The Scott Adams School - 08/26/26 Joel Pollack / Scott Adams Biographer Updates Us.

We're live. We're live.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, locals. You're all in here first. YouTube and Rumble will catch up in a minute. Let me turn this down. Look at Owen. Doesn't he look like he's settling into like some fall cover colors over here? I like it. His books, his darker shirt.

Right-o.

I'll start, uh, changing as the fall colors change, you know, with the yellows and reds.

And I love that. Okay, you guys, here comes Joel. Hang on one sec and then we'll get to this sip. Oh, Joel's fancy. Oh, look at Joel. He's very James Bond-ish on the phone. Oh, there he can hear me. Hi, Joel.

Hi, how are you?

Good. How you doing?

I'm very James Bond-ish.

Yes, he's like on his phone. Or Maxwell Smart. Either way, both great men. We didn't sip yet. We're waiting for you. We're just saying hello to everybody.

Okay, good.

And, um, I need coffee.

Don't judge me for my Diet Coke early in the morning.

Listen, a vessel of any kind, fill it with your favorite liquid. That's all you have to do. So everything's welcome. All right, guys, let's get our Wednesday sip on. Here we go.

But first, how do we get going? You know how. It's called the Simultaneous Sip, and 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 except taxes. It's called the simultaneous sip, and it happens now. Go! Ah, ah!

It doesn't even need to be tax season to make that statement. So perfect. Good morning, everybody. I am Erica. You are at the Scott Adams School. I am joined today by, of course, our always co-host Owen Gregorian and our special guest. Professor/favorite uncle/friend Joel Pollack is joining us today, and we're so happy to have you here. We need all the updates and just how are you, Joel?

Well, I've been promoted to uncle, which is, which is interesting because, you know, uncle is sort of a senior role. Yes, I guess, you know, I can no longer be favorite second cousin. I guess I'm not a kid anymore.

Yes, you are very important.

You can be the fun uncle or the crazy uncle. You know, you have choices.

You know, when Trump started running, Saturday Night Live did a character and they called him the drunk uncle, and the drunk uncle was the only one who supported Trump. And that, that's how, you know, um, I've got a week left to finish Scott's biography, and I've been getting feedback from people who are reviewing the draft, and some of the feedback is really quite Daunting because there are still many changes that need to be made in the next 7 days. But one of the interesting pieces of advice that I got was around Scott's prediction in 2015 that Trump would win the election. And this person said, you really need to add more information there because now everybody thinks it's obvious that Trump won, but you have to remind people how crazy it was to think that Trump was going to win. So you've got the drunk uncle on Saturday Night Live who's the only one who supports Trump, and you've got Ann Coulter going on Bill Maher and the audience literally laughing out loud at her when she says that he's the most electable Republican candidate. So you've got to remind people how crazy it was. Now it seems obvious, but it was—

I agree with you. I can tell you personally, when Scott convinced me that Trump was going to win, and that was very early, there was still a full slate of Republican candidates running. Like, there was, what, like 8 or 12 of them on stage, right?

Yeah.

And, and that was when Scott came out and said, Trump's gonna win this and here's why. And, you know, the clown genius and all that. And like, I was convinced. And then I started telling my family, like, I told my siblings and parents and stuff. I'm like, Trump's gonna be your next president. And they looked at me like I was nuts. They're like, what? That's not, that's not gonna happen.

No way.

And they just literally thought I was crazy to say that. And even up until the election, even up until the election, like, you know, I would take that Michael Moore thing that was predicting it and show that to people and stuff, and people would still look at me like I'm crazy. And all the polls were saying Hillary had like a 90-whatever percent chance of winning. And so I, I even bet someone— it was a gentleman's bet— but like, I bet someone at work that Trump was going to win right on Election Day. And he's like, no way that's going to happen.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm like, yeah, it is. And, and then it started happening, and I could just see his face as it was coming in. You know, he was just like flabbergasted. So, definitely, it was not expected and not obvious in any way up until the point where he won.

I think it was so overwhelming too, Joel, because we know that— I don't think they realized they would have to cheat the way they do now, allegedly. But it was so overwhelming that you couldn't have cheated your way out of that first one. There was just no way. I too, I think that's what attracted me to Scott too. When I first found him on Periscope, I was like, oh yeah, yeah, Trump's totally gonna win. Like I knew, I wrote it in my journal in 1997 that I hope Trump runs for president one day. He'd be amazing. He's a businessman, whatever. And so then when I found Scott and he was like, you know, he, it's not like he was in love with Trump, but he's like, this guy's gonna win. And I'm like, oh, 100%. I'm like, let's go. Let's hear, let's hear what this guy's saying. So yeah, it was a big deal.

Well, I didn't think he was going to win until very close to the end. I'll tell you my evolution on it briefly. When Trump came down the escalator and gave that speech, I wrote a piece about how Trump understood the American electorate better than most of the other candidates, but I didn't think he was going to win. And then there is this photograph that Jae Hong of the Associated Press took in July 2015, so about 3 or 4 weeks after Trump got into the race. And it was Trump meeting with the Angel Families. These were the families that had lost relatives to illegal immigrants or crimes by illegal immigrants. And Trump stood there with his hands folded in front of him in this very humble posture. And that photograph, I think more than anything else, communicated the idea that somebody was finally listening to these people. And nobody else had, among the Democrats, among the Republicans. And from that moment, you start to see Trump climb in the polls past everybody, past Chris Christie, past Jeb Bush. And then he is leading the polls by the time he comes into that Republican debate. So, so the electorate was already kind of telling us which way they wanted to go, but it was assumed that Megyn Kelly was going to take Trump down in that debate. And Scott then weighed in with Clown Genius. I still didn't think Trump was going to win until later. That is to say, win the nomination until later that year. I had an incredible fall season that year of political coverage. We went to cover the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas at the Wynn Hotel and Casino, and then we went back to Vegas for various other events. This is when I was with Breitbart, and I took a team of people to cover the Democratic debate. That in itself was incredible. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, uh, Jim Webb was one of the other candidates, and the Wynn laid it on thick. I mean, they had this incredible buffet for all the journalists, and we just had a party. I mean, I kicked in some money, you know, like Breitbart rented a car for me, but then I, I paid extra to get the convertible, and I took all my colleagues out on the Strip, and we went nightclubbing and all this kind of craziness. And, you know, it was just kind of a crazy time. Then we came back for Trump. I came back to cover Trump about a month later. It was the night before the Republican debate at the Venetian, where you had Sheldon Adelson, still alive, sponsoring that debate. The night before, Trump had a rally, but it wasn't at any of these fancy places. It was at the Westgate Casino. Now, the Westgate is pretty far off the Strip, And it's more of an ordinary person's idea of a Las Vegas vacation. It's not super flashy. It's got a ballroom and it's got a casino floor, but it's really much more a working-class casino than the Venetian, the Wynn. And Trump packed that ballroom, just absolutely packed it. There might have been 3,000 or 4,000 people there.

Wow.

Down the street, Marco Rubio, who was the sort of intelligentsia candidate— now he's more of a MAGA guy, but at that time, he was kind of the establishment's favorite— he got about 200 people.

Wow.

Trump was pulling in 3,000, 4,000. And Trump got up there on stage, and he did the opposite of what every politician had ever told me to do in this sort of setting. The sort of conventional wisdom was expressed by Bobby Jindal. Remember him? He was the governor of Louisiana. Which is that you want to show up late, you want to create a sense of mystique around the candidate, you want to speak quickly and then leave. In other words, create an aura of otherworldliness around a political candidate. Trump did the opposite. He showed up on time, and he spoke for more than an hour, and he said whatever was on his mind. The people in the audience felt that he was letting them in on his secrets, letting them in on the way he thought. There was an intimacy between Trump and 3,000, 4,000 people. people. And I looked around and I said, this guy is the real deal. This is not some kind of a vanity project. This is real. And then he came out the next day at the Venetian and he absolutely wiped the floor with everybody at the debate. But he did it in a nice way. He was even nice to Ted Cruz, who he would later be very mean to. And, and, uh, that rivalry was already developing. But Trump established himself the next day at the Venetian as a unity candidate, someone that the party could unify behind. And so he went into the Christmas holiday season with this commanding lead in the polls. And a week or two later, there were going to be the Iowa caucuses, but there was nobody who was going to come close to him. And I said, this is real. And at that point, the establishment started freaking out. That's when the Never Trumpers came out. They're like, we got to stop this. We got to publish articles against it. We got— but that's when I thought, you know what? This guy's going to win the nomination. And I didn't think he would win the election. I thought he was offensive enough to enough people that they wouldn't vote for him. Until, again, the rallies in the late stage of the campaign, people coming out all hours of the night. I would talk to Scott about this. By then, Scott and I had developed a kind of friendship, and we would speak a lot. I interviewed him for Breitbart, and we talked a lot. At that stage, I started to see the world the way Scott saw it around Trump, which was that really the play was persuasion, and it wasn't about the usual metrics that I had gotten used to using to measure candidates. Scott talked about that a lot in Win Bigly. The point for him in Win Bigly was not to write a campaign memoir the way I wrote one. I wrote one called How Trump Won. Trump was sort of the central character there and everything. Scott wrote Win Bigly, and his point was, I'm not trying to tell you that Trump is going to be a good president or whatever, or that you should like him or not like him. I'm trying to tell you, the reader, that Trump ripped a hole in the fabric of the universe and he allowed you to see what is on the other side. He allowed you to see how things really work. And that's how I've seen things for a while, but I couldn't really explain it until Trump came along and provided the perfect mechanism to tell you about how perceptions work, how human beings work, how, how the universe works, how you can bend reality in a way by framing things. And that was a theme of many subsequent books that Scott wrote. But that was how Scott saw the election. I saw it differently. So I was looking at polls and crowds and that sort of thing. And Scott was just looking at how is this being framed? How is Trump writing his own story? And anyway, that's my little journey in that election. And you can read all about it in the book.

Oh, it's so good. It's so good. And just how Scott would laugh too at all the nicknames. I mean, how hard did we laugh, you guys, when He called De Niro Punchy De Niro. I mean, Scott was crying. We were crying laughing. I mean, the nicknames were so good. And that's persuasion too, because every person's name you just said, Joel, talking about that campaign, I'm like, oh, Little Marco. Yeah. Lion Ted. Sleepy this one. You know, like, I remember all the nicknames. They stayed with me and no one had ever done that before, but it's so relatable.

Yeah.

That you're just like, yeah, like give the guy a nickname. And he would, he would say to Rand Paul the one time Rand is trying to like, you know, get him on the stage and Trump's like, well, uh, I'm standing in the middle and you're at the end. So like meaning like the next debate you're gone and I'll still be in the middle. You know, it's just, it was so petty, but it was so funny and true and it was just true. And you know, I, I loved listening to Scott because sometimes, you know, Trump would say something and you're like, oh my God, like, how's he gonna recover from that? I can't believe, you know, he said this thing. And, you know, then Scott would, you know, Scott would usually just start laughing and then just talk about the persuasion part of it. And you were like, all right, I guess he's gonna skirt around this too. So—

Let me give you an example. Yeah, I just have it here on the shelf. Um, so I covered the debate in Simi Valley in California And the big story to come out of that debate was how well Carly Fiorina had done.

Oh, yeah.

Carly Fiorina was running, and she really got a good shot in at Trump. She went after Trump over his comments on women, and it was very effective. And she actually shot up in the polls after that debate because she made a really good impression. She seemed to be the only candidate who had been able to lay a glove on Trump. Let me tell you how Scott describes that in Win Bigly. Okay, so the conventional wisdom: she got a good shot in. She rebuked Trump on stage. CNN helped her do it, and Trump really didn't have a good answer. And and the journalists I was with thought, wow, Carly Fiorina did a great job, and she did. She went, I think, from like two percent to fifteen percent in the polls. Listen to how Scott does this. Okay, it's fantastic. A good example of an enormous persuasion mistake happened during the Republican primary debate on September sixteenth. 2015 in Simi Valley, California, candidate Carly Fiorina tried to cut through the crowded field by graphically describing an alleged video of an abortion that went wrong. I'm intentionally not describing it here. You'll see why. When I watched Fiorina's bold move to capture the nation's attention on a key topic for the Republican base, I publicly predicted that she had self-immolated. I called it the worst persuasion move you are likely to see in any realm. CNN's poll put Fiorina at 15% during the week of the debate. As I predicted, she dropped to 4% one month later and was soon out of the race. If you are not a student of persuasion, you might think Fiorina's strategy was bold and clever. It guaranteed free attention from both the mainstream media and social media, and it positioned her as the strongest voice on a key election topic. It was unforgettable, and it matched the emotions of the Republican base. All of that sounds good. But here's what she got wrong, and this is more wrong than anything you are likely to see in any realm of life, much less politics. Fiorina paired her brand with a dead baby. I knew voters wouldn't want to think about Fiorina's horrible story of a dead baby for one second longer than they needed to. I doubt anyone consciously interpreted the situation as I describe it, but humans don't make political decisions for rational reasons anyway. The persuasion filter says Fiorina lost support because she polluted her brand beyond redemption by associating it with the most horrible image one could ever imagine on live television. So she went 15%, but Scott's like— I don't understand. She's done.

That's amazing. What a good point. Like, what a great observation has Scott always had. That's crazy.

Yeah. And did you— I mean, I'm assuming you do, but do you have coverage in the book on the whole Access Hollywood tape thing? Because I remember that being like Scott's big moment of doubt during all that.

Everybody.

Yeah, I do write about that. I mean, it's not that important, I think, to the overall story, but Mm-hmm. I think the one point that emerges from that, and he writes about this in Win Bigly, but I think the reason Access Hollywood didn't sink him, and I remember he said this at the time in some of his Periscopes or livestreams or whatever he was doing, was that until Access Hollywood, for about 6 weeks, the attack from Hillary Clinton had been that Trump was dark. He was a dark candidate. And more than that, he was too dangerous to trust with nuclear weapons. So Trump was going to blow up the entire world. He was a dark creature who could not be trusted. And then all of a sudden, with Access Hollywood, he's a guy in a locker room joking about grabbing women. And it took the threat level of Trump from this down to kind of like this. He went from the devil to being my stupid kid brother.

Relatable.

Yes, it was offensive. It was more offensive than anything we ever would tolerate from a candidate up until that point, but it was so non-threatening. I suppose threatening if you're female and you're alone with him, I guess, if you're thinking that that was a real story and a real prospect. Okay. It's not going to destroy the planet. You know, it might, might lead to some uncomfortable situations, you know, but it's not going to— it's not going to blow up the world. So Hillary Clinton made a huge mistake jumping on that because instead of being a nuclear threat, Trump was basically just offensive. And we can all survive being offended.

She should have just sat quiet at that moment, married to Bill. Like, I was like, like, what are you doing, Hillary? Like, just— it's going to put the attention right back on you now and that your husband is a Whatever, philanderer. So I just found it rich that she was going to have to now make him the devil when she was married to a man who actually did the things, didn't just get caught saying something. So it was pretty amazing. And— Well, here's another thing.

Here's another thing. So I'm going to get into the weeds a little bit here. I don't write about this in the book and I have to be very careful how I say this, but When Trump told the story that was on the Access Hollywood tape, what he was telling a story about was that in his mind, it was about the secret desires of women. He was basically saying, I get away with this because they want me to get away with this. What Bill Clinton had done was basically closed the door behind whoever had just walked in and take advantage of them. And there was never any idea that this is secretly what she wants. This was what I can do with power. I am the governor or I am the president. And when that office door closes, you're trapped in here with me. That is much scarier than, I know what you really want, which is why I get away with it. I mean, it's creepy.

Yeah.

It's both creepy, but one of them is kind of like, It's about a kind of quiet, weird language that sometimes goes on between men and women. And the other one is all about what men do to women who are in less powerful positions. And that's basically why Bill Clinton is actually scarier.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

And really, I mean, I would say the Trump story kind of sounds like it comes right out of a romance novel.

Well, maybe. Speaking of which, I want to segue to something else, if I could.

Yes.

On another dangerous topic. I sent this to my wife because it's my favorite story of the day in the New York Post and the California Post, where I work now. Scott had this long-running rivalry, you could call it, with Andrew Tate and the Tate brothers or whatever. The Tates, I don't know all the details, and I'm not going into all the details in the book. I don't make them important at all. They get one mention in the book. Scott defended them when they were arrested in Romania because he said, look, innocent until proven guilty. But they were really mean to him, and apparently they did a lot of nasty things and said a lot of nasty things. Well, my favorite story is that the Tate brothers, who've now been arrested, they went to court and they claimed that all of the things they put on social media, the yachts and the fancy cars, the convertible whatever, Bugattis or whatever they were driving, They said it was all rented. It was all fake. That it was that it was entirely a front, man.

Damn.

Yeah. I just love it because these were the guys who ran the so-called manosphere, you know. And and the thing about it is I don't knock anybody who wants to give advice to other men, you know, even like manly advice, you know. And most of the advice is is pretty useful from you know talk about someone who Scott loved like Mike Cernovich, you know.

Yeah.

Get in shape, learn a combat sport, earn some money, save some money, take care of your kids, defend your wife, like manly things. But the Tate brothers gave a different kind of advice, which is you can be more of a man if you abuse women. I built an empire on my webcam, whatever. That was kind of their advice. And not only should you have women in your life, but you should have other men's women in your life, this kind of rapaciousness. And it all was a total farce. It just turns out to be completely fake. And so I just love that story because it shows you that being an a-hole and being a man are not the same thing. It really is different. And I think what Scott was teaching was manly in it. I mean, obviously women got something out of it as well, a lot, but there was a kind of quiet strength of routine, of having a system, of showing up all the time, um, you know, that's, I think, more masculine than taking advantage of people.

Oh, sure.

You know, um, so anyway, I just— I think, I think I saw that story about the Tates today. I thought, you know, I wish Scott had been here to see this one because he really would have laughed.

He's seeing it and he's laughing, I'm sure of it. Yeah, uh, that's funny. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, no, he will— I mean, like That's the thing with Scott. You know, if even if he had like a personal beef with someone, you know, he can still see through the clouds of you know okay but this you know this isn't right and they are innocent until proven guilty. And I used to get annoyed with Scott because I felt like I think it's like an East Coast West Coast thing. And you guys tell me if you're on the East Coast or West Coast. But I used to always joke like oh my gosh Marcella and Scott. Scott are so West Coast, and it's more about like celebrity and this and that. And the East Coast is more like, you crossed me, it's over. You know, like we're a little like mafia vibes. I hate to say it, but you know, so like let's say Jimmy Kimmel did something wrong, which he always often does, um, or, or anyone on the West Coast, he'd be like, well, you know, he saw one of my— like he said he's a Dilbert fan. And you know, we try to give like artists like a, you know, like we give each other like a break because we're like in the same industry and this and that. And I'm like, no, it's not right. You have to be mad at him equally. But he was just, you know, he had this like, uh, what was— what would you call that? Like just like this like sympathy, empathy for people if they were like in the same realm as him. And, um, I was just like, oh my God, how is he able to just do that when someone's such a blatant jerk? But I don't know. Scott had a superpower with those things.

Yeah, he really did. And look, I've got a lot of challenges in the next 48 hours, really, because I'm trying to make as many changes as I can to the book. And it's going to be tough. I mean, I feel like I can tell you guys this because I think this audience is going to be interested in the book. But Much of what you do when you have systems that help you create things is routine. And I think systems generally do work. You have a system, you write a certain amount every day or a certain amount of time every day. And I have always used systems to write, but ultimately what makes writing successful cannot be done by a system. So the system gets you to that point, and then the rest of it is pure will and hopefully creativity and talent. There's, there's that extra little bit of it that has to come from something that is not a system. It has to be inspired. And that's the part that terrifies me. That's the part that I have to get right. And that's where I'm sitting right now. And that is really a sprint to the finish. So it's not really something that can be organized and done at an even pace. Right now, it's all about that part of the marathon that gets everybody excited. It's the last sprint. And it's frightening. I've had to figure out how to move through it. And so, one of the things I do, I mean, you still have a system for it, but one of the things I do is I try to take myself to a beautiful place and work there. So, I did some editing on the beach the other day, and today I'm hoping to go to an art museum and sit there and do some interesting tinkering with the draft and hopefully get it closer to where it needs to be. But it is scary. It is scary. And so you're seeing me kind of before— this is the before picture. And maybe a week from now, I'll feel a lot more relaxed and hopefully happy with what's happened. But it's really great to connect to you guys because it does remind me why I'm doing this. And I'm going to just tell you one more criticism that somebody made of the draft, which is they said that it's too pro-Scott in a way. And they said, you want to write a biography, not a hagiography. You don't want to talk about how great somebody is. You also need to talk about that person's flaws. And I do to some extent, but I said to this person, look, first of all, Scott asked me to write this and I'm his friend, so I'm not going to approach it like some disinterested, neutral third party. That's just not how the tone of the book is going to be. But I take your point in that I think what Scott would've wanted is for this book to be accessible to people who didn't agree with him. So maybe this is the kind of book you should be able to pick up and enjoy, Even if you didn't like Scott or thought he should have been canceled and you don't like Trump, you wouldn't just put this book down right away after reading the first page. And so those are the changes I have to make. I have to basically make this universal. And I think it's there. I think all the material for it is there. I just need to find a way to bring it out. And that's the challenge. That is the challenge in the next few days.

Hmm.

That's interesting. I mean, Because he asked you to write it. Yeah, I mean, I can see where you would be like, oh, this is like a weird position because it's not like a tell-all, you know, it's not like you're trying to write something sensational. You want to tell— in my opinion, I would, I would think about Scott and be like, I'd want to tell a story of his life and, you know, things that he overcame throughout his life, how he handled each part of his life. What his growth was like, what he learned, the people he met along the way, what made him who he is today, like how the times changed around him. I mean, he would always tell us how he lost 2 jobs because he was a white man. And, you know, like that happened so long ago. And then how that propelled him into like really going forward with Dilbert and cartooning and trying other things. And I just reminded Owen yesterday, do you guys— I think it might have been in one of his books or he talked about it that He was building some kind of computer system. He was building a computer or a program or something. And he got frustrated with it and eventually he had to abandon it. But the man tried everything. Nothing stopped him from moving forward and trying the next thing.

We'll have this in the book. There's a company he started. I don't even think he's mentioned it anywhere else. There's a company, a software company he started, and he created a video game. I think he mentioned it in How to Fail. I don't know if he mentioned the title of the company. Anyway, the video game was sort of like Space Invaders or Asteroids, whatever that early Atari game was.

Yeah.

Space Command or whatever it was. And what Scott did, which was interesting, was he offered an open-source option for the game. So you could either buy the game and play it, or you could buy the code, program it yourself, and change it as you went along, which is really interesting. But what I find interesting about it is that he invented a logo for the software company, and the logo is a character that looks very much like Dilbert. So, you know, little things like that. He did try everything. He tried absolutely everything. And it's interesting What he, you know, the cartooning part of his life wasn't even the focus. I mean, he became a successful cartoonist, but he didn't just leave Pacific Bell and say, I'm going to be a cartoonist. He was also exploring other things. He, he had an invention called the Foldaroo. Have you ever heard of the Foldaroo?

What was that?

The Foldaroo was basically a manila folder with another little pouch attached to it where you would put a floppy disk. So if you had files and printouts, you could keep them inside the folder and then you'd have the disc on the outside of the folder. So you weren't always losing the disc because, you know, these file folders, you put a disc inside and they would fall out and whatever. Completely useless today. Totally useless. But he basically, I think, got a patent for the Foldaroo. Never went anywhere.

But I mean, what a great idea, right?

Yeah.

Foldaroo, like a kangaroo. He had all kinds of ideas. He tried absolutely everything. And some of the ideas were good. I interview the CEO of the Dill Burrito, of Scott Adams Foods.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, the Dill Burrito. Scott describes the Dill Burrito in his book, I think, How to Fail, as basically— he says one of the problems with the Dill Burrito was that it caused people to have flatulence.

Bad.

He said, in his words, it would make you fart so hard your intestines would grow a tail. That's how he put it. But the former CEO of Scott Adams Food disputes some of that. So, you'll hear his perspective, but he learned a lot from the experience. Anyway, yeah, Scott tried everything and he was open to trying everything.

Look, it is—

The question I have for you, you're saying you have this 7-day deadline in the next 48 hours. Is that an arbitrary deadline?

Is that self-imposed?

back to your publisher or somebody and say, just, you know, I need another 2 weeks?

Well, it's both, right? So Josh and I decided we wanted this book out before Christmas. We did not want to let the Christmas season go by without having this book ready. And also, given that Scott died at the beginning of the year, I think many people who loved Scott would like to achieve some kind of closure this year. I think there's an urgency to telling the story now. So we decided we wanted it out before the Christmas holiday season, and this is really the latest we could finish a draft that would give Josh time to edit it, get it ready for publication. So we, we were going to do it— we were going to finish the draft by the end of July. We pushed it to the end of August. Basically, this is as late as we can do it. Could I do it? Could I have held onto it longer? I could have. I could have. But I don't know if that would've been good for the ultimate success of the book. I think—

Yeah.

It needs to be commercially successful and it needs to connect to your audience. I mean, it needs to connect to the people who are as invested in this as you guys are so that this becomes something that lives with that audience that people can take going forward.

Yeah, it makes sense. I, I just, you know, I— when I think about it, it's like this is something that only gets done once, right? Like, you, you— it's, it's the Scott Adams biography, and there's never going to be another one. I don't know, maybe there could be a second version, I guess. But, um, you know, it's like, I, I just want to make sure you, you took your time enough to do what you consider a good job on it. And, um, you know, I'm sure you could always Say, well, I can make it better. I could do this, I could do that. So you have to cut it off sometime. And I, and I recognize there are these other factors that matter. So I get it.

Um, speaking of which, I probably have to go to my editorial meeting in a minute, but, um, I, you know, just— I, I— wish me luck. That's all. I— if everyone could keep me in their thoughts over the next week or so. Yeah, I really want— I really want to make this as excellent as I think it can be. And you are, Joel. I think it needs a little bit of work, but, you know, we're good.

I mean, I sound like a broken record, but listen, everyone that knows Scott knows you, and he asked you to write the book, okay? And you and I have talked about, like, maybe why and whatever, but it's because he has mad respect for you. And whatever this book turns out to be, you have to understand it's what it's supposed to be. It just—it'll just be what it's supposed to be, no matter what. And we have so much love and interest in Scott and his life and his stories. Like, we're going to be so happy to read. We're going to read things we didn't know before. We're going to laugh. We're going to cry. We're going to hopefully have the closure we need if you need it. And Scott's—you know, Scott was smart to leave it in your hands. I—I really couldn't think of somebody else. In his sphere that would be a better choice than you to write this book. So, don't beat yourself up over it too much. Like, you care because you love him so much, and you want to do justice for him, and make it right, and everything. But it's going to be exactly what it should be. I'm confident in that. And, um, the other thing I wanted to say, 'cause some people were like, I thought, you know, there was some confusion. I thought he was— you know, Joel was gonna talk to every single person who reached out that wanted to tell a story. No, that was never said, you guys. So, you know, there were certain people that Scott said, talk to these people, XYZ, and then, you know, send in your stories if you want to. And if Joel needed to reach out to you, he would. But it was never, I'm reaching out to everybody who wrote, because there was thousands, of course, thousands of people who sent messages and they were all read. But obviously not everybody can, you know, get their story into this book. But it does help to shape You know, who Scott was. So I'm sure that all of those entries helped Joel see, like, from all different people, you know, what he meant to you as, like, a group. So your entries were very important, but there was impossible— it would just be ridiculous to talk to everybody.

Well, um, thanks everyone, and, and, uh, look forward to being back again soon.

Oh my gosh, as soon as you can, we want you here. Bye, Joel. Good luck. We're rooting for you. Aww, you guys, we love Joel. Okay, let me kick him out. There we go. So amazing, Owen. I can't wait. I can't wait for the book. And I—

don't you find— I know what I want for Christmas.

Yeah, get it on your Christmas list. I think it's supposed to be— you guys, I'm not sure when the pre-orders will start, but the book should be out like for November purchase. So You know, as soon as we hear, we'll tell you. And just, just so great. I love it. That was excellent, SJV. We miss Scott so much, and I just can't wait, you know, for everybody to read this book. It's, it's going to be amazing. All right, so Owen and I— oh, you guys, Marcella! So sorry, because we just got moving right away. Marcella will be back tomorrow. She has the day off today, and she misses you guys, and she said she'll see us Tomorrow. All right, so I'm gonna try to just blow through a whole bunch of clips, Owen, and little stories, and we'll just do as many as we can. But I have to just start with New Jersey being ridiculous.

Before you start, I— we just kind of like glossed over this fact that you have a journal. Where do I put in the FOIA request so I can get the Erica journal to compare to the Fauci diaries?

I have— I wrote in a journal for a very short period of time, and it was very sporadic, but I did write in there. I found it, um, not that long ago. I'm like, oh my God, I always wanted Trump to run for president. And in '97, that's when I officially wrote it into my journal. So you will never see it. I might have even burned it by now because listen, I don't have kids. I'm like, who's gonna clean out my house one day? I don't know. So let me just start burning stuff now. Oh my God. There's a lot to burn, baby, burn. So, um, all right, so back to New Jersey because I don't want to miss the opportunity of trashing my state in the most polite way. All right, how many of you have been to a Buc-ee's? Buc-ee's, it's like this gas station rest stop that has like 1,000 gas pumps and apparently the most amazing store you could go into, do all your Christmas shopping, get a brisket sandwich, Christmas ornaments, snacks, you name it, furniture for your house. So I'm dying to go to a Buc-ee's. And of course, the CEO of Buc-ee's is amazing. Life's too short. Buc-ee's CEO won't build in blue states that don't appreciate the brand. We're building in a lot of places, but when you find a conservative, business-friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference. So, um, They're not building in New Jersey is the word. And I am not happy, but I get it. And now I'm like, is Buc-ee's publicly traded? Because I want to support this man. It's a smart business decision. I mean, I get it. But if you guys do, you don't have a Buc-ee's in Chicago? No.

No, I don't think we have any close to me, but I've certainly, I've been to one. I mean, cause I've taken enough road trips across the country that I've seen them.

Was it amazing?

Yeah, it's a pretty amazing place. I mean, it's kind of like this little oasis on the highway and you just sort of— I mean, I don't think I intentionally went there like some of the people for the World Cup were doing, but—

Oh yeah.

It would just be like you'd stop for gas and all of a sudden you're like, what is this place? And it's like this massive indoor thing and they've got everything you could imagine there. So it's a pretty incredible experience.

Uh-oh. Alien Baby said, I'll have to pump my own gas if I go to Buc-ee's. All right, never mind. I don't want that. You guys. All right, so who wants—

That's great. You have the full service?

Yeah.

Is that right? Yeah. That's weird, by the way. No, it's not. Okay. Well, it must be a New Jersey thing.

It is a New Jersey thing, you guys. And listen, Mikey Sherrill, you are ruining everything in the state. And if you take away this gas thing, this glorious, I don't pump my gas thing for me, oh, Forget it. I'm gonna go nuts. So if there's something you can ruin, I know you will. Don't do it. And also, you're gonna take away a lot of jobs from people. She ruins this for me. I will be so pissed. Do you tip them?

Is that how it works?

Nope.

They get paid. They get paid like you know a regular job. Like it's not like you know no no you don't tip them. So but but if it's like crappy weather or somebody's like doing service with a smile and whatever, I'll tip them sometimes. I'm just like you know what like here's. a couple of bucks, whatever. And if you tip them, they're like, oh my God, thank you. Like, because you just don't tip. It's not a thing. Um, but I have. Um, so yeah, it's amazing. And you guys, like, raining, snowing, late at night, early in the morning, or like you're having a bad outfit day and you just don't want to get out, or you're all comfy chatting with your friend on the phone, like, listen, just pull up and hand them your credit card and ask them to fill it up. It's amazing. It's a good time. So please don't ruin that, Mikey Cheryl. Just don't ruin everything. Okay, now here's another quick story. Owen, what? Erica, you need your oil checked. They'll check your oil too, by the way. Okay, listen. What the heck is this with Google wanting to release mosquitoes? First of all, what do they have to do with each other? I have no idea. But can we just watch this clip and then Owen? Try to make me not jump off the cliff. Here we go.

Google should stick to web browsers and AI instead of conducting one of the largest open-air biological experiments in U.S. history to release— it's actually 64 million mosquitoes into California and Florida, which could result in irreversible ecological system disruptions. If you eliminate an entire or suppress severely an entire species of mosquito, you could have other invasive species fill that role. And you'll also disrupt the food chain in the ecosystem because birds, bats, frogs, they all eat mosquitoes. So they're going to have less food there. That could disrupt that, screw things up there as well. Google actually tried this in Fresno in 2018. It did suppress the mosquitoes, but once they stopped, all the mosquitoes came back. So basically, Google wants to put people on a subscription service of mosquito releasing. You can't make this up.

Oh my God! All right. I mean, everything could go wrong with this, right? It's like, what are we doing? So I'm horrified. We've got those Chinese lantern flies here, and uh. Thanks, China. And they're eating not the dogs and cats, but they're eating the trees and gardens. And we're taking down ash trees and trees of heaven constantly. They're just killing everything. So I find this to be a problem. What do you think?

Well, I do, number one, think it's bizarre that Google is doing this. Why is that something that Google is— I mean, there's mosquito abatement companies all over the place. And, you know, I kind of appreciate at least that you can do it near your house, you know, to get rid of mosquitoes in your backyard and stuff. But what does Google have to do? Like, why, why are they even involved with this? They're a tech company. So that's bizarre.

Yeah.

And, you know, I don't know exactly what data we have on what happens, but I— that's the thing that I might say to calm you down is that Like, I believe we do have data about this. I don't think this is the first time they've done something like this where they've— because as I understand it, and it wasn't covered in the clip, but I think, um, as I understand what they're doing is they're releasing a whole bunch of like sterile mosquitoes or something, and so that the, the mating doesn't happen. And so it's kind of like, uh, you know, just suppressing the reproduction of mosquitoes. And I don't know if— I guess I would have to look at the data to understand, does this cause ecological collapse? But I would be surprised if we don't have a lot of data where people have done this type of thing before. And I think we would've heard about it if it was this ecological disaster.

Well, you guys in the chat on Locals are saying what I was wondering, does this tie to Bill Gates in any way? Because That was my first thought. Like, if we follow the path and the money and the whatever, is it going to lead to Bill Gates? Because it feels very Bill Gatesy. I don't know. I don't like this. I don't like messing with the ecosystem. Yeah, if one thing changes, the ripple effect, the butterfly effect will be huge, I'm imagining. So yeah, frogs will die.

I asked Grok and it says ecological effects, it depends on what you kill. If you're talking about invasive container breeding, some species, then there's no predator that depends on it. And so it wouldn't necessarily have much of a knock-on effect on birds, bats, fish, or spiders. Field operators in Australia and Florida make the same point that this A. aegypti species is not a native species anyway, but it says it's different if it's going after like the native floodplain wetland mosquitoes.

Right.

And that, that does have documented effects where soil and ground food webs are different. And so basically they're differentiating. They're like, killing the swamp mosquitoes every year is not the same experiment as remove the dengue mosquito from a city. And so I don't know exactly what Google's doing and I certainly don't trust them.

Even now.

And I don't think Google should be involved in this. I think it's a big mistake, just like Bill Gates and all these other people. It's like they get involved in all these healthcare. And it's kind of weird that they always seem to go in this healthcare direction. Like, we're going to do vaccinations, we're going to do almost reproductive health stuff.

Engineering.

Yeah. And it's like biological engineering. It's like, why do you go from tech to that?

Yeah, don't engineer us. Leave us alone, please.

And it does seem like kind of like a world control sort of agenda.

So yeah. Oh yeah. All right. So Owen, you, I'm going to just pivot quick so we can do a few more things, but you posted a story today. Oh, could you tell us? So it was with Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio and Syria. And what did, what did they do? They're not designated as our, as a terrorist country anymore or something like that.

Yeah. So Rubio said that Syria is no longer officially listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. It delists some of the people from the specially designated global terrorist list. He said, "Today I authorize the formal rescission of Syria's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism following the conclusion of the mandatory 45-day congressional notification period. I have delisted Hayat Tahir al-Shams, which is HTS, I guess, designation as a specially designated global terrorist. These actions represent another historic." Step by President Trump to give the Syrian people a path to prosperity. So I think it's probably releasing some sanctions and things like that. And then the State Department said these actions were all taken in recognition of the positive actions taken by and further commitments by the Syrian government under President Ahmad al-Sharif to fully distance Syria from acts of international terrorism in the past year. Government of Syria has taken significant steps to counter terrorism to include formally joining the global coalition to defeat ISIS in November. and conduct operations to disrupt terror networks in ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran-aligned groups. And it goes on, but I think essentially it looks like they're saying at least that they've made a lot of progress in both not sponsoring terrorism but also disrupting terrorism. And so it sounds like they're giving them some credit for that and saying we're going to take you off the list.

Okay, all right, so I'm going to look at that as good.

Mm-hmm.

I'm going to say good. It's nice to take someone off the list when we're always putting people on the list. So that's nice. And I'm looking at the comments. And I do want to say, you guys, yeah, we're going to talk about Tibet tomorrow. There was massive flooding in Tibet. And also, Owen, tomorrow I want to talk about that secret trip to Moscow. So we'll talk about that. The other thing I wanted to get to was this H-1B visa working issue. So I'm going to— I want to play this clip first. It's from the Ingraham Angle. And this is a problem. And Owen's going to tell us about this too. Take a listen. Congressman, back in 2016, President Trump gave a fabulous speech where he basically said in part that He has used H-1B visa workers, but he thought at the time they really— they shouldn't be available and the program should be ended. That was Trump in 2016, and I applauded.

Yeah, it should be ended, and my bill would absolutely do that. I think J.D. laid out a very good case in point. Microsoft fired 16,000 Americans and then turned around and hired 9,000 workers. And then, just like what J.D. was talking about, had those 250 American employees train their replacements under H-1B. We have Americans that are skilled in all these different areas. And I think what the president is doing is trying to do what he can do within the administration to try to restrict this and make it more difficult.

Mm-hmm.

Obviously, the president can't change the law. That's Congress's job. And that's why I filed this bill. And I hopefully— I'm hopeful that we will have some type of immigration package as we come in to the end of this different Congress. And I've talked to Chairman Jim Jordan about this. Immigration comes through his committee and Judiciary. And I'm hopeful that we will do an immigration package and my bill will be part of that.

Congressman, back in 2016, President Trump gave a— Okay, so it is pretty messed up when you're firing Americans, you know, and And especially like, you think Disney should be so pro-America.

This has to be one of the biggest, like, exploited and abused systems we have in government. I, I, and it, it doesn't help Americans. It doesn't. I mean, I guess you can say it helps companies to some extent. So I guess it's a pro-corporate sort of thing, but it just seems like overall it's abused left and right the way it's structured. So it's highly flawed at a minimum, but I, I would be for it. I would be for just saying, get rid of it. Because, um, what you see is like they have all these special conditions you have to do to be compliant with it. And, and they're supposed— the spirit of it is that you have to find an American first, and it's only when you can't find an American that you can hire an H-1B. But in practice, what that translates to is they play all kinds of games. They, they— there's a requirement to advertise the position and you have to consider anyone who applies for it, but they advertise it in these obscure places. They don't go to like monster.com or Indeed or whatever these major job boards are. They don't put it on LinkedIn. They put it in some obscure place that nobody's ever heard of and nobody ever sees, or they put it in like a classified ad or some weird place that nobody's ever going to see it. And the whole point of it is just, just be able to say you complied and you didn't get any applications, and now we can go hire the H-1B. That is really what our objective was all along. And it's like they're just totally cheating the system. And then on the opposite side of that, they bring in mostly Indians and they bring in these people that are now captive to the companies.

Yeah.

Where they can't really push for raises or bonuses or promotions the way an American could. They can't leave. That's the big thing is they're sponsored by a company. So it's kind of almost like indentured servitude where they're like, okay, I'm here, but I can't ever leave this job because if I leave, then I lose my visa. And so it's exploiting the workers too. And so it's a terrible program. It doesn't benefit Americans. And I think we should just get rid of it. I think it would be better. We'd be better off without it. And I, I recognize that there may be talented people in India and other places that we might want working here, but I think it should be a legitimate, real good system for identifying where is there a person with a skillset that we literally cannot find here.

Mm-hmm.

And, and there are other visa programs for those things. So I don't even think it hurts us to get rid of this one because it's clearly not a good standard they're using and not a good set of practices. And I think we should just get rid of it. And I, I published an article, uh, about Rep— uh, Representative Riley Moore saying similar things. Maybe he's part of the same bill, but, um, you know, he's saying, I don't believe that for a minute they have trouble finding people with skills in the US to find those jobs. This isn't about skills, this is about money. It's about cheap labor. This is what they're looking for. If you look at every H-1 visa that's put out there, it's paying lower than what the market value of an American who has graduated with the same degree We're the only people on the face of the planet, our labor force, that has to compete with labor all over the world inside our own borders. Um, and he goes on, but I, you know, I think I'm all for that. I'm agreeing with these people. I think it's a terrible program, and I think we should put our Americans to work first, and only when we literally can't find them is when we should do that. But I mean, we, you know, my son is still looking for a job.

Yeah.

And, and, you know, he should have a job before we bring in a single H-1B.

I agree. And the other part of the scam of it all is that these companies leave help wanted ads up, for lack of a better word. So it appears that they're always looking to hire and looking for people, but they don't call anyone back and they never take those ads down. So it's like, kind of like, hey, look, we're, we're always looking, we just don't have anyone. So it's not, it's not right. And I'm not, you know, I don't know who started the whole thing. I don't know how it ran amok, but it has. So it, it's got to get reined in. Lots of things have to get reined in. But this is, this is definitely one thing that would help our economy and help Americans if we could put a stop to that. And I think that if you're from another country and you have a special skill set, that, that should just be handled on an individual basis. It shouldn't just be like we're flooding the market, you know. So.

Yeah, and Breitbart is also reporting that the, the DHS is putting in a new rule that is charging $103,265 fee for each new H-1B visa. I thought we already had this. I think it was $100,000 round number, but, um, I think maybe the courts did something and struck it down. So maybe they're trying again with this one, but, um, they're putting together this new rule. It was, um, I think it's formally published yesterday. And there's a 30-day comment period and all that. So it's going through the process, but, um, I'm all for that as well. I mean, at least in the meantime, if we don't get rid of it, let's at least make it expensive so that it has a real disincentive to say, you know, you could— it's not going to be cheaper to hire a foreigner.

Right. Because that's what it just becomes is like this indentured slavitude kind of thing. My words. You guys, listen, really quick housekeeping. Could you give us a like on whatever platform you're on? We would appreciate it. Also, in the show notes on each platform, please take a look at what they say and read them so you guys understand what's happening within the show and the chats and everything else. Okay, so just take a look at that. And tomorrow we will be back with Marcella. So I only have a second, and I— you guys, I wanted to play this clip. I, I don't even want to say anything about it, but I was watching this in bed last night and I could not stop laughing. And I don't know if it's going to be funny today, but you guys, you guys tell me. And I, I don't know, this guy just sent me— here we go.

They should be commended because they did.

I've had it with you.

Oh my God, they should be commended? They're gonna kill their children? These are— she's a murderer. These are man-hating women that are standing outside. This is what it's about. They think the husband did it. They're crazy. They've lost their mind.

You know why they're waving for a murderer? Do you know why the woman is in a wheelchair? Did you even notice that she couldn't care less? She's a murderer because she jumped out the window after this.

So she should have. They say that Lindsay was in psychosis. I think these women are suffering some from psychosis. They've been watching too many true crime Netflix dramas. You know, this was an incredibly privileged woman, incredibly wealthy. She had a nanny, and she's still complaining that she needed help. She could not have got more help from the system than she already had received. This is a murderer who strangled her children one by one. One of the boys ran away and she chased him down and killed him.

Lori Watkins, what you just said was absolutely disgusting. Thank you. You should be ashamed. Ashamed of yourself, and you can hear that he's not. Okay, because it's true. You clearly don't care, so pipe down.

Okay, and by the way, men watching this, if you have a woman sat next to you on the sofa who is defending this murderer, you got to think deeply about this. I've seen weddings.

We need to have some empathy.

Talk to your women and find out what are they thinking. They're defending this woman. It's— I don't think anybody's defending what she did, but you can have empathy for what she went through.

I know many women that this has happened to. No, they did not kill their children, but they also— what you failed to—

well, they should be commended because they did.

I've had it with you.

Oh my God, they didn't kill their children. These— she's a murderer.

They should be commended because they did. That would— like, that was so amazing. Like, everybody's face, his reaction, she's like doing yoga breathing. The host is like raising his eyebrows. Oh my God, that was amazing. That's, that's, I mean, amazing. Owen, was that amazing for you?

It was amazing. I, I think it's crazy how women are, you know, some women, I will say, not all women, but some women are defending this woman or seeming to, because it just seems like such, like, I, I mean, if you want to talk about how women have it hard, go do that some other time. Not in this context. Like, this is like the worst example you could pick. To say, oh, let's talk about having empathy for this woman. No, she killed her kids. She's a murderer. The guy's completely right, and there should be no defense for that whatsoever. And I do still want to point to— I'm guessing she was on some kind of antidepressants, and that may have had a big part to do with it. And we should be looking at that and saying, you know, I understand people get depressed sometimes, and that's a problem, and we should try and help those people. But like, If we put them on these drugs that end up having them kill their kids, well, now we've got a bigger problem. Yeah. So I think we need to start with the bigger problems and you know let let and and deal with the root causes of this, which in my opinion sometimes is that some of these women don't have enough problems and so they invent them.

Yeah. I mean, so you guys, this is regard and we're almost done. We're regarding the Lindsay. Clancy, I can never remember her name, case where she confessed to murdering her 3 little children. Horrendous. And then I guess tried to kill herself, attempted slitting her wrists, and she jumped out of her window of her house, leaving herself paralyzed. And so the reason there's a court case right now is not to say if she's guilty or innocent, or did the husband do this because, you know, we spin the narrative on everything we see. But it's to say, should she be put in jail or go to a mental institution? My opinion, this case should have never been brought. Just literally put her in a mental institution. She's mental. Jail is not going to do anything for her. This is, again, my opinion. But the husband's not on trial, okay? And so now women— yes, things can be hard and postpartum and hormones, and then add in a cocktail of SSRIs and drugs and this and that, and it's like Perfect storm, but the husband's not on trial. Lindsay confessed to doing this. She clearly needs help. Okay, I you know you can say death penalty. You could put her you know in an institution. Whatever it is, she's going to be living in hell the rest of her life. That is for sure. So but man, ladies, stop with these like TikTok videos. You're holding your precious children. There's like this sensation, you guys. There's a guy named Luca. I think it's—I think it might just be L-U-K-A. I'll post it later. But go look at this guy's account on X. He's putting up all these videos from TikTok of these women holding their precious, precious children. Like if they're crying, even better because it makes their video even better. And they're saying things like same Lindsay. Like same what? Like you understand. Like maybe you could kill your kids too. Like. Stop, and you're also giving your husband plenty of ammunition for when he divorces you and takes full custody of your kids. So everybody calm down with the clicks and the likes, and your kids are going to see that video one day. And when your kid's like a few months older and it's not as difficult to maneuver your life, you're going to feel so bad that you ever put that out there on the internet forever because it's forever. And you know, talk to your your family, your friends, your husband, your parents. If you go to a church, talk to your priest, your pastor, your rabbi, whoever. But don't put this shit on the internet. It's a bad look and you're damaging your child for life. And if you really need help, ask for help. Okay? People will help you. But this is really ridiculous. So anyway, I love that clip. I might watch it again later just for fun because just everybody's emotions were so perfect. Whoo. Okay, so you guys, listen, we'll be back tomorrow. Owen, thanks for today. And Marcella, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. And let's say thank you to Scott and Shelley for allowing this show to continue. And thank you to all of you who show up. And a special shout out to my favorite Beloves who were so amazing yesterday. If you know, you know. Love you guys so much. And Let's have a closing sip to our beloved Scott, and yeah, let's stay and do an Akira song too. Okay. All right, you guys. To Scott. To Scott. Thanks, guys. Bye, everyone. See. Bye, yo. Okay, we are going to actually YouTube. I hate to do this, but. All right, no, stay, stay. I just, I just don't want Spotify to ding us, but let's try. I, let me see, what song do you guys want? I'm looking at locals. Cha-Ching? You want Cha-Ching? Let's do Cha-Ching. It's the first one I saw. Let's go.

It's not music, it's Music Plus. How do you What's it like being criticized? You hate it, don't you? Don't you hate getting criticized? Everybody hates it. It's not something you enjoy. Here's a reframe for you. Every criticism you receive, just play this sound effect when you get it.

Ready?

Ready. Every time somebody criticizes you, you just made money. Do you know why I say that? Because you. You just made money. It's true. If somebody criticizes my livestreams, and I'll tell you the biggest criticism I'm hearing is that my shelves are boring. Now, do I feel good that you're telling me that there's something about my thing that I do every day isn't good? No. Nobody likes to be criticized. It's not like you can enjoy it. But how do I receive it? Do I receive it as, oh, I guess I sucked? I could, right? How easily could I receive a criticism like that as, God, I'm an idiot. Why didn't I see it? Obviously those shells need something on them. That'd be really easy, wouldn't it? I don't. Here's how I hear it. I know exactly what to change to do a better job because you told me. That's like money. If somebody hands you a thing that will It will definitely make you money. What is your feeling about it? Do you feel, oh, I hate it when people give me a thing that makes me make money? I'll bet most of you think exactly that. You think, I hate criticism. Not me. Years ago, when people would criticize my comic, I would hate it, of course, but then I would say, oh, a lot of people are Saying the same thing, so I'll change it. And then I would make that change, and that made me rich. I literally got rich by being criticized and understanding the criticism as cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. Every time I hear one, I say, "Wait a minute! You just told me how to get richer." The same applies if you're not trying to get rich. Suppose you just wanted a better social. The best advice somebody gave me was the cruelest thing anybody. One day my female friend told me how negative I was and what a bummer it was to listen to me because I was complaining about stuff all the time. Now, I was not aware that I was a big complainer. I had no idea. I thought I was a person who talked about my day, the funny parts of it. So in my mind, I had no idea that I was having an effect on other people. Once I learned that, do you know how powerful that was? I was able— because it was something I could change— I would become a Aware of the ratio of negative things I said to positive. Cha-ching! It was probably the most important change I've ever made to my social toolbox. I would say that that one change really, really changed my life.

Cha-ching!

Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Cha-ching! That's the that's the refrain. So the next time you get criticized, whether personally or whether professionally, say to yourself, say to yourself, say to yourself.

Cha-ching, cha-ching.

Just try it. Like actually say that that little sound. Cha-ching. Not finger. I'm not talking fingers. I mean, actually saying that cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. When you hear it, when you hear it, when you hear it, when you hear it, when you hear it.

Cha-ching, y'all! Cha-ching! I love it, love it, love it. Always pick the right song. Maybe there is no wrong song. Maybe that's the key. It's always the right one. All right, you guys, thank you so much for today, and we'll be back tomorrow. And say your goodbyes so I don't cut you off. And love when Joel comes on too, you guys. The book's going to be fantastic. He picked the perfect person. Scott picked the perfect person to write it, and I'm sure it feels daunting to him, but it's going to be amazing. It is. It is. Crusher. All right, guys, I see all your comments. You guys have the best, best day. Andy Wang, Dr. Von Hardy, Goldie, Mary Kay, Jim Courtney in Alaska. Love you guys. Thanks, Bart. Julie, Julie and EJ going at it today. Not pithy, not pithy. That wasn't a lisp. And where's Terry? Bye, you guys. Bye, Patty. Oh, thanks, Goldie.

Bye, Linda.

Bye from Frank in Pleasanton. Had to shout you out. Now I gotta wait again. See, I can't, I can't quit you guys. Bye, Nefarious. Bye, guys. Bye, guys. I see every single one of you. Bye, bye, bye.