Advice for Dealing with Bullies, Big Tech and Social Media ｜ Answer the Call
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, host Dr. John Peterson answers a question from a concerned father whose son is approaching morbid obesity and is being bullied by his peers. Dr. Peterson also addresses a question about how to deal with the effects of technology and bullying.
Transcript
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You got bullied, right? You talked all the time.
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My son, Anthony, is overweight. His friends used to tease him and ridicule him.
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Our eight-year-old son has been called fat by a few friends.
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How can we as parents encourage a healthy lifestyle, knowing when or if to focus on weight?
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The situation that you're both facing at the moment is not
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My husband and I are parents to two young adult ladies.
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we feel like the generation gap right now is more like a generation chasm.
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How can parents raise children to value debt in an age dominated by short-form content?
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During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you from around the world
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about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or if they simply need advice.
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My daughter, Michaela, guides the conversations as we hopefully help people navigate their lives.
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Over the next hour, we're going to hit on two topics, bullying and technology,
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Yes, my son, Anthony, is overweight and he's approaching morbid obesity.
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As he gained more and more weight, his friends used to tease him and ridicule him.
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So my question is, how do you repair this kind of damage?
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He's 21, approaching 22, stays in his room most of the time, lost in video games and that
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And it's kind of like living with a heroin addict.
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I get as sick as he does trying to steer him and control him.
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And I just feel lost as a parent and I don't know how to heal him.
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Well, the first thing I feel compelled to say is that, and this isn't exactly the psychological
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issue, is that, you know, my family, my daughter in particular, Michaela, has battled with health
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problems, very serious health problems her whole life.
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And one of the things that we've discovered that's very strange and odd, but that has been
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verified now by thousands of people is that a carnivore diet will strip weight off people
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so fast that it's absolutely beyond comprehension.
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And so I would feel remiss in my obligations if I didn't lay that out as a potential practical
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Um, I guess what I would say more on the forgetting about diet on the practical side, although there
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are obviously health concerns as well as social concerns that are relevant here, I would say,
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what is it that you, I would want to find out what you envision for your son and what he envisions.
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Like we, we know that the situation that you're both facing at the moment is not optimal,
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You guys need a joint plan that you agree on, on what would be better.
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And I, I, like people, human beings by their nature are visionary creatures as we lay out
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a structure that we wish to make real in the future.
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Otherwise we're the puppets of our surrounding or the, um, victims of forces that are beyond
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Vision is the alternative to manipulation and, and subjugation.
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Um, vision is the alternative to slavery and tyranny.
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Your son is not living a life that is sustainable and productive, no doubt by his own account and
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certainly by yours as a, an interested and concerned parent.
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It would be helpful to help him develop a plan for where he wants to be in five years.
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And for you, for, for him to help you understand what would be best for him from you, you know,
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cause I can imagine his attitude is something like, get off my back, dad, and leave me alone.
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And you can understand that his attitude could well be, don't bug me.
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However, things are not going in a good direction.
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And so your conundrum is, well, you have to, what are you going to do?
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Ignore it and let things deteriorate across time.
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And so you guys are in a position where you need to develop a plan and it needs to be one
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And that's going to take some very difficult discussion to convince him.
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I guess I would start with questions, you know, and because questions rather than statements
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are a much more effective way to suggest and intervene.
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But they have to be non-manipulative, you know, they have to be genuine questions.
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So if your son came and saw me, I would say, like, first of all, well, how are you reacting
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It's like, well, this is problematic and this is problematic, but it's like I'm defending
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myself by hiding and I don't know what else to do about that.
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And then you have to ask, well, if this could be rectified, what would a rectification look
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How, as a father, you could ask him as well, how do you want me to conduct myself when I see
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that you're ensconced in a world of misery in a manner that's going to make the future
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If I love you, I can't ignore that, but I don't want to torture you to death and add to
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Given your understanding as well, that I can't just stand by and watch you go to hell in
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So first of all, and I think a lot of chronically ill, I think every chronically ill person,
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including people suffering with obesity, are blamed for their health problems.
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And then they're left in this position where they don't know the solution.
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So like what I would say, like my husband lost 300 pounds doing the carnivore diet.
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No, and he's a staggering good looking person now.
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And it's not, you don't have to starve yourself.
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I would probably, if I was them, trying to get on board with trying the diet as a family.
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Some people have a harder time stopping eating them than other people.
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But third of all, you can do something about it.
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And let's just all try it as a family for like a couple of months.
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He's probably not just, it's not the video games that are the problem.
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I would say it's the physical ailments and probably depression and brain fog that are
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That's a very important additional concern because the fact of his obesity is a reflection
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of an inability to manage a high carbohydrate, high sugar diet.
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And it's clearly the case that many forms of depression are inflammatory and are brought
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I should also say, you know, it took me a long time to eradicate all quick judgment from
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my observations of people that were obese because it's very easy to judge.
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And I've become completely convinced that the best way of thinking about it is that it's
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It's like, we're wired genetically to gorge on high carbohydrate, high sugar foods because
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And so when you came across honey, you just ate all of it because maybe you're not going
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They also set up scientists to manufacture foods so that people could stop eating them.
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Um, and I don't think, you know, you need to go on a diet or you need to change the way
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It puts the blame on the person and it doesn't even give them a plan.
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Well, and diets don't work because a diet is food restriction.
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If you restrict and then stop restricting because you can't maintain that forever, you
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And the advantage to this carnivore diet approach or keto approach is that you can eat as much
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I also can't tell you, like I had a juvenile rheumatoid arthritis from the age of two and
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I gained weight when I went away to college because then I started eating pizza and beer
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And, uh, and it really impacted my mental health.
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But I cannot explain how much this diet has changed my life.
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Like I was on something like eight medications for psychological health and then immune suppressants,
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So I could sleep painkillers for the arthritis.
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The other thing that's helpful too is like your kid isn't very old.
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That's, I turned around my health when I was 23.
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And I actually needed to get old enough to recognize that my health issues were going
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But I know a lot of younger people who've done the carnivore diet.
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Like my husband started a keto diet when he was 17 and that's when he lost 300 pounds.
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But once you're on it, you don't even want those other foods.
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And I think he'll start dropping weight so fast that he'll be like, okay.
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Our eight-year-old son is kind, loving, and socially observant.
00:13:02.820
He is also very sensitive, especially in regards to his appearance and his performance.
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He is taller and heavier than his siblings and most peers and has been called fat by a few
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How can we as parents encourage a healthy lifestyle, knowing when or if to focus on weight without
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creating an eating disorder or hyperfixation on his outward appearance?
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Well, I guess some of the discussion that we already had is relevant with regards to stabilization
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of diet, is that moving your family's eating pattern to a lower carbohydrate load would be
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And, you know, your comment with the last questioner was that this has to be a family affair.
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And I believe that's the case because eating is a communal activity.
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And just cutting processed foods can make a big difference.
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If you just focus on a lot of meat, fruit, and vegetables, try to get rid of the grains
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and processed foods, that'll probably help him out.
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And I wouldn't say, like, again, that it's his fault.
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We're kind of set up in society right now to eat hyperpalatable foods.
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And most people, if weight gain doesn't hit them young, it hits them eventually.
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Nobody escapes it unless they have a low-carb diet.
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Well, we also know that there are radical individual differences in the degree to which
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So, for example, Pacific Islanders, island people have gone through periods of food deprivation,
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their cultures, very radically in their evolutionary history.
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And so island people tend to pack on weight like mad.
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And so the Polynesians, for example, on a North American diet, they just balloon out no time flat.
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And so there is wide individual variability in the proclivity to put on weight.
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I really do think it's crucial to stop making it a issue of lack of willpower or morality.
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So if you're on a diet and you're not satiated, you're going to cheat.
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Or when you stop the diet, you'll return to your old eating habits.
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And that's very difficult and it's very radical, but it's unbelievably useful.
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And then I would also say he's sensitive about his appearance, more sensitive than normal.
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And it might be a consequence of some higher levels of negative emotion as well.
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And so what would I do with someone who's more sensitive than...
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This is one way of inoculating people against typical bullying responses is to work out
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a description of all the bullying tricks and phrases and to have the person develop a defense
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Something jokey, but at least to expose yourself to it.
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Your son needs help developing strategies for dealing with the most common bullying situations
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And you'll have to get from him what people say that hurts his feelings.
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And then you'll have to work with him to develop strategies of verbal response or attitude
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Now, what you don't want him to do is to get down on himself, to isolate, to be irritable, to cry or lash out, because that'll just amplify the bullying.
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Like, first of all, we should understand that every child gets bullied on the basis of their peculiarities.
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If you don't have any obvious aberration in your appearance, well, the bullies will just make one up.
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They'll give you a nickname that's derisive or they'll come up with something that's like a rhyme on your name.
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And what they're looking for is an emotional reaction.
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In the bully-bully-victim literature, you see that there are stable bullies and there are stable bully-victims.
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And the stable bully-victim boys tend to respond emotionally when they're picked on.
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If they can develop a defensive strategy, say, which and humor can be very useful in that regard.
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Yeah, well, better even than pretending is to practice not being bothered to the point where you're actually not bothered.
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And he'll go around poking at people until he finds someone that reacts.
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And then that's the person that gets picked on.
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And, you know, one of the things you might even try with him is to make a list of the insults and the insults that have been used against him and the insults that he's afraid of.
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And practice delivering them to him so that he can learn to be resilient in their presence.
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What are you going to do if someone calls you fat?
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Like, how does that work for you if you get upset?
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So, see, because the pretending, there's an element of deception in there.
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There can be an element of self-deception in that.
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It does hurt, though, when you, like, it's hard to, I don't, didn't you, you got bullied, right?
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And they're not usually, they're usually the ones that show weakness, honestly.
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And so, so practicing stoicism in the face of provocation is a useful strategy.
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Kindergarten, I think, you told us, go find the biggest kid in the class and punch him.
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And he, he said this, weren't you in front of other parents?
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No, I said, I think, I think, you find the biggest, ugliest kid in the, in the classroom
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and then hit him on the back of the head with a toy.
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But in grade two, this girl came out of the bathroom.
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I remember, I was standing against the wall, leaning against the wall and kicked me.
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And I turned around and I kicked her back as hard as I could.
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Well, there is some real utility also in helping your children learn to defend themselves and
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to discussing very carefully with them the conditions under which they are allowed to
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or also morally required to defend themselves or sometimes to defend other people.
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If someone is picking on you, if someone hits you and you're a kid, well, what's the
00:20:55.700
Well, the people who are anti-violence, let's say, is you should go tell a teacher.
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It's like, do you remember what it's like to be a kid?
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Going to tell the teacher, that can be social suicide, right?
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Because it indicates to the bullies in particular that you can't handle your own affairs and that
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Although, I do think pretending or actually just being unaffected by it, like, I don't
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Because they're not interested in bothering someone that's like...
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So, Dan Olwius, who's a Scandinavian expert on bullying, and he reduced the incidence of
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And there's a book, which you can take a look at, everybody who's listening, called Bullying,
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He thought of them as prototypical fascists, which was why he was concerned with them.
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Olwius' analysis of the bully dynamic is dead on.
00:22:03.540
And one of the things he also helped schools, parents, and children work through is the
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conditions under which you are allowed to seek adult authority if you're a child.
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So, his definition of bullying was that bullying was aggression utilized when there was a mismatch
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So, if there's two kids of approximately equal physical size and stature, let's say, in development,
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and they're having an altercation, that's not bullying.
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Bullying is when there's three 10-year-olds against an 8-year-old, right?
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And then, if you observe that as a child, you have the moral right to intervene on behalf
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of the person who's being bullied with an adult, mostly because you're serving the cause
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And so, Olwius was one of these dim-witted, like, hyper-agreeable social worker-type interveners
00:23:03.420
Violence in defense of yourself or of your principles or of someone weaker is often admirable.
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And your children have to learn how to, they have to learn how to think that through.
00:23:13.820
You know, and, you know, your response, for example, when you got kicked, what would you,
00:23:21.720
It's like, well, that's not real helpful when your daughter's-
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And you and I, and Julian as well, like, I practiced teaching you how to punch so that
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And we discussed the times when that was necessary, right?
00:23:50.580
Every time I talk about it with my husband, he's like, it's like, bowling.
00:23:55.860
My thumb used to get stuck in the bowling ball.
00:23:58.200
It's like, why is everything you say depressing?
00:24:11.900
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00:25:11.320
My husband and I are parents to two young adult ladies, 18 and 24 years old, and when we're
00:25:21.540
asked for guidance about dating, we feel like the generation gap right now is more like a
00:25:30.020
For example, social media, how the people connect today, different sexual norms.
00:25:39.620
There are situations that have been brought up that we never encountered when we were in the
00:25:47.600
We're often hard-pressed to offer really good advice.
00:25:53.200
I was wondering if you would have any thoughts on that.
00:26:01.960
Well, everything I say is going to get me in trouble on this regard.
00:26:09.320
So, the first thing I would say is that alcohol is a dating danger that's always underestimated
00:26:22.180
It isn't unreasonable to point out that there would be zero date rape, essentially, if alcohol
00:26:36.760
So, when you're, and then I would say as well, when you're talking to your daughters, that
00:26:43.400
their right and obligation to say no should be exemplified, should be encouraged and strengthened.
00:27:05.920
It's a deep characteristic of femininity among human beings.
00:27:12.620
It's not the case for all of our primate relatives, by the way.
00:27:22.340
Cross-culturally, they like men that are about four years older.
00:27:25.240
And so, you might ask yourself, what's the female mating strategy, human female mating
00:27:30.720
And the human female mating strategy is to watch men compete with one another and peel
00:27:38.640
And it's a brilliant strategy because what women are essentially doing is thinking, well,
00:27:44.140
the best man will win in competitions with other men.
00:27:47.420
And she sits back and watches and picks the guy who emerges victorious.
00:27:55.340
And that's, and so men compete for status in large part to attract women.
00:28:02.060
The status that men have among men, the most viable marker of that status is their competence.
00:28:10.900
And men will grant other competent men's status.
00:28:14.020
And then women are fortunate because they can use that as a marker for finding a competent
00:28:19.360
The question is, what confers status among women in the opinions of men?
00:28:35.120
And because the typical high status guy, for example, so a desirable guy who faces no, is
00:28:46.300
either going to depart because he's interested in exploitation, in which case good riddance,
00:28:51.700
or he's going to think, huh, what's up with her?
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You know, I'm a high status guy and she says no.
00:29:00.560
Well, that indicates that she's, that's her indication of status.
00:29:05.840
Now, I should also point out, here's something to talk to your daughters about that's very
00:29:21.340
Um, that's the whole kind of dark hippie ethos from the 1960s.
00:29:26.900
And then there's the more, there's the mating strategy that's more oriented towards long-term
00:29:32.000
committed relationships, which you might well define as marriage.
00:29:37.300
So, now imagine that you do a personality assessment of the men who pursue those variables, those
00:29:45.720
So, is the, who are the guys that are after short-term sexual gratification?
00:29:55.980
They're Machiavellian, so they use their language to manipulate.
00:30:00.740
They have a tilt towards psychopathy, so they're predatory parasites.
00:30:12.640
And so, when, when women participate in that easy sexual revolution, let's say, that's short-term
00:30:21.260
pleasure focused, they throw themselves into the hands of the worst men.
00:30:27.940
And so, it's much better to play a long-term game.
00:30:31.240
Now, if your daughters are having a hard time finding someone who wants to play along, well,
00:30:36.980
then I would say, they're well advised to not be unhappy that men who are irritated because
00:30:47.480
they don't get what they want right now have left.
00:30:52.240
Because that is not a person you want to be around.
00:30:58.520
The, the, the, all of the, all of the evidence converges on this very, uh, solidly.
00:31:10.780
So, this is, I went through this kind of thing 10 years ago.
00:31:16.200
And the dating experience has changed since then, but not, not a ton.
00:31:22.360
I would say that, you've told me this before, and this was very helpful, figure out what
00:31:31.180
Like, this is probably more relevant for your 24-year-old because your 18-year-old is 18.
00:31:43.480
Figure out those, those serious questions and make sure they know the answers to those questions.
00:31:51.160
So, what I found helpful is you can download a dating app.
00:31:58.380
But, Tinder was, was pretty rough back then, too.
00:32:01.200
But, you can meet people online, generate a report to see if you get along.
00:32:06.340
Then, you can say, I want to go for a coffee date.
00:32:09.240
So, coffee date doesn't have the alcohol problem.
00:32:13.440
You can tell right away, especially if you don't have alcohol to numb yourself, if you dislike
00:32:19.160
And then, you can get up and leave, which is totally fine.
00:32:21.780
But, if you like the person, you can pretty much have the conversation about what you
00:32:28.260
And, if that scares that person away, then it's good that they're gone anyway.
00:32:32.200
So, you might as well encourage them to go out and meet people.
00:32:35.980
You might have, they might have to go on like 20 of these coffee days to meet someone who
00:32:40.700
goes, hey, we want the same life, like, same things in life.
00:32:46.760
There's a bunch of things about that that are very important.
00:32:49.260
So, talk to your daughters, precisely as you said, about what they want.
00:33:01.620
So, now you know, well, now you have a criteria by which to judge potential partners.
00:33:07.740
If they don't, well, maybe they have a better offer.
00:33:12.060
And, if they don't, it's like, don't be upset that they leave.
00:33:15.640
You're thrilled that they leave because the last thing you want is the wrong person.
00:33:21.000
Talk to your daughters so they have a plan that gives them a template for acceptance and
00:33:31.100
Not arbitrarily and meanly, and maybe even to look beyond their immediate reaction at
00:33:38.940
things more fundamental like shared goals, right?
00:33:41.940
Because there are people you meet that you're not necessarily so attracted to immediately,
00:33:49.840
So, that shared vision of the future is extremely important.
00:33:52.780
Then, the next thing is slow, safe situations to mutually get to know each other.
00:34:01.700
And certainly, the initial coffee date in the daytime, somewhere public?
00:34:12.240
Here's another rule of thumb for women, I would say.
00:34:14.520
And I also think it's true for men, but it's more desperately necessary for women.
00:34:19.440
Don't do anything physically with anyone that you wouldn't have a conversation with them
00:34:28.180
Because you might say, well, at what rate should we pursue intimacy?
00:34:31.780
Well, if you're pursuing physical intimacy before you can have a conversation about what
00:34:36.520
you're doing, you're probably putting the cart before the horse.
00:34:42.880
You know why life feels so chaotic and meaningless for so many people?
00:34:45.920
It's because we refuse to confront the real vices within ourselves.
00:34:53.220
They're deep-rooted sins that create genuine suffering and inner chaos.
00:34:56.980
That's why this month's St. Michael the Archangel Challenge on Hallow matters.
00:35:00.500
It's a 40-day commitment to spiritual warfare, not comfortable self-improvement,
00:35:04.120
but real confrontation with what's darkest in yourself through daily prayer, fasting,
00:35:09.600
This isn't about surface-level behavior modification.
00:35:11.920
It's about going to war against disorder within you and society.
00:35:15.660
You'll walk alongside St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most radical figures in Christian
00:35:19.480
history, a man who chose poverty and embraced suffering because he understood that drawing
00:35:24.300
closer to God means detaching from everything that isn't him.
00:35:27.620
The challenge runs from August 13th to Michaelmas on September 29th, a feast day celebrating
00:35:34.460
If you want to confront what's darkest in yourself and emerge with something redemptive,
00:35:37.920
something sacred, then take up your cross, join the challenge, and walk the path.
00:35:41.660
It's not easy, but it's necessary, and you'll be stronger for it.
00:35:44.880
Get Hallow three months free at hallow.com slash Jordan.
00:35:51.920
Next, we have a more general question about AI, and we're joined by Robert in California.
00:36:04.100
The first part, they're both actually about LLMs, like chat GPT and stuff like that.
00:36:08.540
I was wondering, first of all, whether you use them yourself, and if so, what you make
00:36:12.560
of the experience, and if you don't, why you don't.
00:36:15.280
And second of all, I was wondering what you thought the social consequences of their widespread
00:36:20.640
Do you think people are basically going to offload lots of their thinking to these devices,
00:36:24.700
or do you think there's going to be some kind of rebellion?
00:36:27.500
Okay, the first, let's answer the first part of that question.
00:36:33.600
I use chat GPT, I use Grok, and I have a system that one of my compatriots built with me and
00:36:41.040
for me that's based on the King James Bible, and that also incorporates a bunch of the things
00:36:46.700
that I've written and lectured on that I can use as a conversational partner when I'm
00:36:55.860
They're like having a research team at your fingertips.
00:37:00.780
You have to torture the Woker models, chat GPT and Grok to some degree, into telling the
00:37:07.480
truth by specifying your questions very carefully and laying down rather impolite restrictions.
00:37:14.500
But you probably have to do that with people when you're trying to get the truth out of them
00:37:18.000
too, rather than some just polite and agreeable response.
00:37:20.780
I think they're stunningly remarkable machines, and they've been ridiculously useful for me
00:37:30.480
When I'm writing, I have like three LLMs open, and I'm just conferring with them all the time.
00:37:36.640
I ask them for advice on how I'm formulating paragraphs.
00:37:41.800
Now, having said that, I have this program that I've worked on with my son called Essay,
00:37:48.960
and we're trying to use Essay to teach people to write.
00:37:52.140
And when you teach them to write, you're teaching them to think.
00:37:55.540
And when you're learning to write and think, you're learning how to move your way through
00:38:01.040
And if you offload that all to an LLM, then you're just a hollow shell, and you have no
00:38:06.940
idea who you are, where you're going, or what you want.
00:38:11.720
I mean, I was just talking to my son the other day about his experiences communicating about
00:38:20.560
And he talked about a situation that one of his friends was involved in where they were
00:38:24.080
taking a course where they were required to write essays and to give feedback to one another.
00:38:28.900
And everyone who was taking the course used ChatGPT to write the essays and to provide the
00:38:36.200
And so all you really got from the course was bots communicating with one another.
00:38:40.780
And so people can use the LLMs to evade their responsibility and to lie and to deceive and
00:38:55.320
So I would also say that the LLMs, in my experience, have been very useful in precise
00:39:04.320
proportion to how carefully you specify the question and assess the answer.
00:39:09.040
And so they can also teach you to ask extremely careful and well-formulated questions and to
00:39:26.700
If your intent is to rely on technology to look smarter than you are and to gain a bunch of
00:39:33.620
undeserved rewards in the short term, it's going to be a complete bloody catastrophe.
00:39:38.380
If your aim is to sharpen your thinking, to learn, to interrogate, to question properly,
00:39:45.980
and to make the sharpest and most well-informed arguments you possibly can, then that's open
00:39:52.940
And I don't think that's much different than most technologies.
00:39:55.880
It's like the more powerful the technology, the more you can use it for good and the more
00:40:02.500
And one of the things I've noted for and tried to teach people for 20 years is, as our technological
00:40:12.140
prowess increases, the consequences of our morality or immortality or immorality expand.
00:40:22.140
And that's the curse and the benefit of technology.
00:40:25.680
Now, there's an additional issue that we should address too, which is the alignment problem.
00:40:31.000
How do we know that the LLMs are operating according to the proper moral principles when
00:40:43.100
Well, part of that can be dealt with by extremely careful questioning and critical thought.
00:40:53.480
But this is also why we've been experimenting with our own large language models.
00:40:58.200
Because my guess is, is that we're going to have to train them on something like the
00:41:06.920
Like, there's not much difference in training an LLM and educating a young person.
00:41:14.220
Like, if you train the LLM on broad consensus across every possible source of information,
00:41:22.880
you're going to tilt them towards a present focused view and something that looks quite
00:41:30.320
So, and that's exactly the same with young people.
00:41:34.640
Well, a classic humanities education, a classic education in the deep works of the Western
00:41:42.200
tradition provides them with a defense against ideological possession.
00:41:48.520
Well, why would it be any different with the LLMs?
00:41:52.920
I want, and I've talked to people who develop LLMs, although we haven't made enough headway
00:41:58.480
on this front yet, to train systems on classic works and to make that the core of their ethos.
00:42:06.700
And so, you know, with any luck, we'll work that out over the next five or six years.
00:42:13.000
That's what we're trying to do with Peterson Academy.
00:42:15.800
We've talked about this a lot is people are probably going to be split into two camps.
00:42:19.980
There's going to be the people that know how to utilize LLMs because it takes, it reduces
00:42:25.860
your work depending on what you do to like 10% or eliminates your job.
00:42:33.780
Just being able to Google, I was like the internet, we all have access to the internet.
00:42:40.380
And Grok, I use primarily Grok, just squishes three days of research into like 15 seconds.
00:42:51.800
So if people aren't using it, they need to start using it and learn how to use it because
00:42:59.100
But there was this funny, I'll send it to you after, but it was this video going around
00:43:03.820
Instagram and it's this guy and he's like on his chair, like a monkey going like, eat,
00:43:08.620
eat, eat, like typing things into Grok and then, or, or an LLM and it's spitting out a
00:43:15.680
And then he sends that and then he gets a response and he's like all happy about it
00:43:21.500
Unfortunately, I feel like there's probably going to be a group of people that use it to
00:43:25.620
enhance themselves and a group of people that won't learn how to write or communicate that'll
00:43:37.600
Well, and your comments about Peterson Academy are relevant with regard to classical education.
00:43:44.120
If you're going to use an LLM intelligently, you better be well-informed and morally grounded
00:43:53.860
But, but of course that's the case because the more powerful tools you have at your disposal,
00:43:59.760
the more your stupidity will magnify itself in consequence of the misuse of those tools.
00:44:09.100
One of the reasons I got attracted to Carl Jung's thought was because in the aftermath
00:44:16.120
of World War II and our development of the hydrogen bomb, he pointed out that the true
00:44:23.020
danger that confronted humanity wasn't the bomb itself.
00:44:27.100
It was the ideological foolishness that would lead us to use it.
00:44:31.100
And that the development of the psyche, the development of wisdom was as, as, as your technological
00:44:40.820
power increases, the requirement for you to be wise increases proportionately.
00:44:49.700
And I think the LLMs have really, they've been another tremendous example of the necessity
00:44:57.980
And that's a very, you find that moral grounding in consequence of being properly educated.
00:45:03.480
And that is what we're trying to do on Peterson Academy.
00:45:09.400
So up last, we have a recorded message from Diego in Paraguay.
00:45:18.100
Thank you very much for this opportunity to ask a question that is very important for me.
00:45:52.940
element of the algorithm, and you can really see this in the degeneration of YouTube, especially
00:45:58.020
over the last two years, is that the algorithm maximizes for grip of attention.
00:46:02.880
And fair enough, because why wouldn't you want to be given things that you want to attend
00:46:09.920
But the problem comes as the maximization of grip of attention becomes shorter and shorter
00:46:17.520
Like, pathological addiction is actually the hijacking of attention by short-term considerations.
00:46:25.060
So the shorter term across which your attention span is being manipulated, the more pathological
00:46:33.440
And you can see a race to the bottom in the social media world.
00:46:50.700
Well, look, you fight against that the same way you fight against immaturity as you socialize
00:46:57.380
What you're actually doing when you socialize children is you expand the time frame over
00:47:06.920
So they're able to maintain attentional focus for longer and longer spans of time while they're
00:47:15.560
doing effortful things that culminate in a delayed reward.
00:47:30.600
That's why regular dinner times, meal times together are very useful without phones so
00:47:38.720
And you can encourage your children to attend for long periods of time by listening to them
00:47:48.680
formulate their thoughts and engaging in conversation with them.
00:47:52.420
You can do the same thing by reading to them, right?
00:47:57.080
I mean, this is dependent on the individual child, but there are four-year-old kids who
00:48:05.300
can listen to a story for an hour and who can handle a pretty complex juvenile novel by the
00:48:16.780
Interact with your children in a manner that requires sustained attention for longer and
00:48:25.580
And so board games can do that too, especially more complex board games.
00:48:29.660
So you want to engage as a family in sophisticated enterprises that don't fragment attention down
00:48:50.980
She has a phone already because she's split between two houses.
00:48:59.800
I haven't given my kids screens before the age of three, like including movies and things
00:49:05.440
just because you can see a two-year-old glued to a screen and you're like, that cannot be
00:49:14.660
And it's this little machine that little kids can operate by themselves.
00:49:18.140
And you get these cards that are either music or stories and you can stick the card in
00:49:22.440
A little graphic shows up, but it's not a screen.
00:49:25.560
It's like some lights that move around a tiny bit.
00:49:30.440
And then they can listen to stories and things.
00:49:32.620
So just as a practical tech piece, I really like the Yodo.
00:49:37.560
And then for hyper-stimulation too, we use kind of a Montessori approach.
00:49:48.300
Just a couple and you can swap them out every couple of weeks so they get new toys every
00:49:53.360
But I think avoiding the hyper-stimulation when they're really little helps a lot.
00:49:58.460
And then delaying, like you just talked to Jonathan Haidt, right?
00:50:01.640
Delaying social media, delaying phones, delaying screens.
00:50:04.880
And Haidt has talked a lot about too, about the fact that many states, I think he said 13
00:50:10.260
states already, maybe it's more than that, have decided to make schools phone-free zones.
00:50:33.580
But that constant fragmented attention, the fundamental problem is that the AI algorithms are going
00:50:44.280
to optimize for the grip of short-term attention.
00:50:46.600
And that's just, there's no difference between that and addiction.
00:50:49.980
That's just addiction by a different definition.
00:50:53.640
And so encourage your children to pursue processes, pursue activities that require the investment
00:51:19.060
Thank you guys so much for watching or listening today.
00:51:21.920
Hit the like and subscribe button so you can be sure to catch all the episodes if you enjoy
00:51:34.540
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00:51:37.720
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