In this episode, I explore the profound impact Scott Adams, creator of "Dilbert," has had on my life, particularly in light of his recent health struggles with prostate cancer. I share how Adams' insights into corporate culture resonated with me during my early career as a software entrepreneur, emphasizing his critique of management structures and the humor derived from absurd realities. I recount personal anecdotes that illustrate the value of his work in shaping my perspective on success and authority. As I reflect on Adams' resilience through life’s challenges, I highlight the existential themes his comics bring to the forefront, urging listeners to confront mortality, pursue their passions, and seize opportunities now rather than waiting. Ultimately, I express deep gratitude for Adams' influence, encouraging everyone to challenge complacency and embrace their potential.
Living Richly (Live Like You Are Dying) - https://fdrpodcasts.com/368
Shows with Scott Adams:
HOAXED: EVERYTHING THEY TOLD YOU IS A LIE! Stefan Molyneux Interviews the Directors - https://fdrpodcasts.com/4289
The Kanye West Controversy - https://fdrpodcasts.com/4075
When Facts Don't Matter - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3889
Stefan Molyneux's Five Hour Christmas Spectacular - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3538
How Donald Trump Won the Election - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3433
Why Donald Trump Is Winning - Or Is He? - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3383
GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!
https://peacefulparenting.com/
Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!
Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!
You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!
See you soon!
https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025
Living Richly (Live Like You Are Dying) - https://fdrpodcasts.com/368
Shows with Scott Adams:
HOAXED: EVERYTHING THEY TOLD YOU IS A LIE! Stefan Molyneux Interviews the Directors - https://fdrpodcasts.com/4289
The Kanye West Controversy - https://fdrpodcasts.com/4075
When Facts Don't Matter - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3889
Stefan Molyneux's Five Hour Christmas Spectacular - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3538
How Donald Trump Won the Election - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3433
Why Donald Trump Is Winning - Or Is He? - https://fdrpodcasts.com/3383
GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!
https://peacefulparenting.com/
Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!
Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!
You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!
See you soon!
https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hi everybody, this is Stephan Molyneux from Free Domain and I just wanted to share some
00:08thoughts I just read today.
00:13Scott Adams has reported that he has the same kind of cancer, prostate, serious, at least
00:23Scott says he's not going to make it probably past the summer and it's spread to his bones
00:27and I just wanted to of course express my deepest condolences to Scott, actually been
00:38quite an important influence in my life, I got into Dilbert when I was a software entrepreneur
00:46and dealing with retarded boards and you know fairly corrupt salespeople at times and you
00:57know the massive gap between marketing and tech as I was both a chief technical officer
01:03and a director of marketing and his cynicism, his humor, his stuff has literally burned
01:12into my brain bits from the old Dilbert comics that they nestle and breed in my brain, one
01:23of Dilbert's presentations which went wrong and he said and in conclusion I hate you all
01:27which kind of burned itself into my brain, Wall-E's well why would I wash my towels when
01:33I come out of the shower I'm the cleanest thing in the house, a towel is supposed to
01:36bend just absolutely hilarious warm-hearted brilliant brilliant stuff and one of my fun
01:48memories with my brother was we were on a business flight and reading Scott Adams the
01:53Dilbert principle and just laughing hysterically at what he wrote, he is an absolute a genius
02:04and brave there was a CEO who invited him to come in and pretend to be a business consultant
02:11and he got a bunch of executives to agree to a business statement that made absolutely no
02:15sense and Scott Adams put on a wig and a false mustache to make this happen and that's that's
02:20gumption man that's that's pretty wild that's commitment and I did have the good fortune to
02:29have a conversation with Scott I think twice on this show which was really an honor a very
02:34deep honor and privilege for me and it is the end of an era his insights into politics were
02:48always staggering for me I used to listen to the the morning shows that he did quite a bit when I
02:54got out of politics I did not follow them as much though every time I dipped in he always had
03:00something remarkable and brilliant to say when I was young I thought of all of the people who were
03:14older than me but not by much I think he's 67 and I'm 58 and I remember when I was younger I thought
03:21of all the people who were just a little bit older to me than me and how I would feel when
03:27they got sick and died I remember thinking about Sting for some reason Sting's in good health I
03:33think his hearing is messed up as you can imagine from such an intergalactic rock star and he put a
03:38hearing aid in and then he said but I didn't really like hearing what people had to say so
03:41he pulled it out he does work with the hearing hearing association and I think I just remember
03:50thinking what's it going to be like when the people a little ahead of me start to die and
03:56of course don't you don't we all don't we wonder what what it's going to be like when we get that
04:08slow shake of the head from the doctor what's it going to be like when we get that slow shake of
04:18the head from the doctor well doc are there any alternatives are there any treatments what are my
04:23options then Scott did try ivermectin he tried some femme boozle doozle stuff or whatever it
04:34is I don't really remember the name because there was little downside as he points out and in that
04:38why not right don't we all wonder how when we know the ending and it's time frame because it's
04:53kind of a blur right it's kind of a blur it's kind of a pixelated fog out there yes we could
04:57get hit by a bus car crossing the street tomorrow or the last time I took a plane it was shaking
05:02like crazy and of course you just wonder hey what if the wheel what if the wings come off or or
05:06something like that and I deeply admire Scott's resolution and his dignity I mean the man is in
05:19oh I assume considerable if not downright unbearable pain from he's got arthritis he's
05:28got bad discs in his back he's got a tumor and I think they're all kind of concentrated in the
05:32same spot so I've never really had any back pain but it's really an ugly thing to go through and
05:42it's not even like you're going through it right there are certain health conditions you know for
05:48me it's like software and hardware issues so there are certain health conditions that you know I
05:54don't know you you get a hernia and and you get it fixed so then you sort of hopefully it's a go
05:59back to normal right then there's other stuff like hearing or whatever that if it if it fries
06:04it's pretty tough to get fixed and certain conditions to stand right impossible so that's
06:08like a hardware issue a software issue you can reinstall the OS and back to normal hardware
06:13issues are kind of fixed and permanent and you know Scott's Scott from what I've seen you know
06:22has had some significant highs and lows in life which is kind of what happens when you live life
06:28in some reasonable way trying to maximize your potential and Scott you know when he was younger
06:34he's working at Pacific Bell I think the guy got held up at gunpoint twice in a year or two when
06:39he was a bank teller and then obviously wanted to move into management and then hit that white
06:44male DEI ceiling and was explicitly told that he couldn't progress because of his race and sex which
06:50is all just appalling stuff but he would get up at four o'clock in the morning casting about and
06:55working on various business ideas I mean Scott wanna he started doing cartoons at the age of six
07:00like I started writing short stories at the age of six and he would get up at four in the morning
07:05before work and just just grind and it paid off for him in terms of you know wealth and fame he
07:13was the biggest comic strip in the world for a long time and I mean he had a TV show the Dilbert
07:24stuff was everywhere the merchandise was everywhere he had the dill burritos had a full food line he
07:30was a restaurateur but I think law students if I remember rightly lawsuits put a stop to that I'm
07:33sorry if I get anything wrong and he was married and then his stepson later on got addicted to
07:41drugs and died of an overdose I think it was fentanyl I'm just you know highs and lows and
07:47highs and lows are the inevitable byproduct of a life lived with focus commitment and intensity
07:53and I've read a number of his books all wonderfully written incredibly insightful you know he's not
08:04he's not a philosopher anymore than I'm a cartoonist but I don't judge non-philosophical
08:09non-philosophers books by philosophical standards so you know had a lot of important powerful stuff
08:14to say our metaphysics and epistemology would not accord but humor is such a deep and delightful
08:26spice of life and Scott taught the world not to take itself too seriously Scott taught the world
08:38that competence and management are often complete opposites it's called the Peter principle like
08:44you're promoted one level beyond your level of confidence a competence sorry the confidence
08:48yeah and so you know you move up until you're bad at your job and then they don't move you up any
08:53further so you move up one one rung past where you're competent and he demystified bosses he
09:01empowered those who competently do rather than those who incompetent incompetently waffle and
09:08merely talk it's a great gift to the world you know when I was a kid growing up in in England
09:15of course you know teachers and bosses and managers I remember the headmaster of my boarding school
09:19like gods you couldn't question or evaluate and how dare you and you just got to fall in line and
09:25conform and probably march off to some godforsaken rat infested mud-soaked trench somewhere in France
09:33in the end result of that kind of authority worship and Scott absolutely took an irresistible
09:43sledgehammer to the authority of bosses and the authority of experts and you know humor all the
09:55way back I was in King Lear when I was in a theater school and I was as most people who read
10:04the play or watch the play or involved with the play fascinated by the court jester right the
10:09court jester the fool the only one who can tell the truth as the old saying goes you can tell
10:17them the truth but you have to make them last laugh first otherwise they'll kill you and Scott
10:22in the most powerful and positive way really one of the biggest influences of positive subversion
10:31I mean there's negative subversion where you know your culture has no history and everything you do
10:36is illegitimate and right you're all criminals like that that's really horrible subversion but
10:40subversion of the unearned prestige of often accidental authority was something that Scott
10:47took a acidic flamethrower hatchet to the base of these almost titanic sequoia trees of authority
10:57in our society and just hammered them and in a fearless and when I say irresistible once someone
11:06makes you laugh and gives you that dopamine and I used to I mean when I was when I lived in Montreal
11:11I lived in Montreal for four years two years at theater school in two years at McGill finishing
11:16my undergraduate in history and I would get the newspaper every day and I would read it cover to
11:21cover and I would go first to the Dilbert always first to the Dilbert I bought the books and and
11:28I just I was never a fan of the TV show it was a bit too surreal for me but it's just a matter of
11:33taste it's not anything here there here or there but he gave me a genuine deep and abiding gift
11:45which is skepticism of the org chart skepticism of quote authority because I mean the way that I
11:58grew up it's like well everyone who's in charge must know what they're doing there must be
12:02fantastic of what they're doing they must have this immense talent and skill and ability and
12:07just seeing that chipped away at it was at least for you know from the British culture that I grew
12:13up in I mean it was it felt almost not quite criminal it felt like a misdemeanor at best
12:29and it felt like forbidden forbidden knowledge the skepticism of authority was that great Dilbert
12:39where he's saying you know like mouse 50-inch CRT monitor people who don't need people are the
12:47happiest people I mean just brilliant I mean because the mirror image of Dilbert and the
12:57pointy-haired boss where the pointy-haired boss is skilled with people and incompetent
13:00and technology and Dilbert is competent technology and unskilled with people and that's often the
13:07the shallow sophist versus the semi autistic technologist is one of these interlocking
13:14things in in business that there is no particular solution to but it always seems to be a kind of
13:20fascinating coalescence of jigsaw puzzle pieces and when when when Scott moved into politics my
13:28god I mean okay obviously you make a lot of predictions in the world I'm more of a free
13:37will guy than Dan Scott Adams is but nonetheless there's so many variables even if there wasn't
13:43free will there's way too many variables it's like a rock bouncing down a hill you can't say
13:47where it's gonna end up accurately down at the bottom you know it's not gonna end up at the top
13:51but where exactly it's gonna land so he made some predictions most of which are very good I mean he
13:56got Trump because Scott's a trained hypnotist and really deeply understands the power of persuasion
14:02the persuasion of Dilbert was it is the persuasion of Dilbert was bosses are to you it's important to
14:21be skeptical of bosses which is a very valid concern it's important to be skeptical of bosses
14:26and it's all important to be skeptical of engineers as well and Scott's predictions were
14:35so good so often and his way of I shouldn't say like it's all past tense he's still gonna keep
14:43doing his show and I hope that he lasts long past the summer again assuming that the pain level which
14:48is considerable for him he says he has no good days and the evenings are even worse which is
14:53why he stopped doing his evening shows on his locals channel but his political analysis his
15:00analysis of cause and effect is a pulling apart of dominoes of why things happen or why they don't
15:08happen or ways to reverse looking at cause and effect or was almost second to none almost second
15:17to none and you know also he has muscle issues for decades I think in in the mid-2000s mid-early
15:272000s he had spasmodic dysphonia is it that where he had to end up with a surgery to reroute his
15:35vocal cord muscle so that he could speak effectively and I think he was feeling immense amounts of
15:41despair at not being able to talk effectively and I mean I talk all the time I can completely
15:46understand the horror of not being able to communicate and the feeling of being locked
15:53inside a silenced solitary confinement prison of your own skull flesh it would be pretty pretty
16:01appalling so I have great sympathy but he worked hard and he got the right surgery and his voice
16:06completely recovered and I really I really do believe that the bitter acerbic hilarious fool
16:19I'm not calling him a fool I'm just saying that the humor in his show is foolish and extreme but
16:28uncovers immense truths you know like if you're cleaning as a stone or and you use very high
16:36pressure water right I mean that high pressure water is extreme it's not rain it's not a bucket
16:42it's that high pressure and what it uncovers what it what it blows away that that high pressure
16:49acerbic foolishness uncovered so many essential truths for me and liberated me from the automatic
16:59programmed maybe a little bit I think it's more British than American this sort of automatic
17:06looking at the aristocracy or looking at the sort of the ruling class the top class he just he just
17:15blew all of that away and and and that was really important to me because and I'm trying not to make
17:24this about me at all right but I'm just want to say the influence that Scott had excuse me in my
17:32life was when I was raised how I was raised was you know there was like the ruling class the smart
17:45people the good people the brilliant people the whatever and then there was like the the soldiers
17:50the grunts the privates the working-class that drones the soldiers the factory workers and there
18:03was like a gap like a you can't you can't cross England's very class-based societies you can't
18:08cross America's much more tumble-dry but England is it's not quite a caste system but a sure it
18:14hell isn't the opposite of a caste system and so by reading Dilbert you know I went from a junior
18:24programmer to a chief technical officer in a matter of months and my former mindset sort of pre Dilbert
18:33would have been I can't do that I have to I have to go get an MBA I have to go and and and I was
18:39actually I was very successful as a chief technical officer I interviewed like a thousand
18:45people I hired like a hundred people that managed a lot of people I wrote software I did R&D I
18:52traveled to do sales presentations helped negotiate contracts and presented to boards and you know I
18:58mean because I was just like there is no magical barrier between the bottom of the top there's
19:04willpower dedication learning expertise and commitment and you know obviously some you know
19:11intelligence barriers and Scott was important to that for me because he removed from me the ceiling
19:21you know that's the ceiling of like well I mean clearly if I want to go from junior programmer to
19:25chief technical officer it's gonna take 10 years at best right as opposed to why can't I do it in
19:33a couple of months why should I put an artificial limit on my own capacities prior to the evidence
19:38that they're limited right now why why should I assume that and Dilbert and Scott Adams was a
19:46massive influence on me why doesn't Dilbert take the pointy-haired boss's job because Dilbert is
19:54addicted to technology and the same with the pointy-haired boss is addicted to politics and
19:57sophistry but why why not you know in in England when I grew up there was no path to the top I mean
20:09if you you had to have the right accent the right context the right pedigree you had to have the
20:19right schooling all of these things and there's this gap this is this void between the low and
20:27the high maybe you could get to the middle class but you better not go to the high and the glorious
20:35anarchic a chaos and skepticism of the top of the ruling classes so to speak that is in Scott Adams
20:45Dilbert's of course when it comes to business to a considerable degree and also in in politics and
20:53and you know as we saw in in in COVID and in the whole health care professional class that got so
21:00much unbelievably wrong and the permission to just not believe people is is something foundational
21:07and I just I don't know if you'll ever see this Scott but thank you you really did liberate the
21:16sewage grates of arrested potential and give me just to mix analogies a giant catapult to what
21:27I was willing to accept I was capable of and it was the same thing you know I've been running this
21:32you know I mean up until a couple years ago by far the world's biggest philosophy show
21:37uh 10 million downloads a month and it was just it was massive right a hundred thousand books
21:42a month um just huge and that's part of like well I don't have a PhD in philosophy from Harvard
21:51or Yale or Princeton or Cambridge or the Sorbonne and so on it's like but why would I limit myself
22:00absent evidence right absent evidence you know I remember trying out to be a singer in a garage
22:06band and I'm like yeah okay that's maybe not for me I like to sing but I'm not particularly good at
22:11it but so absent evidence yeah evidence yes limitations right I've never been able to
22:17touch my toes I would never become a ballerina or a dancer but I'm willing to accept the evidence
22:24of limitation but where there is no apparent evidence of limitation why would I accept it
22:35at priority why would I say this is my ceiling this is my top in the absence of evidence
22:42you can just do things you can just start a philosophy show you can just
22:47co-found a a business and sell to the biggest corporations in the world you can just
22:52travel to Europe and China and America and all over the place to just sell software you can
22:59just go and give speeches and presentations at conferences you can just go do things
23:02if you're committed and if you're willing to learn and grow and that's a great gift
23:10and the last thing I want to say other than great thanks to Scott for liberating not just
23:18mine but countless people's potential from preconceived limitations and notions and the
23:23prostrate worship of the experts and the bosses of the management classes and the
23:30self-perceived gods of the universe who are
23:34wizards behind a curtain I wanted to thank you that for that Scott really it's a huge gift it's
23:40a huge gift to have uncorked people's potential by giving them massive skepticism at the efficacy of
23:47expertise and boy did you bring that to life in a way that was so engaging and funny
23:54but this is not to do with Scott I just wanted to thank Scott for that and
24:02give my absolutely enormous sympathies for the suffering of the people of the world
24:07just wanted to thank Scott for that and give my absolutely enormous sympathies
24:15for the suffering that that you're going through it's appalling and I'm so sorry but
24:25the other thing that I wanted to say because I mean I'm close to 60 I mean close to 60
24:38yes I exercise yes I keep my weight down yes I eat well get my sunshine
24:51but my friends
24:57please absorb please absorb this that
25:00that it's later than you think
25:11it's later than you think
25:15whatever you're going to do that you want to do that there's evidence you can do or at least
25:20there's no evidence you can't do it whatever you're going to do my friends please I'm begging
25:25you on my knees do it ask the girl out ask the guy out start the business move take the trip
25:37learn the skill it's later than you think and there are enormous numbers of people in the world
25:48who lull you into a strange kind of bewildered timelessness just
25:59timelessness and this is particularly true for men we don't have the metronome of
26:04menstruation and we don't have the you know additional signs of aging
26:11we're kind of like bricks from 20 to 60 and then maybe we fall apart I don't know
26:15we'll see but it is later than you think in life now I used to think middle age was like 50 no
26:27no no middle age is like 37 in terms of your productive years right a lot of people retire
26:33in their 60s right not me but a lot of people do but it's later than you think and I think
26:40I've always felt a sense of a sense of urgency and of time passing it's later than you think
26:51we don't live life from the deathbed back we live it from youth onwards and
27:02I remember the first video I ever did was called live like you're dying
27:06I'll put a link to it below and in that video I said well imagine that you're on your deathbed
27:14and you could go back to where you are with the health you have and the youth you have and the
27:17vitality that you have which I hope you have or at least it's correctable but what would you not
27:24give for that or the old question like if somebody were to offer you a hundred million dollars you'd
27:28say well that's great and then you say yes but you don't get to live tomorrow okay so living tomorrow
27:32you wouldn't want it right so living tomorrow is worth more than a hundred million dollars
27:39if you need to lose the weight just lose the fucking weight
27:46if you want to get married make that your soul goal ask and do what is necessary to get married
27:54if you want to have kids don't wait do it now it's later than you think it's later than you think it's
27:59later than you think because we live life looking backwards for the most part and the big wrench in
28:09perspective is to live life from your deathbed back what will make me happy on my deathbed
28:15if I got the news that Scott Adams got some months ago if I got the news
28:23that I had a few months to live what would be my biggest regrets
28:30I mean I talked about very very controversial issues on my show which got me cancelled to hell
28:39and gone I have no regrets because if I had not talked about those essential controversial issues
28:48and things had just gotten worse and worse and worse I would look back and say
28:51what would have happened if I did and that would be that would gnaw that would give me regret
29:00and you can't influence the future for the better without being cursed in the present by the worst among us
29:13if you imagine that you got right the silent head shake of the doctor
29:20doc what can I do what am I what are my options
29:23you have to get your affairs in order and you have to make peace with your ending
29:31okay imagine you get that news tomorrow
29:37what is left undone I guarantee you it's not being a completionist in Diablo or Elden Ring
29:46I guarantee you it's not being a completionist in Diablo or Elden Ring
29:55when you face the end all of your former fears evaporate and just leave you with the hard scrabble
30:02bitter sand of regret oh if I'm gonna die why didn't I ask that girl out oh my god
30:09if I'm gonna die what was I so scared of I know you are gonna die you are
30:18and you'd never know when you don't know
30:25and all of your fears will die with you so don't let them dominate you now
30:31dominate you now it's later than you think get your ass busy