All Episodes
Previous Next
April 1, 2020 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
22:32
These Two Books Will Help You Right Now and Q&A | Dave Rubin | DIRECT MESSAGE | Rubin Report
Participants
Main voices
d
dave rubin
22:29
| Copy link to current segment

Speaker Time Text
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
All right, I am live on the YouTube.
I like when whenever I say the YouTube and then the commenters are like, he calls it the YouTube like he's an 80-year-old!
Yeah, you know, little tongue-in-cheek, my friends, little tongue-in-cheek.
All right, so there's a lot going on, as you know, as you are trapped in your house, possibly alone, possibly with your family, maybe with some friends, maybe with some animals.
We're all sort of in the same situation.
Whether we're in South Korea, or we're in Italy, or we're in Belarus, or the United States, or Canada, or Mexico, or anywhere else, there's various degrees of quarantine, there's various degrees of lockdown, but there is something truly unprecedented happening at a worldwide scale.
And it's not that we've never had pandemics before.
But the way that we can actually communicate through this, the way we can share information, the way that lies can spread, the way the truth can spread, the way that our leaders can guide us in a positive direction or guide us in a negative direction.
There's so many things happening right now that are just completely have never been done before.
And, you know, unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we have a lot of people that are making real sense of it.
You know, when the IDW, the intellectual dark web thing was burning real hot like a year and a half, two years ago,
the real key to the whole thing was, it wasn't something actually that special or unique,
except that we live in an odd time, was just that we had a bunch of people
who thought all sorts of different things, right?
I always use Ben Shapiro and Sam Harris as the best examples of this.
Two guys who believe in completely different things at every level, from abortion to taxes to, you know,
the biggest questions about the universe and God and belief and all that,
that we were all just willing to try to make sense of the world together.
And I think that's really what we need more of now.
And that's why I thought this week, or today actually, 'cause you guys know I keep a whole bunch of books.
These are all books of former guests on the set that I keep here.
So you got to be a guest that I like if you make it onto the set here.
And I thought one of the things that I'll do is I'm going to be doing these direct messages every Monday and Wednesday live, is that once a week, I will talk about a couple of the books that have influenced me, some of the people that I've talked to, and why the things that they write about in these books are actually relevant Today.
So that's what we're going to do today.
These live streams are going to be about 20 minutes long and I'm taking questions from you guys at RubinReport.com.
That's the only place we're taking the questions.
We're not taking them on YouTube.
We're not taking them on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Pinstagram or anything else or TikTok for you kids out there.
We're just taking them at ReubenReport.com.
And by the way, you can get ad-free video and you get our full videos five days early.
So our interview with Bret Easton Ellis, which clip one went up yesterday on YouTube, the full video, the full hour-long conversation is already up at ReubenReport.com, ad-free, blah, blah, blah.
Okay, so I want to talk about these two books.
I'll start actually with this one, Twelve Rules for Life by Mr. Jordan Peterson.
As you guys know, I was on tour with Jordan for about a year and a half.
I don't know, something like 20 countries and 120 stops.
It was an unbelievable tour.
Not only did I get to visit all these places in the United States that I had never been to, all these cities in the middle of the country that I had never been able to visit before, but we went to Sweden and we went to the UK and we went to Finland and just all of these places in Denmark, tons of stuff up in Canada.
And actually we were going to plan to do more and then, you know, things got a little nutty.
But what I realized During the tour was that this wasn't just like some thing that some guy wrote so he could sell some books.
It was something incredible.
It was something that was actually bringing thousands and thousands of people together every night all over the world to take their lives a little more seriously, to sort of sit up straight, stand up straight with their shoulders back.
And confront the world in the best way they could possibly do it.
And I saw night after night people that were turning their lives around.
One of the chapters actually in my upcoming book, which finally I can say is coming out this month on April 28th, is about what it was like to tour with Jordan and some of the lessons that I've learned and how I've incorporated them into my own life.
But I want to hit a couple rules that I don't talk about that often, but I think are extremely valuable right now.
So rule number nine is assume that the person you are listening to might know something that you don't.
And this is really interesting because right now we're just inundated with voices, right?
And our most trusted voices, our media voices, often are misleading us completely.
I don't know if you guys saw this one a couple days ago.
Rachel Maddow was Or about 10 days ago now, Rachel Maddow was talking about how Trump, this ship is going to come and it's going to dock in New York City.
And Trump was saying it'll be here by next week.
And she's going on and on how it won't be there and that basically it was going to be an extra hospital.
They weren't going to take coronavirus patients there, but they were going to take other patients so that the regular hospitals could deal with the coronavirus patients.
And she kept saying it's never going to happen.
It's never going to happen next week, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, it turned out that it happened like nine days later, but her point wasn't, oh, it's not going to happen next week or nine days later.
Her point is he's just a liar and a buffoon.
And of course it did happen.
And that's just one of a million examples.
You know, another one, Chris Hayes on MSNBC, he's been tweeting how China is quite literally doing a better job at their coronavirus response than us.
And then of course it just comes out today that China is fudging the numbers, which we all knew.
Like why would China be giving us their real numbers?
Of course.
So the problem is that when someone's talking to you, They might know something you don't, but you have to be really careful about it now, because the trusted names aren't that trusted right now.
And one of the things that I've had the, I would actually say it's a blessing, a blessing of, is that I get to sit across from interesting people every week.
And I always try to sit there as if they do know something that I don't know.
And I think one of the reasons that I'm able to communicate a lot of ideas in a somewhat Simple fashion, I suppose, is because I take what a lot of these people say and I incorporate it and I compare it and contrast it to the things that I talk about and that I believe.
So I think this is one of the best things that you can do right now, is when you're talking to somebody, assume they know something you don't.
Maybe they know something about survival skills, or maybe they know something about fitness, or maybe they know something about gardening, or something that is valuable right now.
That is valuable to you right now.
But it doesn't mean just believe everything everyone says.
It just means that somebody might know a little bit more, might have some value.
And by the way, I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday, but in the last three weeks or so that we've been, you know, in lockdown over here, you guys know I got Clyde, or we got Clyde two weeks ago.
And so I'm walking a dog again, and it's very different.
I assure you, walking a 16-year-old dog with cancer to a one-year-old, you know, full-of-life dog.
So he's mostly dragging me.
I'm not sure who's walking who.
But there are so many people out on the street, and I have met more of my neighbors in the last three weeks, and now know people by name.
And a few people have recognized me.
You know, oh, your studio is right over there.
Oh, that's Clyde.
I just saw him on Fox News.
You know, so whatever.
But the point is that Knowing your neighbors right now, knowing that they might know something that's going on in the neighborhood that might be relevant, or if there was a crime in the area or something.
So one of the little pieces of advice I would give you guys is to meet some people and talk to the people in your immediate community.
We don't do it.
You know, I lived in New York City for many years.
Many people live in apartment buildings where there could be somebody next to you, literally in the apartment next to you, and you never say hi to them for all the years.
You get in the elevator and you just stare in separate directions.
So I think that's a good one.
And then the other one that I wanted to touch is rule number six, which is set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
Setting your house in perfect order is seriously hard work, and I don't know that anyone is doing it all the time.
I can tell you for myself that since this tour and in the last two years of my life, I've done a better job of setting my house in order than ever before.
I've really been trying to deal with whatever Whatever issues I have, whatever outstanding things I have with people and family members and the rest of it, I am not perfect at it for sure.
But I think mostly what we see in the conversation online is people whose lives are chaotic.
They don't necessarily know what they believe.
They're not doing what they want to do in life.
They're not in good relationships and all that.
And then they're just expressing that on the rest of the world, right?
So it's like if you get your stuff together, Like, be able to sit there.
Again, stand up straight with your shoulders back.
Know that your stuff is basically in order, so that when you're talking to people, you can do it in an honest and open way.
And then if you do that, I think you can spark that in somebody else, and I see this all the time with people.
So, yeah.
So, all right.
So, let's leave it at that, because I've already gone 10 minutes, and we're only doing these for 20 minutes, and I want to talk about zero to one.
So, and I think most of you probably have read "12 Rules for Life" and if you haven't,
it would be good to pick up a copy now.
And it sold something like six or 7 million copies, something crazy like that.
And I know that Jordan will be back and in good shape soon enough.
So the other book that I wanted to talk about, which is definitely not quite as dense
as "12 Rules for Life."
"12 Rules for Life" is a seriously dense, dense book.
And this will take you days, if not weeks, to read, and you're going to want to reread a lot of the sentences.
And I was reading some of it last night, and it's like a type of book where you could read three sentences, and then you want to just go back and go, did I really kind of chew on that properly?
This other book that I want to talk about is Zero to One by Peter Thiel.
Peter Thiel, of course, is the tech billionaire.
I've had him on the show.
We've actually become pretty good friends.
And he's a good guy but i think genuinely one of the best thinkers we have and a contrarian thinker a guy who took his tech company out of silicon valley because he was so sick of what the diversity memo and social justice had done to the thinking.
Silicon Valley so that it couldn't make good products anymore and that's what he cares about making good products doing doing good business starting new startups coming up with new ideas so he left San Francisco to move his operation down to LA and believe it or not in Los Angeles right now there is an actual interesting intellectual circle happening here you know you wouldn't think of you think of ultra lefty sort of Mind-controlled, corroded Hollywood, but you know Shapiro's down here and Dennis Prager's down here and the whole PragerU team and the Daily Wire guys.
There's a lot of interesting people that are in this area now.
So there's something sort of breaking here.
So zero to one, the subtitle is Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future.
And I thought I would just read the short back paragraph because I think this is the key and this is why I think it's I think it's sort of valuable right now in the midst of this as we're all sort of rethinking the way we want to react with the world and maybe rethinking what kind of job we want and what do we want to do with our lives and the rest of it.
So it's easier to copy a model than to make something new.
Doing exactly, sorry, doing what we already know how to do takes the world from one to N, adding more of something familiar.
But every time we create something new, we go from zero to one.
The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.
This book is about how to get there.
So the best way to explain this would be like, if let's say there's Uber, right?
We all know what Uber is.
If you now create another app that does something similar to Uber, like Lyft, You went from 1 to N. You just maybe did something a little bit different.
Maybe your algorithm's a little bit different.
Maybe cars can get there quicker.
Something like that.
But to go from 0 to 1 is to actually create something that is truly new.
So one of the examples he uses in here is like the Bill Gates of tomorrow.
He's not going to create Microsoft, right?
He's not going to create Windows.
He's going to create something absolutely new.
Maybe it could be an offshoot of a futuristic operating system or something like that, but it'll be something new.
And the reason I think that this is relevant right now is because there is opportunity right now.
We're pretty much all trapped in our houses right now.
We're really able to think about things differently.
I know for a fact, I've been talking to my friends that live in big cities, and they're talking about maybe not even going back.
Some of them that have left the cities in the midst of this.
The amount of people that are now telecommuting that are realizing, why am I spending so much time driving to work, getting on a train, all that.
One of the things I write about in my book My dad, who just retired at 71 years old, he took – I grew up in Long Island.
We grew up in Long Island.
He worked in New York City.
He took an hour train ride basically every day, five days a week.
For something like 40 years to go to work.
And why did he do it?
He did it so that he could, you know, have things so that he could have a house and cars and take good care of his kids and all of those things.
And he did do that.
But those 40 years of two hour commutes five days a week adds up to something like two hours of his life.
Now, my dad's actually pretty highly functional, so he would read and do some other stuff, probably napped every now and again, too.
But the point is, maybe we don't need to do those traditional things.
And I think the way we get to that now is there's a lot of people really thinking about how to change the world right now.
And I would really recommend this book.
I mean, this is the type of book that you can actually read this probably in one sitting, two sittings at most, and really think about how do we go from zero to one in whatever it is that you do.
You know what I mean?
Whatever business it is you do, whatever you care about, like there's new opportunity out there.
I don't know exactly what it is.
I think what I'm doing here is a slight version of a zero to N in that I'm using all of the capabilities
that YouTube and social media and video and all of that have
to present something honest and true and decent.
That's a one to N 'cause I didn't invent anything.
The zero to one that I think I've done is what we're starting to do with Locals.com,
which is create digital homes for creators, which is completely against what big tech wants.
Big tech wants you to be reliant on them.
wants you to be reliant on them.
They wanna own your data.
They wanna own your data.
They wanna own your content.
They wanna own your content.
I think we've created something really great with Locals.com.
I've created something really great with locals.com.
And by the way, we just closed our funding round, but we raised a pretty decent amount of money.
And by the way, we just closed our funding round, but we raised a pretty decent amount of money.
I don't get any of it, by the way, to run Locals.
I don't get any of it by the way, to run Locals.
And we're getting a really nice response.
And we're getting a really nice response.
The company's growing.
The company's growing, as I said, we're hiring.
And that to me would sort of be a zero to one thing in that I am not trying to recreate the internet as is.
I wanna create a completely new situation.
So that's my little version of that.
Anyway, I think both of these books, Jordan's book, "12 Rules for Life"
in that it will help you with the tools that you need to sit up, I keep saying sit up 'cause I'm sitting,
but stand up straight with your shoulders back and think about your life seriously right now.
Like know that maybe you don't wanna be in the job you're in if that's how you're feeling,
but you just can't quit tomorrow 'cause you still may have bills to pay and things like that.
Like really take your life seriously.
And then once you do that, I think you can start working on the stuff
that Teal writes about here in "Zero to One"
which is how do I want to put something into the world that is new and different?
And can I do it?
And he talks about how to do it from a startup perspective, but there's all sorts of ways that you can do it.
Maybe you have just some little gadget that we all suddenly need because we're all trapped at home.
I mean, there's all sorts of interesting things.
So that's that.
And then I want to do a little bit of Q&A.
I know you guys asked me a bunch of interesting stuff.
So I'm only doing the Q&A, as I said, from the subscribers at RubinReport.com, so I'm going to knock out a couple questions for you guys.
And by the way, if you are interested in books, my book, which are here, I'm going to get up for a sec.
My book.
This is a galley copy, so these are the ones that we send out to the press, which are out right now.
Obviously, the real book is hardcover and there's a blurb by Jordan on the front and
in the back there's actually Jordan and Peter Thiel and Eckhart Tolle and Tucker Carlson
and Ben Shapiro and Larry King, quite a collection of people.
My book is coming out April 28th.
It's what I think about freaking everything.
I think it's probably the best, most professional thing I've done.
You can go to Don'tBurnThisBook.com or you can get it on Amazon.
I also did the audiobook, which is actually super fun to do.
Okay, so there we go.
And now let me just get to some of your questions.
Oh, somebody, I like this one.
I'll start with this one.
PinkAnimeFox said, I'd like to know what your personal 13th rule is.
I like this one.
And I think you're gonna know why I like it.
unidentified
Get a pet of some kind.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
We have one fish there.
We have a betta fish.
His name's John.
Got him about a year ago.
He's in a nice little 12-gallon cube tank.
Nobody else.
Betta fish is also known as the Japanese fighting fish.
They don't like to be with other fish.
They'll kill everybody pretty much.
But there is something about getting up in the morning, turning the light on in that tank, feeding that fish.
It gives you a little bit of responsibility.
But more important than the fish, obviously, having a dog.
I got to take walks every day so it helps on the exercise part because I've got to get that dog out of the house otherwise he gets the zooms and he's like freaking nuts.
But not only that, like having the responsibility of you got to feed this dog, you got to make sure the dog doesn't have fleas, you got to make sure the dog has water and exercise and all the rest of it.
I think when you have something else outside of yourself that you have to take care of, it actually forces you to take more care of yourself.
You know what I mean?
Like if you're doing drugs, And you don't have any money and anything else.
Well, you can punish yourself, right?
And you can starve yourself to death and never brush your teeth and the rest of it.
But suddenly, if you don't have any money and you can't buy dog food, you might look at that animal and go, well, you know, it's one thing to do it to yourself, but another thing to starve an animal, something like that.
So I think actually having an animal, and by the way, right now we're all trapped in our houses.
Having an animal is also comforting and fun and provides safety.
You know, something like there's a 90% chance, something like this, a 90% chance that,
less chance that if you have an animal, a dog, specifically in your house, that your house will be robbed.
So there's a lot of reasons for it, but I think there's something about just like
having responsibility for something outside yourself.
I guess a kid would be a good one for that too.
All right, just a couple more.
unidentified
Let's see.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼
California's governor, this is from Torrid Lover, has released from jail at least 14 criminals
that are murderers and rapists.
Do you think this is tyranny?
Do you think this is time to get a gun?
Well, I also saw yesterday that New York has released 900 criminals.
So think about what we're doing right now.
We have some states saying you can't buy guns, and at the same time releasing criminals back out into the streets.
Now, have all these criminals been fully vetted?
Not only in terms of will they commit crimes again, but have they been absolutely fully vetted?
It hasn't been absolutely confirmed that they don't have coronavirus.
Perhaps they don't have symptoms, but have these people gone through the testing properly?
And now we're just putting these people back out into the population?
I mean, if really, if releasing 900 criminals in New York City makes sense, then we have other problems with our prison system.
Now, I agree we have other problems with our prison system, but the idea that somehow releasing 900 people will be such a relief on the system that it's worth taking that kind of risk.
Is absolutely crazy.
So well, to your question about guns, I think a lot of people are rethinking all sorts of stuff.
I think you've got a lot of lefties suddenly going, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Maybe I shouldn't have been as against guns because I want to be able to protect my own family in my own house, which we all should be able to do.
I think we have to be very leery right now.
about government overreach at all fronts.
You know, de Blasio, the mayor of New York, who's a complete lunatic, you know, he said this thing about if you are a temple or a church, he didn't say mosque, interestingly, but he said if you're a temple or a church, he said, and you still have people get together, and we warn you, we could potentially close you permanently.
And it's like, What law is that?
What law is that?
Now, I'm all for some basic guidelines and making sure people don't congregate right now, and you hope that people do what they're supposed to do.
But what if some group does it?
Let's say a temple or a church does it.
They get 20 people together.
And then what happens is they get closed, but then they decide they have new leadership, and they're going to reopen.
And now you can't reopen because it's permanently closed.
I mean, we really have to just be careful.
There's a lot of opportunists who would love to have more power over your life right now.
And we have to just be very, very careful that we don't just grant them power because we're a little bit scared right now.
Jessica asks, chocolate or vanilla?
The important questions.
You know, I've been a chocolate person my whole life, but in the last six months or so, I've been kind of coming around to vanilla.
Believe it or not, I've got a little vanilla oat almond cream in my coffee right now.
And it's delicious.
Alright guys, I've done the 20 minutes here.
I hope this gave you a little bit of sanity.
Again, the books that I would recommend right now, if you're really thinking about trying to do something new, This is it.
Zero to One by Peter Thiel.
You can read it in a day, and it'll give you some really great tools.
And if you just are trying to get your stuff together, so maybe you want to read this one before you do that one.
Get your house in order first, then change the world.
Twelve Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson.
And then, if you do all that and you're feeling good about yourself and you want to know what I think about everything, it'll be out on April 28th, is Don't Burn This Book, which you can go to Don't Burn This Book.
All right, we're going to keep doing these every Monday and Wednesday.
Our interview with Bret Easton Ellis, part one, is up already on YouTube.
Full episode is up at ReubenReport.com.
It's a nice little break from everything going on right now.
And we'll keep going, guys.
I hope you're all good.
And if you want to communicate with me directly, ReubenReport.com.
That is all.
▲
Export Selection