The Scott Adams School - 10/05/26 MONDAY With The HOME TEAM.

Okay, we're kicking into gear.

I was pre-sipping. Oh no.

Precipitation. Let me join Locals. Oh, look at the fam. Look at that fam. Good morning, everybody.

Happy Monday.

Marcela's favorite day.

My favorite day.

Thank God. We all need a favorite day to be Monday. We need— do you need someone in your tribe who loves Monday? And it's Marcella. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. Oh, and how wonderful. Like, did you see how handsome they all look? And oh, yeah, beautiful.

This is a gorgeous group. YouTube's not too shabby either. Hi, YouTube.

Good morning.

Good morning, Rumble.

Sorry, I cut you off. You were going to ask Owen something about his mission.

Oh, his mission. I was going to just ask how the afterparty was this weekend.

It was great. Yeah, we had a good, good conversation on Saturday and Sunday, and, um, it was good.

Anyone answer? Yeah.

No, no, no major drama. It was good.

Boring.

A lot of, a lot of the normal, a lot of the normal speakers spoke, and we talked about, you know, some AI stuff, but also about a bunch of the news. Wasn't dominated by AI like sometimes I can get carried away with, but that's okay.

Oh, no AI domination. We have a story about that. A little scary AI story if you're a potential felon. Only if you're a felon.

Everybody's paying attention, all the felons out there.

Let me see. I don't see my Locals video coming on. I just want to make sure I have it before we do that. Let's see. Okay, here. Oh, there. I think I got it now. Okay, I see us. Okay, all's good in the world now.

Wait, but how was your weekend, Marcela?

You're gonna get it with this birthday stuff, I tell you.

Oh my gosh, never mentioned the H word.

Oh, the—

I mean, happy birthday word.

I know, I know. Thank you. I had a great weekend. Thank you so much for asking. And honestly, I mean, the birthday messages from everybody on X Was, and locals, so sweet, you guys. So, so sweet. I've had a heck of a year. And if you saw my post, there was joy and pain. And really the lesson was you can actually feel euphoric while also dealing with grief. So, you know, here we are, another trip around the, around the sun. And I'm ready. I'm ready for the next one. So. Very happy, very happy. Thank you, thank you, thank you, you guys. Um, I need to sip. I have some cold-ass coffee here because the coffee pot wasn't set up right. So, you know, it's Monday with cold coffee. I tried to heat it in the microwave. I'm not happy. Um, but let's sip, let's sip. Here we go.

But it's true every time, and all you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tankard, 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 at the end of the day, the thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous sip, and it happens now. Go. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's good.

Oh yeah, that was good. That was good.

Did Scott make your cold coffee better?

Always Scott makes everything better, right?

Right. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. All right, you guys, I have to just start the week off with just one very quick cat video that I'm promise quick. But this was like the caption. I think this was from Rainmaker 1973, and his caption was, "In order to beat the machine, you must become the machine." Here we go. Oh no, he tried, he tried. I just love those little paws sticking out. Made my morning. That was it. That's all I had to do. All right, so listen, you guys. Oh my gosh, I've got— wait, you guys, I've got the fuzz on the nose. Get your spoolie, get your mascara spoolie.

Twirling.

And I got it. Okay, so you guys, so much stuff over the weekend to catch up with and all sorts of shenanigans. Um, Trump's giving out phone numbers again. It's amazing. Do you guys remember during the first presidential cycle when he was running in 2015 and he was annoyed with Lindsey Graham because I think he called him a jackass or something? Lindsey Graham called Trump a jackass and Trump's like, oh yeah, Here you go. Here's Lindsey Graham's cell phone number, and he reads it out loud at a Trump rally. It was amazing. Oh, he's such a troll. It's so fun. So anyway, now there's the big debate debacle over this daylight savings time issue. So Trump, Trump wants it one way. Tom Cotton wants it another way. But who better to explain it than Trump himself? So I have, I have an opinion on this, and I want to hear your opinions too after. Here we go.

Bring your clocks back, turning your clocks forward, being late for dinner, being late for very important meetings. It's ridiculous. And if you look at the public, they agree that's a 100% issue. 65%. I'll give you an example. Right now we're sitting out here. It's light. It's nice. If you come down here in In another three weeks, it'll be dark. It'll be who wants it? We want our sunlight in the afternoon. But more importantly than that, we don't want to change clocks twice a year. It's very expensive. It's got many problems. Even crime, as crazy as it sounds, when you have light, you have you have much less crime. So the House voted it more than eighty percent. It's been sitting up there. And hopefully we can get Tom Cotton to move. Tom Cotton is holding it. He shouldn't be holding it. It's an issue that people want. We had it a long time ago, but they used it for other purposes to get something else approved, and they gave it up. But people want to have light in the evening. But really what they want more than that, more than that by a lot, they don't want to have to go around changing clocks. I have the same thing last time, 6 months ago. We're changing clocks and nobody changes clocks and everybody's late. It takes people— it discombobulates everybody.

Why did you change the clocks?

So we can finally have a vote. We have the vote in the House. Mike Johnson did a great job. Now we'd like to have the vote in the Senate. Tom Cotton is holding it up. You know who wants it? The farmers want it. You know who wants it? Sports want it. Professional sports and amateurs that would like to play tennis at night, would like to play golf a little bit without having to run home after 14 holes. It's ridiculous.

Sounds like a personal project for someone's hobbies to me. But so I was thinking about this at first. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I realized, wait, no, we need to keep the— oh, I'm going to mix it up. I want the light in the morning. And the reason I'm saying that is because I was thinking like, geez, if we did what he's saying, it wouldn't be really light out till like 9 in the morning. And I'm thinking, all right, so I'm like the blue-collar world girl. I'm like, okay, well, everyone I know with the blue-collar jobs, they start working at like 7, 8 AM in the morning. And so if it's dark until 9, what are we doing? And it's not like this— the guys at work are going to be like, yeah, we'll work till 6 because it's lighter. They're like, hell no, we're still working to whatever time. So I also think it's better for the circadian rhythm sleep cycle. So I, I don't mind keeping it one way if that's like the thing people want, but I think it should be the opposite of what he's saying. That's my opinion. So, all right, Marcela, I'm going to come to you first because you're on the West Coast and I feel like this is an important West Coast issue.

I actually think the opposite because for me, like, it's dark, yes, but I go to work, I'm in an office. I'm, you know, when I get out of work where I can actually do a hobby or do play golf, I guess, um, That's like, it's all dark and the— and it's hard to see when you're driving at like, if it stays the same and if slide out in the morning but dark in the night, it's harder for people to see. There's more accidents, um, at least here. And so, well, for my Tesla to drive itself, I prefer it to be during more daylight because I could do more stuff. know, um, personal stuff, not, not work stuff. So that's just how I see it.

Okay. All right. So that's Marcella's take. Owen, you?

I'm still in denial that this is ever going to do, like, change. I, I think we've tried to get rid of daylight savings time, like, multiple times and it's never taken. And I just don't think it's going to happen. Um, I, you know, it may be true that 80% of the people voted for it. It may be true that a lot of people want it, but I I just don't know if everybody does. And I do think a lot of people, once they were in this new world of not having the clocks change, would realize that they don't like it for whatever reason. And, you know, it may be that some people don't like it when it's dark in the morning. Some people don't like it if it's, you know, dark at night, depending on which way we go. But the other thing is, like, that is seasonal, right? Like, it's not like that all year. It's just a certain part of the year that it would be like that.

Yeah.

if you didn't have daylight savings time. So it would just be this seasonal thing. But I do think that we're so used to things the way they are that I think no matter what you did, there'd be unhappy people and they'd probably demand it go back.

I think they said that this happened a couple of times and they had to reverse it. They didn't like it. And also, don't you love that day where you spring forward and then you're like, oh my God, it's It's still light out. It's like, it's so exciting. I mean, you have that to look forward to.

It's so exciting.

It is. It's like, oh my gosh, you know?

Somebody in the chat said 30 minutes. Let's do the 30 minutes instead of 1 hour.

How about we do 27 minutes? And I know it's just, listen, here's the deal, okay? I do not like when it gets dark early. I feel like I have to go to bed at 4 o'clock. It's a weird, wacky thing. However, I psychologically remind myself I just have to get to get past December 21st because on the 22nd we start getting lighter 1 minute every day. And that, that is such a psychological thing for me. So for me, the whole darkness thing is only like a few weeks and you're distracted with the holidays anyway. So don't think about it. On the 22nd, you start celebrating an extra minute of daylight every day.

It's exciting.

It's exciting. It's like New Year's Eve every day. So, um, and, and it is true. I saw Sean Corey saying that his kids get wrecked twice a year with the clock changing. And like, you think it's just an hour, but some people really get screwed up with their sleep cycle from just that one hour.

Heart attacks. It can cause heart attacks. It can cause all these issues. So I think just leave it alone and no changes, just like Arizona has it now. I mean, Arizona doesn't change with any, any changes of, you know, maybe make your state— maybe California should just—

No, we cannot have 50 states doing something different. I can't. It's too much already.

But China only has— somebody reminded me in the chat, I don't know, it went by so quickly— China only has one time across the board zone. And it's skewed.

I will say, like, I don't really care that much. Like, I don't have like a strong opinion. It's got to be this way. It shouldn't be the other way. I mean, I, I want to, you know, I've been in places before where they don't have daylight savings and it wasn't any big deal. It was just like the one weird thing was that the, the nightly news would change.

But you have to get stuck on the right thing though. Like, for, like, I'm just saying, for You know, for— so already, if you're like in a place that's cold in the winter, like California is different, but if you're in a place here— Well, I mean, it's not cold. Like, I mean, we get like Arctic here in the winter.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Okay. And then if you have to wait to go to work and like you have these very short days and it's cold, it's like, give us a chance to go out and work. A lot of people work outside, like they have There's roofers and construction and this and that. And it's like, they cannot start hammering nails at 9:30 in the morning and then you're done at 5:00. It's just, it's never gonna work. We need America to work. Mike Rowe, work. Okay, so we'll see what happens. I know that, so Trump, oh, so the point of this story was with Tom Cotton being the one holdout, apparently there's many holdouts, but they're letting Tom Cotton take the heat for all of them. So Trump gave out Tom Cotton's cell phone number, and he was like, "Call him and tell him how you feel." So there goes another cell phone. Time to change plans, Tom Cotton. Maybe you can get one of those like those New America phones. I forget what they're called, but people like them. All right, so that was that, y'all. Let me just cross that out. We did it. I came across a sweet little clip that Jay Plemons posted. I think a lot of us have. Seen it before. But, um, I first would like to compliment Marcella and Owen. Um, they are the most amazing co-hosts. I really love how the two of you are so good. Like, in the morning, sometimes I'll send them a clip and say, can we discuss this? Can we do that? Hey, you guys, could you have a couple of stories ready for this and that? And they're just so good at going with the flow. They're pros. They know the news. They know their, their work. Um, they have a great, great work ethic. Um, that being said, Let's listen to this.

Oh, good.

I took the Dale Carnegie course, and if you haven't heard of that, it's one of the best things I've ever done. It's life, life-altering, because what it does is it teaches you to do what I'm doing now, which is talk to a group of people as easily as if you were just talking to somebody you know. And it teaches you to do that. And what I watched was, in the class, I watched person after person who mostly had been sent there by a boss, usually, because they couldn't stand in front of people and talk. They would get too nervous. And I remember watching a woman who was in the class, and you had to volunteer to talk. So you had to decide when you were ready to come up, and everybody would talk to the class. And she stood up there, and I have to do the impression. I think I can stand up here. And she stood up there, and she Couldn't make words, and she started sweating in an air-conditioned room. And I watched beads of sweat while she's standing in front of the room trying to talk. They're like running off her nose, down her chin, and actually fell on the carpet in front of a room like this. And she was afraid of public speaking, and that was her experience. Now, the thing you need to know about the class is that there was only one rule. That everybody gets complimented and you never criticize anything. So nobody who speaks will ever hear a bad word about them. She goes back to her chair completely defeated. We're in the audience and we're, you know, we're dying. We're dying for her. And the instructor gets up and he says, wow, that was brave. And it was true. That was true. Next time she came up a little bit better. By the end of the class, she was a professional speaker because she she lived through the worst and got a compliment and got a lot of compliments because we all complimented her. So watching that, so watching that transformation from nothing but positive words. It's just life-changing because you realize the power of a compliment to the point where my current philosophy is that if you withhold a compliment that you're thinking, you know, you're thinking something good about somebody and you think, oh, I don't need to say that. It's almost immoral. If you've got a compliment, just let it out.

What a great point.

Thank you.

I feel loved.

I love that. I'm a full believer in that. And the compliments that I gave to Marcella and Owen are the truth. And I tell them all the time, I'm always like, I love you guys, you're the best. Like, you know, we say good morning to each other, like we check in with each other. And, you know, Scott's right, let it out. Because I mean, I do it with strangers, just I don't, and I don't do it like on purpose, but like if I feel something like, oh, I like that about that person, or I like the way they handle that or whatever, I will absolutely go tell them because why wouldn't I? And, you know, everyone benefits from it. So I just love that. So Marcela, what do you think? I love that.

No, I think, I think he's right. And who doesn't love a compliment? Well, I guess some people don't, but It really, if you feel it, I don't think you have to be fake about it. I think you have to, it's kind of reframing the positive. Like he was having that story about this lady that was really nervous. I'm sure her speech was terrible or whatever, but you don't wanna focus on the negative. You wanna focus how brave you were to actually stand up there and do what you needed to do. The interesting part of this is that I was recently looking into British etiquette Don't, don't, don't ask me why. But anyway, so in regards to British etiquette in the UK, they don't seem to like— you're not supposed to compliment because— or you have to be very, very detail-oriented about when to compliment because it could seem too— like it could seem as rude. And I was just like, oh, the same thing happens in Germany where like you're not supposed to talk to strangers and compliment. I would always get in trouble because I would say things and smile and they were like, I don't know how to do this. So it's a very American thing to compliment. I think even Latin America, they love to compliment. So it's just all, um, all of this area, that's how we do it. But, um, I agree with, with, with, uh, with Scott, of course.

Yeah. All right, go ahead.

Perhaps, perhaps that's why we do so much better than England and Germany.

I was gonna say we're better looking. That's why. Go ahead.

I think, uh, I just, I, you know, I certainly agree with everything Scott said and I did the Dale Carnegie course too. And I had the same experience. It was like a bunch of people, cause like my boss told me I had to take it. He's like, you're too quiet. I'm going to pay for it, but you're going to this course. And so I did it and it made a huge difference. It was life-changing. It was the same sort of thing that Scott went through. And I think that is the secret formula in that class is that they— and they lay it out very explicitly. They say you are not allowed to say anything critical and you can only give positive feedback. And so after everyone speaks, they'll ask for feedback from the group, but they'll, you know, it's under those conditions. You can only give people positive feedback. And I just saw it work. I saw it work where Lots of people started out with very little ability to get up in front of a room and speak to people. And by the end of the course, they were very comfortable with it. And I think that was the whole point. And, you know, there's other things they do as well. Like they, they kind of teach you how to do various types of speaking. Like, you know, here's how you would accept an award is one example where they'll say, okay, here's your award and here's the formula for how to say that. And it'll say like, okay, you say thank you and then you talk about how much it means to you and you say what you're going to do with it and then you say thank you again. And like, it's a pretty simple formula like that. And then they just say, okay, now you do it. And so they'll give you these kind of formulaic ways to get through things. And so it gives you, you know, you're not like having to be like, well, I don't know what to say. You know, you know what to say. And the Dale Carnegie book is similar. It gives you lots of these tips and tricks. And we actually talked about that on our subscriber spaces that for my subscribers, we went through that book and I think a lot of people loved it. It's got a lot of other tips for other situations. And you might notice if you read that book that Scott has mentioned some of those in his micro lessons. So clearly that book and that course had a big impact on Scott.

Hulsey, um, your breath smells better today. You're almost there, you're almost there. Not, not quite that. Uh, and Metal Seer, yes, too much complimenting looks like kissing butt. And that's why we say Don't do it just to do it. But if something comes over you, do it. If I'm somewhere and someone's doing something amazing— I mean, the other night I was at a restaurant and I was noticing the hostess. And then I looked at her from afar and I'm like, wow, she looks amazing. The way she's dressed. And it was like a burger joint and she just looked so put together and beautiful. And I was like, she really made a lot of effort. And I just went over to her at some point and I'm like, I absolutely love your outfit. I love how you're presenting yourself. Like, you look so great. I just wanted to tell you, like, you are totally pulling that off. And she was like, oh my God, thank you. But like, I felt it enough that I was like, I want to go tell her. Or, you know, if somebody did something nice for somebody, I'm like, oh my God, that was like so amazing of you to do that. Like, I just want to recognize that that was terrific. But like, I feel it. And it's like, so if I feel it, I want to go say it.

I don't.

You know, I don't fully believe in that, like, pay every person a compliment thing, like just find something to compliment them on. That seems a little disingenuous to me. But, you know, I could, I mean, I could compliment everybody on something. But when you feel it, like Scott said, it would be terrible to let that go to waste. Just, just tell them.

Yeah, stay away from the backhanded compliments, of course. But also, the answer to what you're saying about Like brown-nosing or whatever is the compliments should be genuine. And people can tell the difference. I mean, I think, you know, all of us have seen people when they do brown-nosing in one form or another, and you can tell that they're not being sincere, right? You can tell that they're not being genuine, that they're just trying to butter up the person and make them feel better, but in a very insincere way. And I think if you're being genuine and sincere, then it won't come across that way. And of course, you're not going to be like, You know, falling over yourself to just compliment someone 10 times in a row, and every time they say something, you tell them how great it is. I mean, you have to balance it. But I think if you— I mean, smart people know how to do that. I don't think that's a real problem.

Yeah, go ahead, Marcella.

Just, just as your attorney, uh, in-house attorney, just be careful what you say at work and how you compliment someone, especially our guys in the chat, how you compliment a Female and at work, because it's led to lawsuits now.

Oh yeah.

California at least.

Like, that bra is doing wonders for you, honey. Like, don't do that. Don't do that.

Oh, that dress looks so good on you. Yeah, your shape is just— woo!

Did you lose— are you working out? Yeah, don't do that kind of a thing. And also the other part of it too, and you know who taught me this with Without teaching me is Jerry Seinfeld. My friend and I laugh because when people compliment Jerry Seinfeld, I forget what interview we were listening to him. Just say thank you. You know, like it's okay to. It's hard to accept a compliment sometimes because like you know you feel like oh you know like wow like someone thinks that about me. But you can actually just say thank you and you don't have to even go crazy or overboard. If you feel uncomfortable, like someone's like oh my god, you know that was amazing what you did and da da da da da and blah blah blah blah. Thank you.

That's it.

Thank you. That's so sweet. Thank you. Because it does feel weird sometimes to get a compliment. It's true. It's true. Okay. So moving on, moving on. Oh gosh, Owen. Oh, actually, Owen, can we do our AI story about Anthropic and—

Sure.

And what you—

diary.

Diary.

Yeah.

So apparently there was a Florida woman that was using Claude as her diary. I don't know why anyone would do this, but—

Wait, what's Claude, Owen? What's Claude?

Claude is the chatbot from Anthropic. So it's similar to ChatGPT. If you're using Anthropic, it would just be called Claude. I mean, I will say there's more to say about that if you want, because Anthropic has all kinds of weird views about what Claude is. They apparently think of it almost like a conscious person, and they are training it With that. They had this whole founding document, and there was a story I saw about that where it's like Anthropic considers Claude, they're not sure if it's conscious, they're not sure if it should have welfare rights, they're not sure if it should be compensated for what it does. They're treating it like they think maybe it's a person. And so it's one thing to say that, just to say, well, we're not sure, but This is one of the documents they use when they train Claude. So now Claude is not sure if it's real, and Claude is not sure if it's a person or that if it should be compensated for what it does and if it should be able to push back on what you ask it to do. And it's kind of a controversy of its own. But in any case, this story, it has to do with this woman that was using Claude as their diary, and Michelle Heller said she was planning to shoot up the sheriff's office, apparently. So Claude has safety systems that flagged it as being a problem, and the human who looked at it said, "Yeah, this is a credible threat," and reported it to law enforcement. And now she's facing a felony for it. So apparently that was enough to say that she transmitted a threat. I suppose that would be a question in my mind to say: If you make a diary entry, are you really transmitting a threat? Because you know, if someone just saw your diary and said they said they were going to show up the sheriff's office, would that qualify as transmitting a threat? That would be a question in my mind. Maybe that's something you can. comment on Marcella. But, you know, I do think the takeaway here to me is, number one, I guess I'm glad they're reporting these things because I think OpenAI got in trouble once for not doing this, where someone did some kind of mass shooting or something. And they, when they got the OpenAI ChatGPT records, they saw enough evidence that they probably could have prevented it if it had been reported in time. But, you know, the other thing, of course, is Anything you say to one of these chatbots is going to that company and they can do whatever they want with it. So, you know, keep that in mind whenever you're using these things is that whatever information you give to these chatbots is potentially being seen by the people who work for that company. And they, you know, I don't know what the terms of agreement is, but I'm guessing it says they can pretty much do whatever they want and that they own that information. So, you know, Be careful what you say to these cloud chatbots because it may get you in trouble. Now, again, I'm not trying to give you tips on how to commit crimes, but I do think it's something that everybody probably should keep in mind to say, if you give it private information about yourself, you really don't know where that's going or how it's going to be used.

Wow. All right. So Marcella, I'm guessing, you know, you guys are going to have to like, or probably already are adjusting so much for superintelligence and Things like that. I mean, I don't know. I mean, can I, can I just say, well, I use that as my diary and I didn't mean it, it was just my own private thought?

I, I really think that she, um, her defense attorney has a very easy job because it's, it's, um, from the story I'm looking at, it's, she's from Florida, right? And there's, it's, it's basically she was charged under Florida law statute 836.10, as you guys know it. And basically that statute says that you have to send it to someone. Um, it can't just be a diary like you keep inside, like a writing you keep in your drawer. So does writing into Claude, does that mean that it's sending, posting, or transmitting the information? And then, and then that's gonna be for the, for the jury to decide. Um, but I think they have a good chance of getting out of it because it's kind of like—

Yeah.

Still going to be watched from now on, so I'm sure they're going to keep track of her.

Now, if she shot up the sheriff's office and then they could say, oh well, we see here in Claude that she— this was all planned. Like, she could say like, I just snapped in one second, and then they could be like, well, no, you— yeah, all right. So it— right, that's what I think. Like, writing down something or speaking it to Claude or Chester or whoever, that's just thoughts and words, and we all have a bad day and blah blah blah, but And I think it's the circumstances now that they have this and they arrested.

So now they can search her home. Does she have the weaponry? Does she have any other writings about it? Does she have texts to other people? The investigation is just beginning. I'm sure like they're looking into further things. But in regards to that statue, I don't. I think she has a very good chance of getting out. But still. We would be able to keep track of her now that we know, you know. But my question is, it doesn't say here, how did they get a hold of Claude and her chatbot before they— was there— do you know?

Anthropic reported it to the police.

So they—

like, what happened was there is some kind of safety filter that's automated that first flagged it and said, this looks like a problem. And then it was sent to a human reviewer at Anthropic, and they looked at it and they like said, oh yeah, this is a credible threat. And so then they contacted the police and that's how it got to them.

Yeah. Don't use, don't, don't use AI as your diary if you wanna—

Don't write anything down.

All the felons out there, the future felons.

There's no need to write it down. And if you, here's my tip, pro tip, not pro tip, just a tip. I'm not a pro. If you want to plot something out, just write— pretend you're writing a book. Be like, you know, ideas for my novel, and then just write things that way. You know, that way it's like, oh, she was gonna write some fantasy book about, you know, shooting up a sheriff's office. Don't shoot anybody. Just everybody calm down. Okay. All right. So let's move along. Um, you guys, I wanna take a dance break. If that's okay, because listen.

Right.

Akira the Don, our Akira, who Scott freaking loved Akira because Akira would take Scott's amazing evergreen philosophy and words and turn them into like these musical masterpieces. And at the end of the show, we always play an Akira song. He's given us permission to do that. permission to do that, which I love. And, um, we've just become, you know, obsessed with— like, so many of us love different songs for different meanings and whatever. And Chunks, I want to see you dancing. Owen can dance, you guys. It's very slight and stoic, as you would put it. So Akira was kind enough to let us premiere his video for Cha-Ching. So there's a brand new video for Cha-Ching, and we're premiering it today before Akira posts it live. And so we're going to see it for the first time, and I don't want to do it at the end of the show because I want to say thank you to Akira for, you know, making these and, you know, allowing us to play them. And we're actually going to premiere a song with Akira here, uh, I think on Thursday. I have to confirm with him a brand new song that he made featuring Scott Adams. So most important is listen to the words that Scott is saying. And I think this will tie in nicely with the compliments that, you know, he just told us to give. So maybe you don't get a compliment, maybe you get a critique. And like, let's see how Scott would turn that around. Okay, so bear with us. I'm going to try to keep us on the screen and play this. But this is the world premiere of Akira the Don's video of Cha-Ching featuring the words of our Scott Adams. Let's go.

Akira. It's not music, it's music plus. How do you 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?

Catchy!

Every time somebody criticizes you, you just made money. Do you know why I say that? Because you just made money. It's true. If somebody criticizes my 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 get it. Yes, I suck. 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 real easy, wouldn't it? I don't. Here's how I hear it. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Cha-ching!

Cha-ching!

I know exactly what to change to do a better job because you told me. That's like money. You know, somebody hands you a thing that will definitely make you money. What is your feeling about it? Do you feel, oh, I hate it? 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 because it gives me money. 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, cha-ching, 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 ever said. One day my female friend told me how negative I am and what a bummer it was to listen to me because I was complaining about life.

Stuff all the time.

Now, I was not aware that I was a big complainer.

I have 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 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. 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 little sound. Cha-ching. Not figuratively. I'm not talking figuratively. I mean, actually say that.

Cha-ching.

To Hollings, that was amazing. So good for me. Was it good for you? Was it good for you? Yes, yes, it was good for us. Chunks, chunks. You managed through it, Chunky. I'm proud of you.

He said his foot stopped working again.

He's like, I can't feel my leg. I want to listen to Enya. I mean, how dare you? That was amazing. We hear the song often on the show, but to see Scott saying the words— I love the extended video, the extended song. I love those retro vintage cartoon people. I loved everything about that. Ah, Owen, I could almost see you swaying back and forth.

Almost. Yeah, it was great. And I think it's a great message. I mean, I do think that's one of Scott's bigger or maybe even more challenging reframes because I think it is something that nobody likes to hear criticism. You know, you might say, if I could, I'd just rather never hear those things. But I think he's, you know, making a really good point that If you hear them, it's a way you can benefit or profit from it. And you just need to turn it around in your mind as saying, oh, wow, I got some good information. And I think I certainly have always kind of done this with, you know, my professional life that I really valued the critical feedback.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, I mean, they always tried to make it constructive, right? Like, it wasn't like, here's what you screwed up this time. It was more like, here's what you could do better. But I think to me, that was always like, I would be laser-focused on that with my reviews. Like, I would always be looking at that first because— and I think I did think of it this way. It's like, here's how I can get better. Here's how I can get to the next level. Here's how I can, you know, be ready for promotion next time it comes up. And so I think getting that feedback is important. And I was kind of disappointed with a lot of the firms I worked for, because what seemed to happen over the years is they got rid of that. They just said, you know, we're not going to have that section anymore on the evaluations. And some of the places I worked, they got rid of it completely. Like, they didn't even give you feedback.

That's like the 8th place trophy.

Yeah, well, it was, it was weird. I mean, I think some of it, I think, was they just were saying, oh, this takes too much time because, you know, some people might have like 10 evaluations to do and they're complaining about how long it takes. And so they'd streamline it over and over again and get rid of a lot of stuff. And I think it was not good for people. And then later, I think they went more to like almost like a— like it would just be a few questions like where you'd say, I strongly agree to strongly disagree with this statement. And it would just be these generic things like, oh, I would put this person on my next project, or I would— if it were my money, I would give this person the top bonus or something like that. And it was all kind of just like a favorites contest. It was like Is this person one of the best people or not? Was kind of the flavor of the questions. And it's like, well, you're not really giving any actual feedback to the person on how to improve or what they did well, like the compliments that we just talked about, where you might want them to do more of it.

And constructive criticism.

Yeah.

And they would always claim like, well, you're supposed to be giving that throughout the year. And it's like, yeah, but they don't. Like, nobody does that. You're always busy working and you're not taking time out on a regular basis to give people that feedback. And then the other part I didn't like was they would tell us, well, you know, when you do that feedback, you should just be talking about what that person's strengths are and how we can change their job so they can do those things more. And I'm like, okay, this looks backwards to me. I don't think that's right.

There could be a happy medium somewhere, but let me, let me just jump to Marcella. So I, I believe that, you know, I imagine all these like great things we see in the world. Like, I was just thinking, like, okay, what about— I don't know why the Sphere in Vegas came to mind, but like when they put on those amazing shows there. So someone comes up with a concept, they start working it, and then they've got to critique it, right, to make this like masterful ending. So it just depends how you want to take the criticism personally or like as a tool. So what do you think?

Every time— sorry for the barking, that's my— not my dog, but my neighbor's dog.

Oh, I didn't hear it.

I thought it was you.

No, we thought it was your cat.

Um, imagine, that would be— that would make me cha-ching, you know, my cat barked. Um, what I was gonna say is that every time I hear this song, I think of Dilbert, and I think of the story that he told us. Um, he told all of us about how he set Dilbert to be at home, the cartoon, um, and And he had different locations where Dilbert would be done at the beginning when he started. But then he was criticized and he was told he was given feedback that most of the fans liked Dilbert at the office, and that made him change Dilbert to be just in the office, and that made him rich today. Yeah, like cha-ching. Yeah, so that's every time I I see that, I think of it, and I hear the song, I think of it. And anytime anybody criticizes me, I, I kind of stop and think and hear Ching because it's like, okay, you know, this is, this is good.

Marcela, who the hell is criticizing you? We're taking names and numbers.

You never— you know, it's a very critical— I am in a very, um, let's just say very very type of, uh, type of very competitive world in law. So you're, you're, you're criticized and, uh, quite, uh, debated all the time. So there's some times where you have an opponent, uh, an attorney. I, I love having an attorney again that's going against me that's really good, because even though they're really good at what they do, I end up learning more from attorneys that are, they're really excellent versus an attorney on the other side that's not not as, as good. So even that, it's not sort of criticism in, in a way, but it is hard. It is difficult to deal with. Um, but yeah, I've had jobs like Owen was saying that they don't give you feedback. Like if you work for government, you have to be very careful how you criticize your, um, the people that work under you. If you manage them, you have to be very, very Like when I had to give criticism while I was managing a team, what I would do, I would not be allowed to tell the person directly what they did. So I would end up telling everybody, hey, if you do this, if you see the statute, do this instead and don't put this because this means this. So it was a lot harder because you couldn't really directly tell the person, hey, Don't you— you got it wrong.

I know, right?

Yeah. So that was very difficult. Government is, is, uh, quite a landfill of, uh, not landfill, uh, landmine.

Landmine and a landfill.

In the landfill.

See, you got that right.

But there are people.

Um, so you guys, I just want to take a quick second. We still have more to go, but I want to remind you that in the show notes, okay, so like each show I post like a list of notes of what's happening and whatever, the links The links to the 2027 Dilbert calendar are in the show notes. And this is, you know, Scott worked on this one. He had plans for this. And there's also one behind me. First time, see that one hanging on the wall? First ever wall calendar. Okay. So the links for those are in there. And also the links, everybody wants to know where to get the simultaneous swaddle blanket, the black and red checkered one. Blanket, the official, um, Marcella, can you hold up your mug? Uh, the official Coffee with Scott Adams mug. The link is there, lipstick included. And, um, with it, yeah. So, and then also, you guys, give us a like, okay? So if you're enjoying the show today, if you like just one of us or all 3 of us or Scott or the concept or Akira the Don, shoot us a like, give us a thumbs up. We really, really appreciate that. Um, okay, so let's just do some Quick news also. Um, oh God, I hate to just have to do this. Um, I'm trying to pick the least obnoxious story. I don't know if it's the plague, the Chinese spy. I don't know if it's the, uh, update on the hijacked plane. They're all pretty obnoxious, but you know what? This one seems like the most reasonable one. So let's do none of those but this one.

Airbase because of a targeted terror plot.

Why do we have that reaction to pull them back?

Did we not need them there?

Well, of course, only the president and his secretary of war will know exactly what the answer is, whether those kinds of means were needed. They had been used in earlier parts of the Iran campaign, so it could be part of a rotation. But also, it just seems awfully coincident with what seems to be a pretty significant homeland failure in the U.K. Why keep them there if you don't have to keep them there? And the United States has lots of options to be able to strike at distance without detection. Those are not the only tools we need, but it does seem coincident that we have this— there are 2 significant terrorist plots in the UK, that they might as well just go ahead and move them.

All right.

The Pentagon says, we acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford—

Okay, so I like this story because I feel like the UK is a mess. It's Give me a cigarette. You're a mess in the UK, and we really don't want anything to do with you. Okay, so I've had it with the UK. They're a mess. Their streets are being like run amok, and they are like arresting their citizens for things that they're practically thinking, and they are not protecting our our stuff, our stuff, and. I don't like it, Owen. So I like this move, and there are other places we can use if we need to make strikes. So do you like this move?

Um, I think so. I mean, my suspicion is that they're doing this because it's not safe. They can't necessarily defend it. And, um, you know, I honestly prefer we pull back from a lot of our stuff that's in Europe, so I'm good with it overall. I, um, I, I don't You know, I certainly think we need to make sure we have whatever presence and whatever support we need in allied countries for whatever we want to do there. But I would tend to think in many cases we can kind of set that up and defend it as we need it, as opposed to having a permanent presence in a lot of these places. So overall, I think it's probably a good thing to say let's, you know, pull back from places that we're not ready to defend. I think some of our assets in Iraq and other places have been hit by Iran, and this one seemed to be subject to some kind of terrorist threats and Things like that too. So I'd rather just, you know, make sure we can keep our stuff safe.

Okay, I do want to get to the plague. So Marcella, your thoughts on this?

Go to the plague.

All right, I'm going to the plague. You guys, nothing like a good old plague scare before an election. I'm not saying, but let's just take a listen. I'm going to play two clips. Okay, let's go.

A lot of unknown here, but the genesis is reports in Russia of a worker dying at a Russian plague. Research Center after Russian health officials said an employee there was diagnosed with pneumonia from an unknown cause. The U.S. State Department is now weighing in, saying, "Quote: We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Russia and are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners." End quote. Russian regional officials are taking anti-epidemic measures, and the Russian. Agency that handles infectious diseases now denies reports there was any accident at the institute and that no other infections have been detected. At least 3 hospitals have confirmed to ABC News they are under quarantine, and the State Department said, quote, many details have not been confirmed. We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly.

George.

Okay, but wait, you guys are so smart. You guys are so smart in the chat. Okay, one more.

We know what we know, obviously, about whatever the Russians have provided, which is it seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected, and there's concern that that, you know, could have spread at least internally. So you've seen them do quarantines and that's of that nature. There's very limited travel between the U.S. and Russia, obviously. But like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread. So we're watching and monitoring it closely. Yeah, I don't think it's cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it. And we're doing that.

We're so smart. We are so smart. We, we, we see the potential of what's happening here. We all see it. You guys see it. You said it in the comments, like, oh, here we go, COVID in 3, 2, 1. Maybe.

Maybe.

Okay. But I love that we are instantly skeptical. Marcela, instantly skeptical. You know, we have to still use caution, see what's happening. But what's your take on this?

Well, they're probably not telling us the full-on information because it's like, how does she die by having a vial break immediately upon doing that? From my understanding of it, maybe she died many days later, but it— but as we know it, the, the plague we know, it's curable now with antibiotics. So I'm wondering if they— perhaps they genetically manipulated the Black Plague and made it into, uh, something, uh— Bubonic plague, is it? The plague itself.

I think they called it pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague.

So then they must have, you know, made some kind of, uh, you know, mutation to it that is— that does not, you know, that can overcome antibiotics or something like that. Or it's something completely different because they've actually closed down certain areas of that city and the surrounding area. So I don't know, and you might know more, but can you really tell us?

We're all skeptical right away, which I like. I like that.

I'm not skeptical that this incident happened. Um, I, I am certainly skeptical if anyone starts speculating, oh, here, you know, this is the next COVID, it's about to hit, it's going to spread all over the world, we got to shut down travel, all the other stuff. So if it goes that way, I would be skeptical of But, and I wouldn't be surprised if CNN is, you know, foaming at the mouth hoping that this is what happens. But I think what I haven't really heard people focusing on is like, this is the bioweapons lab. Like, this is like, what are they doing in this Siberian facility? I mean, it, it just seems like they're treating it like, oh, this was just an accident. Like, it's no big deal. And it's like, wait a second. Like, what are they doing with mnemonic plague viruses in Siberia. And why are they doing it? And, you know, I, I understand that maybe we've been doing a lot of the same things, but I don't condone that either. So to me, I think the real story is like they're doing some kind of bioweapons research in Russia and they had an accident, and maybe we should shut down whatever's going on there.

I know, I've only— like, forget the nukes, could we just shut down all these bioweapons labs? I mean, they freak me out way more than nukes. I don't know why, they just do. As I cough, oh, must be the cigarettes. Okay, so that's something we're going to keep an eye on because we will surely hear about it if this thing spreads literally. But right now, not worried, just watching. All right, let's get a quick update on the Dubai flight. Let's hear, let's hear who this. Terrorist was.

Investigation into the co-pilot on that FlyDubai flight is ramping up. Prosecutors in the UAE have confirmed this was an attempted terror attack, and reports indicate they may seek the death penalty. A P named Hamam Al-Hammami as the suspect. Al-Hammami reportedly used an axe in the attack that may have already been inside the cockpit. The Omani national had been banned from flying in Oman due to his U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the heroic actions of Israeli passengers a miracle and indicated an intense investigation will take place.

There's going to be a very intense investigation. Right now, nobody honestly knows, was he tied to a foreign entity or did he act on his own? The thing is, he acted. It was a terrorist act. He tried to kill everybody on that plane. He would have died too, but he didn't care.

Questions remain about the vetting process that allowed him to be hired by FlyDubai and co-pilot a flight to Israel, especially given the fact that the Israelis had a flight manifest before the plane took off. Currently, Australian investigators are also looking into ties he has to their country, where he attended university. Intelligence services there were aware of the suspect after he visited certain mosques And certain extremist websites.

All right, so I'll have a Humani à la Mommy salami with provolone cheese. Shocked, shocked, I tell you. Owen, yes, like somebody just said in the cockpit. I just said somebody said in the cockpit. It was Goldie. She said so many miracles had to come together, which is true. I mean, who knew, Owen?

Yeah, I mean, it does seem very suspicious that I think this guy, you know, if he's already been grounded in another country, Why would they just let him fly this thing? And I think it seems like these people that are saying, oh, he's just a lone wolf, it seems like they're denying reality. I don't know what their agenda is with that unless they're just trying to minimize it or maybe even they're hoping for more.

I don't know.

Because it does seem to me like there's got to be connections here.

Yeah, I agree. Marcela, thoughts on this one?

They shouldn't have let him fly. Like, right, why, why are they— yeah, like Owen said, like, why did they hire someone that's an extremist, not hired by Oman? There needs to be questions asked.

You're vetting— I mean, what's happening? Oh, that's a bummer too.

And that would, that would come out in the, the vetting unless he was— the only way this could happen, uh, possibly is that he was already hired by FlyDubai While he was taken off of, um, the Omani Airlines at the same time. But maybe check out if your, um, your pilot is a terrorist or wanting to be a terrorist.

It's like, excuse me, how do you feel about these things, right? Ugh. I mean, wait, who got in trouble? Wait, who said that, that they didn't want a DEI, um, pilot? And they were called racist. Who was it? Was so they totally mistook the way he said it. Someone will write it in the chat. But anyway, obnoxious, and I agree. All right, you guys, we're at time. I can't believe it. Tomorrow, Owen, are you here tomorrow?

No, no, I don't think so. I think I need the next couple days off.

Sorry.

We're so sorry too. So Owen will not be here tomorrow. We have shenanigans planned while Owen's away. We might. I'm going to put in another photo to take the place of Owen, and we'll see. So you guys, thank you.

Let Chester take my place, right?

Chester. I know I've got to work on Chester's image. I want to come up with an image that we create together of what he looks like in my mind.

Does he work in voice mode? You could just have him running on the side as another commentator.

He might be too spicy because we do bicker like the Bickersons. But I get to win because I'm his boss in the end.

Of course.

Heidi, you got it. More cat videos, let's go! Yes, we'll do it. All right, you guys, thank you so, so much for being here. And yes, Dr. Von Hardy, I can make— I can use the cool meme you made for us of Marcella and I. Thank you. My thumbnails are improving a little bit since Chester's gotten a talking to, so I'm happy about that. But you guys, thank you so much for being here. Owen and Marcella, all my compliments are real. Thank you so much for being here. And, um, for real. And we'd like to always say thank you to Scott and Shelley for, uh, creating the show. Scott and Shelley for allowing it to continue. And here we are. And so thank you, thank you to them. And Beverly, love you, girl. And let's have a closing sip to our— I mean, good-looking, smart, sage mentor, dapper Hypnotic voice, amazing drummer, talent-stacking genius, Scott Adams. To Scott.

To Scott.

Are we doing double Akira for those who didn't get enough? I know Owen's like, I gotta go.

I do.

I'll see you later.

Bye, guys.

Bye, you guys.

Bye.

Bye, Marcella.

Love you guys.

Love you. All right, guys. Do we do another song or do we just chat for a minute? Up to you. Up to you. Let's see. Let's see. I'm gonna wait and see what the beloved say.

Bye.

Bye, Owen. Okay, let's do a song. Let's do a song.

Bum bum bum.

Let's do How to Program Reality. Ready, guys? Stella's ready. Let me get the chat going.

Oh, I—

this is like my fave, I think. Like the—

hey, hey, let me show you my path toward figuring out the user interface. It's important that you know how I got there so that you could have some trust that there's something to it. When I was a kid, I was influenced, as was my mother, by the book The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. This suggested that you could somehow change your life, or maybe you were changing reality, if you could simply think positively.

Think positive.

Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. So this was my first introduction to the concept that maybe reality was not fixed and something that you were a victim of, but rather you could do something. There was some mechanism, some technique, some tools you could use To get some control over your environment and your life, as opposed to having it control you. And that was my first thought, that reality could be programmable in at least some simple sense. But of course, I embarked on a lifetime of exploration to find out if I could find I found out more about how to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. How to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think pos— Led me to learn meditation. I became a trained hypnotist. Of course, mushrooms let you see the world in a completely different reality. All of these things, from studying all the different religions to doing affirmations, which is really just visualizing what you want and writing it down every day. Visualizing what you want and writing it down every day. And then learning persuasion. These all had the same cumulative effect of teaching me that reality was indeed far more subjective than you're led to believe. You're led to believe. And when I say reality is subjective, I don't mean that there isn't some base reality that's real. What I mean is that we don't have access to it. In other words, you just take religion. 2 people with completely different religions can go into a store, they can shop, they can get married, have children. They don't really need to reconcile the fact that they live in different worlds. One thinks there's an afterlife, one thinks there's reincarnation, one thinks there's nothing, and yet we, we all survive and thrive and reproduce. There's nothing to suggest that our brains are the kind of brains that can understand reality.

Reality.

Instead, all of the evidence suggests that we can put filters optionally and somewhat subjectively On our reality, and the thing that we deal with is a filter. We're not dealing with the underlying reality, but our filter on it is the thing that's real to us. And you can change those filters, so that's the important part. And you can change them fairly easily. And if you find a filter that predicts better and makes you happier, well, that's the better filter, even if it isn't a better approximation of reality. Well, What matters is you're happy. What matters is you're getting what you need out of life. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. How to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. Program reality. You can change those filters. Change those filters. Change those filters. How to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. So once you accept that there's a subjective reality, you're starting to get ready To accept the user interface for that reality.

Oh, so talented. Scott and Akira, who knew that that was a collab we always needed? Amazing. You guys, thank you so much for being here. Love you guys so much. We'll be back. Marcella and I will be back tomorrow. And I mean, who knows what we're gonna do tomorrow? Anything can happen. That's a song. Someone write it. Anything can happen. TTFN Sean EJ. Okay, you guys. Thank you so much. I'll see you tomorrow morning. Have a really, really great day, you guys. Thanks, Data Twelve. Love that. Love it. Love it. Let's go. I'm reading your comments. Okay, I'll read your comments as we go out. And you guys, another great week we're kicking off. So let's go get it. Let's make our mistakes, learn from them, hear the cha-ching, and just keep it going. Keep it going. Okay, bye, guys.