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April 25, 2023 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux

01:24:13

HOW TO SURVIVE THE AI APOCALYPSE!

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	Yeah, I will be doing the truth about pirates.
	Also known as the art of the argument.
	I'm sorry. Too many pirate jokes go through my head.
	Piratitude. So, let's see here.
	Let's get straight to your questions.
	And as always...
	To ensure prompt service, that apparently is the acronym that spawned TIPS. It's kind of funny, right?
	It's kind of funny because my first job when I was 10 was painting plaques for the Silver Jubilee anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and then I got a job when I was 11 in a bookstore and then I had a paper route and so on.
	But when I first began working for TIPS, I was maybe 15 or 16.
	I worked in a restaurant and it was the first time that I realized that charisma could make me money.
	It's my fishnet stocking and swinging purse and leaning over the hood of a car, draping my butt up for the winds to blow past.
	I realized that When I was 15, which is, you know, 41 years ago.
	When I was 15, 41 years ago, I worked for tips.
	And now, life is a circle.
	Life is a circle.
	Now, I am once again working for tips.
	So, if you would like to tip, I would be thrilled.
	Of course, you know, if you've...
	I've read or listened to the 13-plus-hour audiobook of my new novel, The Present, which I think is fantastic.
	I'm just in love with that novel.
	I don't think I can leave that world.
	Like, I just can't leave those characters.
	So, you know, my big announcement is I'm doing a sequel.
	And it's funny, I'm such a nerd that SQL still think, I think of not just the second in a series in a book, but also SQL structured query language from my database programming days.
	But that's an announcement.
	But yeah, so I'm back to working for tips, which is kind of interesting.
	Although I think I'm providing better value than getting your pizza out on time.
	So, all right, let's get to your questions.
	And then I do have a comment about something that happened this morning, which I think is quite interesting.
	Steph, if the rapture happened...
	Would that be enough evidence for you to become a Christian?
	Yes. Look, my heart is open, man.
	If miracles come my way, I am not going to deny them.
	All right. Let's see here.
	Question concerning DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion principles, used to support diversity and inclusivity efforts.
	Often DEI supporters claim that diversity in groups aids problem-solving slash productivity.
	They use this belief to legitimize affirmative action efforts.
	DEI supporters state that individuals from diverse backgrounds think and approach problems differently.
	Is there any evidence for or against such claims that you are aware of?
	Well, I mean, the evidence is that that which is coerced is false.
	If you kidnap a girl and lock her in your basement and claim that she's your girlfriend, that's false.
	Why? Because you're locking her in your basement.
	So, if something needs to be enforced through the state, it can't be true.
	So, for instance, if diversity aided profitability, then companies would be pursuing it voluntarily and those companies which did not pursue that would then fall away.
	And those companies which did pursue it would end up making more money.
	So it would not need to be enforced through the state or through bullying or political correctness.
	It would happen organically and so on.
	Now, the big question with diversity, of course, is this whole theory is only of value if all cultures and all groups and all sexes Value free speech equally, right? Because if you have, let's say you have 10 cultures and only 8 of those cultures don't like free speech and 2 of those cultures do, then having all those groups come together is not going to be a value because only 2 of those cultures or 20% of the cultures value free speech.
	Because obviously diversity in terms of, well, everyone approaches their problems from a different way.
	Everybody has to support free speech in order for that to work.
	And now I did this, The Truth About Free Speech.
	It's a presentation you can find at fdrpodcast.com.
	I go through the demographics of who supports free speech.
	And you can look into that, right?
	So that's sort of my response to that.
	Alright.
	I just checked and I have 67 tabs open.
	Right.
	Let's see here.
	Bye.
	Let's see here.
	Any sneak peeks to the AI presentation that you're working on?
	Okay, well hit me with a why if you'd like a couple of sneak peeks about the AI, like sneak thoughts about the AI presentation.
	I'm happy to share that.
	The truth about pirates sounds really cool.
	Yeah, pirates are fantastic.
	I'd love to see the truth about the Wild West.
	That is fantastic. The Wild West is a fiction invented...
	To legitimize state takeover of policing.
	What questions did you ask your customers to get tips when you were a waiter?
	Or what did you talk about with the customers?
	Well, just, you know, be funny, be engaging and Make sure that, you know, back in the day, you follow the bro code, right?
	Which is you make the male customer look good, right?
	If he's taking a girl out on a date, you don't overshadow him.
	You don't be more awesome than he is.
	You make the male customer look good so that he appreciates that.
	It's just, you know, bro code stuff, right?
	Like there's this meme.
	Did I ever tell? I'm sure I've told this story.
	But anyway, there's this meme, which is, you know, be me, take gorgeous girl to restaurant.
	Girl orders the most expensive thing on the menu.
	Waiter catches my eye.
	Waiter says, I'm afraid we're out of that and keeps guiding the woman towards cheaper and cheaper things.
	And that is kind of a bit of the bro code, right?
	So I had one of those stories as well where I invited a woman from a very, very wealthy family.
	You'd actually know her based on the family name.
	This is many, many years ago, of course.
	And when I was in my teens, I invited this woman to a very expensive restaurant and she ordered very expensive stuff.
	And I don't think she was being mean.
	It's just when you grow up with a lot of money, I assume, you just don't really think that people can't afford stuff, right?
	And I couldn't afford the meal, so I had to leave my wallet and promise to come back with the money and got some money and came back the next day and so on, right?
	It's pretty wild.
	All right, parenting question. My two-and-a-half-year-old has begun to truly defy me.
	Example, look me straight in the eye and jab me with his fork again when I just told him not to.
	How would you approach this issue?
	Defy you. Well, I wouldn't phrase it that way because that says that you're automatically in the right and he's automatically in the wrong.
	He's just defying you, right?
	No, he's not defying you.
	He's disagreeing with you. Defiance is like, well, he's just fighting back when I'm in the right.
	He's just defying me. That's sort of an authoritarian word to use.
	He is disagreeing with me.
	So he looks you straight in the eye and jabs you with his fork again when I just told him not to.
	So, how would I approach this issue?
	I would look back through the tunnel of time to the origin story of my parenting and say, why does my child want to hurt me?
	I mean, sorry, this is just a tough, you gotta look at these questions in the mirror, right?
	Why does your child want to hurt you?
	Your child should have bonded with you, your child should love you, your child should not want to hurt you.
	Why is your child angry at you and why does your child want to hurt you?
	Now, this is... All children injure their parents, right?
	So just be aware of that.
	All children injure their parents.
	It's just the way it is.
	Basically, your genitals are a piñata when you have kids.
	It just is the way that it is.
	And even... It's not even by accident...
	My daughter once threw a big sort of fuzzy woolen ball at my head and it kind of hit me in the eye and, you know, it didn't scratch my eye but it was really uncomfortable.
	I was kind of worried, right? And of course she's very apologetic.
	It's kind of accidental and so on, right?
	And when kids, you know, they'll sort of thump you as a joke and when they get stronger you have to sort of tell them, look, you're...
	You're not aware of your own strength kind of thing, right?
	So all children will injure you, but this directness where your child is stabbing you with a fork, that's significant anger, that is significant hostility, and you need to say, why is my child angry at me?
	Because this is an angry thing, right?
	You tell him not to, and he's doing it.
	That means he wants to hurt you.
	So why does he want to hurt you? Have you hurt him?
	Have you neglected him? Have there been problems?
	Has he been exposed to violence?
	Has he been in daycare?
	Does he have abandonment issues?
	Does he have connection issues?
	Does he have intimacy issues?
	Why has he not bonded with you to the point where he doesn't want to hurt you?
	Why does he want to hurt you?
	Well, children want to hurt you if you've hurt them.
	So he's trying to communicate to you that he doesn't feel heard and that you are repeatedly hurting him.
	So how does he communicate that to you?
	He doesn't listen to you and repeatedly hurts you.
	So he's saying to you, I think, I don't know, obviously, this is my guess, he's saying to you, you are repeatedly hurting me and you're not listening to me.
	But he can't communicate that in abstract ways, so he just reproduces the behavior in the hopes that you will understand it.
	Now you, of course, are interpreting this as He's defying me.
	It's like, no, no, no. He's really trying to communicate something to you about his experience.
	What is his experience as a child?
	Well, it is not being listened to and being hurt.
	I assume emotionally and so on, right?
	So, you can try and tamp down the behavior or you can try and figure out the root cause.
	What is your child trying to communicate to you?
	I would assume that he's communicating that he doesn't feel heard and he feels repeatedly heard.
	So when you tell him not to and he jabs you with the fork, he's trying to tell you that.
	I don't know what the content is outside of that because we're not doing a call-in, but of course, email me at callinatfreedomain.com if that would be of help.
	But that's my guess.
	All right. Oh yeah, so you want some AI stuff, right?
	Would like to know some of your favorite comedians?
	Favorite comedians?
	I used to listen to comedy a lot.
	And got my kids on my own somewhere.
	Red Vox was pretty funny. Favorite comedians?
	I had a tape. I used to listen to Gallagher way back in the day.
	I had a tape of that. I went through, in my teens, I went through a big Steve Martin phase.
	A friend of mine and I, just Steve Martin's stand-up was just brilliant.
	A bit existentially and all that and so on, but...
	He was very top of the stand-up world when he quit.
	And I liked him when I was younger.
	I went through a fairly significant Monty Python phase.
	I was introduced to that by a friend of mine.
	And Monty Python is kind of like the Tragically Hip, like they're really hit or miss.
	So some of the stuff is really brilliant, now appearing as a central tunnel support in the new Victoria line.
	There's that. And then there's also, I like traffic lights.
	I like traffic lights. Just complete waste of vinyl.
	So it's a real hit-and-miss stuff with Monty Python.
	Some of it can be great. And some of it is just really self-indulgent, boring stuff.
	So what other comedians did I listen to?
	There was a Dr. Demento show on Q107. It's a hard rock station in Toronto, and I used to listen to that.
	I would tape it and then sometimes sort of play it back.
	There was some Jazzy Jeff, some boxing bit that was really funny.
	So I also remember some comedian who was talking about how he did an imitation of Bono, the singer for U2, when he gets startled, and it was really funny.
	So... Yeah, but I haven't listened to comedians in a long time because comedy became very boring, very inoffensive.
	And I did go to a comedy show some years ago in New York.
	I mentioned this at the time.
	And the white male comedians talked about life.
	And the gay comedian talked about being gay.
	The Middle Eastern comedian talked about being Middle Eastern.
	The woman comedian talked about being a woman.
	And I just find it kind of boring.
	Yeah. Can you not just talk about anything that we have in common?
	Or is it just, you know, I'm a Middle Eastern looking guy.
	Here's how I get profiled when I go to the airport.
	And it's like... Okay, I mean, I get this part of your experience, but is that all?
	That's it? That's the only thing?
	Like, we have nothing in common?
	So, you know, comedy that unites seems to have fallen away, and now it's just this sort of vertical silo identity politics stuff, and I just don't find it interesting, really.
	So, all right, I'll get to the AI stuff in a sec.
	I just want to make sure. Thank you for the tip.
	I would, okay, let's do works well.
	Maybe I'm not providing that much value.
	All right, let's see here.
	I don't really do trance stuff.
	It's not my particular field.
	Let's see here.
	Bilber? I don't like Bilber.
	I find his voice kind of grating.
	He's kind of shrieky. What was it?
	He had a go at me many years ago about the story of your enslavement, which I never particularly watched, but I don't.
	I think Bill Burr is just kind of screechy and hysterical, and I don't find him particularly funny.
	I never particularly got into...
	Oh, God, what was his name?
	The bald guy who got in trouble for exposing himself or something like that.
	I just thought this stuff was...
	Like, he talked about being married and then masturbating in the basement.
	If I remember rightly, it was just like, oof, you know, that's rough.
	And then, of course, he got divorced and all that, so...
	What age should you stop giving babies what they want when they cry?
	Ours is 10 months old and I think it might be time.
	Well, when babies can understand cause and effect and when they can understand abstract universals, which, you know, is earlier than language, I think 10 months depends on, you know, how advanced your baby is.
	For me, that would be a little early.
	I think with my daughter, it was sort of 14, 15 months when she began to sort of understand morals and so on.
	And so that was how it was for me.
	It would be different for everyone and so on.
	So, in general, the test is this, right, as a whole.
	So, if your baby is crying, or let's say you're a toddler, right, because babies should be given what they need, right?
	If your toddler is crying because they're apparently really upset, and you give them what they want, and then they just stop crying, then it was manipulation, right?
	Then it was manipulation.
	Genuine tears... Take a while to subside, right?
	If it's like, wah, wah, wah, here it is, oh good, you know, then that was manipulation, right?
	So when that occurs, and it's not for like a biological need, like your kid is like crying because they can't get a piece of candy, they get a piece of candy, like, oh, all better, right?
	Then the crying is more manipulation.
	My company is laying off 7,000 people this week.
	I am trying to stay calm, but it's still stressful.
	Advice. Sorry, I have a little trouble following this one.
	My company is laying off 7,000 people this week.
	I'm trying to stay calm, but it's still stressful.
	Advice? Okay.
	Did you not know your company was doing badly?
	Did you not know that your industry was in trouble?
	Did you not know that either you or, you know, the company as a whole was...
	I'm a little...
	I mean, like a farmer keeps track of his crops.
	They don't just plant and then cross their fingers and go out in the fall and see what they have, right?
	They keep an eye on things, right?
	So, if your company is losing money, then you should be aware of that.
	I mean, it's pretty easy to figure out their stock price.
	You can read the quarterly report and so on.
	And you may have access to internal documents or information that would give you some insight into that.
	So, sorry, I'm a little confused.
	Is this a surprise? Did you have no idea that your company was doing badly?
	I don't quite understand that.
	Because it's your job when you're an employee to see how well the company is doing.
	And if the company is doing badly, then of course, if you're high up enough, hopefully you can help the company do better, or you can work extra hard, or you can start to train yourself for a transition, or you can start to look for a new job knowing that this is going to happen.
	I mean, a company is not just like, you know, when you get on the bus, you just kind of, this is, I mean, why I hated not having a car when I was a kid sometimes.
	But boy, it was fantastic because when I was a teenager, I didn't get a car until I was in my early 30s.
	So I didn't like it.
	But of course, the great thing about having no car was you get on the bus.
	And when you get on the bus, you can read.
	You can totally gap out.
	You don't need to worry about where you're going or anything like that.
	So you get on the bus, you gap out.
	The bus gets to the subway station, you get off the subway station, and then you go down to the subway, you get on the subway, and then you gap out until you get to your...
	So you can just read, right?
	I remember I've read hundreds of books, if not more, just over the probably thousands, really, over the course of just having no car, right?
	Because... So, I mean, I guess with a car, you can have audiobooks and so on, but I just prefer, I prefer to read.
	You can mark it up, you can make notes in the margins and so on.
	You can really, really concentrate. So...
	You can just gap out on a bus, but if you just say, well, I have a company, I have a job, and I just do my job with no view as to the health of the company overall.
	Again, maybe I'm just a bit too entrepreneurial or whatever, but I was always aware of how well the companies I was working at was doing.
	I mean, to me that's like just wandering out without checking the weather, you know?
	Especially when I used to bike everywhere when I didn't.
	I used to bike from Don Mills and Lawrence up to Finch and McCowan, right?
	It was like an hour bike ride.
	Mostly uphill on the way up.
	And so I would need to check the weather, right?
	I wouldn't just bike out there and just, hey, wow, what do I do?
	I've been biking for half an hour and it's a downpour.
	It's like, well, did you check the weather? No.
	Well, I don't know what to say to you. Don't you need to check the environment of how the company's doing and how relevant are your skills?
	Look, guys, I'm telling you, if you work with words, if you work with language, if you work with concepts, AI is coming, man.
	There's an estimate that in a relatively short-ish period of time...
	Like 300 million jobs are significantly at risk because of AI across the world, right?
	So if you work in coding, if you work in business writing, if you work on summarizing, if you work on presentations, if you work on pitches, if you work on marketing, if you work on emails, any of this stuff, anything to do with consolidation and writing, communicating and so on, if you work on editing, all of these jobs, like...
	Be aware that AI is coming like Genghis Khan over the horizon.
	And don't just sit there and keep doing the same thing you're doing as if things aren't changing around you.
	Your career, you are responsible for, and we are in a heavily changing world.
	We're in a heavily changing world.
	So it's your job to stay relevant.
	It's your job to stay valuable.
	So, again, if I were in your shoes and I had a job in sort of middle management or whatever...
	In training and whatever, I would be like, okay, well, AI is coming and it's going to eat me for lunch probably.
	So what I need to do is I need to get really good at AI. Most managers, you know, especially sort of...
	Early 50s or older.
	Most managers aren't going to get good at AI themselves, but they're going to hire people who are good at AI, and for every person they hire who's good at AI, they can probably fire 10 to 20 people.
	So you're either going to be one of the people who's fired, or you're going to be one of the people making bank because you know AI very well.
	I don't see any third option to that.
	Whereas if you just go all rubber-bones, And just like, well, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and see what happens.
	I fundamentally don't understand that mindset.
	And again, maybe this is inapplicable.
	I think this is useful advice as a whole.
	But you've got an economy that's rapidly changing.
	And you have to stay nimble and you have to look ahead.
	You have to figure out what the value is you provide for your company.
	You have to look at what's coming down the side.
	You haven't heard of AI, right?
	So you've got to see what's coming down the pipe.
	I mean, my researcher and I have used AI to write part of the presentation on AI. So one of the things we've done is we've got detailed notes on a slide, and then we've asked AI to shorten all of those notes into their most essential parts, and then we do the slide again, and we're going to time.
	I'm guessing it's probably three times faster to use the AI summarized one, right?
	So there's an efficiency. So we're learning this stuff.
	I'm figuring all this stuff out.
	Because I'm in the conceptual field.
	Let's say that AI, which it will be able to do, and we're going to work on this, AI's relationship to UPB, universally preferable behavior.
	Universally preferable behavior is perfect for computers.
	We're going to have a whole flowchart about how AI can validate if something is universally preferable.
	So if my gig was UPB, people would say, well, is this UPB compliant?
	Is circumcision UPB compliant?
	Is that UPB compliant?
	It's like AI is going to be able to tell you if something's UPB compliant and why in great detail in approximately six minutes.
	Like six minutes from now, not even in six minutes.
	It would be interesting to train AI on the general questions that I ask in the course of call-in shows to see how well AI could replicate what I do in call-in shows.
	So I'm aware of AI. It's one of the reasons I'm doing the presentation is to learn it better.
	And I would love if there's stuff that could be effectively offloaded from what I do onto AI. That means I could do new things.
	So if you're passive, life is less stressful in the short run, but much more stressful in the long run.
	So, I'm not sure, trying to stay calm.
	You had to have seen this coming.
	And if you didn't see this coming, that's a problem, I think, with your alertness with regards to your career.
	The career isn't just something that's kind of handed to you, like, I've got a job, I just keep doing the same job, and, you know, and see what happens.
	That's not having a career. That's just going along for the ride.
	I mean, not just in your job, but in your life.
	As a whole. And no, no, no.
	Constantly be figuring out how you can provide greater and deeper value.
	See what's coming down the pipe.
	Be ahead of the curve. I mean, one of the reasons I got out of tech was it was pretty clear that they were just going to import cheap tech workers and quality was going to go out the window and all of that.
	So I'm like, okay, it helped me sort of move over to philosophy.
	But, you know, your career is not something where you get a job and just sit around and do that job.
	Your career is staying alert to value and being entrepreneurial everywhere you are.
	The more entrepreneurial you are, the more value you're going to add.
	The more money you're going to make. I'm trying to help you be more secure and make more money.
	AI is coming. If you're not spending nights and weekends learning AI, I'm not sure what you're doing.
	Then you're just probably going to lose your job to someone who has done that.
	There is only security In excellence, there's only security in value.
	There is no security in momentum.
	Louis C.K., yeah, that's right. There is only security in alertness and the provision of value.
	There's no security in momentum.
	There's no security in a resume.
	There's no security in expertise because everything is just constantly changing, right?
	Have you ever had a lucid dream, Steph?
	I have had a number of lucid dreams, not for many years, but I definitely have had lucid dreams in the past for sure.
	My plan B is to learn a trade that is in high demand, yeah.
	What AI are you using?
	ChatGPT? I'm using a variety.
	Shouldn't assume I'm not doing those things.
	It's just hard to watch go down.
	Shouldn't assume I'm not doing those things.
	Well, then it wouldn't be so stressful, right?
	In fact, let's say that you work in software and you've learned how to leverage AI to create great value to a software company.
	Then you would look at those layoffs as the opportunity to make a fortune.
	Because if they're laying off a bunch of people, I would be very proactive and I would go to my boss and I would say, look, I know the layoffs are coming.
	Look at all the things I've learned.
	Look at all the value I can provide.
	And then they lay off a bunch of people and they give you a big fat raise because you are replacing five people or ten people so they can afford to give you two or three times your salary.
	You know, like a competent AI engineer, so to speak, or AI prompt writer can make north of quarter mil US a year.
	So I don't know why it would be stressful if you have found ways to provide massive value.
	And again, let's say that your bosses don't do all of that.
	Well, then you can go out and say, I am an AI specialist.
	Hopefully you've documented the hours that you've spent researching it and so on.
	Maybe take an online course if you need some sort of certificate or whatever, and then you can just either go and be a consultant doing AI or you can get another job at another company doing AI stuff.
	And I'm not saying just AI, right?
	But this is just one particular example.
	So change, you can either be frightened of change or it's an opportunity.
	Given that change is a constant in the economy these days, I think if you are stressed about change rather than looking at it as an opportunity to upgrade yourself and the value you provide...
	All right, so don't forget to tip because, you know, these are very, very important and helpful things that I am saying.
	So if you could tip, I would appreciate that.
	And let me just get to...
	Your questions, I'm also going to...
	I'm just going to ask for questions.
	Questions welcome here.
	Here too. Yes, they are in fact welcome here too.
	Every time I get on camera, my nose gets itchy.
	It's just part of the excitement of doing philosophy.
	Alright, look at that.
	I have typewriting like Burton Guster on site.
	Like his tap dancing is my typing, although my typing is probably louder.
	Hey Steph, what do you think of taking advantage of price swings in Bitcoin?
	A recent example would be selling at the 30k peak and buying again now at 27.
	I'm not sure what you mean by what do you think of taking advantage of price swings in Bitcoin.
	If you sell at a high and buy at a low, I'm not sure what you mean by what do I think of that?
	Like morally or, I mean, mathematically, you're up, right?
	You're up 3k of Bitcoin, right?
	So I don't know what you mean by what do you think of taking advantage of price swings in Bitcoin?
	So it's like saying, well, what do you think of selling stocks at their high point and buying them back at a lower point?
	It's like, yeah, that's good.
	I mean, I don't know what you mean by what do you think of it?
	I mean, obviously, it's an economically advantageous thing to do.
	Are you saying, do you think it's wrong or manipulative or immoral?
	Is it a valid hobby or do you think you were destined to lose in the long term?
	Destined to lose in the long term.
	Well, the example that you gave was selling at the 30kb and buying at 27.
	If you think Bitcoin is going to go to zero, then I don't really know what to say about that.
	Bitcoin is the fastest asset to get to massive valuation in the history of the world.
	So, I don't know.
	Is it a valid hobby or do you think you're destined to lose in the long term?
	I mean, day traders in general don't make a lot of money, but...
	Bitcoin's a little different because a day trader is, you know, I mean, you know how much these politicians have made from their stock trades, right?
	All these people making 150 or 200k a year are worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars from their stock trades, right?
	So when it comes to the stock market, in my view, you're just fighting against insider knowledge that will never be punished.
	And so you're always going to be behind the curve as far as that stuff goes.
	Bitcoin is not subject to the same kind of stuff, regulatorily speaking.
	Are you asking me, are you going to be able to make money buying and selling Bitcoin?
	You know I can't answer that, right?
	I can't answer that. I think you can make money.
	I think it depends what your metrics is.
	It depends what you know.
	It depends how much research you're doing.
	And it depends on your risk tolerance and so on, right?
	So I can't possibly answer whether it's wise or not wise to buy and sell Bitcoin based on price swings, right?
	Because that can't be answered.
	Because that would be to say, I know for certain the future price trajectory of Bitcoin.
	In the short run, not in the long run.
	Of course, in the long run, I think it's going to be worth a fortune.
	But in the short run, right, you know, those squiggles, whether they're going up or it's down a little bit at the moment.
	So those kind of squiggles, nobody knows.
	Nobody knows. You know, they've taken monkeys and had the monkeys throw darts at newspapers with stock prices on them, and the monkeys do as well, if not better sometimes, than professional managers, money managers, with the difference being that the monkeys don't take, you know, 4% to 6%.
	So nobody can predict price in the short run, again, without insider knowledge.
	Nobody can predict price in the short run.
	It's impossible. So, but imagine you sold it at 30 and it pumped to 40.
	Well, yeah. Sorry, again, maybe I'm missing something here.
	Yes, if you're going to trade short term, it's volatile and there's risks involved.
	I don't know what to say about that.
	I mean, I'm a HODL kind of guy, but there's nothing wrong with doing it.
	I mean, it's fine. It's not immoral to voluntarily trade Bitcoin with people at a price that you both peacefully agree on.
	So you're basically saying, well, should I ask this girl out?
	If she says yes, I'm happy.
	If she says no, I'm unhappy.
	It's like, I don't know how to escape that risk, other than asking a girl out you don't care about, in which case you get rid of the upside as well as the downside.
	Yeah. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't know what answer you're looking for that would make any sense to me.
	If you want to take those risks, you can take those risks.
	All right, let's see here.
	Will AI affect the trading of crypto?
	Again, you're asking me, so AI doesn't do anything.
	If people believe that AI is going to have an impact on crypto and they make buying and selling decisions based upon AI, then yeah.
	It's not AI affecting the trading of crypto.
	It's people's belief that AI has value in the trading of crypto.
	It's people's belief, not AI itself.
	I know there's a bunch of people who've said, give me the top 10 stocks you think are going to make the next money over the next year, and they take money and they invest into those stocks.
	Now, you know that there are trading companies that build fat data pipes like T1 or T3 data pipes directly to the trading because they need a split-second advantage.
	And the study from many years ago was that it takes about 18 seconds for new information to be absorbed into and affect a stock price.
	So it's incredibly rapid.
	And of course, the majority of stocks are bought and sold based upon automatic algorithms.
	So it would be interesting if people, let's say they ask chat GPT or something like that, they say, give me the stocks that are most likely to go up.
	And let's say that that works, like that actually does make money.
	Well, it will stop making money almost immediately because everybody will be doing that and they'll crowd and narrow down the gap between the highs and lows, right?
	So if there is some successful trading strategy based upon Whether it's in stocks or crypto, if there is some magical trading strategy that is based on AI, then everybody will do it and the profits will vanish.
	If you, I mean, it's funny, right?
	If you had some, all these people who were like, I've got a magical way of picking stocks.
	It's like, well, then you'd never tell me, right?
	You'd never tell me if you had some magical way because you'd just end up like richer than Soros by buying and selling all this stuff and you'd never tell anyone, right?
	And of course, if you were buying and selling stuff and making a fortune, everybody would start buying and selling what you were buying and selling.
	And again, you would just close the profit cap.
	So it's pretty, it's impossible to sustain that kind of stuff.
	Alright. What do you think is the most opportunity in learning AI? Do you think it's more opportunity to be a prompt writer or be able to write the software that makes AI work?
	Well, you're asking me to tell you which is the most profitable path in an entirely new technology that is currently still significantly under development and for which there are more than a thousand individual manifestations of.
	The answer is, I don't know.
	Anybody who tells you they have an answer to that is just blowing smoke out of their ass, right?
	Nobody can tell you that.
	I would say that...
	Getting into software that makes the AI work is a pretty big deal, and you're kind of late to the curve, right?
	Because this stuff has been going on for many years, so you're kind of late to the curve as far as all of that goes.
	So, just do what makes you happy.
	Do what is the most interesting, the most stimulating, the most enjoyable for you.
	Because that's the only thing that's going to sustain yourself.
	I loved tech.
	I absolutely loved the tech world.
	And I found philosophy more interesting than the tech world.
	So, I shifted from the tech world.
	And I think, objectively, the world needs more philosophy and not another philosophy.
	Tech guy. Tech bro.
	Tech executive. Tech executive.
	Anyway. So what was sustainable for me was my interest in philosophy, because philosophy is the all-discipline that encompasses everything, and I have a pretty wide span and spread of interest and so on.
	So, people could, if I had said to someone, well, what's going to make me more money staying, if it was just money that I was after, right?
	Am I going to make more money staying in the tech world, or am I going to make more money in podcasting, right?
	Nobody could answer that. Because if it's only doing it for the money, I mean, I took a 75% pay cut to more, really, to leave the tech world and move to philosophy.
	So nobody could say to me, without knowing me, should I take a 75% pay cut to go to an industry that is very new, where there's no particular profitability metric, there's no established path to...
	To selling, right?
	It's individual to me.
	I couldn't sell this business because it's based around me as an individual.
	So people would say, logically, well, that doesn't make any sense, right?
	So you pursue your passion and try to monetize it as best you can, which is why I asked for tips, right?
	So you pursue your passion, you try to provide as much value as possible, and you try to monetize that.
	But saying, what external factors should make my decision about how to spend my time?
	Yeah, it's tens of millions of engineering hours to get ChatGPT to this date.
	I mean, it's staggering, right?
	One of the issues is that, you know, they're hooking into the power of graphics cards, right?
	Of basically video game cards or video production cards.
	And so this is one of the reasons why Nvidia is doing so well.
	So the amount of power that they have, well, the amount of source data that they have is enormous because they have the whole internet to scrape.
	Although Elon Musk is trying to stop that, I think, with Twitter.
	So they have the whole internet to scrape.
	For source data.
	And they have a truly staggering amount of processing power.
	I mean, for every generation, there's some idiot who comes along and says, well, there's no way that Moore's Law can be continued, right?
	Moore's Law being that processing power doubles about every 18 months.
	Well, it's doing better than that now.
	Because you've got parallel processing and you've got hooking into graphics cards and you've got a lot of the stuff that was developed, a lot of the server farms that were developed for Bitcoin mining now have great value to AI as well.
	A lot of that technology was solved.
	So you can't predict all of that stuff and hardware computing power is now doubling More quickly than 18 months.
	So you have a massive amount of source data, you've got a lot of coding, and you have a processing power really undreamt of as recently as sort of five to seven years ago.
	and that's obviously hit a flashpoint of, a tipping point in terms of AI.
	Alright, let's see here.
	What do you think of a manager pursuing a relationship with an internal lower level employee?
	Do you think there would be an issue given the power dynamic?
	Well, of course there would be. Yeah, of course there would be.
	I view it as creepy and extremely unwholesome.
	It's sort of like saying, well, let's say that you are a professor, right?
	This is sort of the typical... He's an undergraduate eating professor, right?
	He's got a bit of salt and pepper beard, and he's kind of creepy, and he's really into literature and poetry, man.
	And he's got a girl who's this hot young thing in his class, and he wants to invite her out and date her and so on, but he also holds her grades in his hands.
	That's not right. That's not fine.
	That's not fair. So...
	No, it's not right, and it is rife for just that kind of abuse.
	You want to be in a state where the woman is, and this is why you never want to pressure women, you never want to intimidate women, you never want to bully women, you never want to manipulate women like, oh, you won't do what I want, I'm going to storm around and slam cupboard doors and be generally upset and huffy and, you know, petty and bullshitty that way, right?
	So you never ever want to pressure anyone To be in your life.
	Ever. You never want to have any extraneous pressure for them to be in your life.
	Because it's setting the detonation for the relationship.
	Because you will remain insecure forever.
	Because you don't know if they're there for you or for the provision of a benefit or the withholding of a punishment that you have.
	So if you're some creepy middle-aged professor and you're slithering up to and putting your Academic tentacles around some hot young thing in your class.
	Is she there because you are a professor who can give her the power to...
	Like you can give her a good mark.
	You can give her a recommendation letter.
	You can hire her as a TA. You can get her career path going.
	Well, that's not reasonable.
	That's not fair. And...
	I saw this meme the other day.
	It was a guy taking a picture of this couple on a plane.
	And... He said...
	This...
	This boyfriend said he would not date his girlfriend if she was a worm, and she's legit now crying.
	She's crying. What do you mean you wouldn't?
	If I was a worm, would you still date me?
	Well, no. Well, then you don't really care about me.
	It's going to, right? All this nonsense, right?
	And girls have this too, right?
	Women have this too. If they're very attractive, then is the guy with me because of me?
	Or is the guy with me because I'm attractive?
	Rich guys have this too. Is the girl with me because of me?
	Or is she with me because of my money?
	And so on, right? So you want to be as...
	Do you want to have as few influences as humanly possible?
	Quote, compelling someone to be with you.
	Because... If the old creepy professor says to the girl he's got some power over, and even if she's not his student directly, he can still massively influence her career as a whole.
	And, of course, the other thing, too, is that if she refuses his advances, then he might mock her down, he might badmouth her, he might spread rumors about her, and she might not get recommendation letters, she might not get TA assignments, and so on.
	So it's just, it's an unfair situation.
	It's just a massively unfair situation.
	So to truly trust that the person is with you because of you, don't hold any power over them.
	Don't hold any power over them.
	And then if they choose you, you can be certain that, and this is one of the reasons why the goal was to get men and women married young.
	You get them married young so that you don't end up with these creepy power dynamics.
	Where you've got this guy, he's like 40 and he's creeping on a 20-year-old and he's got money.
	And he's never going to be...
	He's never going to feel secure that she's with him for himself.
	She knows that she's half his age, so it's not like she's mature.
	It's not like she's had life experience.
	It's not like she has some big wisdom.
	He's there because she's young and luscious.
	So he's got money and she's got sexual appeal.
	And they'll hate each other.
	The relationship will be, you know, shit on a stick.
	It would just be... Frozen, you're in Popsicle Fest, right?
	It's just going to be horrible because they know that they're not with each other for virtues and qualities of character and blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
	So, no. It's the same thing if you're a boss and whatever, right?
	You say, ah, but what if they're the same age?
	Okay, well, then you've eliminated one variable, but you still have the variable of you're her boss or you're senior to her in the company and she's not going to be there outside of that influential framework, so...
	You give people the perfect opportunity to be with you or not be with you and then if they choose to be with you, it's because of you and that's what you want because that's the only way you're ever going to remain secure that the person loves you and cares about you just for you.
	And man, if you don't have that, you've got nothing.
	You just have a disaster waiting to happen.
	You have misery briefly on hold and that's about it.
	All right. Let's see here.
	If I suspect child abuse by a neighbor, somebody asks, and have reported it to the local authorities, do I still have a moral obligation to confront the neighbor?
	I witnessed screaming, cussing, and threatening behavior towards the child.
	Also saw the neighbor, the mother, roughly pulling or yanking the child, not sure if I should say something to her or if that would make things worse.
	I mean, it's a common question.
	I think you just have to rely on your judgment.
	I think you just have to rely.
	Obviously, there could be great outcomes.
	Maybe they realize that they're doing wrong, that people are noticing and they try to do better, or at least a child has seen someone stand up against that behavior.
	So there could be very great positives that come out of that situation.
	On the other hand, they might escalate and beat her half to death because you humiliated me like you're acting so badly that now people are complaining and whatever it is, right?
	They also might sabotage you.
	I mean, you just, you don't know how nutty they are.
	You don't know how nutty the people you're dealing with are.
	So I can't give you that advice.
	You're going to have to just rely on your own judgment.
	You're not morally obligated to do that.
	It can have great benefit.
	It can have great harm.
	And I can't tell you in those situations because I'm not privy to all of the details and data that you have.
	About the situation as a whole.
	Generally, if there's substance abuse involved, probably not going to do much good.
	If there's any way that you can give a kind word or two to the kid without inflaming the parents, that might be helpful.
	Sometimes like one crumb, an abused kid can live on one crumb for like ever.
	And so that's, I think, quite helpful.
	Hopefully that's quite helpful.
	Quick follow-up. What is she leaving since they are a temp intern?
	What? Is this the same person who's just asking me these questions?
	Okay, let me see here.
	Why am I annoyed? Let me just go back here.
	Yeah, so, yeah, well, what if I make money in Bitcoin?
	What if I lose money in Bitcoin? Well, that's up to you, right?
	A manager pursuing a relationship with an intern slash lower-level employee.
	Yes, there is an issue with that.
	Well, what if she's leaving? Because she's a temp.
	Well, then date her after she leaves.
	But, you know, the big question is, okay, what is the age gap here?
	What is the age gap?
	Just give me the years.
	They're the exact same age?
	Well, then what are they going to have in common?
	Because one of them's a boss and one of them's an intern.
	So one of them has had a successful career and the other one's career totally sucks.
	So what do they have in common?
	Well, maybe, right?
	So if they're the exact same age and she's leaving the company, man, we can date, but...
	What do they have in common?
	I mean, it's not like they're both young and she wants to have kids and so she didn't pursue a career and all of that.
	Well, but if he's old enough to have become a manager and she's still a temp, then she has tried to have a career and she sucks at it.
	25? 25, by the way?
	Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry.
	I've lost interest in the topic.
	All right. Thanks.
	More info on the, quote, defiant two-year-old.
	He indeed seems to do these behaviors most when he's not the center of attention.
	For example, kicks the dog while I nurse the baby, yells loudly when I'm making an appointment on the phone, pinches me if I'm talking to a mom friend at a play date.
	My husband works from home, and I am a stay-at-home mother, both peaceful parents.
	All day he gets lots of attention, affection, playfulness.
	Is it unrealistic to expect him to take turns talking or having the spotlight?
	Is he too young? Yeah, see, now what you're doing, and, you know, with all due respect, what you're doing, and this is like impossible answers day.
	That's fine. So what you're doing is you're saying it's all the baby, right?
	You're doing everything right, and it's all the toddler.
	All the toddler. The toddler is just, you know, every time he's not the center of attention, he's just mean and loud and unpleasant and difficult and all of that.
	So you're perfect and you're giving me the demon child scenario, right?
	Well, we're perfect. We're peaceful parents.
	We give him, you know, but he just, he's just bottomlessly greedy for attention and every time he doesn't get attention, he's aggressive or violent.
	So I don't subscribe to the demon-child theory.
	And I'm not saying you're saying your child is a demon.
	But it's like, well, he's just a bad kid.
	We're doing everything right. He's just a bad kid.
	If you're doing everything right, he's not going to be a bad kid.
	Again, maybe he's, you know...
	Because this is the, like, born bad.
	Just a bad seed, right?
	He's just, you know, we're great parents.
	We're perfect parents. And...
	He's just incomprehensibly mean and selfish.
	So again, this is the demon seed hypothesis.
	I don't subscribe to it.
	I don't subscribe to it at all.
	I don't subscribe to it at all.
	The child is experiencing something negative and he's reflecting it back on you.
	I don't know what that negative thing is.
	But again, it's kind of like, you know, in some analogous situation, if like You come to me, I'm a doctor, you come to me with a broken arm, and I say, well, what happened?
	You said, nothing, I've treated this arm perfectly.
	The arm is, I don't know, I didn't do anything, and my arm just has this weird twist fracture.
	And I'd be like, well, no, arms don't just spontaneously break, right?
	I mean, certainly not twist fractures.
	So, unless you have some horrible bone cancer, like, your arm, something broke your arm.
	You're like, no, no, no, I've treated my arm perfectly.
	I've been perfectly gentle with it.
	It's like, that's even worse, right?
	Because then you're saying my arm just spontaneously shatters.
	Like, that wouldn't make any sense from a physics standpoint, let alone a physiological standpoint.
	Because you'd have an effect without a course, a breaking without any undue stress or pressure.
	So when you're saying, well, my kid is behaving in a very dysfunctional situation...
	My kid is acting in a very dysfunctional manner, but there's no cause for it, we've done everything right, then what you're saying to me is not believable.
	I'm not saying you're lying, I'm just saying I don't believe it.
	I just don't believe it, because this is the demon seed hypothesis.
	Well, you know, we do it, but, you know, we stay at home, we're peaceful, we do everything wonderfully, and so on, and he's just in common, he's like stabbing with forks, and he's pinching when I'm on the phone, he's this and that and the other, right?
	Does he feel treasured?
	Does he know how much his parents enjoy company with him, right?
	Because you can't enjoy the company of a child who's doing this, right?
	I mean, it's going to be tense and stressful, right?
	So then the question is, did you stop enjoying spending time with him as much, and then he turned this way?
	And of course, you'll say, well, no, no, no, we love spending time with him, we've expressed all of that, but he just mysteriously turned out this way.
	Well, here's the thing.
	If you're doing everything right, but your child is aggressive and mean, it's not in the realm of philosophy.
	Because if you come to me and you say, like let's say I'm a nutritionist and I'm a personal trainer slash nutritionist, right?
	And I say, you know, follow this diet and do these exercises, right?
	And I train you on it and so on, right?
	And then, you know, a couple of months later you come back to me, you have absolutely no muscle tone and you've gained 30 pounds, right?
	And you say to me, no, I've been doing all of these exercises every day.
	I've followed this diet religiously.
	And I'd be like, but you have no muscle mass.
	But I've been doing the exercises.
	But if you'd been doing the exercises, you'd have some muscles.
	But I've been doing all the exercises you told me, religiously, every day, and I've been eating exactly the diet that you followed.
	But I have no muscle mass, and I've gained 20 pounds.
	I'd be like, then you need to see a doctor.
	Because if you are following a relatively low-calorie diet and you're doing a lot of exercise and you're not gaining any muscle and you are gaining fat instead, then this is not something that a nutritionist or a personal trainer can help you with.
	Maybe you have some thyroid issue or pituitary issue or something like that.
	But it's like if you're doing...
	Everything that is the right thing to do, but you're getting a terrible outcome, then the person who's telling you what to do can't help you.
	Right? I mean, I don't mean this with any negativity or hostility or anything.
	I'm just saying that if your child is behaving in a hostile, stabby, aggressive manner, like pinching and poking and sort of stabbing with a fork and so on, if you've been a peaceful parent, but your child is acting in an aggressive manner, then I can't...
	And your child is acting out in this way, then clearly I can't help you, right?
	Because I can't say, well, no, then don't be a peaceful parent, right?
	Because I can't say don't be a peaceful parent because it's a moral thing.
	So if you're saying, I've done everything right, but my child is mean and aggressive, I honestly have no idea what to say.
	I don't believe it. And I'm not saying you're lying to me.
	I'm just saying I don't believe that this is possible any more than a doctor would say, you know, if you bring your kid in, your kid's arm is broken, your doctor says, what happened?
	Well, nothing. Nothing happened.
	You know, we were just sitting watching TV and his arm just broke.
	Would the doctor say, well, that's odd.
	I guess it could be that way.
	No, the doctor would say, no, no, no, come on.
	His arm broke. What happened?
	No, nothing. Nothing.
	Honestly, we were just sitting in a hammock, reading a book, swinging back and forth gently.
	I just heard a snap and his arm broke.
	Okay, so we have an effect called a broken arm without a cause.
	And we have an effect called aggression and potential violence, like stabbing with the fork, with no cause.
	Again, we're going back to demon seed hypothesis, and if you want to do a call-in, I think that'd be great, but I can't answer that question, and I don't believe in the demon child hypothesis.
	And I say this as a parent. You know, my daughter is pretty punchy.
	I don't mean like hitting punchy, but she's quite punchy sort of that way.
	And if she'd had aggressive parents, she would have been, I think, very aggressive.
	And, you know, we've managed to harness this into, I think, some pretty positive things and so on, right?
	All right. Hey, Steph, how did you get the communication skills you have, verbal and written?
	Did you take some courses? Was it reading a lot, practice, a combination of things?
	It's a great question. I did not take courses.
	I have always loved to talk to people about important things.
	I love it.
	I don't...
	Like, you know, there's a scene in some old movie about priests in New York.
	And the priest is standing on the bridge in...
	Central Park, looking at the beauty of Central Park, and he says, like, so the people who don't live in New York, they're like, they're kidding, right?
	Like, they're just kidding. Like, why wouldn't you, right?
	Of course, this is before New York turned into its current Dantian layer of hellscape trash.
	No restraint on criminal situation.
	And so for me, it's always been like, you know, the people who just relentlessly talk about nothing, it's like, like, you're kidding, right?
	Do you think you're going to live forever?
	Like, what's the story here? Why on earth would you?
	I mean, I get, like, people, like, there are times when I just enjoy sitting back and making jokes and shooting the shit and all of that, and that's fun, but in terms of, like, why wouldn't you want to talk about important things in this short span we have between the here and the hereafter?
	Like, why wouldn't you want to talk about important things and deep things and things that mean stuff?
	So I've always been, like, Yeah, tell me more.
	Like, oh wow, that's interesting.
	Or, gosh, that's terrible.
	Or, you know, like, what happened?
	And the people either recoil from that or they reach to me like a drowning man reaches to a log, right?
	Because we all drown in nothing.
	Like, we don't drown in water.
	We drown in fog. We don't drown with somebody holding us down.
	We drown with nobody holding us up.
	You know, you wouldn't believe how many people drown in grain or even in foam, right?
	You fall into foam, you can't get out.
	You fall into grain, you can't get out.
	This is real quicksand. More people, I think, drown in grain than die from lightning or whatever, right?
	It's pretty rough.
	It's the nothingness that is the most dangerous.
	With water, you've got pressure, you can push up, and so even people who can't swim can stay afloat for a while.
	But the insubstantial things, the things that you can't really put pressure in or every time you move you go further down.
	You know, people who fall into foam in industry, they can't breathe.
	They can't get up because there's not enough substance and they fall into the foam and they breathe in the foam and they can't get any air and they die.
	It's like wildly not insanely uncommon.
	So, yeah, I've always been curious.
	And I don't have, like, no-go zones in my mind.
	I don't, I mean, to the betterment and to the worst of my career, right?
	I don't have no-go zones.
	Somebody comes up with something that's just, like, really wild and shocking that I've never heard before, and I'm like, hmm, well, that's interesting.
	Whether it's sort of pro or against stuff that I already believe or accept, I'm like, wow, that's wild.
	I remember when I read the bell curve, I'm like, wow, that's a wild hypothesis.
	Why have I never heard this before?
	And so on. And just when I read the Putnam studies about diversity and its effects on neighborhoods, I'm like, because I didn't really think about that stuff ahead of time.
	I was like, wow, that's really wild.
	So for me, I was just reading the study the other day that if you give leftist testosterone, they become conservatives.
	And it's a big effect, which is why I say I don't know and you don't know if you have particular political beliefs or just no muscle mass.
	You don't know if you're a leftist or just physically weak and frightened all the time.
	And therefore you need allies and therefore you can't afford to be independent and think for yourself.
	You don't know if you have a political belief system or just noodle arms.
	and when men gain upper body strength they become more free market, they become more free speech, they become
	smaller government so I don't
	I don't have a no-go zone.
	When I read stuff, I'm like, gosh, that's really interesting.
	When I did the gene wars, G-E-N-E wars, I did the gene wars presentations way back in the day.
	I was like, I'm curious what other biological basis to political opinions.
	Yeah, like two-thirds of your perceptions on immigration are genetic.
	So, at least, right?
	And, you know, biological basis of IQ, genetics, and so on.
	I just find this stuff really interesting because I just want to understand the world.
	And I don't have within me this, like, oh, yeah, right, right?
	Oh, my God, this, like, bad think, wrong think.
	I mean, I'm a free speech guy in my own mind.
	I actually write about this in my novel when I talk about Oliver, that he won't call himself
	a blasphemer because he believes in free speech in his own mind even when he's questioning
	foundational doctrine.
	So I just have had many, many, many years, decades, and even before this show, even before
	I went public in 2005, I was like, yeah, I'm...
	Thank you.
	I'm curious about these things.
	When I was given a book on the effects of child abuse when I was in my 20s, I was like, wow, that explains a lot.
	That's very interesting and so on.
	When I said to myself, I've been studying philosophy for over 20 years, I still don't really have a clear and cogent definition of morality.
	I wasn't like, oh my god, but I have to have it somewhere, or somebody has to have an answer.
	I wasn't shocked. I'm like, oh, you know what?
	That's kind of true. I actually don't have a good, clear definition.
	When people were questioning me about free will and so on, I'm like, you know what?
	I have a lot of instincts.
	I have a lot of thoughts. I have some arguments, but I haven't sort of crystallized it into a definition of free will that makes sense.
	So I did a big three-part series on free will back in 2006 or 2007, which has held up very well.
	So, I don't have a no-go zone.
	I don't have this, oh, can't talk about this, oh, can't talk about that, oh, this is bad, whatever, right?
	I mean, I have caution, obviously, in my public life, but I don't, in my own mind, I'm just like, oh, that's interesting, let's go there, let's look at that, let's, you know, sure.
	I don't have any sort of big haunted bugaboos, like, none shall pass, kind of thing, right?
	That doesn't... And so, wondering the sort of landscape of human thought and so on over the course of my life, yeah, I've developed a lot of skills.
	But my fundamental skill is just curiosity and an absolute resolution against self-censorship or the censorship of others.
	I mean, listen, man, people have told me some seriously shocking stuff at these call-in shows over the years.
	Like, seriously, like...
	I mean, you've heard me say it.
	Like I said, I just need to pause to process this information because my jaw is just on the floor.
	But I'm not going to censor people.
	Well, no, let's drop that and move on.
	We can't talk about this. I'm always saying to people, look, you don't have to talk about things you don't want to, but I just...
	A relentless curiosity, and I just...
	I don't do the...
	You can't talk about this stuff.
	I mean, a free will, free speech absolutist, 150%.
	And of course, you know, I've read a lot in terms of psychology, self-knowledge.
	I've read a lot of Jung. I've read a lot of Freud and Adler and other people.
	And of course, I took entire courses on psychology when I was in university and so on.
	And of course, I've done my own therapy and all of that, so...
	And of course, I get the great privilege of looking into people's minds in these call-in shows.
	And before I just did it as a sort of hobby and curiosity about life as a whole, I've really examined my own thoughts.
	I get to look at various alter egos in my fiction writing, which is why the fiction writing is perfectly philosophical and foundational to self-knowledge.
	Because in fiction writing, I... Look at my own alter egos, because in order to create a compelling character, I have to have sympathy, which means I have to not alienate that person from myself, and so on.
	So which is why I have a very tough time writing a truly evil character, although I think it would be a very interesting exercise.
	I haven't really done it.
	I don't know if I could. It'd be interesting to see.
	All right. Steph, you asked the other day what your priority should be for major projects in the next few months.
	I vote for Peaceful Parenting Book, absolutely essential for the future.
	I agree with that. And Peaceful Parenting Book is going to be high on the list.
	The Truth About Daycare was one opening salvo in that, so to speak.
	Somebody says, because of the testosterone thing, it makes sense.
	Why they push vegetarianism and veganism so hard and tell people not to eat cholesterol?
	Oh, yeah. I mean, they've said going to the gym will make you a far-right extremist.
	They need to keep guys away from weights.
	They need to keep guys away from red meat.
	They need to keep guys away from sunshine.
	They need to... All of this. Yeah, all the stuff.
	Don't take my advice.
	Just look it up. There are very specific and clear ways to raise testosterone.
	And I'm not a doctor here.
	You can go look those things up.
	But if you look at all those things, these are all the things that is discouraged.
	Which is kind of what you would expect.
	All right. Any last questions or comments?
	Any last tips for the value that I am providing to you, my lovely friends, this beautiful Sunday afternoon?
	I hope that you will get out and enjoy the world as a whole.
	But if you have any other last questions or comments, I'm certainly happy to hear.
	Just go here and here.
	It's funny, there's a whole, in one of the FDR communities, which you can get through subscribestar.com slash free domain, there's a whole coming collapse tracking from people who've read my novel, tracking how this stuff is going.
	It could be valuable. It could be valuable.
	Yeah, what did they say?
	No eggs, no bacon, blah, blah, blah.
	And oh, the sun is really dangerous, going to give you skin cancer.
	And of course, like I understand that there's risks involved, but there's risks involved not getting enough sunshine and vitamin D as well, which they don't really talk about too much.
	Apologies for annoying you with those questions.
	They annoy me as well, festering in my mind, which is why I wanted a second opinion.
	Okay, and there's two things, right?
	So the first thing is that when you get a clear answer and you move the goalposts, Okay, well, what if it's a boss and an employee?
	Okay, well, what if she's an intern?
	Okay, well, what if she's leaving?
	Okay, well, what if they're the same age?
	So what you're doing is you're just cutting things finer and finer until an answer can't be provided.
	It's a form of intellectual paralysis, right?
	These situations are extraordinarily rare.
	People the same age, but she's just an intern, but he doesn't have any authority over her, or at least he's not going to soon.
	You're slicing and dicing things out.
	So thin that they become unusable, right?
	So, you know, when they say, slice your garlic thinly, okay, but if you slice your garlic into atoms, then you can't use the garlic, right?
	I mean, imagine that. You know, you say, well, you know, mix your eggs into a froth.
	It's like, okay, but what you do is you get some atomic egg blaster mixer and then you turn them into a vapor when you can't cook with them anymore, right?
	If you divide things to the point where there's no clear lines possible, You're just numbing yourself into a kind of intellectual paralysis.
	And that's kind of where I got annoyed because I felt that was kind of happening to me.
	Well, what if I make money?
	Well, that's good. Well, what if I lose money?
	Well, that's bad. It's like, the fuck are you asking?
	Of course, if you make money, that's good.
	Well, what if I can set up a situation where things become so ambiguous that you can't come up with an answer?
	And this is why I said this is like impossible answer live stream, right?
	What if I've done everything perfectly, but my child is just really kind of malevolent?
	It's like, you can't answer.
	You can't answer that. What if I have followed your diet and exercise, but I have no muscle mass and I'm gaining weight?
	It's like, well, I can't help you then, right?
	So, you may have a habit.
	You may have a habit of slicing and dicing questions to the point where paralysis occurs.
	Because you don't want to act.
	No, but just be honest with yourself.
	Look, say, I don't want to act when it comes to moral philosophy.
	I want to keep asking questions and questions and questions, right?
	So you say, well, a 30-year-old guy having sex with a 15-year-old girl, is that immoral?
	Absolutely, because she can't consent.
	Okay, well what if, and what if, and what if, what if he's, you know, 18, he's just turned 18 and she's 17.999 and the difference between them is five seconds.
	Is that immoral?
	And you're just slicing and dicing things to the point where it becomes inconsequential and unanswerable and immaterial because these situations will never really occur.
	So you have a moral rule that's clear, which is what most of these things are clear.
	Most of these things in life are clear.
	Most of these situations that you come up with is like complete edge cases of what if, what if, what if, right?
	Most of these situations are clear.
	Now, you can come up with situations, okay, some guy's charging at you, you've got a gun, some guy's charging at you with a chainsaw saying, I'm going to kill you.
	Can he use self-defense? Yes.
	Well, what if, what if, what if, what if, right?
	And then you construct some scenario where it becomes kind of complicated, kind of hard to tell, and then you just say, well, we can't define self-defense then.
	You know, there's a saying, edge cases make bad law.
	Edge cases make bad law.
	Look, if somebody comes charging into your house in the middle of the night, screaming they're going to kill you, I assume in most places you can legally use self-defense, right?
	And then you can slice and dice it to the point where, you know, he's just jiggling the lock and he's not saying he's going to kill you, he's just saying I'm going to get you, but it turns out that he just wants to tickle you.
	Like, you can come up with something where it's like, I can't answer that, like, I don't know.
	Right? I don't...
	So if you...
	There are enough moral issues in the world that are clear that we can deal with.
	That inventing all these edge cases where you just get paralyzed and no one can answer the question is just a way of saying, I want to paralyze everyone around me morally.
	You're kind of acting as an agent of immorality.
	And I don't mean that you're a bad person.
	I'm just saying that this is the effect.
	Right? That you say to people...
	Okay, give me a moral case.
	Okay, but I'm going to refine it.
	I'm going to change it. I'm going to do it, right?
	So now this boss-employee relationship is, well, they're the same age and she's leaving the company and she's just an intern and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
	It's like, then I don't care.
	Like, I don't care. But what you've done is you've somehow sown the seeds of doubt in clear moral situations because you've invented all these edge cases.
	And I'm not saying this is a conscious thing.
	I'm not saying you're a bad person.
	I'm just saying that this is a moral habit.
	I've seen about six million different ways from Sunday.
	Which is people like, okay, but what if?
	But what if? But what if?
	Like I remember when I was training to be a security guard many years ago.
	I never ended up working as a security guard.
	But I was training to be a security guard saying, okay, well...
	And I was like, I don't know why I suddenly meant all croaky, but I was like, okay, so you're downstairs in the apartment building, and if the girls, the guy comes over and says, I want to be buzzed up to so-and-so, the girl in apartment 12B, and you buzz up to apartment 12B, and she says, don't let him up, then you can't let him up.
	She says, let him up, you could let him up.
	And my first question was, okay, but what if she lets, what if she says it's okay to come up, but then she calls you down while he's in the elevator and says, I don't want him to be here anymore.
	And he's like, when does that happen?
	Of course, if that happens, you just deal with it, right?
	But he wasn't going to entertain these edge cases to the point where, you know, this one in 10,000 occurrences where the woman completely changes her mind after saying he can come up and says, God, no, don't let him up, right?
	One in 10,000 times, which is things that will never happen to any security guard, almost.
	Like, he just doesn't entertain those edge cases.
	Right? Right? Don't entertain the edge cases, because when you entertain the edge cases, you're saying that the most important thing are things that will never happen.
	The most important moral questions to answer are things that will never happen.
	Say, oh no, but they could happen, or like once every year somewhere in the world.
	No, no, no, no.
	To hell with that, because we've got spanking, we've got coerciveness all over the place, we've got violence and abuse in myriad personal relationships.
	So drawing people to these edge cases It's preventing them from dealing with the genuine, real, vivid, unquestionable moral crises in the world.
	Don't do. So somebody says, whoa, I do a lot of these.
	What if scenarios? It's so automatic.
	It's very paralyzing, especially considering there's things I could do in my life.
	So I'm having these conversations with you because...
	I'm not paralyzing myself with edge cases.
	Where can I find the coming collapse tracker?
	It sounds really interesting. Yes, so sign up at Subscribestar.com and then you can go to the Free Domain community.
	It's in there. Somebody says, literally can't get enough of this community.
	It's amazing. Thank you. I love it.
	Somebody says, thank you, Steph.
	I wouldn't have guessed your curiosity if the world and of people was one of your biggest drivers in your communication skills, although it does make sense.
	Somebody says, these days self-defense seems not to exist anymore.
	Yes, it does exist for some people.
	It doesn't exist for others.
	Proposal for this show's title.
	What if I want to tickle you with a chainsaw?
	I'm sure there's a Reddit for that.
	Tips to compete for a promotion with your new AI super co-worker.
	That's pretty funny. All right, let's see here.
	Old friend of mine is 55, arranging a foreign 22-year-old girl to be his wife by paying girls fatherly monthly.
	Dating site for foreign women to get European and North American men as spouses.
	He insists girl will be his grateful companion.
	I say he's paying for somebody who wants citizenship.
	Oh yeah, that's brutal. Yeah, that's brutal.
	Don't hold out legal advantages to that degree because you will just end up paralyzed and full of hate and frustration and mutual contempt society, right?
	All right. Any last donations, comments, issues, tips, support?
	Support me like a jiggly stripper.
	This is Scott Adams.
	That's rough, man. That's rough.
	Thank you. Thank you very much.
	I appreciate that. But what if they will live happily ever after?
	That's right. But what if? Yeah, you can always find, like, I know a guy who first got together with his current wife when she was pregnant with her ex-husband's baby.
	Now, of course, most times you'd say, well, that's not going to work.
	But, you know, it's sort of like saying, should you jump out of an airplane?
	Yeah. Well, it's possible that you could land in a way that is not hurt and you get an amazing story.
	You film it all the way down.
	You land in some way that miraculously you're not hurt and then you make $100,000 on ads on that video, right?
	I jumped from a plane and survived.
	Shocking video and people watch it.
	You get ad money. So should you jump from a plane?
	You could end up uninjured with a great story, a vivid experience and $100,000 in the bank.
	Does that mean you are now of doubt as to whether you should jump out of a plane?
	No, of course you're not a doubt.
	Of course you're not a doubt whether you should jump out of a plane, right?
	Yeah, so, I mean, this is the most fundamental IQ test that you can give people, right?
	The most fundamental IQ test you can give people is to provide a generalization that's an obvious generalization.
	If someone thinks that it's a really, really great contribution to point out an exception to a general rule that you've never claimed is absolute...
	So if somebody finds it incredibly helpful in their own mind to point out an obvious exception to an obviously general rule, that person is an idiot.
	And I know this sounds harsh.
	I say that with some sympathy.
	Like, they can't add anything positive to an intellectual discussion other than bleating out like a stuck sheep an obvious thing, right?
	A completely obvious thing, right?
	Yeah, I know a tall Chinese guy, right?
	Yeah, you know, women...
	And they completely bog down the entire discussion because you have to put so many caveats in that no one can get anything done.
	So, I don't engage with people who point out Obvious exceptions to obviously generalized rules, because they just can't handle concepts, they can't handle statistics, they can't handle math, they can't handle probability, they just can't handle any of this stuff.
	And rather than elevate their game, rather than say, gosh, you know, if I want to contribute to this intellectual discussion, I really should learn how to think critically, how to reason, how to debate, how to argue.
	No, no, no, I'm just going to bleat out obvious exceptions to obvious generalities and think that I'm adding some value.
	And they're just trying to paralyze everyone, right?
	It's absolute intellectual sabotage that's all over the place in the world.
	Absolute intellectual sabotage.
	I know a woman, my brother's girlfriend is taller than he is.
	Hair tends to be considered attractive by women.
	Well, I know a woman who married a bald guy and finds baldness really attractive.
	Yeah, I get that. Generally, slenderness is more attractive in women.
	Well, I know a guy who's totally a chubby chaser.
	Right? Honestly, with sympathy, knowing your own limitations is part of being generally intelligent.
	I'm not going to audition for the NBA or the Bolshoi Ballet because I'm not good at basketball and I don't know how to do ballet dancing.
	I don't just get up there, stomp around on stage and do my...
	Dad dance moves and think I'm adding something wonderful.
	I watched one Cirque du Soleil show in my entire life and I didn't just sort of go up there and say, I'm going to join into all of these people jumping up and down on the giant seesaw.
	I'm just going to brain myself, right?
	So knowing your limitations is pretty important in life.
	And the people who don't know that they are dumb just come wandering into intellectual discussions spouting the most obvious, asinine, idiot stuff and thinking that they're contributing some magical, wonderful thing to the conversation.
	And here's the funny thing. The people who do all of this stuff, they would absolutely object if you did it to them, right?
	So if feminists are sort of pointing out these exceptions to general rules, and then if they say, well, there's a wage gap, and you say, well, there are many industries in which women earn a lot more than men, they'll say, well, yeah, I know, but in general, right, they'd get annoyed.
	And yet every time they'll do it to you.
	So again, it's just people who aren't smart...
	State the obvious and think that they are Einstein or Bertrand Russell or whatever.
	I mean, it's really...
	They don't want to be smart.
	They just want everyone else to be so dumb that they think that this non-contribution is somehow an amazing, wonderful...
	Yeah, I know a woman who works in garbage collection.
	Well, I drove past a construction site and I saw a woman doing something other than holding a stop sign.
	It's like, yeah, I don't...
	I understand. And I'm just like, you know, this is not the place for you, right?
	It's not the place for you. It's like watching those really bad people on American Idol.
	Like, they can't sing, and they can't dance, and they're just terrible.
	And it's like, hmm.
	Yes, this is the place for people who can entertain others, who can sing, who can dance.
	And, you know, my circle, it's like, I'm like, this is the place for people who can...
	Who can think? I mean, if you want to be around me, you're going to have to think.
	And if you can't think, that's fine.
	And one of the genuine characteristics of people who can't think is they don't know they can't think.
	They don't know that. They genuinely think that they believe they can think.
	They have absolute faith in this invisible God of their own cognition.
	They think they can think.
	They think that calling someone a negative term is the same as proving them wrong.
	They think they can think.
	And it's way too much a shock to their...
	The less intelligent you are in general, the more fragile your ego is, which is why less intelligent people tend to be more aggressive and volatile.
	So, when somebody has prided themselves on their ability to think, and then you can point out within about 10 or 15 seconds that they can't think, they get very aggressive.
	Because low intelligence is associated with high vanity and high ego fragility and high aggression.
	And that's pretty rough as a whole.
	All right. Well, thanks, everyone.
	I guess I'm done for tips today, wiping away a small silent tear.
	I guess I'm done for tips today.
	But I certainly do appreciate everyone's great questions.
	And please don't forget to check out freedomain.locals.com, a really, really great community.
	And I post a lot of stuff there that never makes it into the general feed.
	And if you subscribe there, you get the feed for my novel, which is a...
	Really great way to consume my new book, The Present.
	So I hope that you will check that out.
	I just published today, if you could share it around, The Truth About Daycare.
	I would really appreciate that.
	I'm going to put the rumble.
	I think I have the rumble thing up here.
	Yes, I do. So if you could spread this around, I would appreciate that.
	That would be super helpful for me and super helpful, I think, well, I know, for kids as a whole.
	That would be just very helpful.
	The more people we can get to stay home, I would appreciate that.
	Stephan is the greatest of all time.
	Great after show last time.
	Oh yeah, that was fun, wasn't it? Thank you, Stephan.
	You've made my day again. I appreciate that very much.
	And have yourselves a wonderful, wonderful afternoon.
	If you're listening to this later, freedomain.com forward slash donate.
	Really, really, really do need your help.
	And I would really appreciate your support.
	Freedomain.com slash donate.
	Lots of ways to help out.
	Have yourselves a wonderful, wonderful day.
	I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Well, thank you so much for enjoying this latest free domain show on philosophy.
	And I'm going to be frank and ask you for your help, your support, your encouragement, and your resources.
	Please like, subscribe, and share, and all of that good stuff to get philosophy out into the world.
	And also, equally importantly, go to freedomain.com forward slash donate.
	To help out the show, to give me the resources that I need to bring more and better philosophy to an increasingly desperate world.
	So thank you so much for your support, my friends.

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