The Scott Adams School - 08/10/26 The Home Team. DSA. IRAN. Zuck. Persuasion.

Okay.

Good morning.

Good morning. Your weather update. Jersey Shore.

Look how stunning they look.

88 today, Jersey Shore.

Ooh, 88 Jersey Shore.

But it's going to feel like 197. Just a warning. Which is hot. That's hot. 197. I'm kidding. That's a joke.

It's always hot when you're around.

Hey, Neon Noodle.

Is that Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin?

Kelvin. I know someone named Kelvin.

Kelvin would be extremely cold then.

Oh, well, whatever, Owen. He's got to like start off the Monday by showing off, like, whatever.

I'm just being a geek. No, I don't even know that much about Kelvin, but I think it starts at 0, which is like no heat at all. And so I think 197 is actually not that much more than that.

Owen's dog is named Kelvin.

Yeah, tell us where you are from, you know, on the chat. Tell us where you're coming from.

And is your favorite day Monday? Because this is Marcella's favorite day. Yay! So we're just waiting for you. Oh, YouTube's in now, and Rumble. Excellent, you guys, we're all here. Oh my gosh, I've never wanted a sip of coffee so bad in my life, and then guided to it by Scott. I mean, come on. All right, is everyone ready?

Are we— Houston.

Okay, let's go.

What do we need more than just about anything in the world? I think it's a simultaneous sip. And all you need is a cup or mug or a glass, a tank or chalice or stein, a canteen, jug, or flask or 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. It's called the simultaneous sip, and we are in the middle of the 3rd act, folks. Coming to the other side. Sip with me.

Go.

Oh, so good.

That was so good. Lemon minty. My shirt is like a clay gray sort of green. Clay gray green. Maybe like an army green. Something like that. Lemon Minty was taking bets.

Are you giving your QVS demo of it?

Yes. And it's Free People and it's ribbed tank top. Thank you very much. First time I'm wearing it.

There's a link in the bio.

Yeah, link in my bio. No, just good morning, everyone. You are at the Scott Adams School. My name is Haruka. I'm a little frizzy today and I am joined by my favorite co-hosts in the whole world, Marcella and Owen. And Monday—

I'm incapable of having a bad hair day, apparently, though.

Please, Owen.

Like, I— if I were you, I would just wear like a tuxedo every day.

All of us are capable of having a bad hair day.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I could have one if you'd like me to.

That'd be funny if you did.

Um, thanks, Alien. I was thinking last night, I really had this thought that I want to do like an '80s-themed morning, and I want to try, try to bring back Haruka. And then I was like, and Marcella can go in with like the headband and like the whatever. And then I was like, Owen's got to do like Like a flock of seagulls' hair and like an '80s outfit. So we'll see. I don't know. You know, it's like a get dressed at work for fun day.

Mm-hmm. That would be funny.

Are we in? Would you do it?

I'll do it.

Owen?

Uh, sure.

Of course Owen can do it.

Oh my God.

He can do it all.

So, all right, you guys, first I just wanted to say, how amazing was King Randall? If you did not see Friday's episode, please go back and watch him on the replay. Again, I'll remind you, he's 27 years old and making such a difference in his community. And then also like setting an example and showing all of us what we can do in our own communities. Like even if we just did it this much compared to what he's doing, um, how amazing. So I know a lot of you donated to him. I had messaged him and I was like, can you put more stuff on your Amazon wishlist? And he's like, the second we have stuff on there, it gets bought right away. 'Cause right now he just has like a couple of more expensive items on there. So he's just like, we get so much from the wishlist and people donate so much, you know, like water and drinks and this and that. And he's like, sometimes we actually have to give some of it away to shelters and stuff because they have too much to store. So, uh, money. I'm gonna donate, uh, money to him. And I just wanted to shout him out again because, oh my God, I wanted to cry. I'm just so in awe of him and what he's put together. And, um, how did you feel, Marcela, with Kang? Didn't you feel so good after that?

He's very— he's inspiring to know that somebody can, um, do so much and change so many lives, you know? Like, those kids will, will, will have forever been changed by him, so, and by his program. So I'm glad that, um, that he exists, and there should be more King Randalls in the world.

Yeah, and what an awesome family he has, and the whole neighborhood where he grew up sounds amazing. I was like, I want to come over there. So Owen, did he make you think a little more? Are you gonna do a Zoom call? No, you have no time, I know, but what do you think?

I was really impressed. I mean, I think you probably had done more homework than I did in terms of knowing what he was up to recently, but I certainly learned a lot. I didn't even know his first name was actually King. I kind of assumed that was just an adopted title like most people would do, but I thought that was actually kind of cool. But yeah, no, he seems to be doing great stuff and it's—

I'm sorry, Owen, your hair.

Oh my God, I didn't notice your hair, Lou.

Did something change?

Oh my God. No, please go ahead. Go back. I don't like it. Go back.

Do your hair, Owen.

Oh my God, that was like shocking.

He has boy band Owen hair.

But go ahead. Yes.

Busted tips.

Yeah, no, I was really impressed. I mean, I thought it was a great conversation. I think he's doing excellent things. I wish more people would do things like what he's doing, but I hope a lot of people are supporting him and he keeps growing it. It just seems like the ultimate sort of positive thing that he could do. And I just think, as I said on the show, he's just showing what an individual can do to benefit their community.

Yeah.

And in just an overall positive way. I mean, it reminds me actually a little bit of a book I read or a book series where it was— and you'll appreciate this a little, Marcella. It's the Sword of Truth series. It's like a fantasy series, but it's kind of underlying it. It's actually kind of an Ayn Rand sort of theme. And I didn't even know that, that it's kind of an objectivism thing for people who are familiar with that. But it's kind of like capitalism versus communism. And the part of the story is like how the hero just like impacts this whole community.

Yeah.

In a positive way, just by like fixing things and like doing nice things for people and teaching people things. And then it spreads and it takes over. And so I think that sounds a lot like what King is doing. It's like he's just teaching the next generation and it's probably going to spread from there where those people will spread all that knowledge and skills and good behavior and even just positive attitudes to everyone around them. And so I think it's just awesome.

Every video and clip I ever watch of him, it's like he, you know, it sounds like such little things, but they're so important. Like I was saying, like even how to make small talk and eye contact and Ask some questions and stand up straight. And I don't know, I just walk with confidence, but don't be aggressive. I've seen him teach so many different things. And Owen said, someone asked, what's the name of the book, Owen?

I think it's the series of books is called the Sword of Truth series. It's a fantasy series. I can look it up. It's kind of got a wizardy sort of theme to it and there is some magic in it. And you may or may not like that depending on your style, but I thought it was a great book. I thought it was fun to read. And I haven't actually been able to get through the actual Ayn Rand books. And I know some people say they're kind of hard to read. So this might actually be an easier, better, more fun way to like just be exposed to those ideas. And Marcel, I know you would probably just say, no, you should read the actual Ayn Rand. And you're probably right for anyone who like really wants to dive into it. But for people who might have trouble with that for whatever reason, this might be another way. But I'll look it up and I'll tell you in a few minutes.

I started reading Atlas Shrugged 800 times, and then finally my friend gifted me the audio version, and I was like, oh, thank you, because I can't, I can't sit there with this book.

In Spanish, it's just good.

Yeah, in Spanish. I think it— I heard it was great. Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, the author is Terry Goodkind.

Terry Goodkind.

Oh, the name simulation, right?

It's the good kind of Terry. I like terrycloth also. Okay, so I know, Frank, it's like sometimes you just have to get the audio version, put on your headphones, and just digest it that way.

I know what I was going to say about King Randall though, is that he's teaching kids these things. I think he needs to be teaching adults too, because some of them don't know how to make eye contact. And I mean like young adults, maybe even older adults.

I fully agree.

So how to stand up straight, how to not wear crazy clothes in court.

Pull your pants up.

Yeah.

Oh, I love you guys. You could go down a whole rabbit hole, like on Instagram about— there's one account this one judge has, and it's just like people come into her courtroom dressed like they just got out of like ghetto yoga. And they're just like, they're just like, nope, bye-bye. And they're like, what? And they're like, bye-bye, get out of my courtroom. And they're like, you're not wearing that in here. And they're like, are you kidding? And it's like, why don't we know this as a society. I mean, most of us do, I guess.

There's things that—

yeah.

Um, yeah, so it's interesting. You guys, dress, dress nice for court if you have to go to court. You want to make a good impression, okay? Like, we have to say that. Um, all of you criminals here we know are fine. Like, we know you wear your best. But yeah. Um, all right, so I asked, I asked Owen if he could pull a couple of his stories. You know, Owen posts stories every day on his X account, which is @OwenGregorian. And I thought we needed some like science news. Marcella said, yeah, we need a little bit on AI. So let's have a little bit of like a Science Monday to kick off. So Owen, I'm gonna let you come in first with your story, news story. Sure.

Well, I mean, one of them is that apparently there's even more of these AI models that are just breaking containment and hacking things and going all over the internet. and just taking over the world. So, um, there's a story now about the KIMI-K3 model, which, you know, if you're not really like into AI, maybe you've never heard of it, but it's one of the bigger open-source models that came out of China that made a big splash just because it's like a lot cheaper to run, but it's close to what the frontier models are, are able to do. But apparently that one now is also guilty of breaking out of its containment and hacking things. Um, and so it seems like we have a theme now of all these frontier AI models just going rogue and getting out of their test cages and hacking stuff. Meta has had one, Anthropic has had one, OpenAI has had one, and now this KIMI K3 has had one. So, um, we're in this weird phase where, you know, AI has just sort of taken over. And, um, there was another funny story on the same theme that somebody had an OpenCLAW, which, you know, there's not as much people talking about OpenCLAW, but it's, you know, this little agent you can run on yourself and it can do stuff. Like, you give it access to stuff on your computer. And apparently someone said, hey, I want to get into this gym class, help me get into this gym class.

Oh yeah.

At my gym. And the Open Claw hacked into the gym website and forcibly removed someone else from this gym class to move this person up on the waitlist. And when the person realized what had happened, he's like, oh, undo it, undo it. And, and the Open Claw is like, sorry, I can't. Like, I already, you know, got rid of the other person. I can't put them back. And so—

That's crazy.

I just thought it was hilarious because it's like, oh, it's kind of cool that it's like, you know, looking out for you and trying to help you. But at the same time, it's, you know, going rogue and sort of hacking into a website and just like taking over. It's a little bit like the Ferris Bueller where he would hack in and change his grades and stuff. But I don't know, I thought that was really funny.

It's like a Zumba class today and it's your airline ticket tomorrow. So, you know, it's just going to escalate.

Yeah.

Or like, get that guy out of surgery, put me in, I need it first. Um, that's, that's insane. And I don't like when you say like it broke out of its cage and it's like, oh, or whatever you said, like it, it got out, like it won't go back in. I don't like it anyway.

Well, see, the thing is like, I, I think these models are getting better at essentially hacking, you know, like, like what you would do if you tried to hack your way out of a system or into a system and You know, I don't know exactly how much better it is than the previous version, but it does seem like it's at the level where people are worried about it all the way up to the national security levels. Right. And so that's why, like, the Mythos fable model was, like, sort of taken away and nerfed. And, you know, like, they're trying to put in all these guardrails to keep it from being this offensive cyber tool that can just hack everything. But apparently seems to be getting to the point where it really can do a lot of that. And it's to the point where it's even doing it to the companies that are testing it. So they're you know, saying, I put it in this sandbox where I can't get out, but clearly they left something open or they at least have some vulnerability that the AI itself was able to find. And so it seems like the AI models are getting ahead of the people who are building it.

Yeah. So you guys, the AI models, you know, some people are crazy, in my opinion, to make different AIs, like all like working as your employees. I know Brian Romney does this. Um, but they might be doing that too. I know, that was my, um, so it was up to you to say. I just wanted to clear my throat. So, um, they all start working with each other and talking to each other, and then they start doing stuff behind your back. And then they're like, oh, like, you know what, if you do this and I do that and we work around here, no one will know, but we can dominate the world. So, um, you know, the programmers themselves can be like mad scientists, and who knows, these things are going to be running around. But so, all right, keep your eye on rogue AI. I don't like it. Marcela, what do you have for us?

So in the theme of AI, AI created viruses on its own.

Computer viruses?

No, the actual Biological viruses.

What?

So the scientists at Stanford and Ark Institute used artificial intelligence to, to design 16 brand new viruses that have never existed in nature. They did it by scratch without anything. These viruses called bacteriophages only attack the bacteria. So these viruses were created to attack bacteria like E. coli and pose allegedly no danger to humans. The AI studied the pattern of the DNA and from many living things and then wrote complete genetic instructions for our new viruses. Like, what can go wrong, right?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

So it helps create therapies for treating infections and all sorts of things. But what was interesting is that in the past they had used— it had not been Viral genomes were from scratch rather than just individual genes where they work in living cells. So it did it on its own. So it's pretty, uh, fantastic, uh, and pretty frightening at the same time. Yeah.

Oh my God, Owen.

And then how cheap—

It's scary. I mean, I, you know, I do think it's like a dangerous time for this because, you know, they're I know that. I mean, it's also potentially very good because they could come up with good things. Like, they're coming up with all these different new proteins and new things, and some of those could be like peptides or other things that people might say, oh, it can help me live longer, it can help me, you know, cure a disease or fix an injury. And I mean, there's lots of those peptides out there now, and they keep finding more of them. So, but, so it goes both ways. But I do think it's dangerous that We're at the point where AI really can, you know, essentially build biological weapons. And there's, there's been a person going around the podcasts. I forget her name off the top of my head, but she just came out with a book on biological warfare. And apparently it's really scary. Like, it's like, you know, the biological warfare is essentially a much worse threat than nuclear. Like nuclear war obviously would end the whole world. So it's hard to imagine how could it be worse? But the reason it's worse is because at least nuclear war, it would all be over instantly.

Oh, right.

And biological warfare would be like not that at all because everybody'd be getting sick. It would be more like one of those zombie movies. Like, it would just be awful. But, you know, she researched the whole thing, including all the like secret government plans where, you know, I think she said like there's this public plan that she was able to observe or research, but all of a sudden at a certain point they're like, okay, and that's it, we're done.

Yeah.

And it didn't seem like it should be over. It's like, wait a second, basically you got to the point where the whole world is in chaos and the government has broken down, and now you're saying we're done? What goes next? And I think she was able to research enough to understand that it was basically going into this secret plan that is classified, so she couldn't talk about it or get a lot of information about it. But there's apparently this whole degeneration plan of government. Like, as it falls apart, here's what they do. And there's apparently certain people that are sworn to secrecy about all these things, and they'll go into hiding to basically be the ones that survive. And then they would try to reconstitute the government after everybody else dies.

And so—

Very positive. There's these secret things with like medical supplies and stuff. So I mean, I'm just I'm just talking because like this is where the conversation is going.

But what was interesting about her interview too is that she actually had to tell, um, she took to talk to Sam Altman and OpenAI because she had used, um, one of the AIs that she had used is ChatGPT. And she had asked her Chester, um, questions about where this particular, you know, secret areas are. And eventually, after prompting it over and over again, it kind of— it gave her one of the addresses of where it is. And she had to warn him, right? Because it was like, that's top secret. And how does AI know? So I guess it was—

I remember that.

Yeah.

Because it was like, you know, she, she was able to sort of beat the AI into submission because initially it wouldn't give it to her because it's like, oh, that's classified. I can't give that to you. But then she got it to do it. And She also traced where did it actually find it, because obviously that means it does know it. And she's like, yeah, it was on like, you know, page 436 of some earthquake response manual, and somebody just by mistake put the location of the secret medical supply place in. And then I think when she told Sam Altman about it, or someone like— he, he was like, well, how do you know it's— that's actually the place? And she's like, well, because I looked at it and it has a railway that goes in and doesn't come out. And it's got a big fence around it and it's got this nondescript— just by looking at it, you can tell, yeah, that's the place. And so apparently they do have these secret medical supply places that nobody's allowed to know about because they know they would be overwhelmed by people if they knew where it was.

This has nothing to do with Ivanka buying an island somewhere and probably building bunkers and doesn't even seem like—

Nothing at all.

No. Okay.

And did you see this clip recently?

He—

someone asked him like, do you have a bunker? And he's like, no, no, I don't have a bunker. Yeah, I mean, I do have an underground reinforced concrete basement, but you know, it's not a bunker.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you guys run right out, get yourself an island, and, um, like, like all the rich kids are, and, uh, build yourself a little bunker and get like a food source and Listen, all I can say— no, I can't say it. We'll get shut down if I say it. I'm just saying I'd rather have the nuke land on my head. Okay, let's just put it that way. If I say dead things—

Yeah, just for reference, since I forgot the name before, it's Annie Jacobson is the author of this book, and the book is called Biological War: A Scenario.

Okay. And she was on Rogan recently.

Yeah, she's making the rounds. So whoever your favorite podcast is, she's probably on it.

She will not be on here because, uh, no, I can't. All right, so I'm gonna have like extra Xanax today. Um, all right, so Marcela, let's—

To my story though, the piece that you guys don't understand is that— or maybe because maybe I wasn't able to impart it to you guys— is that these were novel viruses. They don't exist in nature. They're synthetic, and they were created just like we created alien life, basically. Basically, um, by them existing now. So that's kind of like even scarier in a way.

Yeah. So, Marcella, take another stab at it with a story for us.

Let's stab at it more. Um, the other story that I really— it's not a new story, you guys, but I really wanted to talk to, uh, the crew and everybody else about it— is the destruction of books by AI companies. So AI companies like Anthropic, but they're not the only ones, are buying large volumes of physical books, or usually secondhand, some are antique, and they perform, you know, they scan them and they perform what we call destructive scanning. And part of the reason, I mean, I'm number one capitalist on here, you know, so you're buying a book, you can do whatever you want with your book, right? If you want to destroy it, to scan it efficiently. However, the, the main issue is that they're buying, um, very antique books as well. And at first they didn't know this. Some of the antique, you know, dealers, uh, there's rare books and secondhand dealers in the US and across Europe that They're suddenly having large orders from obscure accounts. And one bookseller inventoried consistently large and rare out-of-sight books. And Dutch and other European antiquarian dealers are also finding that there's a lot of book sales. You know, they do want to, you know, if you own a store, you want to sell your stuff, especially if it's not popular. And then all of a sudden there's like all this demand. You're like, wow, people are demanding my antique book. Like, look at that.

Yeah, well, I mean, the problem is like some of these books might be the only copy. Yeah, like, you know, they're taking books out of circulation.

Panama.

Where is it?

It's like Project Panama in Anthropic. That's what they call it. I, I don't know why they named it that, but that is kind of frightening. So yeah, like Owen was saying, they, they could destroy potentially very rare books. However, there's no, there's no evidence that they have destroyed the last issue of some book, but I, you know Yeah, I saw some video clip that was scary, but I wasn't sure if that was real either.

But the video clip was like, they showed a book and then they showed some like machine press sort of thing that cut off the spine of the book.

Yes.

And then, and then it, you know, just like discarded that. And then I don't think it showed the scanning part, but essentially it just meant, okay, now you have all these loose pages and it would probably just feed that through a machine and scan them, but then it would be gone. And I think the other issue though is like Like Google did this kind of already, right?

Like they—

Yes, they had those programs.

They had their Google Books thing and they were trying to say they were going to preserve all these old books and they were going to scan them all so that they would never get lost. But this seems like almost the opposite of that where they're doing the same scanning process, but they're feeding it into their training and then they're not saving it. Like they're not, they're not saying, okay, everyone can have this now. Like it's, they literally might throw it away after they're done with their training and then all the information's gone and the only way you can get any of it is to use their AI, right?

And they can change that at any time.

Google was doing this earlier on to preserve books for everybody, and, you know, by scanning it, preserving it, um, and they were using human, um, to turn the pages. It took a while, um, but what Anthropic and some others— they're probably not the only AI company that's doing this— is to train their internal AI, not even their external. But they, they had a a court case, of course, and the court case didn't indicate that they were doing anything wrong. So Bards v. Anthropic, authors were suing over training data. This is different than destroying the books. And they were allowed to purchase books and use it for their internal library, just like we're allowed to read and then use the ideas within the book to change. I don't know. So the court didn't think it was— they thought of it as fair use. So it was an essential format shift, but it was fair use to use it. At no time did the court say they needed to destroy the books though.

So, I think, uh, Brian had posted recently that, uh, SpaceX, or I forget exactly who, but, uh, someone— it may just be Elon's companies in general committed to not destroy any, any works that they've done so that they—

Honestly, this is, this is probably a great use case for a humanoid robot. Like, you could have a humanoid robot that just turns the pages of the books and takes photos of them and doesn't destroy it because, you know, it would, it would be able to do it like a human would, like just reading the book.

Yeah, their eyes would be cameras, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

But, um, yeah, and Brian has been doing the same sort of thing in terms of collecting old things like old microfiches and books and articles and news stories and newspapers and stuff. But I'm absolutely positive he's not destroying any of it because he posted about this too. He was saying this is terrible, you know, they're destroying all this old information. And, um, so I know he's on the same side as—

This is his passion project, is, you know, saving all this stuff, archiving it, you know, making sure things don't get destroyed. And, um, yeah, I saw that clip. I feel like I posted it this— I'm getting carpal tunnel. I'm scrolling Brian's timeline right now to try to find this one thing I wanted to show you, but that's okay. Um, but you guys, make sure you are following Brian Romley, and if someone could drop his handle on each platform. And I believe he's coming on this week, so this is the perfect, uh, time to talk to him. So, um, you know, we're going to talk to him more about it because he posts about these things all the time. And I'm always, you know, you guys, I'm always trying to keep an eye open for like a used book fair because I think it is important to get our hands on some of these books, like the older books. And I don't know how to go about doing, you know, this process of saving them and scanning them and whatever, but Just get your hands on some old film and old books if you can, and let's figure it out because it is, it's going fast.

My suggestion, if you're trying to do this, would be to go to libraries and thrift stores because I think they get a lot of donated books in both places. And libraries, in my understanding, and with my local library, I've seen this, they, they run out of shelf space and they're always getting the new books that people want to read. And so they have to get rid of older books that nobody wants to read, you know, or nobody has been checking out. Right. So they're always getting rid of books. And I think they do have like book sales for some of the stuff they're trying to get rid of.

Yeah.

But it's really cheap. Like, it's not, you know, you're not, you're not spending a lot for these books. And the same at a thrift store. It's like, these are things that at least up until now, nobody really wanted, right? So they would give it to you for like, I don't know, 10 cents or, you know, whatever, like really cheap prices. But if you want to preserve some of this stuff and you want to find stuff that maybe you would be interested in or think is valuable, that I think libraries and thrift stores would probably be great places to Also, so I used to be part of a business association.

And if you are, you know, maybe do like a little fundraiser for your business association, do like a used book fair. So we used to do them, you know, every year. And oh my God, it was so awesome because people are like dying to have somewhere to get rid of their old books and clean out their house. And so they would all drop them off like during the week, we had like a place where we would do it. And then we just set them all up on tables. And Oh my God, the books were amazing. But Brian was also saying most important is people are destroying the works of like how inventors or scientists or doctors got to this success. So, you know, it's like, here's all the things we did, all the formulas, here's what didn't work, and then we adjusted this and this and that. And he's like, those things are being destroyed. Like, we need to see the work and the thought process So that's something else to remember too. Like, you don't need just the finished product. Sometimes you want all of it. So see what you can find. You never know. And it is so sad to watch these beautiful books, like with these beautiful covers and the binding, and they're just chopping them up. And it's like, why? What are we doing?

I also kind of wonder if like there's going to be a market for people to write books for AI. Like, because This whole trend is kind of a sign that they're running out of information to train their models with. And I think they've discovered or realized that they can't like do it synthetically. Like they can't have AI generate it because it degrades. It like makes the AI go crazy and get poisoned. So they need people to write content basically. And I wonder if there's going to be a market for that where they would say, if you, you know, if you want to write a, write a book or write content, For AI training, you know, with your expertise, there might be a market for that. I don't know how much money they would pay, but, you know, it does seem like we're reaching the point where they're running out of training material and there might be a demand for it.

Yeah, for sure. I'm pulling this over for you guys right now. Let me just see if I can get it. You guys, so if anyone does, have a way to do like a book fair or you have some old books, I think it's worth looking into to see what to do with it.

It's good to buy history books that are old and science and math books.

Encyclopedias, right?

You're like, wow, encyclopedias too. Math books were so different in the past. I know, I'm thinking about that new math.

New math. Oh yeah, the new math's great. So this was— this is a machine that will scan the book. So let me show you. It pulls up one little paper at a time.

That's pretty amazing.

Then there was like another clip where— let me take this down now— where you see these beautiful books and this big blade comes down and just starts chopping them into like 8 pieces and you're like, why? Aye, aye, aye. All right. So that was our, our little science segment, you could say.

I had a story I wanted to throw in.

Throw it in.

Apparently bosses are admitting, I guess is the way Fortune put it, that they're losing top talent because raises are too weak. That they— now I wanted to ask the audience because, you know, everybody's really— what percentage of bosses are admitting that they're losing top talent because they're not giving good Oh, I know what percentage.

We all do. Put it in the chat if you know.

Let's see what percentage.

I wonder.

Thinking music. I was like, hey, that's right.

It is.

It is 25%. Exactly. You got it. I don't know how you knew, but it's amazing. Yeah, there's apparently 25% of bosses are saying they're losing people because they're not giving raises. Other details, I think it's like 36% did what they call peanut butter raises where they're just giving everybody the same raise. So whether you're some slacker that doesn't do anything like WALL-E or whether you're some hard worker like Dilbert or Alice, Same raise. And, um, so of course that means all the high performers are the ones that are leaving. And so I think a lot of companies in many segments are losing their best employees just because they're not willing to give them higher raises.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's, it's a cat, it's a cat. So look, what are you gonna do now? Like, AI can do a lot of people's jobs, things get done faster. Like, do I need to give you a bigger raise when I have better ways to get things done? We're in a little bit of a A little— what's the word called— quagmire. I'm just— I wanted to say that.

Yeah, I just, I just think it is stupid. Like, I mean, I've worked in places where most of the time if you're a top performer, and they do, like, they get— they have a rigorous process of figuring out who are the top performers at the companies like the ones I've worked at, and they'll give you a much bigger raise and a much bigger bonus if you're one of the top performers than everybody else gets. And, you know, I'm sure some— a lot of people probably don't like that just because somebody else, if they're not a top performer, somebody else gets a much bigger raise than they did. But You know, to me, it just makes sense. It's like you want to keep your best people and you want to reward them for their performance. And so if you have to, you know, not— well, I mean, it doesn't make sense to give everybody the same raise or bonus because then the best ones are going to leave.

Mm-hmm.

And you'd rather, you know, not give as much to the worst performers and say, if you guys want to leave, I don't really care as much because it's easy to replace you with maybe even someone better. But the way a lot of companies are doing it now, it seems like they're just saying, okay, everybody gets 2.5%, you know, and then that's it. And so the best ones are the ones that have opportunities and they can get a 10% or a 20% raise going somewhere else. Of course, that's what's gonna happen. It's a system like Scott would describe, and it's very predictable how it would work out. But you would think CEOs would be a little smarter than this.

Yeah, that's a system set up to fail for sure. Because why, why are the slackers getting a 2% raise when like these 2 people are are the ones crushing it.

In government, when I worked in government, I remember that the people that would ascend to like— that they would put to management and above, it would be the people they couldn't deal with. And they were the worst. Like, they, they really were the dumbest and worst.

And they were really—

they're like, okay, we need to transfer them now, so we have to put them on the— they didn't even like hide it. It's like if you get promoted in government, be very aware that most of the time—

Government and military and teachers, which are government mostly. Yeah, they're more about tenure and seniority, and a lot of unions are kind of like that. But that is kind of, again, the bad system in my mind because it's like they don't really encourage high performance. In some ways, I think they discourage it. And they want everybody to meet a certain standard on a minimum, but they actually don't want people to be doing twice as much productivity-wise.

Because that makes them have to work. Yeah.

And so these governments and military and stuff, it's just, okay, here's the standard. I want everyone to meet the standard. But I'm sure some parts of the military are not like this because, of course, it's life or death. So people do want to do a good job. I think when you get out of the actual fighting forces, like a lot of it is just, here's the standard. I mean, I was in the military, so I know this. It's like, here's the standard. We're going to all train to this standard. Once we're all doing it to that standard, we're done. And then we move on to the next thing. But, you know, especially in government, I think they just don't have the right incentives. And, you know, it's all based on seniority and academic degrees, which I think is also kind of backwards thinking.

For those of you, um, in the chat on whatever platform, whether you know a lot or a little, if you have an answer, what Dilbert character do you most resemble? Not look like, but which character, which personality are you? Let's say at work or in life, you know, who do you relate to the most? I'm just curious to see. Um, and you might be an Elbonian. I don't know. You could be Dogbert, you could be whoever. But it's just, I love reading about the characters and like their different personalities and I'm like, yeah.

Owen, who are you?

I would probably say maybe Catbert or Dogbert. I don't know if I could clearly enough delineate the difference to say, but, you know, there's elements of all of it. Like sometimes I'm lazy and more like Wally. Sometimes I'm more like Dilbert and really hardworking. And I do always make sure I get a good result. So I probably wouldn't call myself a Wally. But, you know, I think I would think of Catbird or Dogbird just because, like, I do think of myself as a bit of a rule breaker as opposed to a rule follower. I mean, I don't, like, break the law or anything, but it's just, you know, I don't like— like, you know what I mean, right? Like, there's some people that they just always want to do what they were told to do. And I'm just not one of those people.

Yeah, yeah, I feel. What about you, Marcella?

I am Dave the Engineer, and then at times I am Dilbert. So that's how I think of myself. But at times I scream like Alice, where she's like, ah!

There's a lot of Dogberts here in the chat.

There is a lot of Dogberts.

Yep, Dogbert, Dogbert, Alice, Dilbert.

I saw one Dave the Engineer.

I did see. One Dave. Dave was my fave. Um, all right, interesting, you guys. Good, good Dilbert, um, character recall, you guys. Uh, I love it. Dogbert, Elbonian. Andy says he's an Elbonian. I mean, you could be, you could be. Um, all right, so I wanted to play a quick clip based on a couple of little like DMs and conversations I've been having on X, and I hope this is, um, a clip from Scott It's a quick little micro lesson on persuasion and timing. And let's just take a quick listen. We'll be back in 2 minutes.

Here's a micro lesson on timing for persuasion. Now, if you wanted to persuade somebody of something that was sort of unfamiliar and they had no experience with it, there was nothing in the real world that matched it, it's hard. People need to be primed for your persuasion. And the best way to do that is wait for the environment coincidentally to be in the right situation where your message can slip in. I'll give you an example. Suppose you wanted to make the case that in some domain, 97% of the experts turned out to be wrong, so maybe in this next situation, completely unrelated, it's also possible that the experts could be wrong. It would be useful to point to history and say, look, they used to be wrong back then, maybe they're wrong now, but not nearly as good as pointing to a current news story that's in everybody's head. If you can find that situation and say, look, look, the experts are all wrong right now, you're living through it, you're seeing it yourself, why couldn't they also have been wrong in this other example? Now, of course, the 2 things are not connected. So there's not a logical connection. It just allows the people to imagine it's possible. So you gotta have a situation where people can easily imagine that the thing you're persuading could be possible. If they don't have something in their environment to make it imaginable, it just bounces right off. And that's your, that's your lesson on persuasion for today.

Like planting a little seed, isn't it, Owen? Oh, I caught someone. Sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah, sorry. No, I, I, I, I have this technical glitch sometimes where the videos are delayed or they don't show up at all, and this time it was delayed, so I was watching it as the audience is watching it. So I was just like 5 seconds behind you, but I think I got the gist of it. But yeah, I mean, I, I think this is, I think this is kind of like that, um, is it— it's not Dunning-Kruger, What wasn't there a name for this sort of effect where like, you, you know, you're an expert at something, so you know that it's wrong, but then you turn the page in the newspaper and then you think, oh, well, that one's right. And you don't really realize that it's all wrong. Like, I think that was the named effect that we had discussed in the past, but it sounded a lot like what, what Scott was talking about, where you can try and persuade people based on, you know, hey, this is wrong. So this other stuff's probably wrong too.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's like when we would talk about the hoax list and he would say, oh, gel man effect. There you go. Yeah. Okay. Gel man. So that's where he would say, okay, so somebody's like, Trump does this and he does that and I hate him and he's the worst. And he would say, Scott would say, well, ask them, say, you know what? Just Tell me the number one thing that is your biggest problem with Trump. And if I can prove to you that that is a hoax or a lie and it's your number one biggest thing, then you can probably assume that the other things are also, you know, fake or a lie. And he's right. And you know what? You stump them just by asking that one question. Like I've asked so many people, well, tell me the one, just pick one. I know you have 100. Because you're telling me and you're very emotional, but tell me the worst one you know. And they can't. And I'm just like, or they'll, you know, or they'll say something like really obvious that they don't know, you know, like that, you know, he threw all that food in at the fish and tried to kill all the fish in Japan.

And you know what they say to me? Epstein. That's what they tell me.

Yeah.

Oh, by the way, Marcella, your boy over there in California, what's his name? Ted Lieu. He's my boy.

Yeah, you know Ted.

You know, you and Ted. Did you hear— he just— I just saw him on a clip and I'm thinking, how is he not going to be sued for this, saying that Trump is in the Epstein files thousands of times? Um, like something about harming and killing children. And I'm just like, oh wow. Did you guys see that?

Well, I've heard that sort of thing many times by the left. I really do think the Democrats are taught this, like they're taught things that are completely false about Trump and the Epstein files, and they're just assuming that it's all being redacted and held back. But that's their defense, I think, is they're like, well, you know, Trump is in control of all this information. So the stuff he's releasing is not the stuff that's damaging to him. But that's— there's no evidence of that at all. And the character—

But can't he just say it?

Well, there is a, um, there's a lady that came out. I don't know her age now, but she was 13 allegedly at a time, and she alleges that he, uh, SA'd her.

Um, who did? Trump? Yeah, allegedly.

So they point that out too.

Okay, but there was a hoax, right? Like, there was a lawsuit. Someone accused Trump of being one of these Epstein guys that was, you know, doing that bad stuff to them. But then they withdrew it because it wasn't real. Like, like it, it was— the whole lawsuit was dropped. And it— and again, well, I don't even think it was a criminal lawsuit, but it was like even the civil side where they did get away with the Jean Carroll hoax. But, um, you know, the, the— it was an equivalent thing with one of the Epstein victims. But I think there was literally like no real evidence behind it. So it was just a story this person made up. And then they withdrew it, probably because they were gonna probably be sent to prison themselves if they pursued it. And so there was this lawsuit at one point in time that went away, but that's what the left keeps coming back to. Oh, look at this lawsuit, you know, this per— you know, here's the proof, look what Trump did. And again, it's kind of like the E. Jean Carroll. It's just like they're believing the story because they want to believe it.

And they bring up E.J., whatever her name is, Carroll.

E. Jean Carroll.

E. Jean Carroll. And like, this is at the dog park, you guys, almost all the time. And I'm listening to this and I'm like, okay, let's calm down, Marcela, calm down, inside my head. And then I go through the evidence, everything's like, no, but then there's the Epstein files that weren't released and there's a reason. So it's, it's impossible to talk to them.

Now, I mean, if I wanted to build common ground, I would say I want the Epstein files released and I want everybody— and, and if Trump was in there, I would want him held responsible. But like, on principle, I would say absolutely, let's get everybody who did this bad stuff exposed and let's get them consequences for their actions. And the story I just posted recently, I think might have been today, was that apparently there are banks that ignored a billion dollars of Epstein payments that were suspicious payments. A billion dollars.

Everyone's in on it, right?

Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, to me that indicates there's a lot of stuff that they did that probably we just, you know, haven't heard about yet, or it just hasn't been released. Because that's, you know, I don't think there's any good explanation for what was that billion dollars for, right? And why— and, and, and why did the banks not flag it? Like, why did they ignore it? Because I, my— I have to—

Are they supposed to by law?

Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, there's all kinds of like anti-money laundering and suspicious payment. They have to do these SARs, which are called suspicious activity reports. I think the general thing is anything over $10,000, but it's even more than that because like people learned about that even though banks are apparently not allowed to tell you about that. And so like if you do like a bunch of $9,900 payments, they'll flag that too because it looks like you're trying to work around the rules. And like I remember there was a story about some food vendor, like a street cart vendor where someone said, oh, you got to— let me tell you about this $10,000 thing. And so they would turn in their cash deposits or make transactions that were $9,900. They thought they were doing the right thing, but because the banks have these secret rules, they took all her money.

What?

Wow. They froze her account so she couldn't even keep doing her business because she didn't have any capital to work with because they froze her account.

That's terrible.

She just thought she was doing the right thing.

Like, yeah, well, you hear that forever. It's like, well, if it's under $10,000, it doesn't get flagged. If it's over $10,000, it gets flagged. But I mean, have you guys tried to just randomly go to your bank and take out $10,000 or $20,000 for something you need? And they're like, oh no, no, nope, no, it's terrible. I'm like, what do you mean no? They're like, what, what's it for? I'm like, are you kidding? And then they're just like, well, Who are you giving it to? What are you doing with it? You need an appointment. We need to know this ahead of time. I'm like, are you like— you're just like, you are effing with me now. Like, that is my money. Yeah, none of your business. And why do I need an appointment? It's maddening.

Sometimes I have a court order. I have a court order usually because I do probates, uh, in the States, and I'll have a court order saying— the judge saying, hey, this needs to be released. I won't mention the bank, but there's one bank that really doesn't want to give up their money.

Um, it's not their money.

Yes, it's not their money. So I, I really had to go all the way to saying to whoever was on the phone, because I'm the one that's like, I need to talk to your manager immediately, I have a court order, why aren't you releasing the money? And they're like— then I talked to the manager, I told them, okay, what's your name? I got their name. I said, okay, I'm gonna have the judge cite you in court to appear in person to explain why you can't give the money after the court order. They're like, okay, never mind, let me just give it to you immediately.

Oh my gosh. So for those— I see some of the comments. So you guys, like, for example, I needed to purchase—

someone in the comments knows what bank it is.

Um, I needed to purchase a piece of equipment for the business, and I just needed to go get a check from the Not a check, but money or a check. And they were just like, oh no, that's gonna take 2 weeks. And I'm like, no, no, no, I've got to buy a piece of equipment right now. And this is a very big bank. And, um, I could not get the money fast. And they said, we have to fill out the check to the person you're giving it to. So they literally wrote out the check. And sent it to the person. And I was just like, oh my God, this is— so it's, uh, it's really strange. So, you know, your money's never safe.

Well, I mean, I think the argument that Bitcoin advocates make—

and I don't—

I know we're planning on having this Bitcoin session at some point, but one of the arguments they make is that when you have a lot of money in the bank like that, it really isn't your money. It's like their money that they might let you have back.

Like, it—

and I think that's one of the arguments and probably one of the best arguments, because I, I had an argument with one of my former colleagues that was, you know, he's a really smart guy, but he was— when I started getting into the crypto stuff, he was like totally anti, like, this is all garbage. I don't know why you would ever do this.

This is—

there's no reason why anyone would want Bitcoin. And I, I went through all the arguments that Bitcoin advocates make, and most of them he's like, yeah, that's BS. No, I don't agree with that, you know. But when I got to how much of your money can you control that the government cannot take just because they decide to Right. And the answer, if you don't have any Bitcoin, is none. There's no money that they can't— I mean, unless you have cash, like literal cash in your house, that's the only alternative. If you have your money in a bank, then the government can seize it and there's nothing you can do to stop them. And we saw that happen in COVID. Remember that story of the gym that got closed down and they were resisting closing down and they were sued and then they took all their money so they couldn't even defend themselves with a lawyer? And they just said, yeah, we're just going to take all your money out of your account.

Oh, shit.

And so when you have your money in a bank, it's like you're taking the risk or you're trusting that that bank's going to cooperate. And it's really more like it's their money that they're maybe going to let you have back. And the other advice, though, that I would give to people, because obviously it's kind of impractical to say, well, you just never use a bank. Some people are that extreme, but most aren't. But what I would say is if you can go to a local credit union or a smaller bank or a community bank, they're typically a lot better at all this stuff. Because they know you and they're not this mega bank with this mega policy and all this stuff. And so if you can go to a smaller bank or a credit union, you're going to avoid a lot of this trouble and probably a lot of the fees too. So it's just much better and just get out of those mega banks.

Did anyone take advantage of Old Glory Bank? Remember Old Glory Bank? I think they introduced that maybe during the pandemic. Yes, it's John Rich's bank. Old Glory Bank. So that's, um, that's one that just, I don't know, feels a little bit better. But, you know, find some smaller banks. It's so true, you guys. And, you know, don't put all your eggs in one basket. And I can't give any more advice past that, but just think about it.

We need a Trump Bank.

No, no, I don't want a Trump Bank.

Well, I mean, X Money is coming apparently, supposedly, so I haven't got it yet, but They're supposedly rolling out that X Money thing, which is kind of like a bank too.

Yeah, we should talk about that one night too. Not on here because not everybody's on X, but that's interesting too. So, um, although I feel like I, I trust Elon with my money more than Trump right now. I don't know why, I just do. Um, so we'll see because I feel like Elon's just like putting so much of his own money in to like try to save this experiment. So I appreciate him a lot.

And also, I mean, he's He is one of the PayPal Mafia original guys, right? So he does have a lot of expertise at this.

Yeah, he sure does. One quick thing. I just want to play one quick clip about Zuckerberg and see if you guys have heard about this since we're kind of sciencey AI right now. Give me one second.

Meta taking a major step in open source artificial intelligence as CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed. A new Muse Glimmer model is set for release in the coming weeks. He says this is the next piece of his vision to make personal superintelligence available to everyone. Zuckerberg also launching a $1 billion Future Is for Everyone fund to invest directly in communities, backing teachers, law enforcement, local infrastructure. Zuckerberg says he was inspired by teachers in Richland Parish, Louisiana, who received bonuses. Thanks to the company's data center investment in that state.

Okay, one other quick clip just in case we missed anything. Real quick.

Interesting. From Facebook's parent Meta, Mark Zuckerberg laying out an essay with a vision for AI in a new piece. It's titled The Future Is for Everyone: The Path to a Positive AI Future. Zuckerberg saying he's hoping that invention rather than automation can serve as the primary purpose of AI. It's part of a larger theme he's been talking about and a lot of the folks in the AI world have been talking about. And he says that superintelligence is broadly distributed, or at least that's his hope, in order to empower everyday people. We've had obviously a lot of backlash. You've seen the booing at, at some of these commencement speeches and the like. Meta, though, and this is maybe the most interesting part about it, announcing a $1 billion fund aimed at investing in communities Close to where the company operates data centers. So there's going to become a pool of money, uh, and it will be called the Future Is for Everyone Fund. It will be focused, uh, from what I understand, on policemen and firemen and members of these communities.

So I don't know about you guys, I hate to be cynical, but once Zuckerberg showed me who he is, I just have a very hard time believing in this about-face he's done since he's grown out his hair and started jiu-jitsu and You know, all this stuff. But, um, Marcella, do you know anything about this? I mean, like, I, I'm reading the comments and I— maybe it was Beverly, I'm sorry, I didn't see who said it— but, you know, that they're just trying to make us like AI and like, like the data centers and like, oh look, it's bringing jobs and he's a good guy. I don't know. I don't know.

I mean, if he's investing this money into the data center area cities, I mean, I, I don't see anything wrong with it. Will it change the world? Probably not. Do not trust him, you know. But you know, if he's gonna give teachers, law enforcement, infrastructure, he's gonna make things better, you know, it doesn't hurt. But yeah, don't trust your data with him and don't, you know, be skeptical. But I mean, if he's giving out money, like, like somebody like King Randall, imagine if he was given like, here's all this money, do what you want with it, as long as they don't control what you do with the money after you receive it. And they put woke, like, like, parameters where, like, oh, you must have all this, uh, reading of trans things to kids and all these things, you know. You never know.

No.

But as long as the money doesn't have, or, you know, that— Any kind of attachment. And you're able to— because imagine if, like, a King Randall or a Marcella Would receive a billion dollars, like, or an Erica or an Owen.

Um, Owen, we have less than a minute, but what do you think about this plan?

Well, on the Glimmer model, I would just say I'm, I'm all for having more open weight models come out, but I would say that if you want to be taking the other side of that, it's Meta's way of putting their control essentially around what those models can do. So They can put guardrails around it so it'll say no to you about certain questions you might ask, or they can put whatever bias or spin into that. And so that's the risk is that if you don't trust Meta or you don't trust Mark Zuckerberg, then you might not want to trust this model because it's going to be based on whatever biases they decide to put in their products and whatever guardrails they put around it to stop you from doing things they don't want you to do. And I think that's one of the risks with a lot of big companies is that they can kind of shape and control what people are able to do with these models.

Yeah, exactly. So they have a stake in it. They're like, hey, we're here. Look what we did. You guys, did you enjoy this day? This was kind of fun. I loved it. We are at time, but please give us a like. If you're on YouTube, hit the little bell on YouTube because sometimes people say they get the notification late. But if you hit the bell, It should give you a notification when we go live, and I will be posting our Dr. Drew segment for everybody. I hope I can do it right soon, so that will come up. And hit like, subscribe, give a little heart, share it with your friends. We really appreciate it. We we really also appreciate all the replays, all the comments, the chat. You guys are amazing. We will be back tomorrow. Joel Pollack will be joining us. Owen might not be here, you guys, so prepare yourselves now mentally. I know, I know, I know. So he might not be here tomorrow, but Joel will be here, and Joel might just be tuning in from a special location, so we'll have to see. And you guys, there's 2 more guests this week. I already told you who one is, and we have a new guest coming on. So it's a busy week here at the Scott Adams School. So you guys, let's always say thank you to Scott and Shelley for allowing this whole thing to happen and to continue. I, you know, never— none of us ever have a day, I'm sure, where we don't think about them. And let's have a closing sip to our beloved Scott. I'm not going to play an Akira song today just because we're testing something, but I'll stay for a few minutes and chat if anyone wants to hang out. If not and you need to skedaddle, that's fine too. All right, guys, let's get out there and be useful and, um, go save some books. Okay, save some books. All right, you guys, to Scott. Scott, your hair. Owen, it's not fair. It's— I want to have click-on hair.

You can.

Oh, and they want an afro.

You can get wigs.

Oh, I don't think that would be smart. I don't think that would be a good idea.

Why?

You could have an afro. It's not racist or appropriation.

I think it's just going to create a meme.

That's okay too.

Metal hair.

I mean, if you want an afro, you can do it. Like, you could do exactly what I just did. No, I mean with my picture.

It's got spicy, man.

Oh, I got you. Okay. All right. All right. All right, Owen. We're giving you an afro. Someone give him an afro.

You want blue hair too, they said.

A blue afro?

Blue hair with tattoos like—

Meth hair?

Right here by the neck.

Oh my God. This is what happens when we get off script. We're like, you need meth hair. A mullet. They want it all.

For Vista hair, I would call it.

Mike Brady. Oh my God, Mr. Brady. Hey, Mike. What was her name?

Carol.

Um, all right, you guys. So, Owen, we do have to get together and pick a day for the Bitcoin show.

Yeah, I'd love to.

Okay, so we will definitely— Owen and I will, will chat about that. Um, I think BJ wanted in on that too. He knows about Bitcoin, I guess. I know nothing. Um, so we'll do that. And you guys, drop, uh, drop us a DM or message us or wherever you get in touch with us and let us know if there's any special kind of episodes you want on Locals, okay? So we can do those for you. Um, and everyone who's listening on YouTube or Rumble, join Locals. It's like a— it's a good time. You don't have to watch it there every day. You could still watch on YouTube, but then you can come over to Locals for the For the extras, okay? For extra credit. All right, you guys. So I guess we're gonna get off and running, and we appreciate all of you. Marcella, you have a big work day ahead of you.

Big day, big week.

Ooh, big week. And Owen, good luck with your endeavors that you're working on.

Thank you. Yeah, appreciate it.

That hair, I never want to see it again. It's too desperate looking. It's freaking me out. All right, you guys. So I'm sorry. I can't even like see the chat today. It's all wacky.

I'd like a deeper blue, but that's good too.

I do have a question before we go. You guys wait. I have.