, they didn't have that option basically, or it was so gross because they only had were like the fake stuff, that powdered milk. Yeah, that I just I just switched to black and I never went back. It was, you know, as they say.

That's what they say.

They do say that. Good point.

Oh my gosh, so it's true. All right, so, um, all right, you guys, this is going to fall under the category of if I had to see this, you had to see this. Many of you did see this already. Marcella hasn't, shockingly. So this is going to be Keep in mind, a high school graduation, okay? High school graduation, you know, a little family event. Um, you're now going to see Justin Pearson. He's a Democrat candidate in Tennessee, uh, Representative, uh, District TN09. He is at the MASE, M-A-S-E, Charter School. And this is a high school graduation. He was there, I guess, keynote speaker. We're not all the same. Here we go. Not at all like my high school graduation 85 years ago, but interesting, interesting. So he's getting a lot of backlash for, you know, trying to, you know, um, I guess act like this— they were saying the spirit of God came into him and how inappropriate it is, and it's like Tennessee, I mean, you're having enough problems now with like people wanting to like redraw, redistrict, re-whatever. It's like, everybody calm down. Like, it's like these types of, you know, theatrical moments are not helping anything. The comments on Locals of the WTFs are just so funny. What the hell is happening? Everyone's asking. Um, I don't know what he was saying. I see your question, Freebird. I don't know what he was saying. So Owen, did you happen to catch this at all?

No, I don't know what he was saying either. It just seemed like he was having a seizure for a few minutes and eventually got control of himself. So I guess I'll just leave it at that.

He's like a Democrat being told no. Marcela, was that fun? Did you— are you sad you missed that graduation?

You know, it must be that I live in California that I didn't think of it as shocking, I guess. What's up, Black church? Seriously, because in Hispanic culture, in Hispanic culture, like they would dance, they would do that. I, I mean, it looks like it's a, it's a Christian high school because it's just a huge cross.

So just happens to be in a church, I think, the graduation. Yeah, yeah.

So it wouldn't surprise me.

Lots of people concerned he was having a seizure. Yeah. So anyway, very odd. I, that just— I just felt like I needed to bond with you guys over something that just like burned my brain for a minute and I wanted to share it. So I hope you enjoyed that. Um, so you guys, like I said, we have a great clip of Scott coming up. And before we get to that, I just want to do one more clip because Spencer Pratt is just knocking it out of the park. So if you don't know, he's running for the mayor of Los Angeles. He is like a breath of fresh air. Um, he's just common sense, you know. It's just like it— and I like, don't freak out, love him or hate him, blah blah blah. But you know, Trump in 2015 breath of fresh air washed over me. I'm just like, yes, like you're just talking, you're just saying the things that people are thinking. And I just so appreciated that. And Spencer, it's the same thing. So he was on the All In podcast, uh, one of Scott Adams' favorite podcasts, one of our favorite podcasts. I think we all watch it. Um, so he sat down, um, with one of the hosts of the All In podcast, and here's just a little clip. And I just find this refreshing. Okay, let's listen in.

So the ad that blew up crazy is when I showed Bass's house, Nithya Raman's million-dollar mansion, multimillion-dollar, and then my Airstream. That one broke every ad record in history. That is, if it has my name on it, is legally mine. Anything like these incredible grassroots ads.

Yeah.

If I don't put my name on it, it's really not mine.

So there are people out there doing these ads, not in your campaign, that are creating this movement.

Correct, because people feel the common sense that I'm using.

They feel the emotion, totally. It's connecting.

I keep trying to tell everyone that, you know, they try to put me in a box. I didn't run to be a political party. I didn't run to be a politician. I ran because I experienced what city leadership failure at the ultimate level is. That's why I stepped up. That's what cuts through. So the media and everyone wants to jump on and be like, "Oh, Spencer's our guy." No, I'm the citizen. I'm the angry taxpayer. You can be a Democrat and love me. You can be a Republican and love me. The only people that don't love me are communists and socialists, and I don't want them to love me.

Love that. Marcella, what do you think about that clip?

But he had good— he has good ideas. I mean, he went to their house, uh, and one of the things that was asked in that interview is, you know, how are you going to improve Skid Row and all that? And one of the things he, he, he shockingly told David Friedberg is that it's Skid Row's entire Los Angeles now. It's not just in downtown LA, it's, uh, Santa Monica, Venice. Somebody yesterday or two days ago with us, some, some— I, I don't know who it was. They ran away. They had a samurai sword and they almost chopped up someone's arm while they were walking in Venice Beach, you know. So Venice Beach is like really expensive areas. Uh, it's shocking how, uh, it's come to this, but, um, I'm hoping that there will be Uh, secret Spencer Pratt voters, because there's this pressure by a lot of Democrats to vote Democrat and to keep it going. Because what they argue is, and I think Joel talked about this, is, oh, all of this is, is President Trump's, like, this is why. Uh, and one of the things that people forget is that there's been a lot of ICE raids in California and Los Angeles And it's caused people to be anti-federal government, anti-ICE, because it wasn't people that were criminals. It was just like your everyday hotel waiter, whatever it was, taken away. And one thing that President Trump and most Republicans don't understand is that the people that are illegally here have family that are legally here. And so there's a, you know, 'cause they had kids or, you know, or family that was residents, alien, whatever it is. A lot of people that can vote have family that was deported. So that's, that's what would— I would think would affect him. But maybe there'll be secret Spencer Pratt voters.

I don't think people who want law and order— I think, I think people— I should say people that want law and order, they're going to vote for Pratt. Like, the people that are looking around like, okay, like this, like we've run amok, like we've destroyed the place, you know, that we're supposed to love where we live. So I feel like anybody who wants law and order and wants to be safe and clean up and whatever, you have no choice, literally. And I think that he's doing a pretty good job talking to the unions also, to the union— the people that vote with the unions and the unions, um, I don't have that clip. I just wanted to do one clip, but he's, he like, he's just continuing to make a lot of sense. Um, Owen, did you catch any of, uh, his interview by any chance?

I didn't watch the interview, but I've seen the ads and I think they're great and I'm rooting for him. Um, I did notice on Polymarket right now he's up to 30%, so that's a big jump up. Um, I don't know, do you know, Marcello, when the primary is where they narrow it down to two?

I think in June.

Okay, so it's coming up relatively soon. And you know, the other woman, Raman, is down to 18%, so he's way above her at this point. And that's a recent change, so it looks like he's getting some traction. I mean, unless someone's manipulating the market.

But you know, he, he talked about Raman, right, in that interview. He thinks that Raman is only there to make to dilute the vote so that most people won't vote for him. And I think it's sort of working. Hopefully not.

That's weird to me though, because like Raman, from what I've heard from her, seems like the opposite. Like just, you know, total socialist, like not, not a moderate, right? And so I don't know how that would— like anybody who wants to vote for Pratt wouldn't be voting for her. And I, you know, I'm amazed that Karen Bass is still at 49%. I don't know if that's just the, you know, the rigged part of the vote that just stays there all the time. But, um, you know, it does seem pretty amazing given the Palisades fire and all the other scandals that she's been embroiled in that she'd still be getting almost half the vote. But yeah, I shouldn't be surprised because I, you know, I'm from the Chicago area and I've seen the same things happen here where it's like even people who you would think, okay, there's no way they're getting reelected, and they do. And they get a very wide margin. So I don't know what's going to happen there, but, um, I really hope he does get elected. And I think we should start about the secret Pratt voters and, you know, encourage people to pretend like they're voting for Bass and actually vote for Pratt and just don't tell anybody.

I think that, um, well, I— what I love is that the three of us represent three notoriously corrupt uh, states, and we have the West, this, the center, and the East Coast. And, um, I do think that— well, well, one thing I loved is that people asking, uh, who was it that did that? ABC did an interview with him, and then they like edited it down to 5 minutes to make him look bad. And he forced ABC— Spencer Pratt forced ABC to release the whole interview. He said, you know, that's totally, uh, interference in an election to just cherry-pick and edit. So to their credit, they did. And, um, I love that he's just like, listen, I wish, I wish the debate— you know, he said several times, I wish it was 5 hours long because I needed more time to point out all the lies and corruption of these two. Um, and then he was cute, he said, you know, I promised all of the Democrat women that love me, that, you know, want to vote for me, they all said Spencer, you've got to keep your cool. You got to stay calm. Like, don't freak out during the debate. And he's like, you know, there was a lot of times where I wanted to just like, you know, shout something or say something, but I had them all in my head and I made a commitment to them that I wouldn't freak out. So I love— he's so, uh, casual and conversational. He's not like talking with stupid talking points and slogans. And I, I feel like that's resonating. And then I've also seen people that understand Hollywood like he does, you know, um, some of them are like, you know what, yeah, go Spencer. So those are a lot of people that would typically vote Democrat just because, but now they're like, go Spencer, or if he becomes mayor, I'd move back there because he gets it, and you know, like, I would support that and whatever. So I feel like he's getting like this unusual wave of traction. And I, I'm sorry, you guys, I didn't look about Steve Hilton to see how he's doing. But I feel like California is like at— hit their bottom, so I can't imagine it bottoming out any further. So I, I'm feeling optimistic about Hilton and Pratt, which would be amazing. So we have to keep our eye on that. Let's get some stats for tomorrow and see what's going on, but I think Hilton's ahead. For him. So that's good. That's good. We want— we want California to be amazing again and to be able to go there and vacation and spend money and want to live there. And we want Marcella to have beauty all around her and clean everything, right, Marcella? We want you to—

yeah, I don't— I don't want a samurai sword attack. Exactly. Yeah.

Um, some kind of option on your Tesla to protect you from those.

Yeah, like something that shoots like—

come on, Elon, give me some, some bomb-throwing car.

Some like, like a cloud of mace comes out.

No, it's just an Optimus robot in the trunk that jumps out with its own samurai sword.

I just wish, I just wish locally Spencer would be on more, um, because the things that he talked about in regards to the fire and how he you know, disclose the issues of how it ended up happening and all of that, and showing that, um, Mayor Karen Bass was part of, you know, the issue. And I think that has not been done locally as much. So it's kind of like, not that people watch local news too much, but it needs to be out there more than just him.

You think people don't know that, that, um, she was off on her trip? And he also pointed out how she just talks about this one reservoir. He's like, there's a reservoir next to my house that's empty, you know, or maybe it had— no, it was empty. And they were just like— and he said he always felt like, oh, you know, like if there's ever a fire, we're set, because they would do drills and training up there all the time where like a helicopter would come with a basket to scoop water and whatever. And he said he calling the fire department. He's like, I know the guys at the fire department. And I was like, hey, listen, there's a tiny brush fire right near me. If you guys can get some water on it, none of these houses up here will have a problem. And they're like, we have no resources. We have— we can't— we have nothing that can come up to you to get that. So that's why his house burned down.

And one of the things he brought up in there is that Karen Bass, Mayor Karen Bass, he alleges that she didn't call, um, air air supply, like the helicopters and all that that do that. They're supposed to call them. Allegedly, she argues that there was too much wind for the helicopters to fly, and she said that the reservoir he was talking about was for drinking water. Yeah, so, so she's able to hoax. How are people able to hoax? Because there's not enough information, so she's able to pass it off.

Yeah, she's a horrible human being. Um, Okay, so if you guys want a brain cleanser, do you? Uh, I need a Monday morning, like, palette cleanser, and we can only do that with Scott Adams. Let's face it. So I want you guys to snuggle in, get cozy, hold your coffee, and let's listen to Scott Adams. We're going to talk about the meaning of life. Oh, which video is that? Nobody knows. Why does it come up like this, you guys? All right, bear with Owen. Entertain them for a second. Let me just look at these. Let me see.

Entertain them. Dance, Owen, dance. Yeah.

Owen, talk. Oh, okay.

I can, uh, see if I can find another story to talk about for a minute.

Another fun story.

I think it's this one.

Try it.

Okay, let's see, you guys. Let's, let's test small. Wait, 1, 2, 3, 4. I think it's this one. Okay, ready, guys? If it's the one, we'll see you in 12 minutes.

This is your micro lesson on the meaning of life. Now, this is going to be an individual meaning, not a meaning that applies to everyone. Because you can take care of yourself in terms of the meaning that you find out of life. There's not much you can do for other people. They have to figure it out themselves. So this is your personal journey and how to find meaning in your life. So here's the basic idea, the starting point, and then we'll get to some more detail on the other side. If you were to live an ideal life that was compatible with your bio biological self, what would it look like? And here is my contention: that you will, you will have the sensation of, and for all practical meanings, for all practical purposes, you'll have meaning in your life if you stay on this line, which is the line of selfishness. And the idea here is that you're born a baby, and there's nothing you can do about it. You didn't ask to be born, and if somebody asked you to help out, you couldn't do it if you wanted to. You are 100% selfish baby. Now, as you get older, if you're doing things right, maybe when you're a teen you can start to help out a little bit, you're a little less selfish. Maybe by the time you're a parent, you don't have to actually biologically have children, children, but you're an adult and you find yourself giving back as much as you're getting. You've given back a lot. Could be to your family, could be to anybody, your company, whatever. Eventually, once you've got everything that you need and you've taken care of the people who are around you, you enter some kind of a, I'll call it a mentor mode, where you're sort of a senior member of the tribe, you're a tribal elder essentially. Essentially, and you're just trying to be helpful. And then the last thing you do, at least in our culture, the last thing you do the moment your life is extinguished is you give away everything you have. So all of your material possessions just go away at the moment of death. So this is a purely unselfish moment because you're literally dead. So you start 100% selfish and you try to stay on the line to get to the point where you can be so unselfish that you die perfectly. A perfect death is you've given everything. There's nothing left to give. If you do that, or even if you feel you're on the line to do that, so for example you're just in school, are you doing the right thing? If you're a teenager and you're just doing well in school and paying attention, yes. Very rarely do young kids ask about the meaning of life because they're actually biologically doing exactly what they need to be doing. So if you find yourself compatible with your biological nature for that point of life, you will feel meaning. If you're learning and then giving as much as you're getting, and then eventually becoming more purely unselfish, you will feel meaning in your life. Now, how do you do this though? That's the hard part, right? How can you be sure that you can take care of yourself well enough, which is really the key? If you don't take care of yourself first, you're not going to be in any kind of position to be helpful. So you have to be selfish in the beginning until you've acquired enough safety, knowledge, financial assets, network, family, whatever, to be safe yourself. And then you can start branching out. This is the, the basic belief behind this is that we evolved to take care of ourselves first because that's what survival would require. But secondarily, as soon as we take care of ourselves, we brought that to the family, the people close to you, you know, your tribe, and then of course civilization. So how can you be helpful and make sure you're staying on that line? Well, let's say you wanted to be an author of this simulation. If you're new to this, I like to call our reality a simulation because it it feels like it. You don't have to believe it's a simulation for any of these purposes. It's just fun. So when I talk about authoring the simulation, what I'm talking about is not necessarily changing base reality because we don't have any access to base reality. Even if it changed, we might not know the difference because we did not evolve to be able to know reality. We evolved to live in these little worlds that we manufacture ourselves. So to the extent that you can manufacture your own world, you become the author of the simulation you're working in, you're living in and working. Now the process for doing that, I'm going to give you the general outline, but then each of these items you'd have to work on individually. So this would, this would be how to understand your world the best in a way that helps you get to that that great line where you're becoming more useful all the time. Alright, so I broke it into 3 categories, but before you can even get serious on this, you need to understand the beginning point— that these are filters, not necessarily reality. And what I mean by that is, imagine if you would, you go to the grocery store, and I like to use this example. You're standing in a grocery store and next to you is somebody with a different religion, and on top of that they also believe everything that the opposite political party from you, whichever that is, they believe the opposite. Are they living the same reality that you are? Probably not. They might be worried that, you know, that the leader is going to do something horrible and you're not.

Scott Adams.

So you live in a world where there's no risk for all practical purposes. That's what you experience as your reality. Again, independent from any base reality, it's just what you experience as your reality. Once you understand that we're all walking around in these manufactured realities, it frees you to author your own reality. If you feel you're a victim of reality, and it's just, well, I'm just the output. Yeah, I'm not the input, I'm not the variables, I'm just what got squirted out the end. If that's your view of life, that's exactly how your life will go. If you believe that it's you who manufactures this filter on reality and then can live in it, you could turn yourself into, let's say, a Buddhist, if that was compatible with, you know, your thinking, and you could live in that world sort of a Buddhist reality. You could become a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent. You can author your own reality. Now, does that alone help you be more successful, live better, be healthier, have better relationships? Well, not by itself. You need some technique. Here are the things which I recommend that you understand are your priorities. If you have not developed people skills, the odds that you will be successful enough to eventually give back and therefore have meaning in your life, because you're learning and getting more powerful all the time, in order to do anything useful in life that, you know, gets to the mentor stage anyway, you know, that really, really is a well-lived life, you're gonna have to master people skills. I just I just listed some example ones here. So everything from working on your shyness, which you can work on, it's a technique. I've talked about that before. Your networking, your conversation, your public speaking, learning how to criticize people without hurting their feelings, how to manage them, etc. So it's a long list, but you know what it is. If you're not actually working on that list, meaning you're not reading a book on something on this list, you're not taking a class, you're not practicing something, then you're not quite getting ready to be an author. You're still in sort of taking it as it comes mode. I've talked too much about the talent stack, but it's so powerful that if you're not developing your skills that layer well together in your case— it's not the same skills for everybody, it's It's just whatever is the combination that makes you powerful and unique and valuable in the market. If you don't have a skill stack and some people skills, you're just not going to be successful. I mean, you could. I mean, it's possible that people without people skills can be successful, but it's less likely. Which gets us to the last thing. You should understand the math of life. I'll call it the odds, but it's really sort of the math of life. If you understand the math of life, you have basically a strategy. I don't like to use the word strategy, so I prefer to say, do you know the odds? Do you know that if you do this thing, you'll have better odds than this thing? Here are just some examples of it. I talk about how it's very typical in the business world to try 10 different things before one of them works. If you didn't know that, you'd give up after 3. But if you knew it was almost sort of built into the texture of civilization, I don't know why, but it's a good rule of thumb that you, you probably try 10 things and one of them is likely to catch on. You try 3 things, well, your odds are less. So understanding that about the world is important. You should understand that if you sell your time, there's a cap on how much you can make. Even if you're a lawyer, there's a cap. So maybe you should start your own business if you want an uncapped potential. The math of talent stacking is that just because you have, let's say, 10 talents and you add one, you don't go up just 10% in power. You might double in power. So once you understand the multiplicative geometric benefit of adding skills, you have a strategy just built into your normal thinking. Understand about diversification, especially if you're investing. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, as they say. And follow the energy to go where there's the most luck, most stuff happening. If you go wherever there's the most stuff happening, the most people, you have more chances 4, luck. That is the outline for finding meaning in your life. Now, of course, the details of how you fill out your various categories and stacks here will be personal, and maybe you're all on your own, your own path. But the idea is that, that if you're following that path from completely selfish to completely unselfish, you will have an internal feeling of meaning. And that feeling will be just you being compatible with your, your most basic biological self, because you were born to take care of yourself first. So if you're doing that, especially when you're young, you'll feel like you're doing exactly what you ought to be. And kids do. Kids generally feel like they're doing exactly what they should be doing— learning, playing, growing. So just keep on that path and, uh, you'll, you'll feel that feeling of completion and a feeling of meaning.

Well, I needed that today. It's a reminder to all of us, you know. Um, I, I love how he laid that out. I'm gonna come to you first, Owen, but I just You know, so a couple of you know I've been— I had a little bit of a rough morning, um, but I feel like in that rough morning I had that I have all that in my head somewhere because I am fulfilling what I believe like the meaning of life is and what my purpose is and who I am and like what skills I have. And it's obviously not perfect, But I think it's important. I think it's really important. And put yourself first. And I like how he lets you know, like, you gotta hone in in these 3 different categories. Maybe if you're like, well, I'm not like at this yet, maybe you've gotta hone in your personal skills, like your communication skills or your shyness, like he said. So Owen, how did you find that to be?

Yeah, no, I mean, I, I agree with all of that. I think, um, you know, there's lots of science behind what he said. I know he didn't focus on like there's this study or that study, but I've seen countless studies like this where when you're focused on helping other people, and if you're focused on yourself, like ruminating over your problems or all that, that's when you get depressed. And when people are isolated, they get depressed. And so I think we're kind of wired as you know, social creatures that are supposed to help each other. And so I think it all makes sense, and it's backed by a ton of science. Um, I think it, it, you know, he sort of skips to the end of that and says, okay, here's the recommendations, which I think is perfect. I mean, I don't think he needs to walk through all the science, but I do think that there is plenty of psychological and other evidence, um, that he's on the right track with all that. That when you start out as a kid, of course, you don't have the capability of helping people very much, and you go through the normal development stages. But as get more capable, the more you can help other people, the more you can give to other people, the better you're going to feel. And I think, um, to me, there, you know, having a family is a big part of that, personally at least. I mean, having kids, I think, totally changes your perspective on life. Um, and I don't think you can really understand it until you become a parent. I mean, you can imagine it, but I think it's totally different when you meet your child and you just see that you have this life in your hands and You just— your priorities change. You care about different things. And so I think that's an important element for a lot of people, not everybody, but for a lot of people to have kids. And it just makes a big difference in terms of the meaning of your life. I think a lot of parents would say the best thing they did in life was having kids or that that's the most meaningful thing. And I think it also pays off in the end when you have a family in your older years and you have people to hang out with and spend time with and to give to because a lot of what he as you described, you know, the most time you spend is usually with your family. And so when you get into mentoring and other things, like you said at the end, you need people to mentor. And, you know, for Scott Adams with his big platform, he could mentor all of us, but not everybody has that kind of platform. And I think they may be looking for, how can I contribute? How can I do that? And I think it's sad when people end up in like an old folks home and then no one's asking them for their advice and no one's seeing them and they don't necessarily have people to contribute to. Maybe they're contributing to each other, and I hope they are, but You know, I, I would like to see more of the older generation having opportunities to give back to the younger generation and to do that mentoring. And I think it would help the younger people and the older people, um, for everyone to feel like they're more connected and they have better relationships and that they have more meaning in their lives. So I think it's a great lesson, um, and I think it's a good way to think about life. And I, you know, not for that reason, but certainly as I was going through my early career, I was certainly thinking that along those lines of saying, how can I get more capabilities? But when I when I would try and develop my skills, it was always, how do I develop my skills to help other people, to help my clients, to help my colleagues, to, you know, how can I learn how to be a better team leader or a better project manager or better at, you know, managing the client or all those different things. And it's always been focused around how do I solve this problem for this client, or how do I help, you know, help get people to a better place. And I think that's given me a lot of meaning in my career to be able to say that I help people and I've solved a bunch of problems. And I think, um, if you have the opposite, that might feel kind of depressing, like if you don't feel like you're contributing. And I have times like that where I feel like, okay, I didn't really contribute much this week. But other times I feel like, wow, I really knocked it out of the park, I did really well. And so, you know, I understand there's a rhythm to it. You can't necessarily get it every day, but it does really help when you feel like you've really done something for people.

That's great. I, I love parents that take a significant part in their kids' lives like that and really help mentor and guide them. Um, and I, I also want to say, on the other side of the coin, like Owen said, it's, you know, maybe it's not for everybody. I, you know, I'm gonna just speak for myself. I chose not to have children, um, for many reasons, but You know, like my dad would always say, listen, you know, you're not put— you know, you weren't put here to take care of me and to entertain me in my life. My mom, like, the same thing. Like, you know, it was like, well, you never know, like, you could have a kid and then they could be like, all right, well, I'm gonna go get a job in China and I'll see you never again. So, you know, if you're having kids because, you know, you want the family unit, you want to raise them, and you want people to hang out with and whatever, and that's like the kind of like the way you're raising your family. That's like— I love that. I love families that all hang out together. I think it is so cool. Um, where like, I, I think I was saying on— I don't know if it was private where I was talking to you guys, maybe it was just me and you, Owen, in the green room one day. But like, one time I had said to my father in my early 20s, he was living in Florida and I was thinking about moving to Florida and starting a life there, and I was like, you know, what do you think if I just moved and moved in with you for 6 months tops, but just enough time to like, you know, lock down a job here, get my bearings, and then, you know, get an apartment or a condo or whatever? And his response was, absolutely not, you know, you're too old to be living with a parent. So, you know, his thing was more like independence, go, go figure it out, fly. And, you know, and so in a way that was I don't know if that was the mentoring or the model I wanted. It's the one he gave me, but it was useful because I didn't really ever have like a fallback. Um, so I just wanted to put that out there for people that don't have kids. I don't either, and I do try my best to help mentor people or guide people. I have, you know, like friends and people in my life like that, or just try to, you know, be an extra good human where I can and make a difference where I can. So I, I like what Scott said because whether it was or is being a business owner and helping people that way through employment and opportunity and growth, that's another thing. So, you know, family is hugely important, but I just want to put it out there that if that wasn't your direction, it doesn't change, you know, like everyone's like, well, you don't know the meaning of love till you have kids. And I'm like, well, I don't have kids, so I'm not missing it. Like, I didn't have it and then had it taken away, which I can't even imagine. But so everything in perspective. But Owen, I think you're such an amazing parent. Like, I love all the stories about your kids and your emotion.

And I'm definitely not like criticizing people who choose not to have kids. I totally get that. And I understand that some people it's not right for them for whatever reason, and that's okay. I think for in my mind, and maybe I'm wrong because I do have kids, I can't have the same perspective, but I would think, you know, then it does become more important to have friendships and maybe find ways to help other people outside of that, right? Because you, again, you need that community, you need those social bonds, and if you don't have it within your family, you need to find it somewhere else. That's the way I would think about it, right?

Marcel, I'm coming to you. So in that lesson, you know what I mean, it's so fun to like revisit Scott Adams' whiteboards and like the messages and just like how he had that all laid out, and it was a double whiteboard, you know, and just the categories and like get through this to get to this to get to this, you know, did— what were your feelings and things going through your head?

Well, I talked to Scott Adams about his lessons sometimes. Um, that particular lesson, I completely disagree with him on the meaning of life and being selfless. Um, I'm an Objectivist, as you guys know. Some of you might not. I follow Ayn Rand's philosophy of life, and to me, being useful would be being the best producer you can be across your entire life. You don't have to outgrow selfishness. Um, your life should be for your own happiness. Anybody that says that is trying to be dictating your life. Um, as long as you don't cause any harm to anybody else, you should not be a servant to any kind of tribe or any kind of life stage. I think your purpose should be to do whatever you like to do rationally and selfish for your pursuit of your own values. And when you are facing death, um, Obviously, leaving a legacy might be important, but also getting your, your items in order. And, and that's how I see it, you know.

Okay. But let me, let me, let me challenge you a little bit on this because—

sure.

Like, like Steve Pavlino had a blog that was very popular back when blogs were a big deal and the way you can make money. And he had a lot of thought-provoking ideas on there. And one of them was that he said that if you are completely selfless, the way you would behave is pretty much indistinguishable from if you were completely selfish. And what he got— what he meant was like, if you're— he called it like a light worker, like somebody who's just, all I want to do is give to people, I'm totally selfless, I'm just trying to give to other people as much as possible, right? But then he said there's this other concept of a dark worker that's in his mind, I think more like what you said in terms of being selfish, like you're just caring about what's best for you. You don't really care about anybody else. You care about yourself. But what he pointed out was if you're totally selfish, if you want to be the most effective, you still want to, like you said, produce the most you can. And who are you producing it for? Other people. And if you need to be effective at producing for other people, you need to have people skills and you need to be able to do all the things, you know, you need to be trustworthy, you need to have high integrity, you need to have all these things that are pretty much the same as someone who is selfless. And so I think his point, which I thought was very interesting, was if you're trying to—

you believe selfless people that don't work, that don't do anything— some, some selfless people are like that— you believe it's the same as a producer?

You know, I think we're talking about different dichotomies. I wasn't saying producing versus not producing. I was saying like producing in a selfless mindset versus a selfish mindset.

Okay, so what is your question?

Well, it, it seems to me like in, in one sense you're disagreeing with Scott Adams, but in the other sense, the end result of acting the way you're recommending people act, or the way you think of acting, is kind of the same as what Scott Adams is recommending.

Um, no, no, because, you know, it might be similar. At the same time, it, it— in fact, he was asking for usefulness to be for others. Um, what I'm saying, usefulness— be useful to yourself. While being useful to yourself, you'll be useful to others. But your end goal should not be others, it should be yourself. So that's the difference that I see in Scott Adams' lesson.

I think he said that. So I think what he said was We can go back and, you know, you guys, yes, I see you. I'll post it for you guys.

I mean, I discussed this with Scott Adams.

Yeah, so I think, but what he was saying, I, and I think you're both right, like, I mean, I, I get what both of you are saying. So like he said, you know, like you get like into this mentor phase, but then at the end, didn't he say something about like ultimately putting yourself first?

He said you had to help yourself first to be able to be able to, to be able to help others.

So he kind of said both.

That means that you have to remain— how I see that is you have— what he said is you have to remain well to help others. I remain well to help myself. So that's the difference, right?

Right.

If you, if you bring yourself to this extreme of being the very best producer you can, like you're taking that to its ultimate end, wouldn't that mean that you're helping lots of other people?

Sure, sure, you can help other people by help— by truly your values. That's exactly right. You're right, Owen. You can help other people, but your end goal is not for others but for yourself. Because when you help others, you're trading in your values for money or anything else that you're— if I create a product, I sell it, it helps others That's great, but that's not the end goal. My end goal to create a product that sells, that helps others— my end goal is not helping others. My end goal is to produce the best product so that it helps me. Do you understand?

Oh, I understand. And I think the point I was trying to make from Steve Paulina's argument at least was that both of those behaviors look the same, and it may not matter what's going on inside your head as far as why you're doing it. It, it ends up looking the same to everybody else.

I disagree with Paulina, but I would need to read the entire— you know, you can send it to me.

I can, you know, so because I mean, his argument was it was about polarization, meaning if you go all the way to the end, they kind of meet up, right? Like if you— and he said it, the problems when you're conflicted, like you're partly trying to give to other people and you're partly trying to help yourself, and you're kind of limiting yourself because you're conflicting with yourself. But if you go all the way towards giving to other people or all the way towards optimizing the end for yourself, the behavior towards the rest of the world looks pretty similar.

Can I jump in really quick? Doesn't it matter? Um, so I, I maybe I'm misunderstanding the whole thing because I look at when he's saying mentor and helping others that he's not producing a product to help people. He's just strictly mentoring. Like, I have time. I'm like just helping this person.

Which is different than what I'm thinking.

Yeah, what you're thinking, I'm all for. Like, I get it. Like, uh, capitalism. Like, let's create something that helps people. Like, great, it helps people, that's why they want it, and then woohoo, I make money. But I think— I feel like what Scott's saying, or I think what Scott's saying, is about I have the ability to pass along things I have learned and like, you know, help mentor people in a way. Which, like, I have some friends like that too that maybe are younger or you know, just had a different life. I don't know, whatever it was. And I'm like, you know what, let me just try to like gently help this along and like get them thinking and whatever. And that's how I look at helping someone else. Um, and I feel like—

yeah, I mean, you can even argue that Scott mentoring us or mentoring people and doing what he did, that's sort of selfish in a way. If you can think of it that way, because it made him happy.

Yeah, he loved it.

Made him happy.

Like, if he didn't love it, you think he would have done it? No, no.

And that might go back to Owen's point that maybe being selfish versus being selfless, as long as you're producing— I don't know, I'm probably butchering what Owen said.

I, I, I think it's interesting to, to probably rewatch this episode, you guys, and rewatch that. But I I, I would like to say, like, based on what Scott Adams said, I would go through those steps. Like, start with yourself, okay? Because you are the most important person in your life. So get yourself right, you know, get yourself straight. If there's things that you can improve upon, put you first, right? Put the mask on yourself first. Not the COVID mask, the oxygen mask. So put the mask on yourself first, build yourself up, Work on your talent stacks, your skills. All of this is benefiting you, all of this. And when you have all of that and you're, maybe you're older in your life, maybe Marcella, because you're still a spring chicken, but when you get older later in life, maybe when you're like 70, you're going to be like, you know what, I did good. I have a lot of skills. I've wrapped up a lot of stuff. I'm set for life. And then maybe like that's where you come into that. Like you don't have to start being a mentor at 30, 40, 50, maybe it happens at 60, 65, 70, who knows? But I think the whole purpose first is the first two boxes about your talent stack and working on your personal things. So yes, Marcella, not Marcella. So I mean, I'll wrap it up from there, but I will post that link, you guys, so we can rewatch it. And there's obviously 100 ways to slice this loaf of bread, depending on like, you know, how you hear things and perceive things and whatever. And I think as long as you're doing something useful and you're growing and you're growing your own skill set and talent stack, I don't think you could help but end up being useful.

I'm almost 50, you guys.

She's a baby.

I'm not a baby. I look like a baby.

You're still a baby. You're still in your whole growth and talent stack and you're doing exactly what you should be doing, Marcela. You're like, you're doing exactly what you should be doing, in my opinion. Where's my sign? In my opinion, you should— you're doing exactly what you should be doing. So, um, everyone's going to drop their ages now. Um, um, so all right, so that, you know, that's, that's interesting. Like, I love that we got to have a double whiteboard start off on a Monday. And you guys, you know, again, rewatch it, or if you took it all in the first time, you know, where do you need to boost up a little bit? What things do you want to be focusing on? What do you want to be thinking about? What do you want to be producing? Like, how do you want to be useful? And listen, I need to be more useful to myself. Like, I'll be the first one to tell you that right now. I'm in a position right now where I put myself in this position where I've lacked being useful to myself. And I really have to set a time for— it's like not set a time aside for me to go to a spa. I need to set a time aside for myself, for taking care of me and, and checking off some boxes for my growth and my health and my future. So sometimes, you know, you got to bring back the balance too and just say like, you know, am I lacking somewhere? Yeah, right now I'm lacking for me and I need to put myself first more. But I'd love to hear you guys talk about it, you know, after the show in the chat. And I might come on tonight, you guys, um, for a little extra credit with Erica is now what I'm calling it in my head on Scott's Locals channel. So let's see, maybe we could talk about it in there. Um, okay, Owen or Marcella, who wants to— actually, Marcella, give us some hard-hitting news in 2 seconds.

Iran, Iran, Iran. Um, I'll give you like all the news in 2 seconds. Iran, um, Trump's rejected their response to the US proposal, calling the message totally unacceptable. You know, probably because the nuclear thing was not there. Um, they're worried about, um, the, the cost of gas. Um, but their, um, Secretary— Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News that they're thinking of suspending the federal gas tax, which is great. If they do. Uh, Rand Paul is still going after Fauci even though today is the last day for the statute of limitations. He's still moving forward in the Senate, um, with some kind of Senate committee, blah, blah, blah. May 13th, there'll be a committee hearing on the COVID cover-up. Um, hopefully somebody— something's done. California gas prices keep going up. So people are using the metro with, uh, people, um, having samurai swords. That might not be good. Uh, Cuba's regime clings to power despite them not having any oil or anything else. San Francisco's thinking of banning smoking everywhere. Um, and then, huh?

Even crack and fentanyl?

No, no.

So like regular people can't smoke cigarettes, but can I smoke crack? That's, that's the thing is like everybody else is doing fentanyl right outside every, uh, sidewalk, every park, yet they don't get ticketed. But if you were, you know, not that you do fentanyl, but if you were to like a regular person would do it, I'm sure you get a ticket.

Yeah.

Don't smoke crack, Erica.

No, it's whack, right? I heard it's whack.

Oh, and the other thing is Biden is seeking to block the DOJ release of his wonderful 2017 audio that he did, um, that was taken from there by the investigation, but it was done for his memoir. But he wants to block it from coming out. Um, I think, uh, the Heritage Foundation is trying to do a FOIA request I think it's a heritage family. I could be wrong. But anyways, he doesn't want it out. I wonder why.

Mm-hmm. Marcella, that was amazing. Yeah, thanks for that, like, warp speed, uh, news roundup. Owen, do you want to do one too? Yeah, in 1 minute, 2 minutes.

I would say I'll throw in another light one. Amish kids apparently hardly ever get allergies, and scientists think they know why. Find So, there's apparently Amish kids, only 7% of them have allergies versus 50% in the US. I didn't know it was that high, but it sounds really high. But apparently, what they figured out was it's this barn dust, the microbes in the barn dust that are very different. They compared the Hutterites to the Amish kids because the Amish kids have much lower rates of allergies and things. And they showed that the Amish kids end up exposed to these microbes in the barns much younger. And that seems to protect them. They call it the farm effect. So mouse tests have confirmed this, and they're saying that basically getting exposed to these barns at a young age is what's preventing asthma. So let your kids get dirty.

The new trend will be snorting barn dust. I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, someone— I think, uh, Dr. Hypnosis, uh, commented that the Amish should start renting out their barns by the hour.

Um, yeah, just go sweep up their barns, snort it, have a good time.

Yeah, but they're saying maybe probiotics and sprays would be a potential preventative.

So, okay. All right, you guys, so tomorrow— okay, I'm hoping I have— oh wait, oh, Marcela, go ahead.

No, I just said boom.

Oh, um, I'm hope— I might have a secret surprise guest for you. It's actually someone you already know that's been on the show, but I'm hoping this person can come on this week. Um, oh, and we have Corey DeAngelis on Thursday. I'm very much looking forward to hearing from him. There's so much going on about the schools right now and school choice and just the madness. Um, anyway, so we'll talk to him. So listen, you guys, let's be useful. Start saying your goodbyes. I, I can't stay on late with you guys right now, but I hope I'm coming on tonight if anyone wants to come on. So, um, I'm gonna just say to Owen and Marcella, thanks for a great show as usual. And to everybody who showed up today, you guys are the best. It's not Walter Kern, not yet. That's too close. He'd be like, all right, people, like, that's enough. Um, so listen, let's thank Scott Adams and Shelley for allowing this show to continue, and we appreciate it so much and appreciate getting to be with you guys, you know, every weekday morning. So let's have a closing sip to Scott Adams, our beloved Scott Adams, and we're gonna go out there and be useful. And let's work on our meaning of life today and every day. All right, to Scott Adams. Thanks, guys.

Bye, everyone.

Bye.