The Scott Adams School - 09/07/26 Labor Day With The Home Team

Happy Labor Day. Oh, okay.

So I always thought it was weird when I was learning English. I was like, why is it called Labor Day?

Were you thinking of babies?

Yes. I was like confused for a while. Still confused a little bit on certain things.

That's so funny. Good morning, everybody. It's Labor Day.

I think we should celebrate women who go through labor. It's a hard thing, and I think it's very well deserving of praise.

What about the men?

Yeah, don't forget the men.

Um, well, the men are hopefully with their women when they're going through labor, but—

Oh, all right, Owen, you're gonna get canceled. All right, good morning, you guys. It's Erica. We're here at the Scott Adams School. It is Monday, September 7th. What is happening? And, um, of course we're here. Where else will we be, you guys? And oh, here goes my things just kicking in. Okay, so, um, for those of you on Locals, you got to see little Stella this morning. She's sitting next to me with the window open.

Stella!

She's— I put a picture in the Locals chat. Here, I'll do it again for you right now. Ready? Here's, here's a full body image. Okay, so the people on Locals, come over, you guys. Subscribe to Locals.

My Stella meow tattoo.

Look at her.

Oh, there she is.

There she is. She's sweet. So, um, did you guys have a good weekend thus far? Owen, how, how were your shows over the weekend?

They were great.

Um, we had a good time on the Afterparty and the Sunday Simultaneous Sip, and then we had a great Subscriber Spaces. Um, we're covering the book Great Scott, which is written by Doc Hypnosis. He goes by Bowtie Trance on X. That's his handle. If you're typing it in, and great follow. And I quote post him frequently because he— well, I repost his quote posts of me, I guess I'll say, because he comments on a lot of my stories. But, you know, he's— he was there. So we got the author of the book with us. So it was really cool to be able to like have him ask us questions that he wanted to get feedback on and be able to ask him questions and get opinions about all the different things. And it's all about Scott. It's all about Scott Adams. I mean, this was the whole point of the book was To capture all of his wisdom and persuasion techniques and hypnotist techniques and things, but specifically from his show, not from his books. So anything that was in his books, like How to Fail and Win Big and all that, he left all that out. You know, even though he often mentioned those things on his show, he just left that part out. But he went through a whole bunch of his shows and identified all these things that he did. Um, and captured them all in a book, just mostly for himself, I think. But he's like, you know, all the Sippers would love this. And so he really wrote the book for us.

All right, good.

So it's just kind of a really cool, you know, thing, all sorts of things coming together. And it was a lot of fun. And I think he might be back next week if you want to join us.

Excellent, you guys. So take a look at that. And I want to say happy birthday, Crusher's dad, 102.

Wow.

Wow.

Amazing. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Um, Marcella, how's your weekend thus far?

Very restful. Thank you very much.

Good girl. Okay, time for the sip.

Now, what do we need to have the best day ever? Yeah, you know, you know. All you need is a cup or mug or glass, tank or chalice, or just a 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, including the debates. It's called the simultaneous sip, and it happens now.

Go.

Delightful.

Delicious. Oh, okay. Bye, Owen. So Owen's been having a little problem with his camera or something. Okay, you guys, listen, we are going to do some rapid-fire news today. And we have a nice lengthy whiteboard with Scott Adams. I'm so excited about because we haven't seen enough of him. So let me grab Owen. But first, you guys, look at how amazing this is. I might have to lower the music. Let me do a do-si-do. Hold on.

I don't know what happened. I just all of a sudden I was off the stream and there he went.

All right, so Owen, look at this. Um, Look at this ingenious person feeding their squirrels and being entertained. I had to lower the music. She puts the food in these little masks. I'm obsessed with this, you guys. I feed my squirrels and chipmunks like every day, and I'm like, oh, I should get more creative. So, oh my God, is that the best? Mm-hmm. I can hear Andy Wang now calling them like rats and all this other stuff.

You gotta up your game, Erica.

I really do. I really do. Because I, I've decided that squirrels are my new favorite animal. Yep, I said it. Isn't that funny?

Oh, cats are gonna have an issue.

I mean, I shouldn't say favorite, cutest. They are so cute. Okay, so that was it.

As far as outdoor rodents go, I think they're the best.

What about the chipmunks? They're cute too. Anyway.

But what do you think? I thought you just said squirrels were your favorite.

I love all animals.

I do too, but I think squirrels are the cutest for sure. And I love when they—

I don't see chipmunks very often around where I live, so.

Oh, you know what? While Owen's doing the news, not to distract, I'm going to drop some pictures of my chipmunks and squirrels in the chat on Locals. But Owen, all right, rapid fire us. We only have about 15 minutes before we get to Scott. And, and so you're going to help us not be suckers and losers, and you're going to teach us some things that happened over the weekend that we need to know.

All right. Well, uh, there's apparently Canada is trying to, uh, mess with our elections. They apparently have come out right out and said that they're putting tariffs on our seafood to try and swing the Maine election to keep Susan Collins from winning. So they apparently half of our lobsters in Maine go to Canada. And they're putting a big tariff on it and a bunch of other seafood so that they're literally hoping it's just going to swing the election.

I'll buy more lobsters if it helps.

Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe we should. I mean, I don't know. But it's kind of blatant though. It's like they don't even hide it. They're basically saying explicitly, they're trying to put political pressure on the midterms with this.

Would you say it's fair to say that We're in a war with Canada?

Uh, politically, yes, I would say so. Yeah, I mean, you know, depends on how you define war again, but if you take the more expansive view, which includes economic war and information war and all the other things, then I would say sure, yeah, we are. Yeah, you know, you could call it a trade war if you want, but I think it's more than just trade.

Yep. Okay, well, you know, Canada, you're a mess.

Did you see the, the post of, uh, of Trump? He made a post of the I guess Prime Minister of Canada, and, and they were like playing hockey, him, Trump, and then the, the whatever he is, Carney, was in his zone and it said governor over him.

Uh-oh.

So I don't consider it a war if it's— you're defending against something small. But anyways.

Yeah, some experts are considering it a war, so I'm just like, oh boy, I mean, please. No more.

Foolish Canada.

Yeah, they are foolish. And by the way, the pictures on Locals of your squirrels, you guys, are amazing. Thank you. All right, Owen. So Canada is still obnoxious and Carney's upset because we're memeing him. We're doing memes of him and he doesn't like it. So meme away.

What, Lake America? And yeah, it's kind of fun to watch. Did you see the New America? New Mexico, New America. Now it's going to be New America.

I mean, Trump just has to say anything and people lose their minds. So he wants to switch New Mexico to New America.

Yeah. I would point out that I think he does this literally to just pull people's chains and to get them focused on those things while he's doing everything else he wants to get done. Because if you're focused on that and you're outraged about that and you're posting about that, You're not posting about whatever else is happening in the background. And so whatever else Trump wants to get done without too much scrutiny, it's just getting done. So whether it's H-1Bs or whatever else he's doing, you know, people aren't talking about that stuff.

Just rename everything.

Yeah. So—

I like the name New America. It sounds good.

But like, okay, I, I kind of just think it's already America. How is it New America? Like, What? That doesn't make any sense.

Old Mexico?

I always thought it was weird that there was a state in America named New Mexico.

Right.

That's just my thought.

Did you think—

As a foreigner.

New England and New Hampshire, and we have a lot of those where it's basically just the new version of some other country or place.

We derived from England as customs and all that.

But that part of America derived from Mexico. We took it.

Yeah, so when you take something, you can rename it, right?

But we named it new anyway. It's fine. I, I think it's fun. I love seeing it. I love seeing people's heads blown off and all that, you know, just like blown up because they're not able to handle it.

I think we purchased it though, didn't we?

Yeah, some of it we purchased, some of it we took. I mean, Manifest Destiny, you know, eventually we'll probably have all of Mexico. We'll see.

And we bought New Jersey too. So there you go. Somebody actually paid for this. And now we're paying for it. Trust me.

All right. Have you ever been to Jersey? The original Jersey?

No, I haven't.

I don't even know where that is.

It's actually in England, I think.

This is also Jersey, just so you know.

Okay.

If you live here, you're in Jersey. All right. All right.

Well, so there's next story, a customs immigration, I guess an immigration officer, USCIS, whatever that is, immigration service. He was caught taking bribes. Imagine that. He took nearly a million dollars to approve immigration applications from Africans. The guy's name is Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, and he apparently had a partner in crime named Adeniyi Akeem Samoye. I'm probably doing just as bad as Scott at pronouncing those, but apparently. Between 2019 and 2026, they took in like $1 million in— How did they catch him?

Does it say?

Well, I don't know exactly how they caught him. They did say that this Gunayu guy resigned, quoting personal reasons. So maybe they were wondering why he quit. I don't know. But I know they said it was through Venmo and some of the Cash App and stuff like that. So I'm guessing they tracked down the money.

Duh.

I mean, I think they probably put the money—

His salary was $68,000 and he took like a million in bribes. So, you know, probably caught somebody's notice.

I think we need to vet people a lot better in these positions.

There were probably signs that he was becoming a millionaire.

Yeah, the Maserati he pulled up in or something. Yeah.

So they were arrested September 2nd. They're going to face up to 5 years in prison.

5 years, that's it?

That's what it says for conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official. So I don't know, maybe there's some different law standard they give to public officials that makes it easier on them. I don't know.

Okay.

I wouldn't be surprised, but at least they'll be going away and I'm guessing they'll have to give the money back. I'm not really sure how that works, but it doesn't really talk about that.

All right, well, if he goes to jail, I mean, 5 years, Marcella, to me that's like life in prison the way we do things here. That's going to be good, at least 5 years, instead of he just got a slap on the wrist and he won't do it again. Okay, Owen, go ahead.

All right. So asylum apparently is not going well for people now. 9 out of 10 asylum cases are denied. Only 771 people were actually granted asylum in June, less than a quarter of the total from 3 years ago, and 94% were denied. So basically, Everybody's getting sent back. And, uh, grants fell even as the number of asylum decisions grew, and it looks like it's just a good trend. So I'm hoping that'll continue and people realize that you can't just, you know, apply for asylum and get it, um, that you're most likely not gonna even get anything, so you may as well not try. That's my hope.

Right. Okay, well, that's something. It still seems like a lot to me, but What do I know?

So, all right. 771 in a month? That seems like a lot.

Yeah.

That's a lot. Yeah.

Well, I don't know. Maybe they were all from South Africa.

Well, I'm just like, yeah, where are they from? And what was the story? And why didn't they stop somewhere close to home?

In another country.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know Trump did make some special thing for South Africa to let the farmers come here and all that, but I don't know if that was the ones that's in the 771.

Okay.

Marcelo, we should handle this stuff. We'd be like, absolutely not.

Yeah.

That would be fun.

What?

If we could volunteer to just adjudicate these cases.

Reality show. Yeah. Let us be guest judges.

The Apprentice, but asylum style.

Like a Judge Judy sort of show and just be like, nope, sorry, you're going back.

It would have to make sense.

No, but it's like—

I'm sending you to El Salvador.

There's so many countries between here and there. Well, El Salvador's not bad anymore, so. Send me back, send me back.

Um, yeah, I'm with you, Marcella. There's way too many countries that they pass over. That's the thing.

Even South Africa, I understand, you know, but it's like there's so many other countries here. South Africa.

Yeah. All right, go ahead, Ellen.

So, uh, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Guine-Mullen, he's kind of questioning why these sanctuary cities are still getting federal airport money when they're not playing by the rules. Um, so it looks like they are looking at various ways to maybe take away some money from the sanctuary cities, and I'm all for it.

Yeah.

I think we should use the leverage we have. I think it's been a strong precedent with past administrations where, you know, there's lots of things, lots of strings attached to the money that says you got to do all the stuff we tell you to do, otherwise we're not going to give you the money. Now, if I could do away with all this federal money and control, I'd much rather have that. But while we have this system, I'd rather use the power that we have.

Yeah, but do we?

Well, I think the history has been that a lot of times Republicans don't. And I think I'm kind of applauding this, that they're actually using the power they have. So I want to have them keep going. And I think if anything, it'll either result in doing away with that power because they realize, hey, whenever a Republican gets in now, we're going to have all these bad things happen and we're going to have to change what we do. Or they're gonna realize we should give the power back to the states.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, personally, that might not benefit me 'cause of where I live, but, you know, I'd still probably be okay with it just to say, let the states decide and not have all this federal control and, you know, money going back and forth to have that control, 'cause that seems to be really what it is. It's like we— they take a bunch of taxes into the federal government and then they give it back to the states, but they also say, okay, you only get it if you do all these things for us.

Right, right. I, I don't know. I, I sometimes I'm like, for— I, I'm for small government and for everybody leaving us alone, period. But sometimes I'm just like, this state's— depending on what state you live in, right, what you're gonna get. And then it's like, well, people are like, well, you can move. I'm like, I can't move like every 4 years depending on who, you know, like, what are you, nuts? You can't just move.

Um, So anyway.

It's hard, especially if you own a business in that state. Yeah, and your whole life's here. But I don't know. I want everyone to stop treading on me, okay?

So I've got a couple of fake news stories. One is this Amy Acton thing. I don't know if you've seen that where there's this accusation that someone tried to kill her, but I have an update. The Gateway Pundit—

Amy Acton?

Amy Acton.

Who is Amy Acton?

It's a Democrat politician. I don't know.

No wonder I don't know.

It's Ohio. And so apparently someone charged forward and shoved through the crowd, and the person had guns, but they were holstered. They never came out. They didn't find them until after they arrested the guy. But the story that Amy Acton told was that it was an assassination attempt.

Oh, no.

So it's total fake news. It's like—

Did they know for sure if it could have been?

No, because I think the person was literally just trying to shove to get a better position. He might have been a heckler, but there's no indication that there was any violence intended.

Are you allowed in Ohio to carry?

Yeah, he had a permit. It was all legal. It was all legal.

Yeah.

So there's some fake news for you. If you see that Amy Acton story floating around, you can correct it and say it wasn't what people say it is. But she's trying to frame it as, oh, someone tried to kill me.

Right, right, right. Is this the drunk, the drunk sounding lady? I don't know. We acted in Ohio. We'll play her tomorrow.

Don't they all sound like that?

I mean, this woman. Oh, Scott.

Is she the one with crazy eyes? It'd be like, yes.

She's like taller than us.

We also have the UN that's saying he's claiming that 14,000 babies in Gaza are going to die in 48 hours if they don't do something.

Who is claiming that?

There's a UN official, Tom Fletcher. He's the Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs. He said on BBC Radio that 14,000 babies were going to die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them. Sounds pretty bad. But then—

What does he know?

UNICEF apparently estimates there's only 20,000 babies in all of Gaza. And apparently the finding that he's referring to is that 14,000 malnutrition cases might occur among 1 million children over the next year if aid did not arrive. So complete fake news. He's just trying to make it seem like a genocide in Gaza, and it's not anything like that.

All right. I don't even know what to say about it.

No. Just pointing out the fake news.

Hopefully they don't die. So there you go.

All right. Well, I know it's, it's, uh, 20 after and you wanted to get to Scott.

Look at you, Owen. Just bang, bang, boom. I like it. Thank you. That was fun. Let's do this again tomorrow. No. Okay. So. We have a nice long clip, you guys. Get your coffee ready. We're going to take little notes. We're going to listen. I've got my little ear things in. I'll have Scott delivered right into my ears here. And then on the other side, we'll come back and talk. Okay, so what time is it now? 10:20. We'll see you in 27 or so minutes. Let's go. Enjoy.

Sort of a dismal year. According to everybody who gets polled on the subject, you might be wondering what would be an optimistic, useful way to go into 2022? How can we reboot our minds and get us in the right frame to really take on the challenges of the coming year? And I'm going to help you do that. And I'm going to use a little thing I like to call the whiteboard. And let me tell you where this all started. Some of you know I keep complaining that I continuously have the same type of problem no matter where I live or what house, which is a continuous stream of— no pun intended— water-related problems. Now, they don't seem to be related to construction, you know, they're— and they're not any kind of common thing that's happening. For example, the, the town's connection to me had a leak. You know, it wasn't my fault, town fixed it. Um, an old pump that was 30 years old gave up its useful life in the well and just broke. So the whole, whole number of things that don't have anything in common. And I was thinking to myself, how could it possibly be in this reality that I have the same problem for decades, just nonstop wherever I live? It's like one after another. And other people have other themes. I'm going to call it a theme. So I have this water leak theme that follows me wherever I go. Other people have a theme of, you know, certain relationship Patterns they run into, or certain specific kinds of bad luck. And I don't have any of that. So they don't have any of my water theme. I don't have any of their theme. And what would explain that? And I'm going to give you a few views of the world that explain that. And you get to pick which one you like. And the one of the lessons here. Is that they all work. Are you ready for this?

All right.

So here are some different views of the world. And as you're going into 2022, if you're aware of them, you'll be better equipped because you can pick the one that works best. Now, this starts with the assumption that the human brain is not evolved or designed, whichever you prefer, to understand reality. There's no reason to believe it would be. In fact, if reality were as big as a beach ball, what would make us think that we understand more than, let's say, a BB-sized percentage of it? There's no reason to think that. And in fact, when we look at our own past, we see how much smarter we get all the time. There's no reason to think we've sort of reached the, the pinnacle of our smartness. And there's no reason to think that when we do, we'll have anywhere near an accurate idea of this thing we call reality. Not really much chance of that at all. In fact, we all walk around in different realities. If you consider just the major religions, if somebody is walking around in a, let's say, Islamic reality, meaning that they're Their view of the reality they're in contains a certain kind of a God and situation that's very different than the atheist or the Christian or the Buddhist. These are very different realities because what you feel and think about your reality is your reality for all practical purposes. So here are a few— here's just a tour of the realities that you see all the time. We'll say one is the prayer reality, or the God reality, whatever you like. It's the idea that you might be able to guide reality, or guide your future, if you will, by praying, or more generally, by adhering to certain religious practices. Now, do people who do this seem to have a good outcome? Actually, they do. It turns out there's a pretty high correlation between believing that the prayer God model is is the correct view of the world. These people do seem to have better outcomes. Now, could be correlation, could be causation. We're we're not going to talk about that yet. It's just a different view of the world. Then there's the just physics crowd, the people who say it's just. The laws of physics. Stuff is bumping into other stuff. Doesn't have much to do with anything else. And then there's what I call the Dr. Richard Wiseman view of things, which I learned a few years ago. So Dr. Richard Wiseman did some trials, some tests on people, and determined, or at least this is his hypothesis, Is that the people who could be trained to expect luck actually noticed more opportunities. So expecting luck tunes your brain to spot luck. Now I'm shortening and summarizing and paraphrasing his body of work, so I may be missing some nuance, but the basic idea is that you can tune your brain to notice things. Now, is that a radical idea? Did you really need to do any science to know that you can tune your brain to notice things? Let me ask you this. Have you ever had a situation where a friend of yours got a certain car, or just somebody you know, and because they got that car, you started noticing that model car everywhere? Right? You've all had that experience. Simply the, the very experience of just having somebody close to you get a certain model of vehicle that's a little uncommon completely tunes your brain and instantly to notice them everywhere. So is it any accident that the people who expect luck, in other words, the optimists, if they expect luck, is it any coincidence that they notice it? No, because we know in a variety of ways You can tune your brain to notice the things that you want it to notice. Now you could just put a focus on things. Whatever you're talking about or focusing on, that's what you notice. All right? So that's one view of the world. Now you've also heard of affirmations, the idea that you could somehow steer your fate in some magical way that's hard to explain by just repeating something such as, I, Scott Adams, will be a number one bestselling author, which is what I actually did before I became a number one bestselling author. Coincidence or causation? We're not talking about that. So that's, that's not the topic yet. It's just one way to see the world. Does it work? Hard to know. I don't know if there's any way to know, but I could tell you that people have the sensation that it works. In other words, their subjective reality, and this would include me, my subjective reality is that it works. Could I prove it? I doubt it. Would any science support it? I don't know. Maybe not beyond the Wiseman idea of tuning your brain to notice things. Now you've heard of the Law of Attraction, similar thing to affirmations, the power of positive thinking. The Power of Positive Thinking, huge bestselling book from years ago. The idea that you could just think positively and somehow that would translate into the real world through people responding to you or maybe something else. And somehow you could get a better outcome just by positivity. Now, those things always existed in the realm of magical thinking. Can we agree that if you talk to a skeptic, if you talk to the just physics people, they'd say there's no mechanism for any of that to work. You know, there's sort of an air gap. There's no physics that gets the stuff out of your head and into the real world. Or is there? Enter the simulation theory, Elon Musk being a famous proponent of it. I'm another one, less famous, but just as enthusiastic about the idea that we live in a simulation. Now we would not know the nature of the simulation, but we would have reason to believe that if you change your perceptions, focus them, change your filters, change what matters to you, change what you expect, change your intentions, All words around the same things. Change your prayers, change your expectations. If you were to do those things, could they influence the simulation? Or would it just look like it was happening? Don't know. It's not the question right now. So the idea, simply as a competing idea, for how to describe reality is that if you expect luck, it's not just that you notice it. That's a different idea. In this model, expecting luck via affirmations, which would be a part of positivity generally speaking, the law of attraction, the power of positive thinking, all of these are ways to focus expectations Or you could call it intentions. And once you focus them, you get your luck. But back to my original point, why is it that people have themes in their life? Why do I always have leaks, water problems, wherever I live, all the time, but other people don't? And why do they have problems that repeat and repeat and repeat for reasons that you can't see any causation? Well, one thing that those things have in common is everywhere I go, I expect water leaks if I own it. Before the first water leak I ever had, when I— the first time I owned property, Because I'd had some rentals that had some water leaks, you know, when I was a renter. And when I bought one, I thought, man, what was that? What would be the biggest problem I could possibly have? And then I had it. And then the next time, I think, God, I know I'd hate to have that twice because how bad would that be to have the biggest problem in the world twice? And then I did. So One way to explain all of this is that whether you're putting negative or positive expectations into the universe, or just into your mind, or just into your subjective experience, that you're going to get what you put out. And that there's a direct correlation between whether you're thinking positively and how your experience is, and whether you're thinking negatively. So the only thing I would put out there is don't get locked into imagining there's only one filter on the world. You can reframe your experience to the one that predicts best or gives you the best life. If, for example, you're one of the people who has been praying and you're quite happy with it and it seems to be giving you good results, Maybe it is. Maybe that's exactly what's happening. Keep doing that. That's working. But if you would rather have, let's say, something more like a scientific explanation of why your positivity seems to be helping, you could use Dr. Wiseman's idea that you're simply tuning your brain in a very ordinary way that we can all demonstrate. Straight 100 different ways is easy to do. And of course you're going to see more luck opportunities. And so why wouldn't that cause you more luck? But if you want to get a little bit more, let's say, speculative, if you wanted to be a little bit more optimistic, if you wanted to see if you could make 2022 Off the hook. You're not limited to all of these worldviews. You could take the worldview that you can put your intention out there and it will change your actual environment. Now, if we are nothing but a physical world, just like the scientists say, That's not going to work, except in the limited way that you'll notice more opportunities, which could be very good. Don't want to minimize that, but it won't work like magic, right? However, if we live in a simulation, and the argument for the simulation is that if anybody builds one, they're not going to stop at one, so there, there should be far more simulations who believe they're real than real original species. So the odds are far and away that this model is true. And if it's true, it would explain why our intentions that we put into it are exactly what we get out. You want to hear another one? What was the biggest fear about the mandates and restrictions Of COVID in 2021. What, what did we obsess on? Is the government going to increase our, our mandates? Is the virus going to mutate? Exactly what happened in the world were all the intentions we put into it. Could it be that they were just good ideas and therefore there's nothing magical about it? They were just good ideas. Of course, you worry about the variant. Of course, you worry about government taking too much control. But ask yourself, is it a coincidence we got what all of us put into it in terms of our worst fears and expectations? I would just want you to be open to the possibility That we can intend ourselves a 2022 that's just crazy good. Won't be for everybody, it doesn't work that way, but I think we have come to the point in civilization where we've seen so many things that we thought were absolutely probably true turn out not to be true. We've seen, Yanni and Laurel, we've seen in a million different ways, a lot of it started with the Trump experience, that there's no such thing as a fact anymore. There's no such thing as confidence in science. There's no data we trust. Even when we have the same data, we interpret it differently. We understand at a far deeper level right now that we're living in a deeply, deeply subjective experience in a way that we never really fully appreciated. Yes, everybody knew they were having their own little experience, but not at the level we understand it today. It's completely different. And that's when you open yourselves up to the possibility that you're putting your intentions into reality, whether that reality is imagined, and it's the one you're going to experience, or real, if that even means anything, I'm not sure it matters. It might not also— it might also not matter if it's causal. It might be just good enough that your experience seems to benefit from it. So even causation may not mean the same thing if you're in the simulation. And the simulation does explain almost, or really I think everything that we experience. Does it make it true? Doesn't matter, because we don't have access to truth. If we could check it, that'd be great, because I'd want to check it too. But you can't check it. You can't check any of these. You can be really sure, and you can call your preference, and you can live with it, and you can make it work. These are all good methods, by the way. I wouldn't say that one is worse than the others. The only one that's limited is the physics-only people. They do at least take off the table the possibility that there's something about reality that they don't understand And could be useful. I think that the physics-only people take that option off the table. And one imagines that that could cause a difference in their outcomes. And so one thing that you could do to test this is you could find the people who say, no, there's nothing to the world but cause and effect. We're nothing but particles bumping into each other. And then see how they do. Compare them to the people who maybe are just as smart, let's say just as well trained in engineering or science, but in addition to having that view are open to the simulation and, and with it the fact that your intentions can change your experience. Just compare those 2 groups. The people who think there's nothing else but particles bumping, and the people who think their intentions and their positivity can change their experience, and then just measure their outcomes after 20 years. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is your positive message for the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. To summarize, Don't assume that you can't make your reality better. If not in some real sense, certainly in a subjective sense. Remember, you are not the result of other people's actions. You're not the victim of them. You're the author of your reality. If somebody does something That makes you really mad, you have the option of not being mad. Doesn't feel like it, does it? But you do. And the, the more times you remind yourself that that horrible feeling you're having is actually not the only feeling you could be having under exactly the same situation. You just have to remind yourself that there's not one way to see the world. You're not stuck in a physical world if you don't want to be. You can manage your intentions by just managing what I call your shelf space, which is the amount of time you focus on good things versus bad things. If you focus on all the bad, You, you might attract it. That's one theory. I'm not saying that's true. Or you might focus on it more, and that's going to cause your brain to be rewired to notice more of it. So if you spend your time consuming negative content, you should expect to have a less good experience. If tonight you were thinking, I think I'll watch a nice crime drama, in which bad things happen to people, don't expect good things to happen to you at the same rate as people who decided that a good form of entertainment would be comedy or music, for example. Just assume that everything that's going in is changing your filters, and it's going to change your filters for you if you don't do the changing yourself. So if you just see yourself as a tuning device that can either be tuned randomly or can be tuned intentionally, tune it intentionally. That's the idea of talent stacks, is to intentionally tune your talents so you can do a variety of things. And this is a technique for tuning your brain to be more efficient. So when I talk about being the author of the simulation, You know, you being the author of your subjective experience, this is what I mean. Tuning the brain to be more receptive to the good stuff and less receptive to the bad stuff. And it doesn't require anything harder than how much time you spend thinking about each. Now you say to yourself, but Scott, I can't control my thoughts. Yes, you can. You can control your thoughts, but you have to do it indirectly. Here's how I controlled my thoughts yesterday. Feeling like I was having a lot of bad luck and everything was sort of going against me. Then I realized that it had been raining for days and I'd been trapped indoors with construction noise for 8 hours a day. And so the first time that the sun came out, I walked outside And within one block of my home, realized I didn't have any problems. And it was just sunshine. I retuned my brain by bringing my body outside. You could also retune your brain by exercise. See, it's indirect, but it works every time. If you're having— let me give you the best reframe you've ever had. You ready? Here's one to take into the next year. When you have stress, the common way to think of that is as a problem, almost like a health problem. Well, really it is a health problem, and something that's this horrible thing. Do you know what I think of when I have stress? I think today's the day I'm really going to exercise well. Stress is your body's way of telling you you haven't exercised enough today. Now, is that oversimplifying? Yes, that's what a frame does. It's an oversimplification that's useful. It's something you, you tell yourself to put yourself in a completely different frame of mind. Stress after work, you come home full of stress. How far are you going to run that day? If you're a runner or bike or whatever it is you do. How much are you going to lift? More, right? And will it work? Will it, will it burn your stress off? Yeah, every time. It works every time. So reframe your stress as haven't worked out enough. How about if you can't sleep? Have trouble sleeping? I'll reframe that too. You didn't work out enough. Or you didn't work enough.

Yeah.

You don't have a problem sleeping. You have a problem of not working hard enough or working out hard enough. Do you, uh, do you have a problem with eating? No, you don't. You have a problem with your system. Your system for diet is defective. You don't have a problem with eating. You don't love food too much. It's true, you love food. But if you reframe it as, wait a minute, my system for, for getting food into me is defective, so what do I do to change the system? You could read my book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, for more about that. So in— as 2022 comes at us, it is time to take ourselves out of negativity mode because the pandemic has done that to us. We did it to ourselves. And I think I'm one of the biggest problems because I talk about the pandemic a lot. You've seen a lot of people say, Scott, Scott, if you stop talking about it, it will cease to be a problem. And my rational brain says, that's not how it works. Problems don't go away because you stop talking about them. But that's not the only part of my brain. There's also this part, and part of it says, what if we stopped talking about it? What if we filled the shelf space? What if we made everything else our priority for a while? Would it go away? At least in our subjective experience, it would. I mean, you'd still have to remember to wear a mask until they tell you to You know, you're okay, whatever. But your subjective experience would improve right away. And maybe, you can't rule it out, you might change the world. And so I leave you with this optimistic message for 2022. I do actually believe that 2022 is going to be off the hook, like really, really fun. And of course we'll have our tragedies. Of course we'll have our challenges. Those, those come along with the game. But we're coming off 2 bad years and we've got some energy to burn and we're ready to go. So Happy New Year to all of you.

Oh, I love that. Who did not need that today? I mean, I could have used that any day and I will use it every day moving forward. That was such a good reminder. And I was taking notes and remembering and it's just also true. And I find myself saying to friends constantly, you know, ask different questions to the universe. Like Scott said, you know, oh, how bad would it be to have a water leak? And then the universe is like, oh, here, I'll show you. Here's your water leak. But if you said like, How great would it be that I'm never going to have water leaks? Then maybe you're not going to have them. But what you think about, you bring about. So, Marcella, I'll come to you first. I mean, such good reminders for everybody on this planet, right?

Yeah, I miss him so much when you, when you hear him. Yeah, 2022 was off the hook too. So I just Try a little. I try a little of everything that he put on that board. Expect luck, pray, affirmations. Maybe not all at once, you guys, but because your brain's gonna get scattered. But I'm a believer of the simulation, so that, that kind of takes it off different. But you know, if you believe in, in something else, then you can believe in that. But I think it's what you bring in. The world is a mirror. And we're there, and whatever we show it is what comes to us, what reflects back to us. That's what I believe.

Yeah. Owen, your first thoughts?

Yeah, I think what I would maybe add to what Scott was saying is that all these different perspectives or filters that he gave us there, they're not really mutually exclusive. I mean, with the exception of maybe the physics only, which is by nature excluding everything else, believing in God and praying and also maybe believing in the simulation or also believing in affirmations or also— you can do all of that at once in my opinion. And I do think it might help to your point, Marcella, to not try to adopt all of them at once because you're going to be trying to be like, okay, I should pray and I should do affirmations and I should think about the simulation and I should expect luck. And it's going to— be difficult to follow. So, focus on one thing. But, I think that's the main thing. And, maybe that's another point is just focus is maybe an underlying message there that he didn't really talk about where it's like if you do an affirmation, you should focus on one thing at a time. You shouldn't do 50 different affirmations because the whole point of it is to focus your brain in one direction.

Yeah.

And so you should try and focus on that one thing that you want to happen. And, you know, maybe you could do 2 or 3. I mean, you're welcome to experiment. I'm not an expert at all this stuff, but like, I just think the mechanism as we understand it is more about focusing you in a single direction so that you do notice opportunities or you do notice ways that you're more lucky or that you are changing the way you feel about something or whatever it is. But— The more effort you put in that one direction, the farther you're going to go. And if you try and go in all kinds of directions at once, you might just stand still. So I think that's another thing is just to pick one filter and pick one thing to focus on at a time, at least. It doesn't mean you have to do that one thing forever. But if you do make progress in one area, maybe you switch to another area. But I think at least don't pick too many things to focus on at once. And I'm guilty of that myself. I probably have 150 projects going on right now that I have— that I'm like juggling all these different things, partly because of all this AI stuff I'm doing. But it's like, okay, I gotta get this computer set up and I've got to get my software factory done and I gotta get my product built. And like, it's, you know, but I would say like I'm probably guilty of saying maybe it'd be better for me to focus on just one thing, get that done, move on to the next thing. And I can't always do that because I have all kinds of things coming at me from work where people expect me to do things by a certain time and I can't just do one at a time all the time. But As long as you prioritize, you should be able to say, okay, all that other stuff can wait. Let me focus on this one thing and get it done.

I was laughing when Scott's saying about watching these crime drama things. I mean, the world is full of these and we talk about them all the time, like recently with the Lindsay Clancy. And it's so true. I don't like to really watch things that are negative, and I'm a full believer— I think my mom probably taught me this when I was a kid— that, you know, what you think about, you bring about. And then of course, I learned that from every mentor I read and studied, you know, up until now. And the same goes with, you know, when you're feeling down, like Scott's saying, you have to author yourself. So you have to get yourself out of whatever it is you're thinking. And yeah, you can do it yourself because it's so easy to wallow. I think it's just easy because like, I don't know, like it's just like this like pity feeling and I'm bummed and I'm sad and I'm just gonna stay here. But I think you can make it equally as easy to get out of it. And I, I try doing that now. So if I start to feel down, I'll try as fast as I can to be like, no, no, we're not staying here, Erica. We're moving on. Like this You know, this isn't happening to you right now. It's something that happened. It has nothing to do with you. It's none of your business. I always say certain mantras to myself, like, your opinion of me is not a permanent reality. So somebody comes at me, I'm like, your opinion of me is not a permanent reality. Like, that's your opinion of me. It has nothing to do with my reality or the truth. And I let it go. And, and I give myself permission, just let Let shit go, and like author the rest of your day and yourself. And I'm not saying it's easy, but if you continually switch your mindset to something like that as fast as you can, it becomes easier. And then eventually you spend a lot less time in the negative places, and you move through them quickly because like I'm not going to be a victim. I I have full agency of my thoughts and what I want to do, just like every single person here listening does. So you can make a decision: Am I staying here, or am I going to go? with the positive affirmations? Am I going to go with the better self-talk? Am I going to get outside of the little zone I'm in and go outside like he said, or put on like a great inspiring podcast and clean out a drawer while you're listening to something positive? So we all can do it. We just have to remember to do it.

Did you listen to the meditation that I sent to my subscribers?

No.

Oh, you should check that out.

I will.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anyway, a little bit related to what you're saying, but I agree with everything you were saying. I think, you know, I think it's tied to like feelings of shame and guilt and embarrassment and things like that that make you have that reaction. Like, oh, you know, someone criticized me, I should feel bad now. And I think it's part of Stoicism and part of other things that I've worked on to just not let that stuff bother you. But it takes practice. It's not something you can just instantly do. But I do think Scott's method might even be better than a lot of other methods in terms of just saying, fill your mind with other stuff. Like, you can't get out of that by thinking about it or ruminating about it. You have to not think about it. And the only way to not think about it is to think about something else. And so whether it's get out or whether it's let me go think about positive things, or let me show some gratitude or whatever it is—

Go help somebody, do something useful. Yeah.

And I think once you get into that mode, and it might even tie into Jocko Willink, which I know you're big fan of, Marcella, with Extreme Ownership. Like, if you take ownership and you say, I'm gonna make this happen and I'm gonna, you know, be super accountable for what I do, but I'm gonna not worry about what anyone else is doing, um, then it puts you in this empowering position where you're like, you can make things happen, but you also don't even focus or think about what anyone else thinks of you because it's irrelevant.

Exactly.

And so I think it— a lot of different methods. And again, like Scott said, you can just pick what works for you. one of these methods might work better for you than others. And, I do think it's funny how at the end, he just solved all your problems with diet, exercise, and sleep just at the end.

Yeah.

Oh, well, if you have a problem with sleep, do this. If you have exercise problems, do that. If you have diet problems, do that. But, I will say I wanted to tie that in that a lot of times if you are having emotional or mental or whatever challenges, The physical stuff can help solve it. If you just do some exercise, I mean, I have a couple stories that I'm looking at in my feed right now. I don't think I posted them yet, but one of them says aerobic exercise is linked to improve executive function after menopause. So, I guess this was a study about women. There's another one that says a single workout may help protect memory after a short night's sleep. Just getting enough sleep might be good, but if you don't, exercise might actually help you solve some of these things. And so—

At whatever capacity you could do, you guys, not everybody can go running and stuff.

But yeah, what I wanted to point out, like Owen said, is the last few minutes of, of the, of what we showed, the video, was extremely important, is to create a system, to have a system. Um, and Scott lived by that. Like, he had a complete system of everything when he got up, when he went through this. It was crazy. But, um, for all of us, um, control your mind. Right? Like, if somebody tells you something, do not let it get to you. And also, like, create a system for yourself, not only a physical system for what you eat, but a mental one, like how you're going to react to things, what you're going to do. So system thinking is really important.

I totally agree. And, um, you know, so this is how you guys pick up Reframe Your Brain if you haven't yet, because you can see that this Like that talk he gave was like the start of this coming to fruition. It just teaches you how to change your mindset, reframe things, replace a negative thought with a positive thought. It's just practice. That's all it is. It's just practice. See, there's Marcella's. And I think that's all you have to do. So the next time when like that tinge comes over you and you're just like, oh my God, I can't believe that person said this, or I can't believe like I wasn't invited to this thing or whatever, It's like, honestly, I mean, I'm gonna say like, don't worry about it. Like, it's none of your business. It really has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the other people, not you. And don't waste your shelf space, like Scott said, like keeping those things there and wondering about them, because talking about it and ruminating on something doesn't change the situation at all, but getting outta your own way will. And I know this might sound funny too, but I did the, um, Tony Robbins— oh God, what was it called? It was like a, a few-day thing, walking on fire. Unleash the Power Within, that's what it was. But one thing that he would do, because like—

Was he there?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, but his sessions would go like, you know, 15 hours a day, and, you know, like at midnight we're walking on fire. It's crazy, but it's, um Did you do that? I did. I did. No burns.

And nothing, it didn't burn or anything?

No, because you can't. I'll tell you what, your mind is so powerful either way, like we always talk about. And when I first got there, the first, this is like in 2005, when I first got there that day, I was like, well, I'm not going to do the fire walk because you watch the fire burning outside all day. They're burning these mounds of wood. And then you see the lane, they like make these lanes and you're going to walk on the burning coals and whatever. And I'm like, oh, hell no, I'm not doing that. By the time it was midnight and we had like talked and done exercises and, and lessons and this and that, I was like, get me on the fire. Like, I couldn't get to it fast enough. It was so bizarre. And you're in such a state and you're controlling every fricking thought you have in order to do that and not burn yourself. If I was walking across it and I all of a sudden was like, I'm standing on hot coals. I would have burnt the crap out of myself, but I was so in my mindset of what I was doing and in that moment that it literally felt like I was walking on like baby powder. And yes, some people got burned. Some people got burned as it can happen. But you know, the other thing I learned there that I wanted to say to you guys is this might sound so stupid, but a really good way to change your state is he would be like, okay, like if you're feeling tired or you're dwelling on something, do 5 jumping jacks, literally 5 jumping jacks.

Oh, yeah.

You can't do 5 jumping jacks and not be different after you do them. And I laugh while I'm doing them because I feel so stupid but funny. And it just changes your state. So, start with that. If you guys are like, I can't exercise. I don't have time. 5 jumping jacks. And then, and then push-ups. And if you're Marcella, 10 push-ups. So I think changing your state of mind is the way to go. Um, Marcella, if you, if you feel like a little negative influence come over you, what's your system? Like, if you have— if you're like at work and it has to be quick, what do you do?

Oh my gosh, that's like all the time, right? Because I'm dealing with problems, I just stop myself. I, I count. I count before I react, and inside my brain, not out loud. They're like, why is she counting? Um, but a lot of the times I go back to what Scott would tell me, I guess. Uh, author yourself, control yourself, you know, like I hear him in my head saying these things, maybe because, um, or Ayn Rand. So, or Jocko. Jocko, I always hear him Um, in my head saying, good.

And I'm like, that's good.

Like, people are— people, like, I mean, you saw Lindsay Clancy's attorney, the way that he acts, and you guys were all like, oh my God, what is he doing? Is he really talking to the judge like that? I have men like that and women treat me like that at all times in court. Not off— not always, but there's always somebody like that attorney. Um, I just, you know, I had to deal with an attorney just like him, uh, for a case for several months where I had to do 50 depositions and they were really difficult. And I just, you know what, I laughed and I just used laughter. As you guys can tell, I always— I'm always laughing. So I just don't let it get to me by using humor as well, which I think I've used.

Right.

You know, in El Salvador when there was war, we used like, we just hung out and laughed and danced and something else like that takes it away from what is happening. Um, don't let it, because if you show that it got to you, then they keep doing it. But if you, but if you don't, especially now in a, in a trial or in, um, attorney work, I don't let it Get to me. I know it's time.

Oh yeah, I was, I was being relaxed because of the holiday. But, um, also, you guys, if working out is hard, or jumping jacks, or exercise, another thing I like to do— and I have a mirror right here on my desk. I've had that mirror there for so long because of different careers and things that I was doing. I think it's important to see what your expression is sometimes. Like, if I was on a call with like an important call, I would be like, oh, how's my energy matching up? And I would look in the mirror and I'd be like, oh, let me smile while I'm on the phone so I transfer the smile to the phone call. But a really good thing to do is make the most stupid faces you can make in a mirror. Watch yourself make it. Go into the bathroom at work or wherever you are, or use your phone, your camera, and just— I'm not going to do it, but just make the dumbest, most ridiculous faces For like 30 seconds and like really use your facial muscles. And after, it like literally changes your brain wiring where you're like, oh my God, like that was like fun and silly and your energy shifts. And Owen does it all the time. You just can't see him.

Of course. Just make sure your meeting camera's off before you do it.

Yeah, you don't want to be like tubing on there making faces. What's your go-to, Owen, when you're in a—

Making faces wasn't the problem there.

I know, but make sure your camera's off was the lesson.

See, humor is making me laugh. Okay, go ahead.

So, Owen, if something comes over you and you're like at work or dealing with even with your kids or something, you're like, I don't want to react. I need to get out of this mindset. What do you do?

I mean, I it's rare because I I've like that. What I really do if I'm facing a challenge at work is usually just remember how much worse I've had it in the past. Like I I've had really difficult clients. Like, the one I usually point to is I had a client where almost everybody I was dealing with was a Harvard MBA, and the culture of the client was a challenging culture. So they were required— if they disagreed with anything, they were required to speak up and challenge you. And when I got to this client, they told me, you need to answer every challenge. That's how we do things here. And so I was walking into this, like, combative Harvard MBA, everybody thinks they know better than everybody else. And I had to beat them all. And I did. I successfully did that.

Physically, did you?

When I brought people on my team, I had to screen them so that they wouldn't break down in tears because they would a lot of the time if I didn't make sure it was the right type of person. And so after having been through that, Nothing fazes me. And like, I, you know, I'll have some challenge and people on my team will be like, oh, this is so hard. I'm like, yeah, this is nothing.

So that's good. You just remember like, this is nothing compared to what that was.

Yeah. I mean, I, I just feel like every client is a dream now. It's like, you know, this is— they're nice compared to that. And that even includes somebody who called me an MFer on a group phone call. Like, I— it didn't faze me at all. Like, it just didn't bother me.

Right. I get that. And I also think that comes with age a little bit too. Luckily, you know, I think so anyway. I honestly just don't care. I mean, if it's something like completely— if it's like inappropriate, disrespectful, like if you walked into my house and called me a name, I'd be like, well, it's time to go and you're leaving. And I wouldn't be affected by the name they called me, but there's a time and place. But, and, you know, but calling someone a name or whatever is only a reflection on you, not the person you're saying it to. So, um, I definitely want to hear from you guys if anyone tries like the face-making thing and get your hands and mush your face together.

Do you do— when it's the wife or the husband, what do you guys do? The same thing? Same advice?

Faces right then and there. Like, just start laughing and make— I mean, it could just be for your— be like, hang on a minute, and like get your phone and put Put your camera on and just go to town making faces and laughing. And by the way, that will change them also because it's such a disruption of like what the pattern would be that they're like, oh my God, like what are you doing? And now all of it's changed. So you can change other people too if you're standing in front of them by just doing something they wouldn't expect, but make it something like funny and fun, not mean. Or you could literally start doing jumping jacks. Someone's pissing you off and it's slightly inappropriate.

Doing jumping jacks.

Start doing your jumping jacks and they'll be like, what are you doing? Just be like, I'm just changing my, my mindset right now. Just give me a second. And they'll be like, okay.

Hey, Owen, I have a question for you. The MBAs that are from Harvard, they keep mentioning they're from Harvard because I have the same thing with lawyers that are from Harvard. Like, there's— it takes 2 minutes or 1 minute to hear they're from Harvard.

I mean, I get that more internally at these consulting firms I work for, especially because they're like, you know, they're not like, they're not McKinsey, which is considered like the ultimate best. And so a lot of these people have these like inferiority complexes where they're trying to convince you that they are that good. And so they'll throw out, oh, I went to Stanford for my MBA, where did you go? And like, you know, they're like throwing around their credentials and stuff. And it's, it was so funny to me when people would do that because I'd be like, you know, first of all, like, I'm, at your level or even above your level and I'm performing better than you. I don't say that, but I think they know that. And then my answer to them is, I don't have an MBA. I never got one. And I think it just throws them for a loop because they're expecting me to have some answer that they can compare to themselves. And I'm like, yeah, no, I don't need that. I have plenty of experience far beyond what an MBA would teach me. Um, so I don't need that, but it's, I think it's just kind of funny to me when people do that because you, it, it, to me, that's a sign of insecurity. That's a sign that they're trying to convince you that they are something that isn't going to be obvious otherwise. Like, you know, if their behavior showed that they were super smart and super competent, they wouldn't need to say that. And they wouldn't say that, right? They would just let their actions and words speak for themselves. And that's what I see with super competent people. The really super competent and really super smart people, they never talk about their credentials. You don't see Elon Musk saying, this is where I got my MBA.

Same thing with money. I worked for a billionaire. I didn't know he was a billionaire for a while until they were like, oh yeah, we have a plane. We're going to go to Hawaii on our own. I was like, what? And then I looked him up and it turns out he's a billionaire. So I was like, oh, I had no idea.

Was he weird?

No, they were just very normal.

Okay.

Very normal.

I've only met one billionaire person that was like a family friend, and he was very weird.

I know normal billionaires.

Yeah?

Yeah. And I know eccentric too, but yeah.

In my mind, I think of billionaires as kind of a different breed where they're not like normal people.

Yeah, but maybe that's my own billionaires.

I mean, that's my own issue.

I don't know. Depending. Yeah, I'm I'm sure that that the that he was like a bit strange, but like what I meant is his family was all nor like they didn't they didn't bring brands and all sorts of things. They were just wearing jeans shirts, you know, just like very very think about like David Sachs and those guys.

I mean.

Yeah, yeah, like they, you know, you don't feel—

a billion dollars isn't what it used to be, you know what I mean? So now people are— it's just not— I mean, like, a million dollars, not a trillion dollars these days. I mean, billionaires are the new multi-millionaires, so it's just, uh, it's just weird.

They don't flaunt their money, that's all I'm saying.

They don't flaunt their money.

No, it's just not about flaunting money, and the person I knew didn't do Well, he did do that, but not to me. But he would have really fancy parties and just things you couldn't believe that someone would do. And I think he mostly did it for his friends, but every year he would have this birthday party and it would be this really extravagant thing with celebrities there and just weird stuff going on. And every year it was a different theme.

Cool.

But I think, you know, I'm sure it was because he thought it was fun, but I think it was more like for his guests, right? Like, it wasn't for him. It was like, I'm gonna give people this great experience that they couldn't have any other way.

And yeah, it does get a little weird. Like, we're so, I guess, off topic but on topic, because I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, who has a ton of money, he'd have like these real eccentric parties where he'd bring in like wild animals, like some kind of tigers and stuff. And it's like, why are you doing that? Leave them alone. It's animals.

Well, I mean, the example I remember was— and I didn't go to this, but my parents did because he was a family friend. And it was like they went to a Broadway show, right? Like Broadway play musical sort of thing. And then they went to the party Part of it. And then all the Broadway actors and actresses from the show were there singing to them.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It was a very dedicated private thing. And that's the type of thing he would do. And that's just one example. Every year it would be something completely different. And all year they'd be planning the next party. So it was this ongoing thing. But I guess it formed my impression of what a billionaire's like because I've only met one. And having talked to him personally, I also just thought his views were kind of off what I would've expected of a normal person, but I don't want to get into that.

I'll be a normal billionaire, you guys. I'll be normal.

Okay.

Well, you got to work on your affirmations.

Yes, work on all of it. And I also want to say that recently, well, not recently, but in my life, but in the last year, I've experienced So much loss, meaning deaths of people close to me. And I will tell you, like what Scott said, that it seems like the people that believe in God and religion have better outcomes dealing with it. And I have seen that to be true. Like, I've watched the people grieving and the ones that had like a very strong faith really seem to not necessarily accept it, but get through the grief of it better. And that was comforting for me to see. And the people that I know completely don't have any belief in anything really, really struggle a lot more. And that's just an observation that I had. And the other thing was, expecting luck. I know people that expect luck. And the thing about expecting luck is like, look for it, you guys. So if you're like, oh, like, I'm gonna expect a really good— I mean, just say it. Like, I'm gonna expect a really good outcome from this situation. Like, I can't wait. But then pay attention. Like, pay attention for the luck. You know, it's like where the opportunity and the luck meet together. You have to be aware of the opportunities in front of you. So like, just say, I know this is going to be a great outcome. I have a great mindset about this. Nothing's going to get in my way. And then pay attention and follow the things that the universe will put in front of you. Because if you have that mindset, the universe will be like, oh yeah, are you expecting good luck? Okay, let me put some crumbs in front of you. And you just have to be there to pick them up. And it'll all come together. So, you know, when people write an affirmation, like Scott would say, like, I'm going to be a famous cartoonist, you know, etc., you have to take action. It's not going to show up at your door, but you have to pay attention, like how he paid attention to the, you know, the phone number at the end of that TV show that one day and got in touch with that company that then like led to everything for him. So pay attention when you're expecting good luck, or you're gonna miss it. So it's not like it just gets handed to you on a platter.

And also keep going. Like, let's just say like that idea didn't hit, Just keep trying to do different things. Like, you fail 1,000 times, but you could potentially make it one of the times. Because I know a lot of Silicon Valley people have tried— that I know have tried to do businesses here and there, you know, and things haven't gone well, but they keep trying, and some have succeeded. So it's just keep trying too.

Yeah. So if it's like it didn't hit, then say the word yet. Yet. Because I'm not, I'm not done. I'm not stopping. Like, you don't stop until you get there. And of course, like, readjust. And, you know, in— when I used to do yoga, you know, they had a mantra. I think it's for lots of things, but it's like, fall down 7, get up 8. So if you fall down 7 times, you get up 8 times. Like, it just, it doesn't stop. So I like that, you guys. Fall down 7, get up 8. Okay.

Fall down 8 though, stay down.

Fall down 8, get up 9, Owen. All right.

Just try not to fall, you guys.

If you have to, but you'll learn from those falls, like what, what happened. And in yoga, when you fall, it's because you're not paying attention.

Fall down 9, get better shoes.

Fall down 9, take a nap. No. Yes, Andy, I did yoga. Um, all right, you guys, so thanks Thanks for staying with us longer today, and thanks Marcella and Owen for staying longer. I think I'm going to go out on the boat today. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do on a beautiful Labor Day?

We are.

Yeah, let's go. We have a meeting on the boat after this. Yes, Beverly, it does hurt to fall down. I'm with you.

Yikes.

Oh my gosh. Um, so I'm gonna get on the boat and do jumping jacks. I don't know about you guys. I hope it's something useful and fun.

Maybe you guys can type it in the chat what you guys are gonna do.

Yeah, tell what you're doing today.

Unless it's illegal, then don't tell us.

Oh, unless Marcella's not here, then it won't matter. Marcella keeps us straight. Oh my gosh.

Owen, what are you doing? Working.

I'm working on my world domination plan with my AI bot army. Just a little—

just remember us.

Owen's playing army with his bots. I love that.

If, if you've ever read the book Daemon, D-A-E-M-O-N, and then there's a sequel to it called Freedom, That's the plan.

Oh, what's— who's the author?

Daniel Suarez.

Okay.

It was written before AI was what it is now, but when you— if you read that book, you can see where the future's headed.

Oh, oh, oh, I'm gonna read it now.

I'm gonna wait for the surprise.

I don't want to spoil it, but you'll see.

Don't spoil it. Um, I, I'm looking what everyone's doing. Oh, SJV is going to work on his napping. Cleaning out high-class hoarder house. Love that. Oh, you guys, a lot of people want to declutter. This is a good time to do it too.

Weed eater out.

Is it a holiday in Cambodia?

No.

I mean, I don't know.

Every day is a holiday in Cambodia.

Oh, on the motorcycle on a coffee break for this Oh, Jim Wyman's working.

Yes, Andy, you can repost that video wherever you want. It's not my video, so do whatever you want with it.

What video?

The meditation video.

Oh, oh.

I just, I found a video and I posted it to my subscribers and Andy was asking for permission to post it somewhere else.

Aw, nice, Andy. Another attorney over there. Um, oh, eat grilled meat. I like the sound of that.

I don't know what a weed eater is.

A weed eater?

Yeah, that's what he's saying. Chunks is going after me for not knowing that.

A weed whacker?

That's what I was thinking.

Maybe that's what it is. I don't know what he was talking about. Does anyone remember the throwback to— I'm just gonna say it the right way— Dock and Dine with my typos? Because you guys did not let me forget that one for a long time. Your car is a workbench in your garage.

Declutter. Annie's decluttering.

Chunks remembers. Let's see. Oh, a chainsaw oil to arrive. Okay. Having hoagies all day. Oh, today.

Oh, today. I was like, going to the pool, working for hours, then cooking teppanyaki later.

I don't know what it is. I'm sorry.

Oh, that's the Japanese thing where they do the show, they cut everything Like, you've ever been to that where they do a show in front of you and do the food?

Oh, like Japanese type thing? Yeah. What's that called?

That's called teppanyaki.

Wait, isn't it called, like, hibachi something?

Yeah, I think that's what it is, I think.

All right. Owen's going to work with his— going for a boat ride to Catalina. Beverly's putting away her white shoes. Come on, Beverly, you can wear white all year now.

Barefoot. Were you exercising? Is that what you need us to say?

Let's see. Barbecue for lunch. Oh, you guys, I love it. Walking and playing with your dog. A weed eater is what normal people call a weed whacker. Okay. Yep.

Okay.

So you were right, Marcella.

Yeah, cigars, back porch coffee.

Patty is a subscriber to you, Owen. I think she's saying, I couldn't find the video that you posted.

It should be there. I know some people saw it.

It's on your—

I just reposted it on Sunday and I just said, here's a Sunday meditation that we all need.

Okay, so we'll all repost it, you guys. So if you didn't see it, just look for us. Jim Wyman, that's private information. I can't say.

What is he saying?

He wants to know where I am about.

Oh, let's all say your exact coordinates, please, Erica.

Hey, everybody change your fire alarm batteries today. Like, let's just all do it together. Cooking, working on the Clanker Chronicles tonight. Nice, Mar. Okay, I like it. All right, so you guys, thanks so much. I will actually do an Akira song. Now there's somebody who is it? I can't remember your name. It's either is it on who is it on locals? Every time I play Akira, they're like, "Oh, Akira, I'm leaving." Like, okay, we know, just leave. But we love Akira.

It's an airport; they must have known. Exactly.

It's like I'm leaving right now. Um, but anyway, I'm reading your comments, you guys. I just can't end the stream. I'm so interested. If you were on call for Christmas, should you have to burn PTO for that day if you only want to spend the day? Um, listen, if you're on call for Christmas, it must be important that you do. I know, I feel like you have an important job. You could be a bartender. What if someone needs a drink? I mean, and good for you if you like spending time with your family on Christmas. I mean that sincerely. I have so many friends that are just like, you know, adults, whatever, and they're like, oh, I gotta like go to the aunt's house and this and that. So yes, Metal Seer, I will think of you while I'm on the boat. And we love Akira. 20-hour drive.

Will you think of us when you're there?

I always think of you guys. Always. All of you. Every single one of you. All right, Owen, have fun with the army. Thank you.

I appreciate it.

I hope you get them all in line.

It's been building throughout the entire show.

Yay.

You're welcome, Crusher. Happy Labor Day to you too. Dr. Von Hardy, thanks for the thumbnail today. That was a special Labor Day thumbnail by Dr. Von Hardy. PhD, by the way. PhD. Mm-hmm. From Arizona. Thank you. Let's see. Too hot to go outside. Good luck going. Christmas trip, please. What does that mean, Mary Kay? We're all going on a trip together? Goldie. All right, guys, so I'll get into the Akira song. I'm sure Lori needs to go out, and Stella's probably looking for her.

It was raining yesterday, so I don't know. I don't know. She doesn't like the rain.

What's it doing raining?

Don't know. It's better than fires though.

All right, do you guys want an Akira video or a song while still looking at our beautiful faces? Um, let's see. Pleasant show. Thanks, Metal Seer. All right, let's go, you guys. Um, oh, why don't we do Author Yourself since that's what's Scott was talking about today. True. I think that's perfect. Where is it? Where is it? Oh, I might even have the video.

Ooh, the video's nice.

Oh, I might not have uploaded it yet. Next time. All right, so let me find Author Yourself. And if you have to go, we'll miss you. See, not all the songs come in. I don't know why. All right, so we're gonna do do something. Let's do something. All right, you guys, we will see you tomorrow with a regular show, and hopefully everyone put it out in the universe that Walter does make it on Wednesday because we don't get him too often. But that's the plan, Stan. Okay, let's go do something. But first, let's say thank you to Scott and Shelley for allowing the show to continue. Thank you to every single one of you that show up here, whether in the replay or in the live show. We love you guys. So much. We have such a good time. You really lift our spirits. And let's have a closing sip. I mean, amazing whiteboard from Scott today. We all needed that. So let's have a closing sip and be useful. And a special sip to our beloved Scott. To Scott.

To Scott.

And now, Do Something by Akira the Dawn, meaningwave.com.

Have you heard the phrase, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose? You've heard that, right? Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. How about this? How about that college class you were going to sign up for? How about that sport you wanted to get involved in? How about that motorcycle you wanted? Too dangerous, right? You're free. You're free. Every one of you who is depressed and anxious, you're free. You're free. Because nothing you do will It will be worse than the way you feel right now. Do something. Do something dangerous. Psychologically dangerous. Take a chance. Put yourself out there. Flame out. Get killed. Just get smashed. Just go do it. You're free. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. You're free. Do something. Freedom's just another word, but nothing like the lips. You're free. Do something. Do something. If you want to meet people, here's the best way to do it. You have to join activities. There is no other way to meet people and form lasting friendships. Hear this clearly. There's no other There's only one way to do it. You have to join an activity, a club, a sport, a gym, an organization, a political movement. Nothing else.

All right.

You can't just make a friend. Like, good luck. You could try, but I don't think I've ever seen it work. Hi, uh, you know, Bob, uh, hearing good things about you. I think we could be friends. Doesn't work. Do something. Do something. Join a thing. Make a sport. Form a club of your own. Just go do it. You're free. Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

You're free.

Do something. Freedom's just another word. Nothing left to lose. You're free. Do something. Why would you not form a club of your own? Because you're afraid nobody would come, right? What's the difference? You're as good as dead. You're depressed, you're anxious, you hate your life. You're thinking about putting a— I can't say that here, but You're thinking about maybe life isn't worth it. You're free. You're absolutely free. Go have some fun. Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. You're free. Do something. Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. For nothing left to lose. You're free. Do something.

Do something.

Now, I gotta tell you, I've used this technique a number of times, and man, does it work. It really works. You're free. Just remember that people criticizing you are narcissists. They are broken. Don't let it break you. You've got some techniques now, and I think you're gonna be a lot better. Go get yourself some friends, and you'll find your mental health problems feel a lot better. Go get involved in something. Join a group. Form a group. Be the boss. That is your advice for the day, and I will talk to you.

Ah, can't get enough of it. Can't get enough of it. You guys, amazing photos in the chat. Thanks for posting all those pictures of Scott and anything Scott related and your pets. Owen has mastered my dance moves. That's why Owen everyone. Everyone's like, Owen's so stoic. He's a great dancer. How does he keep a straight face?

I'm working on that too. That's one of my 150 projects is to get some emotion in here, but we'll see how well it works.

Yes, you guys, here you have the opportunity right now. You just heard it from Owen. He's working on it. He knows, he knows.

I am.

It's just going to take some time.

Oh my gosh. All right, so you guys have the best day. Thanks, Owen and Marcella, for everything. Say goodbye so we don't hang up on you, and we'll see you in the morning, everybody. Owen never flinched. Nope. Just like when he's waterboarding— I mean, surfboarding. Bye guys.

Bye everyone.

Love you back. Love you back. Bye everybody.