Based Camp - All Grandeur Begins With Delusions of Grandeur

00:00:00.000 We are told that life is a race, but life isn't a race.

00:00:04.900 It's an action RPG, and you have specced your character wrong.

00:00:09.800 A lot of guys today, and I think this is one of the biggest problems, is they are speccing characters that are designed to win in the sexual marketplace, and then it ends up fucking up the rest of their life because a male who wins in the easy sex marketplace is a very poorly specced character for the job market.

00:00:28.920 It's a very poorly specced character for the marriage market. 0.87

00:00:32.100 It's a very poorly specced character for the dad market.

00:00:34.920 Yeah, even for long-term happiness, for more than just a 10-year period even, just terrible.

00:00:40.140 Yeah, some people are born to be kings, and some people are born to be knights.

00:00:44.980 And we have taught the knights of our society to be systemically unhappy with who they are because they are followers and not leaders.

00:00:53.240 They are part of a system, and then through acting as a part of that system, they can individually achieve the highest greatness that any human can achieve, which is maximizing your own potential in the world.

00:01:07.880 We are glorified for the crucible that life builds for us.

00:01:13.100 It is through our suffering that we achieve things of meaning, and we build an identity of meaning in one that we can be proud of, and that there is nothing to be proud of if you have no challenges.

00:01:29.360 Would you like to know more?

00:01:30.360 Malcolm, the other day, someone, and they were like, let's be honest, Simone, you wouldn't have looked at Malcolm twice if he wasn't, like, super, you know, I can't remember what it was, like, super smart or successful or something.

00:01:42.880 And I was like, 100% no.

00:01:45.080 Like, the reason why I was driven crazy by you the moment I met you was, frankly, your delusions of grandeur, that you sat across the table, you laid your cards down, and you were like, you know, first, you know, I'm not looking to get married.

00:01:57.200 I'm looking to find a wife, like, totally honest about your intentions, but also, like, and here's my vision for the universe.

00:02:01.840 This is why I think humans are here.

00:02:02.880 I'm going to get our planet, like, our species off planet.

00:02:05.700 I'm going to do this.

00:02:06.540 I'm going to protect sentience.

00:02:07.680 I was like, you dream big.

00:02:11.160 Even the way I come off publicly was something that I worked really hard on.

00:02:15.440 The video on how to get people to have sex with you is one that we can't publish because Claude said it was too naughty.

00:02:19.800 But one of the things I did over and over again when I was little is I would go to little, I don't know the word, young, like high school, right?

00:02:27.800 I would go to malls, and I would practice walking up and talking to random people.

00:02:34.060 And I would just do this over and over and over again, like reps.

00:02:36.940 It was the goal being getting somebody's, you know, phone number and then, you know, doing some sort of post-talk follow-up or something like that.

00:02:43.780 Just over and over and over and over again, both so that I learned to not feel pain at social rejection because this is a really ingrained thing that's really hard to get over, but also so that I learned how to do that.

00:03:00.000 Like as a skill, how to maintain that positive energy when going up to someone.

00:03:04.140 If positive non-threatening energy is something that really is not necessarily you're born with it, but you can learn to master it through repetition.

00:03:13.780 But for you, it was more than that.

00:03:15.280 It was the passion.

00:03:16.400 It was the dreaming big.

00:03:17.960 Women find that super hot. 1.00

00:03:20.220 Well, men find that hot too.

00:03:21.380 Although men, I think, love admiration, like genuine admiration for them from a woman more than like her confidence necessarily. 0.64

00:03:27.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00:03:28.700 I think that this is something that really cannot be stressed enough in this modern like manosphere environment, which is when you are out there and you are looking for a wife.

00:03:38.620 The best way to attract a woman is with your passion, and this is something that women, the type of women who make for great wives, are very attracted to and are looking for.

00:03:54.080 They are looking for someone in this world who they are inspired to follow.

00:03:58.420 I was watching this great clip of Steve Irwin today talking passionately about what he wanted to do, and I suggest you guys check out the clip, but I'll try to include the last little bit of it here if it doesn't get us copyright struck, where you can just see in his wife's eyes like, oh yeah, this is what I'm into.

00:04:16.040 It's this passion that I am into.

00:04:19.020 I want to save the world, and you know money? Money's great. I can't get enough money, and you know what I'm going to do with it? I'm going to buy wilderness areas with it.

00:04:27.080 Every single cent I get goes straight into conservation, and guess what, Charles? I don't give a rip whose money it is, mate. I'll use it, and I'll spend it on buying land.

00:04:35.860 But the point I'm making here is I think that a lot of people can think that something's innate to a person instead of something that an individual worked really, really hard for.

00:04:46.420 Now, I'm going to be honest. I think that innate things are also things that people work hard for.

00:04:51.920 I mean, if you're running at a disadvantage, if you're ugly, you're running at a disadvantage. Totally, totally, totally.

00:04:57.180 That's not what I mean.

00:04:58.360 Okay.

00:04:58.780 One of the most interesting statistics I learned recently is that how fat you are, your probability of being obese and how obese you are, is about as genetic as your IQ.

00:05:12.460 So, very genetic.

00:05:14.120 Now, here is what's really surprising about that.

00:05:18.540 If you look at somebody who is two standard deviations from the norm in terms of metabolism, that's only a difference of about 120 calories a day.

00:05:29.200 So, the truth is this human metabolism doesn't actually vary that much in between individuals.

00:05:36.640 So, that means that the vast, vast majority of this difference, of this sort of preset obesity level that an individual is born with is based on behavior patterns that are inherited.

00:05:54.080 Mm-hmm.

00:06:24.080 That means that in college, he was known for just standing in public areas and then going up and saying hi and trying to gregariously start conversations with people until he was no longer afraid of talking to people and he could learn to do this.

00:06:37.920 You know, that even reminds me of what our son does when he gets really scared by something.

00:06:42.300 Is then he, like, gets fixated on doing it until he's not scared anymore.

00:06:45.860 Yeah, it's really interesting behavior.

00:06:47.620 So, I do that.

00:06:48.620 My son does that.

00:06:49.640 My granddad did that.

00:06:51.160 It's a behavior pattern where I guess we can say you have control over it and you can try to.

00:06:56.020 But, so, part of this is framing, you know, getting people over.

00:06:58.320 But part of it is maybe it's more genetic than we're giving it credit for.

00:07:02.780 That's fair.

00:07:03.480 That's fair.

00:07:04.820 Like, so, this, part of this comes down to a quote.

00:07:07.360 Because we're going to try to go over two quotes I've heard recently that really impacted me because I felt that they were so profoundly true.

00:07:13.440 One came from my brother.

00:07:15.040 And he said, you know, he was thinking about training his kids, right?

00:07:19.460 And we were talking about, well, what do you want to instill in your kids?

00:07:22.380 And he goes, well, I definitely want to find out how to instill delusions of grandeur in them.

00:07:28.220 And Brittany was like, yeah, but what if they never grow out of it like your brother?

00:07:31.660 And he goes, well, all grandeur begins with delusions of grandeur.

00:07:36.740 And I loved this statement so much because it's just so obviously true.

00:07:43.100 It's like when you think about the things in this world that have grandeur, like the 16th Chapel or something like that, right?

00:07:48.820 The 16th Chapel or the 16th Chapel?

00:07:50.180 16th Chapel.

00:07:51.240 16th?

00:07:51.680 16th Chapel.

00:07:53.020 I see. 1.00

00:07:53.500 I'm an idiot. 1.00

00:07:54.240 But I believe I'm smart. 1.00

00:07:55.980 So that obviously the idea for it was created with delusions of grandeur.

00:08:02.380 And then it became grandeur.

00:08:03.720 If I look at the projects today, like SpaceX.

00:08:06.140 SpaceX was created by somebody.

00:08:10.100 Obviously, I'm going to create a space program.

00:08:13.480 But it created grandeur, you know?

00:08:15.840 Yeah, yeah.

00:08:16.460 And I think that almost definitionally when you look around, and yet people today, you know, they talk at, so I was going to say definitially.

00:08:24.120 If you look at something that is truly grandeur, that does truly exude grandeur, it could only have been created by an individual with delusions of grandeur or by a vision that reeked of delusions of grandeur.

00:08:37.540 And yet, this is something we medicate people for now.

00:08:40.660 This is something we try to quash out of populations or tell our kids not to have. 1.00

00:08:46.360 When it is a fire, I think every individual can aspire to stroke within themselves and to, yeah.

00:08:56.880 So I really found that meaningful.

00:08:59.060 But then the other quote that I really loved.

00:09:01.280 So, Simone, can you tell the story?

00:09:02.860 You had really screwed up at something, and you were sort of beating yourself up for it.

00:09:07.860 Yeah.

00:09:08.420 Well, and I always, when I walk around the house alone, I'm constantly talking to myself, which is why it's great to have an infant with me at all times, because then it seems like I'm talking to them.

00:09:15.400 But I, yeah, I messed something up again, and I'm always messing things up.

00:09:19.300 And I told myself, oh, well, it's okay, Simone, because, you know, as soon as you're not fucking things up, it means that you have gone on easy mode.

00:09:26.680 You're not trying hard enough.

00:09:27.600 You're not doing new things.

00:09:28.580 You're not challenging yourself.

00:09:30.140 And I told you about that, and you seem to like it.

00:09:33.400 Well, I really like it. 0.97

00:09:34.580 If you are not fucking up, you are not challenging yourself anymore. 0.98

00:09:39.640 Yeah. 0.99

00:09:39.820 If you are ever not making mistakes.

00:09:42.220 So when you make a mistake, yes, it makes sense to, you know, learn from that and to press yourself forwards.

00:09:49.060 But if you are ever in an environment where you are no longer making any mistakes, then that is because you are no longer challenging yourself.

00:09:56.900 Yeah.

00:09:57.120 And I guess, you know, the caveat here is it needs to be a novel mistake.

00:09:59.600 If you're making the same mistake again and again, it probably means because you're not trying.

00:10:02.740 And that's also very worrying.

00:10:03.900 But we, you know, we have a very similar related life philosophy of yes and, which is, you know, we stole it from improv where you're supposed to yes and everything.

00:10:13.240 You can't be like, oh, like I'm on a unicycle.

00:10:15.880 And then your partner can't be like, no, we're not. 0.86

00:10:17.580 No, you have to be like, yes, and we're clowns or something.

00:10:20.220 So for us, yes, and is more just like, okay, take on the thing.

00:10:23.520 Like, you know, should we also try to reform the entire educational system?

00:10:27.500 Yes.

00:10:28.040 And so we do that.

00:10:29.780 And that does lead to problems sometimes because we are likely to then go over capacity at some point.

00:10:36.480 But then our general thing is like when we discover that we're at capacity, then we just kind of wait until some things trail off and kind of like move forward in a very painful way until we get to a more doable level.

00:10:47.500 But basically, if we're not struggling, if we're not a little bit over capacity, it means that we have capacity that we're wasting.

00:10:52.100 And so I think that that's very related to the messing things up sign is when you discover that things are feeling very easy or that you're not messing things up anymore.

00:11:01.120 It is for us, for our value system, a very worrying sign.

00:11:05.500 So I'd also tell people that, you know, we have seen the halls of power of society, you know, whether it's the secret societies that Simone used to run, whether it's, you know, my family is supposed to be, and we'll do an episode on this eventually, one of the families that runs the Illuminati based on the bloodlines of the Illuminati book.

00:11:20.960 Being the oldest male, I'm supposed to be one of the people who runs that.

00:11:23.920 And I can tell you, we don't run the Illuminati, but I definitely have met my share of famous people.

00:11:29.740 And through, you know, getting my MBA at Stanford, I got, you know, we would go to a lot of governments.

00:11:34.320 I took that opportunity to visit a lot of other countries and meet with sort of their governing systems and the top VCs in the country and the top private equity players in the country.

00:11:43.120 You know, based on various projects that we've run throughout our lives.

00:11:46.000 So we've met the best of the best, supposedly.

00:11:49.900 And they're just not that competent.

00:11:53.200 We are not saying that you, average person, are great. 0.98

00:11:57.720 All of us are flawed and fucked up and fail all the time and fail to be who we could be. 0.97

00:12:03.840 But what we are saying is that the mistake is not that you are being too hard on yourself. 0.99

00:12:11.000 In fact, you should always be hard on yourself.

00:12:13.060 It's that you think that the people who are succeeding are that much above you.

00:12:18.500 And I think that it's very important to remember when you're looking at this,

00:12:23.540 that this does not mean that you should belittle people who have achieved a genuine accomplishment over and over again.

00:12:29.680 Right. Like, I think some people take this to be like, oh, the rich are like not that competent or whatever.

00:12:37.100 Right. Like, this is the way that they react to that and that they're actually all idiots and they've gotten it through dishonest means. 1.00

00:12:43.560 And it's like, not really. 0.98

00:12:45.480 I'd actually say that the core difference between the two groups, if I was going to say, like the core thing we've noticed is mostly initiative,

00:12:51.320 is that rich people just have more initiative and self-assurance.

00:12:55.200 But there is some competence difference between the groups.

00:12:58.340 It's just not as big as people think.

00:13:00.200 Now, a really interesting thing, and this comes down to a tweet I heard, which is also true to an extent, right?

00:13:06.020 Is it's that we don't have a epidemic of imposter syndrome.

00:13:10.900 We have, so imposter syndrome is this belief that some people have.

00:13:14.420 And when I was at Stanford Business School, they even had like seminars for it.

00:13:17.460 We talked about it all the time.

00:13:18.860 You don't deserve these things that you have and you're not actually good enough for them.

00:13:22.620 Well, and of course, the seminars were on how to overcome it.

00:13:25.640 Yeah, it's that we have an epidemic of imposters.

00:13:28.400 And I actually think that might be true.

00:13:31.000 Yes.

00:13:31.340 It does remind me, so Simone used to be very meek in this way. 1.00

00:13:34.680 And when you went to Cambridge, I developed an exercise for you that you're supposed to do every day.

00:13:39.660 Do you remember what it was, Simone?

00:13:40.820 But it was something about like actually asking myself, like, if, you know, the person next to me or whatever was.

00:13:49.400 Yeah, it was every day you were supposed to go out and see if you could find one person who was more competent than you.

00:13:55.140 But I mean, I personally never had imposter syndrome.

00:13:58.540 I just assumed that everyone was more smart in ways, better than me, than I was.

00:14:05.420 Yeah, but what you learned really quickly, because you still had this meek attitude towards things, is every day you would go out at Cambridge, which is supposed to be like one of the top universities in the world, you know, in a graduate program.

00:14:16.580 And you would come back almost every day and be like, no, I didn't meet anyone more competent than me today.

00:14:21.440 I didn't meet anyone who like was that much better than me today.

00:14:25.180 And through doing that, you were able to, and it took you a while.

00:14:29.680 You know, at first, I remember for like the first few weeks of doing this, you'd be like, yes, but Malcolm, it's like an illusion.

00:14:35.780 Yeah, there was one, like right away, Emmanuel in my class, like, you know, amazing.

00:14:39.760 You met one person who was smarter than you.

00:14:41.700 Yeah, I met one.

00:14:42.620 Well, you know what?

00:14:43.740 You got to take a look.

00:14:44.420 Do you understand how logical and insane that is?

00:14:48.120 And look at what, look at your judgment of his competence.

00:14:51.620 What does he do now?

00:14:53.960 Well, he's at Harvard now.

00:14:55.720 No, he ran like one of the largest companies in the world.

00:14:58.640 Yes, yeah.

00:14:59.420 No, he ran, yeah, like sub-Saharan Africa for Novartis.

00:15:04.460 Yeah, like.

00:15:05.100 Which is the second largest biopharmaceutical company in the world.

00:15:07.480 Kind of huge.

00:15:08.360 The point being is one, I sent you out there to judge people's competence.

00:15:12.420 And I guess I did so.

00:15:13.120 Yeah, I did so accurately.

00:15:14.000 Like he, he got.

00:15:15.120 You accurately judge their competence.

00:15:16.720 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:15:17.420 So first of all, this was not like an illusion to you.

00:15:20.240 He was actually competent and he was actually uncompetent.

00:15:22.600 But the point is, even today, you can see she struggles with this belief that she's actually

00:15:28.420 that competent.

00:15:29.520 And so what I would say is there's two things that like, unfortunately, we need to get across

00:15:34.720 in this, which are sort of contradictory, but need to be put across in the same package.

00:15:41.280 Many ultra competent people, when contrasted with actual society today, who could go out

00:15:47.340 there and who could make a difference, aren't doing it because they lack either the pathway

00:15:53.120 through which that is done or the self-confidence. 1.00

00:15:56.640 Simultaneously, we don't want to accidentally inspire more of these idiots because there actually 1.00

00:16:02.920 is a difference. 1.00

00:16:04.800 There is an actual competence gradience across humanity.

00:16:07.980 There are actually people who just are not good enough.

00:16:11.520 And I'm sorry about that, but it's just true.

00:16:13.420 Like no matter how hard they work, they might be able to move themselves into position of power,

00:16:17.420 but then we just have an incompetent person in a position of power, which isn't great for

00:16:21.800 the rest of us, you know?

00:16:23.400 And so that it's-

00:16:25.740 I believe that there is a place for everyone.

00:16:28.260 It's just that our society encourages people with the wrong skill sets to aspire to the wrong

00:16:35.080 things, I guess.

00:16:36.720 Well, so this is an interesting, I saw this recently, speaking of because of my mind's in

00:16:41.320 the Baldur's Gate again, because that's the game I'm playing these days.

00:16:44.180 There's dice rolls for characters based on the D&D system.

00:16:47.360 It is that we are told that life is a race, but life isn't a race.

00:16:55.580 It's an action RPG, and you have specced your character wrong.

00:17:00.820 You have specialized in the wrong stats and the wrong skills, and that's why life is challenging.

00:17:07.800 And in a way, I think that's kind of true for a lot of people.

00:17:11.620 No, that's super legit.

00:17:12.820 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:17:13.340 I think a lot of people are frustrated because they're, yeah, they're playing the wrong character.

00:17:21.420 Well, yeah, or they spend too long.

00:17:24.200 I mean, I think especially this is true.

00:17:26.060 A lot of guys today, and I think this is one of the biggest problems, is they are specking 0.99

00:17:30.140 characters that are designed to win in the sexual marketplace, and then it ends up fucking 1.00

00:17:35.860 up the rest of their life because a male who wins in the easy sex marketplace is a very poorly 0.89

00:17:43.200 specced character for the job market.

00:17:45.040 It's a very poorly specced character for the marriage market.

00:17:48.080 It's a very poorly specced character for the dad market.

00:17:51.040 Yeah, even for like long-term happiness, like for more than just a 10-year period, even.

00:17:55.080 I'm just terrible.

00:17:55.920 Yeah.

00:17:59.760 Well, so then what would you say to like a parent?

00:18:02.380 I mean, like your mom raised you to have delusions of grandeur, right?

00:18:06.720 Like didn't you like come home from school one day and they're like, yeah, I don't know,

00:18:10.560 like Malcolm keeps saying he's going to be like a king or something, you know, like he has

00:18:13.960 a problem.

00:18:14.860 No, no.

00:18:15.220 And she's like, what's wrong with that?

00:18:16.220 And they go, no, you don't understand.

00:18:17.500 He thinks he's actually going to be king of like the world.

00:18:21.480 Like he is convinced that this is his destiny.

00:18:25.360 And my mom was like, why would you try to convince him otherwise?

00:18:29.340 And I love that, right?

00:18:30.720 Like that is, I think clearly, I actually think that this is something I have consistently

00:18:35.540 seen across really successful people is that when they were very young, they were raised

00:18:40.880 to have delusions of grandeur.

00:18:42.480 And then from like the ages of like, let's say 10 to 20, they were just absolutely beat

00:18:50.040 down by life.

00:18:50.900 Destroyed, destroyed.

00:18:51.920 Destroyed by life.

00:18:52.640 You know, just sent to prison, sent to camps, had everything taken from them, disowned by

00:18:57.420 their family.

00:18:58.540 Elon Musk is a great example of this, for example.

00:19:00.480 Yeah, no, he had a tough, tough childhood.

00:19:02.840 But when he was really young, his family kept telling him how great he was going to be,

00:19:06.260 which you saw from the book.

00:19:07.580 And this is something I just keep seeing across my friends who are sort of in this group,

00:19:12.260 is delusions of grandeur are built in, like up to the age of 10.

00:19:17.040 And you can almost say it's entitlement from what you're going to get from reality, but

00:19:22.360 also entitlement combined with a sense of responsibility, which I think is also something I don't see

00:19:29.860 from these people.

00:19:30.660 You know, when they reach out to us and they're like, you know, this is how challenging my

00:19:33.280 life is.

00:19:33.920 This is how these are individuals who we know we can't help often because there's

00:19:39.500 not a lot.

00:19:40.040 They typically neither have delusions of grandeur nor have experienced real hardship,

00:19:44.420 which is why they're like not even willing to like proposition people.

00:19:50.520 Right.

00:19:51.020 But I will say that there's a type of person who, when they reach out, I immediately know

00:19:54.640 they're going to strike it big.

00:19:55.600 And we've helped a lot of people.

00:19:57.380 Yeah.

00:20:00.140 Or the random fan.

00:20:01.660 We made her head of the Pernatalist Foundation.

00:20:03.600 Now she's getting her graduate degree in Harvard.

00:20:05.660 You know, so, so like when we try to help somebody, oh, another person we just heard.

00:20:09.500 She came to work with us as a nanny. 1.00

00:20:12.080 She just got a, what are these grants called?

00:20:14.120 So it's called a emergent ventures.

00:20:16.960 So this is a, yeah, this is Tyler Cohen has, has funded her to do whatever she wants now

00:20:23.240 basically.

00:20:25.080 So people reach out to us sometimes and we're like, oh, you're obviously going to go somewhere.

00:20:30.120 And what they always say, okay.

00:20:32.960 Is there like, okay guys here.

00:20:36.180 Like, like this is, is, is what I need to fix about reality.

00:20:40.220 Can you help me fix it?

00:20:41.760 Yeah.

00:20:41.980 Yeah.

00:20:42.180 And it's never, never, never about woe is me.

00:20:44.380 I can't do this.

00:20:44.960 I can't do that.

00:20:45.400 It's like, oh, Hey, you know, I see what you're doing.

00:20:48.040 This is what I'm doing.

00:20:49.000 Let's talk, you know, that kind of attitude.

00:20:51.900 But every one of these individuals, they have something innate to them, which I do not

00:20:56.960 see in people who are not successful is they believe that the world is their responsibility.

00:21:03.120 There's one of my favorite.

00:21:04.400 The world.

00:21:04.920 And that's, and not just their lives, not just their own happiness, not, but literally

00:21:08.560 like the world.

00:21:09.400 That's so true.

00:21:10.400 So at the beginning of every episode of this, you hear a line from a movie that, oh my God,

00:21:15.080 if you have not seen this movie, you need to go see it.

00:21:17.000 It's Starship Troopers.

00:21:17.800 And it has so many banger quotes in it.

00:21:23.100 But one of my favorites is the difference between a citizen and a civilian is that a citizen takes 0.82

00:21:29.600 the safety of the human race as their personal responsibility.

00:21:33.840 And this difference, this, this, because there is a type of person who just innately believes

00:21:41.400 that the safety of the human race is their personal responsibility.

00:21:44.900 And when these people reach out to you, you can sit.

00:21:47.640 It's like an aura, right?

00:21:48.920 And it, I don't know if it's changeable in an individual.

00:21:51.580 I don't know if it's changeable after childhood.

00:21:53.120 I don't know if it's genetic.

00:21:54.120 But I will say if it turns out that it is for a lot of people, I think that they would

00:21:58.660 be a lot happier if they took the burden of all of humanity upon their personal shoulders

00:22:03.100 and stop thinking about their own problems.

00:22:05.560 And this is really interesting because we live in a society today that expects everyone to

00:22:12.660 be equal.

00:22:13.760 That sees the differences between individuals as existential threats to its promises and

00:22:20.920 everything like that.

00:22:21.780 And yet, historically, we were not equal.

00:22:24.500 And this was understood.

00:22:25.800 And I think the truth is, is that humans aren't equal.

00:22:28.540 And this should be obvious.

00:22:29.600 We are not born equally attractive.

00:22:31.120 We are not born equally intelligent.

00:22:33.080 We are not born all sorts of things, right?

00:22:35.000 Like, and it is a cruel jest to pretend that we are.

00:22:40.340 But we can be happy with our own roles in this great game when we recognize that it's,

00:22:50.180 we're not all equal.

00:22:51.540 We can't all achieve the same things.

00:22:53.000 And that's okay.

00:22:54.360 You know, you look at somebody like us when contrasted with Elon Musk, right?

00:22:59.480 Like, he has accomplished more than us.

00:23:01.440 And genuinely, I would say he is smarter than us.

00:23:03.960 And yet, he can only do so much.

00:23:07.140 You can already see his overtasking himself has made things begin to fall apart in aspects

00:23:12.580 of his life.

00:23:13.220 And you can already see, with us, there are things that we have been able to do that he

00:23:19.860 has not been able to do.

00:23:21.140 Like, you know, a single, stable family unit with a lot of kids.

00:23:25.660 And that these-

00:23:26.200 Wait, he's got a lot more than we do.

00:23:29.680 He's got a lot more than we do.

00:23:30.840 I think that my hypothesis would be that the family structures that he's trying to create

00:23:35.220 intergenerationally probably won't be as successful as just raising a kid with one mom.

00:23:39.440 Well, this is a hypothesis for sure.

00:23:42.900 But I would say that dispositionally, part of what makes him successful in other areas

00:23:46.700 also makes it hard for him to just stay with one person his entire life.

00:23:49.780 Totally, yeah.

00:23:50.760 It is the very gift that allowed him to be successful in one area that makes success

00:23:56.740 in another area and the need to invent new strategies a necessity.

00:24:01.760 So I'm not saying this is a negative thing.

00:24:03.520 But the point I'm making is that there are fans who watch this show and who are like,

00:24:08.900 I could never achieve what you two have achieved.

00:24:12.400 And I want you to understand that there are things you can achieve that we cannot dream of.

00:24:18.100 And it is very important that you remember that.

00:24:21.040 And even if they don't accrue you the same social status, even if they don't accrue you

00:24:26.660 the same public edulation or lifestyle that we are able to-

00:24:29.600 And it's not like we have amazing social status.

00:24:34.580 I think that's a pretty narcissistic statement.

00:24:37.380 I don't think we have amazing social status.

00:24:40.360 It's narcissistic in that it doesn't recognize all the benefits that you have every day from

00:24:45.260 the types of people who interact with you, Simone.

00:24:47.280 That's fair.

00:24:47.660 Or the types of people who come to our parties or the types of people who reach out to you

00:24:52.200 when they want help.

00:24:53.140 Don't you think people who come to our parties come for the other people?

00:24:56.700 No.

00:24:57.760 You think somebody like Scott Alexander reaches out to help from random other people?

00:25:02.120 Well, because nobody else is like connecting prone to those projects.

00:25:06.400 So you undersell yourself in a way that is not as endearing as you think it is.

00:25:10.200 I'm not trying to be endearing.

00:25:11.500 I'm trying to be realistic.

00:25:12.160 No, but I think that you have learned that through acting unreasonably humble, that you

00:25:18.220 are acting like in a kind, elevated way.

00:25:22.940 I don't want to be kind.

00:25:24.400 Dude, I'm, no, this isn't me just trying to be accurate to a fault, probably.

00:25:30.160 I don't.

00:25:30.500 But it's not accurate.

00:25:31.600 You have probably one of the highest social standings of any human alive.

00:25:36.020 You used to, I'm sorry, Simone.

00:25:38.640 I actually, this is what I'm talking about when I'm talking about like me doing this

00:25:41.660 Cambridge thing with Simone to help build her up.

00:25:43.720 If sometimes she doesn't accurately recognize her position in reality and through not accurately

00:25:51.220 recognizing her position, she's, she's trying to act in a way that is humble, but it-

00:25:56.760 I am not trying to act in a way that is humble.

00:25:59.020 Okay, so realistically, who of the world's population, what percent do you think can cold

00:26:09.480 email somebody or call somebody who's in your preexisting network and get the type of

00:26:15.180 high profile people to respond?

00:26:16.400 If they're using the same enticements we are, I mean, okay, most people above a certain

00:26:24.300 general intelligence level, yes, no problem.

00:26:27.960 I think that is just entirely delusional.

00:26:30.900 But anyway, I wanted to ask you another question, which is there's this tension between, no, you

00:26:36.580 can't be everything.

00:26:37.860 Not everyone has the same abilities.

00:26:39.720 And yes, it's a good idea to give children delusions of grandeur.

00:26:45.260 Like, you know, a lot of people talk about the, the toxicity and saying you can be anything

00:26:50.640 you want to be.

00:26:50.980 No, you need to understand that some people are born to be kings and some people are born

00:26:56.640 to be knights.

00:26:57.800 Yeah.

00:26:58.100 And that we have taught the knights of our society to be systemically unhappy with who

00:27:02.680 they are because they are followers and not leaders.

00:27:06.480 And that creates pain and suffering in a society.

00:27:10.440 We are taught everybody must achieve this, this, and this.

00:27:13.840 Even us who promote pronatalism, I understand fully well that there are many males that will

00:27:18.840 never get partners.

00:27:20.780 And that that is okay.

00:27:22.860 Because there are other roles you can play.

00:27:25.360 When you make the safety of the human race your personal responsibility, there are still

00:27:31.940 many other roles you can play in this grand game that we are all players in.

00:27:37.460 And just because you aren't personally meant to be a king or a queen on the chessboard does

00:27:43.820 not mean that your life has no meaning.

00:27:46.300 Okay.

00:27:46.620 But what are you going to tell our kids?

00:27:48.440 Like, how do you get them to take responsibility for the world, but also make sure that they

00:27:53.080 take responsibility for the world in realistic fashion?

00:27:55.400 You raise them within a hard cultural context.

00:27:58.220 It was a hard cultural group.

00:27:59.700 The big problem is, is that when these people get converted into the dominant urban monoculture,

00:28:06.040 the virus, as we call it, it tells you, one, everyone is truly and exactly equal.

00:28:11.020 And when that's not the case, something is wrong about the world.

00:28:14.400 And then two, that you should not really feel suffering.

00:28:18.140 That suffering is an aberration.

00:28:19.540 That death is an aberration rather than positives that improve the human condition.

00:28:23.660 Whereas when you look at stronger, older cultural traditions, none of them feel this way.

00:28:29.120 None of them think this way. 0.69

00:28:30.520 No Catholic, well, some insane Catholics think that they are the equivalent of the Pope. 0.80

00:28:36.220 You know, they understand that there are people above them in this world and that their life

00:28:41.040 is not lesser for that, that they are part of a system.

00:28:45.540 And that through acting as a part of that system, they can be a individually achieve the highest

00:28:53.460 greatness that any human can achieve, which is maximizing your own potential in the world.

00:28:59.120 And that you should not judge your potential based on, well, I don't get this thing.

00:29:02.640 I don't get that thing.

00:29:03.860 There are some individuals.

00:29:05.340 It is possible to be a pernatalist.

00:29:06.780 It's possible to be a total advocate within the pernatalist movement and still not be capable

00:29:12.960 of securing a partner or still believing that your genes will not benefit the next generation

00:29:19.760 and therefore should not be passed on.

00:29:21.780 This is a bizarre fantasy of this progressive hive mind that the only way to live a fulfilled

00:29:29.100 life is to subject, is to be, you know, an individual sovereign of yourself and, and, and not feel

00:29:39.600 pain or emotional suffering or anything like that.

00:29:41.920 We are glorified for the crucible that life builds for us.

00:29:48.080 It is through our suffering that we achieve things of meaning and we build an identity

00:29:56.260 of meaning in one that we can be proud of and that there is nothing to be proud of if you

00:30:02.060 have no challenges.

00:30:03.540 And that's why I liked this quote that you came up with so much.

00:30:06.340 It's a life without challenges is not a life to be proud of at all.

00:30:12.680 In this podcast, we might look like people who are like, oh, you're simping for Elon Musk

00:30:18.680 or whatever people who hate on Elon Musk are honestly dirtbags.

00:30:22.640 This is a human being who, after he repeatedly has got more money than any human could ever

00:30:28.400 want, he bets it on trying to solve whatever he thinks humanity's next great threat is in

00:30:34.860 a way that could lose it all.

00:30:36.580 Oh, the climate change is an issue.

00:30:38.160 Well, let's buy into a electric car company.

00:30:42.880 Oh, this is space travel.

00:30:44.420 Humanity is a one planet species.

00:30:45.820 This is a huge risk.

00:30:46.820 Let's see if we can become multi-planetary.

00:30:49.140 Oh, AI could be a big risk.

00:30:50.800 Okay.

00:30:51.140 How, what's the future look like where AI doesn't kill us all?

00:30:53.840 Maybe what type of AI is a big risk to humanity?

00:30:56.760 How do we build a future where AI isn't a risk to us?

00:31:00.280 Well, one of those futures would be one where like humanity integrates with AI.

00:31:04.580 So let's create this AI integration company with Neuralink and just over and over and

00:31:09.660 over again, he is putting himself out there.

00:31:12.720 And I think by denigrating people just because they're successful, which I think is a tactic

00:31:16.300 that many people use to make themselves feel better instead of just saying, you know, good

00:31:21.940 job.

00:31:22.640 You've done a good job.

00:31:23.820 I appreciate that.

00:31:24.720 You may have flaws that I don't have.

00:31:26.780 You may have issues I don't have, but I can learn to overcome that.

00:31:29.480 It's great.

00:31:30.340 And I hope that our fans can learn to be happy with their lives, even if they're not

00:31:35.800 able to completely recreate the life that we have.

00:31:39.240 That is not what success looks like.

00:31:41.720 What success looks like is through understanding and genuinely taking on the belief that the

00:31:46.280 responsibility of the human race is your personal responsibility and living with that

00:31:52.380 knowledge every day.

00:31:53.200 And I, I hope that we make our people who watch our shows, the lives better.

00:32:00.820 I hope so too.

Based Camp - October 13, 2023

All Grandeur Begins With Delusions of Grandeur

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript