The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - Why You Should Treat Yourself as if You Have Value

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, real quick before you skip, I want to talk to you about something serious and important.

00:00:06.000 Dr. Jordan Peterson has created a new series that could be a lifeline for those battling depression and anxiety.

00:00:12.000 We know how isolating and overwhelming these conditions can be, and we wanted to take a moment to reach out to those listening who may be struggling.

00:00:19.000 With decades of experience helping patients, Dr. Peterson offers a unique understanding of why you might be feeling this way in his new series.

00:00:27.000 He provides a roadmap towards healing, showing that while the journey isn't easy, it's absolutely possible to find your way forward.

00:00:35.000 If you're suffering, please know you are not alone. There's hope, and there's a path to feeling better.

00:00:41.000 Go to Daily Wire Plus now and start watching Dr. Jordan B. Peterson on depression and anxiety.

00:00:47.000 Let this be the first step towards the brighter future you deserve.

00:00:57.000 Welcome to Season 2, Episode 23 of the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast.

00:01:03.000 I'm Mikayla Peterson, dad's daughter, collaborator, manager, and the member of the Peterson squad that has the most bleached hair.

00:01:10.000 Though who knows, maybe blonde suits dad too.

00:01:13.000 Sorry if I sound a bit off, I have a cold from my toddler, but the show must go on.

00:01:20.000 Huge weekly update this week.

00:01:22.000 It was mom and dad's 30th anniversary, August 17th, and we got news that day that her surgical complication healed.

00:01:29.000 So that was a good day for that kind of news.

00:01:31.000 Although any day is a good day for that kind of news.

00:01:34.000 Thank goodness for flying to the States.

00:01:36.000 The actual procedure itself was unsuccessful.

00:01:39.000 They couldn't surgically fix the chylis leak, but they injected some magical oil into mom and boom, she's fixed.

00:01:45.000 It'll take a while for her to recover fully.

00:01:48.000 She was in the hospital for five weeks, but we're out of the woodwork.

00:01:51.000 Is that the saying?

00:01:52.000 I don't think that's the saying.

00:01:53.000 So, hooray for that.

00:01:54.000 The Q&A I mentioned on last week's podcast didn't actually go out.

00:01:59.000 I was still out of source from this whole medical stress thing.

00:02:02.000 When a family member's on the verge of peril, it really messes with your productivity, among other things.

00:02:07.000 The Q&A will be out next week, though.

00:02:09.000 Again, that's Mikayla Peterson on YouTube.

00:02:11.000 I'll talk a bit about what happened to mom.

00:02:13.000 Another thing, if you haven't signed it up for ThinkSpot yet,

00:02:17.000 the intellectual social media platform Dad's a part of,

00:02:20.000 please head over and sign up.

00:02:22.000 I'll be on there too, spreading my eat more meat nonsense, among other things.

00:02:26.000 Intermittent fasting, how to stop sucking at life.

00:02:29.000 Although you're doing a good job by listening to this podcast,

00:02:32.000 not that I would suggest that people are sucking at life exactly, but I used to be.

00:02:37.000 Anyway, please enjoy this podcast.

00:02:39.000 A 12 rules for life lecture from 2018 recorded in Edmonton, Alberta, where Dad was born.

00:02:45.000 When we return, why you should treat yourself as if you have value.

00:02:49.000 A 12 rules for life lecture by Jordan Peterson.

00:02:52.000 Jordan Peterson!

00:02:53.000 Did Dave come out here and say this was Toronto?

00:03:08.000 He doesn't know that that can get you killed.

00:03:11.000 Anyways, it's very nice to be here.

00:03:17.000 And thank you very much for the warm welcome.

00:03:20.000 I appreciate it a lot.

00:03:23.000 It's quite shocking to see you all here.

00:03:26.000 But I'm extremely happy about it.

00:03:30.000 It was nice to be in Edmonton today.

00:03:32.000 It's nice to come back out to the prairies and see the big sky,

00:03:34.000 and the nice, crisp, cool days, and the nice, hot sun.

00:03:38.000 It's nice to be back.

00:03:40.000 So, yeah.

00:03:42.000 So, I thought I would start by talking tonight about the second rule in my book, 12 Rules

00:03:58.000 for Life, which is treat yourself like you're someone responsible for helping.

00:04:04.000 And this is a rule I like quite a lot as a clinical psychologist.

00:04:09.000 Because, you know, you hear a lot about how people are egotistical and selfish.

00:04:16.000 And that, in my experience, that really hasn't been true.

00:04:20.000 It's true for some people, but I don't really think it is true for most people.

00:04:24.000 We can act egotistically and selfishly.

00:04:27.000 Often people do that when they're feeling hurt, I would say.

00:04:31.000 But my experience, really, with people has been quite the opposite,

00:04:35.000 is that many people, perhaps most,

00:04:39.000 tend to treat other people better than they treat themselves.

00:04:43.000 And I think the reason for that,

00:04:45.000 and then they treat their pets better than they treat themselves, too.

00:04:48.000 Which is, this is technically true.

00:04:50.000 It's something that I learned this years ago.

00:04:53.000 I was working on a, what would you call it?

00:04:57.000 A psychomedical problem.

00:04:59.000 And it's a serious problem.

00:05:01.000 It had two parts.

00:05:03.000 One part of it was, we're trying to deal with medical error.

00:05:07.000 Because medical error is the fourth leading cause of death.

00:05:10.000 Which is quite a terrifying thing, if you think about it.

00:05:13.000 And we were trying to figure out how we could help physicians,

00:05:17.000 and nurses, and pharmacists, and so forth,

00:05:20.000 decrease the probability that they would make a mistake.

00:05:22.000 But we're also looking into some of the common failings of the medical system,

00:05:28.000 which aren't things that you would necessarily expect.

00:05:32.000 So one of the common failings of the medical system is that,

00:05:36.000 if you go get a prescription, if you go to your physician and you get a prescription,

00:05:42.000 but a third of you won't even fill the prescription.

00:05:45.000 And then of the remaining two-thirds, half won't take the prescription properly.

00:05:50.000 And so, well, so that's a big problem.

00:05:53.000 If the prescription is actually going to help you, and you don't even fill it,

00:05:57.000 obviously that's not going to help you very much.

00:06:00.000 But then I was reading about that, trying to figure out why it was that people would not fill their prescription,

00:06:08.000 or take the drug properly.

00:06:10.000 And I came across a study that showed that they, if you take your pet to the vet,

00:06:16.000 and your pet's sick, and the vet gives you a prescription,

00:06:20.000 then you're quite likely to go get the prescription filled.

00:06:25.000 Much more likely than you would if it was just for you.

00:06:28.000 And you're also quite likely to ensure that you give your pet the medication properly.

00:06:33.000 And it's hard to conclude from that anything other than you like your pet better than you like you.

00:06:38.000 And so, I thought a lot about that, why that might be the case.

00:06:43.000 I mean, I can't see any other real explanation,

00:06:46.000 because you might say, well, you don't fill the prescription because you don't trust doctors.

00:06:50.000 It's like, well, yeah, but why would you trust a vet then?

00:06:53.000 It's the same thing, you know.

00:06:55.000 So, it can't be just mistrust.

00:06:58.000 And, you know, people do really like their pets.

00:07:00.000 And, you know, you can kind of tell why if you have a dog or a cat.

00:07:03.000 But a dog, let's say for this example, you come home and your dog is insanely thrilled to see you.

00:07:09.000 You know, I know he's just a dog, and maybe he doesn't have the best of taste, but it is really nice.

00:07:15.000 Well, dogs, you know, they'll pretty much eat anything.

00:07:18.000 So, yeah, it does put their taste in question.

00:07:21.000 But they are spectacularly happy to see you.

00:07:24.000 And so, it's easy to have unconditional love for a pet.

00:07:28.000 And it's not so easy to have that for yourself.

00:07:30.000 And so, the question is why?

00:07:35.000 And I think part of the reason for that is that one of the problems with being as smart as we are, as self-conscious human beings, is that we're very aware of our own inadequacies.

00:07:47.000 And, you know, you're aware of everyone's inadequacies.

00:07:50.000 You're aware of your brother's inadequacies, and your friend's inadequacies, and your partner's inadequacies.

00:07:55.000 But you're really aware of your own inadequacies.

00:07:58.000 Like, you've got a front row seat to your own inadequacies, you know.

00:08:03.000 You have a tally of them in your mind, and they're there right in front of you every day.

00:08:08.000 And so, I think, and sometimes those inadequacies are pretty damn severe, you know.

00:08:13.000 You stumble over your own errors as you make your way forward in life.

00:08:17.000 And it's easy to be harsh and judgmental towards yourself.

00:08:22.000 And a certain amount of that is justified, you know.

00:08:24.000 Because you need to hold yourself to task, and so forth.

00:08:28.000 But it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll come out all that positively inclined to yourself.

00:08:35.000 And so, maybe you don't take care of yourself that well.

00:08:39.000 And one of the ways that that's reflected is maybe you go see a physician.

00:08:43.000 Maybe you wait a little too long.

00:08:45.000 And then you don't take your medication properly.

00:08:48.000 And then you die.

00:08:50.000 And that's not so, that's not so good.

00:08:53.000 And so, because there's people around that probably would just soon you're around.

00:08:58.000 Your pet, too, is just happy that you're around.

00:09:00.000 So, you can take your damn medication just for your pet, you know.

00:09:03.000 So, that's partly why I wrote the second rule, which is...

00:09:09.000 Treat yourself as if you're someone responsible for helping.

00:09:13.000 And there's a deep idea that's associated with that, too.

00:09:16.000 Because you might say, well, why should I treat myself like I have any value?

00:09:20.000 Because that's really what that rule boils down to.

00:09:23.000 And the answer...

00:09:25.000 Here's an answer.

00:09:26.000 It's not a complete answer, but it's a partial answer.

00:09:29.000 And, you know, one of the things I've studied is the origin of the idea of sovereignty.

00:09:34.000 So, sovereignty is, as a concept, sovereignty is the concept of the rightful locale of power and authority.

00:09:43.000 Mostly authority, let's say, if it's proper sovereignty.

00:09:46.000 And human beings have tried to figure out what constituted sovereignty for a very, very long time.

00:09:52.000 You know, we've organized ourselves into hierarchies.

00:09:55.000 And for the longest time, we lived under, essentially, monarchical, tribal or monarchical structures.

00:10:00.000 With kings, let's say, emperors, queens, and so forth.

00:10:03.000 But even then, even when our societies were both tribal and monarchical,

00:10:08.000 there was an idea that the king didn't necessarily have absolute sovereignty.

00:10:15.000 The king was subordinate to something else that was sovereign in and of itself.

00:10:21.000 That thing was usually some religious representation.

00:10:24.000 So, even if you were an emperor, like if you were the emperor of ancient Mesopotamia,

00:10:28.000 you were a manifestation of a god.

00:10:31.000 And the god's name was Marduk.

00:10:33.000 And he was the Mesopotamian savior, for better or worse.

00:10:37.000 If you were an Egyptian pharaoh, then you were a manifestation of Horus and Osiris, both at the same time.

00:10:44.000 Horus, the all-seeing eye, and Osiris, sort of the god of tradition.

00:10:48.000 Very brilliant idea.

00:10:49.000 But the point was that there was something that was sovereign, and you were only representing that.

00:10:57.000 And then as our societies developed, as they become, as the Jewish influence grew, and the Greek influence, and then the Christian influence grew,

00:11:06.000 then we started to understand that sovereignty actually was a manifestation of everyone.

00:11:15.000 And that it was adhered in the individual, whatever sovereignty was.

00:11:20.000 That's actually, in some sense, why you have rights.

00:11:23.000 Because our society evolved under this set of ancient, wise presuppositions.

00:11:31.000 The gist of which was that there was something about everyone that gave them true, at least the capability for genuine authority.

00:11:42.000 And that if you were going to establish a functional political system, the most functional possible political system.

00:11:51.000 That you would attribute sovereignty, divine sovereignty, essentially, you would attribute divine sovereignty to every single individual.

00:11:58.000 And that's a hell of a revelation.

00:12:03.000 Because it's by no means obvious, right?

00:12:06.000 What's more obvious is that the most powerful person in the group rules.

00:12:12.000 That's the basis of tyranny, let's say.

00:12:15.000 But the idea that sovereignty is somehow an intrinsic attribute of every individual, that's a crazy idea.

00:12:25.000 And it flies in the face of self-evident truth, to some degree, given the radical differences in ability between people.

00:12:33.000 But, nonetheless, that is what our society is predicated on.

00:12:37.000 The idea that each individual has something approximating at least a relationship with divine sovereignty.

00:12:43.000 Now, that's why I've been insisting in 12 Rules for Life and in my lectures and so forth.

00:12:48.000 That our political system, which stresses the individual above all, is grounded in an underlying system that's essentially religious in structure.

00:12:58.000 That makes a case that each person is properly conceptualized as manifesting something divine.

00:13:05.000 That's intrinsic to them.

00:13:09.000 And that it's part of the structure that gives rise to being itself.

00:13:14.000 And I really believe, after having studied this forever, at least forever in terms of my own life.

00:13:21.000 I really believe that that's true.

00:13:24.000 I don't think there's a more accurate way of stating it.

00:13:27.000 Even though it's kind of...

00:13:30.000 What would you say?

00:13:31.000 It fuzzes out into metaphysics, you know?

00:13:33.000 You can't get a grip on it completely.

00:13:37.000 But, you know, we all act out the proposition that each of us has intrinsic worth, you know?

00:13:42.000 First of all, we have our rights, right, enshrined in our Bill of Rights.

00:13:47.000 A document, by the way, I'm not very fond of.

00:13:49.000 But it doesn't matter.

00:13:50.000 The principles behind it are...

00:13:52.000 I don't like it because it delineates the rights.

00:13:54.000 In the English common law system, you have all the rights there are.

00:13:58.000 They're not given to you by the government.

00:14:00.000 You just have them.

00:14:02.000 And then the government, yeah.

00:14:03.000 And that's a much better system.

00:14:05.000 I don't like the Bill of Rights, particularly the Canadian Bill of Rights,

00:14:12.000 because there's an idea implicit that the government, or at least some institution,

00:14:15.000 is granting you these rights.

00:14:17.000 It's like, no, sorry, that's not how it works.

00:14:20.000 But in any case, in some sense, that's a side issue.

00:14:24.000 And so I won't go there.

00:14:26.000 But the fundamental issue is that you wouldn't have rights if there wasn't an underlying idea

00:14:32.000 that there was something about you that was of supreme value.

00:14:35.000 And we really take this seriously in Western societies.

00:14:39.000 We really take this seriously.

00:14:41.000 It's oddly seriously.

00:14:42.000 So, for example, even if you're a murderer,

00:14:45.000 even if people see you kill someone,

00:14:48.000 even if the evidence is overwhelming that you've done something reprehensible,

00:14:52.000 you're still protected against the intrusion of the state and other people

00:14:57.000 because you have intrinsic value, right?

00:15:00.000 Which, even as a criminal, even if you're a convicted criminal,

00:15:04.000 there's still things the state and other people cannot do to you.

00:15:09.000 Because no matter how far you've fallen,

00:15:12.000 there's something that's still valuable about you.

00:15:14.000 And you might think, well, do you believe that?

00:15:16.000 And, well, belief, that's a strange thing.

00:15:19.000 You know, people often ask me what I believe,

00:15:21.000 and I think, well, I don't know what you mean when you ask that question,

00:15:25.000 so it's very difficult to answer it.

00:15:27.000 But we act out, in our societies, we act out the belief that each of us has sovereign value.

00:15:34.000 And then you think, well, is that actually a credible claim?

00:15:38.000 Well, our societies work pretty well.

00:15:42.000 So, from the perspective of, like, pragmatic proof,

00:15:45.000 if a society works well, you might think that the fundamental principles upon which it's founded

00:15:51.000 are at least functionally useful.

00:15:54.000 And so, the idea of individual sovereignty seems to manifest itself

00:15:58.000 in very, very functional political and economic systems.

00:16:01.000 It's also the case that, you know, if you have a relationship with someone,

00:16:06.000 I don't care who it is, it could be your wife or your husband,

00:16:08.000 it could be your brother, it could be a friend, co-worker, it doesn't matter.

00:16:12.000 Anybody that you interact with on a regular basis, relatively intimate basis,

00:16:17.000 if you don't act like they have intrinsic value,

00:16:20.000 then you're not going to have much of a relationship.

00:16:23.000 You know, that's sort of like the relationship between a psychopath and his target.

00:16:27.000 If the relationship is predicated on the idea that the person you're interacting with

00:16:32.000 is a locus of worth in and of themselves, then you can actually have a relationship.

00:16:37.000 You can listen to them, they can listen to you, you can negotiate,

00:16:40.000 you know, you can make the most out of each other,

00:16:43.000 that might be another way of thinking about it.

00:16:45.000 And so, if you don't believe that each person has value,

00:16:50.000 then you can't really have a good relationship with someone.

00:16:54.000 And so you can't have a, and you can't, this is more germane, let's say, to rule too,

00:17:00.000 which is that you should treat yourself like you're someone responsible for helping.

00:17:03.000 It's like, you actually can't have a very good relationship with yourself

00:17:07.000 unless you make the assumption that you have intrinsic worth.

00:17:11.000 And so you think, well, if you assume that people, you too, have individual worth,

00:17:17.000 then you can get along with yourself, you can actually have an okay life.

00:17:20.000 In the absence of that belief, you're going to think, well, what am I doing here?

00:17:24.000 I'm suffering away stupidly, and I'm not worth anything, there's no point to my life,

00:17:29.000 I'm not good for anything, like, why should I even be here?

00:17:32.000 That doesn't seem like a very good recipe for happy, continued, meaningful, productive existence.

00:17:38.000 And it's certainly, other people around you that love you aren't going to be happy about the fact

00:17:43.000 that that's how you regard yourself.

00:17:45.000 You know, that's a non-starter as far as they're concerned.

00:17:48.000 If you have a child, if you have a son or a daughter,

00:17:50.000 and they're down on themselves so hard that they doubt their intrinsic worth,

00:17:55.000 that's going to make you extremely unhappy as a parent.

00:17:58.000 You can hardly imagine anything worse that can possibly happen than that.

00:18:01.000 There are worse things, but there's always worse things, you know.

00:18:06.000 But that's still pretty bad.

00:18:08.000 And so, if you abandon the idea of individual value, intrinsic individual value,

00:18:13.000 you can't get along with yourself, you can't make relationships with other people that are intimate,

00:18:18.000 and you're no good, and you can't found a community that works properly for everyone.

00:18:25.000 And so, that's pretty good evidence as far as I'm concerned,

00:18:29.000 that the hypothesis of intrinsic value is a solid one.

00:18:35.000 And I also think it has extraordinarily deep philosophical and even theological underpinnings.

00:18:40.000 Well, I would say philosophical, biological, and theological underpinnings.

00:18:47.000 All pointing in the same direction.

00:18:50.000 And maybe I can discuss that a little bit tonight.

00:18:52.000 We'll see if I get there.

00:18:54.000 I get there.

00:18:55.000 But, back to rule two.

00:18:57.000 Treat yourself like you're someone responsible for helping.

00:19:00.000 I phrased that rule very carefully, actually.

00:19:04.000 Like, I didn't say, treat yourself nicely.

00:19:07.000 I didn't say, feel sorry for yourself.

00:19:09.000 I didn't say, raise your self-esteem.

00:19:11.000 None of that.

00:19:13.000 I use the word, responsible.

00:19:15.000 Because I think it's the right word.

00:19:17.000 Because if you have intrinsic worth, and that intrinsic worth is so fundamental,

00:19:27.000 that it actually constitutes the cornerstone of our civilization,

00:19:31.000 which it does, then you're responsible for responding properly to that.

00:19:39.000 And I think that's independent of what you think of yourself, in some sense.

00:19:44.000 You know, it means, in some ways, you have to detach yourself from yourself.

00:19:49.000 You know, despite the fact that you know all your inadequacies and all that.

00:19:54.000 You have to think, well, even though I know all the ways that I'm unworthy, let's say.

00:19:59.000 And I'm up at night, sometimes at three in the morning, you know,

00:20:02.000 worrying about how I'm manifesting myself in the world much more poorly than I could.

00:20:06.000 And I have things that I'm ashamed of, and that I do badly, and all that.

00:20:09.000 Even though all that's true, I'm still morally bound to take responsibility for myself,

00:20:16.000 as if I have some value.

00:20:18.000 And so, then I wanted to tell you about some work we've done on that idea.

00:20:26.000 So, I teach this course at the University of Toronto, in a course called,

00:20:32.000 the course is called Maps of Meaning.

00:20:34.000 And it's based on the first book I wrote, which provided the groundwork, let's say,

00:20:39.000 for Twelve Rules for Life.

00:20:40.000 It's a much more complex book, and it's deeper, I would say.

00:20:45.000 It's harder.

00:20:46.000 I released an audio version of that book on June 12th.

00:20:50.000 And so, if you found Twelve Rules for Life useful and meaningful,

00:20:55.000 then you could give Maps of Meaning a crack.

00:20:58.000 It's hard going.

00:21:00.000 There were, when I re-read it, it took me about 60 hours to re-read it out loud.

00:21:06.000 There were chapters in it that I had a hard time understanding,

00:21:11.000 even though I wrote them 25 years ago.

00:21:13.000 Well, they were really, when I wrote them, when I wrote them,

00:21:16.000 like, I was spending, like, literally hours, hours?

00:21:20.000 Hours?

00:21:21.000 Certainly hours on each paragraph.

00:21:24.000 And certainly, for some sentences, you know, 20 or 35 minutes each sentence crafting it.

00:21:29.000 So, I was really pushing myself to the limits of my intellectual ability.

00:21:32.000 And so, going back over it wasn't a casual thing.

00:21:36.000 I still had to really think through what I was saying,

00:21:39.000 because I didn't have it right at hand, you know.

00:21:43.000 But, so it's a hard book.

00:21:45.000 But, I taught a course on that book for 20, 25 years.

00:21:50.000 And most of the people who've taken the course,

00:21:52.000 the vast majority of students have found it very engaging, I would say,

00:21:56.000 and very meaningful.

00:21:57.000 And lots of people have watched it online.

00:21:59.000 And it was turned into a, oddly enough, into a 13-part TV series on TV Ontario,

00:22:05.000 a number of years ago.

00:22:06.000 And, you know, and then the more popularized version of it, let's say,

00:22:11.000 and in some sense, a more articulate version turned into 12 Rules for Life.

00:22:15.000 And that's become very popular.

00:22:17.000 And so, anyways, there's a hypothesis in 12 Rules for Life.

00:22:23.000 And the hypothesis is something like,

00:22:25.000 the best way to understand your life is as a story.

00:22:29.000 And maybe the best way to understand reality is as a story.

00:22:33.000 Because your life is reality, you know.

00:22:35.000 It's really the reality that you have.

00:22:38.000 And we tend to tell stories about our lives,

00:22:41.000 and we tend to understand lives as if they're stories.

00:22:44.000 And maps of meaning is about stories.

00:22:47.000 About their structure.

00:22:48.000 And one of the things,

00:22:50.000 and about what it means to be the protagonist of your own plot, let's say,

00:22:55.000 or the hero of your own story.

00:22:57.000 Because there's a rule that I sort of learned from the psychoanalysts,

00:23:00.000 particularly from Carl Jung,

00:23:02.000 was that if you're not the hero of your own story,

00:23:05.000 then you're a bit part in someone else's.

00:23:08.000 And that part is one that's assigned to you,

00:23:11.000 and it's probably not one that you would pick.

00:23:14.000 And that's sort of the moral of,

00:23:16.000 well, you see that idea laid out, for example.

00:23:19.000 You see that idea laid out now and then in popular fiction,

00:23:22.000 like in the movie Pinocchio.

00:23:24.000 You know, because the main character in Pinocchio is someone who's a marionette, right?

00:23:28.000 Whose strings are being pulled from behind the scenes.

00:23:32.000 And so the idea there is if you're not your own person,

00:23:35.000 you're someone else's puppet.

00:23:37.000 Or something else's puppet.

00:23:39.000 And that's even worse.

00:23:41.000 One of the things Carl Jung also said about ideas,

00:23:44.000 which just staggered me when I started to understand it.

00:23:47.000 He said,

00:23:48.000 people don't have ideas.

00:23:50.000 Ideas have people.

00:23:52.000 It's like, you can think about that for about ten years.

00:23:56.000 That's a terrifying idea.

00:23:59.000 And you know, you think,

00:24:00.000 well, you see, when people are possessed by an ideology,

00:24:03.000 all the people have the same idea.

00:24:06.000 You know, you think,

00:24:07.000 well, if all the people have the same idea,

00:24:10.000 what makes you think that they have the idea?

00:24:14.000 It's exactly the other way around.

00:24:16.000 The idea has them.

00:24:18.000 And unless you understand that,

00:24:20.000 unless you understand that to some degree,

00:24:22.000 you can't understand the sorts of things that happen,

00:24:24.000 say, in Nazi Germany or in the Soviet Union or in Maoist China,

00:24:28.000 where whole populations were gripped by an idea and acted it out.

00:24:32.000 You know?

00:24:33.000 They were in the thrall of that idea.

00:24:36.000 So it's really important that you have your own story.

00:24:38.000 Because, well, if you're without a story,

00:24:41.000 some other damn story is going to pick you up.

00:24:43.000 That's for sure.

00:24:45.000 And one of the things Jung said, for example,

00:24:47.000 was you should figure out what your story is,

00:24:49.000 because it might be a tragedy.

00:24:51.000 And if it is, you might want to rethink it.

00:24:54.000 And that's very much worth thinking.

00:24:56.000 That's very much worth thinking through.

00:24:58.000 And it's partly worth thinking through,

00:25:01.000 because the easiest sort of life to have is a tragedy.

00:25:03.000 I don't mean it's easy on you, because it's not.

00:25:06.000 But if you just fall forward into life sort of thoughtlessly,

00:25:11.000 the probability that what you're going to have is a tragedy is virtually certain.

00:25:14.000 And so, perhaps you don't want that.

00:25:16.000 Well, especially not if you decide that you're going to take care of yourself

00:25:19.000 like you're someone that you're responsible for helping.

00:25:22.000 So, I was thinking a lot about this when I was teaching this Maps of Meaning course,

00:25:27.000 because I was teaching people about the structure of hero mythology, essentially.

00:25:31.000 Which is, the hero myth is really the story of human beings.

00:25:35.000 It's the story of individuals.

00:25:37.000 And the hero myth is the story about what the world's like,

00:25:40.000 and how to conduct yourself in the world.

00:25:42.000 And we have hero myths everywhere.

00:25:45.000 We're never without them unless things fall apart absolutely cataclysmically.

00:25:51.000 Whenever you go see a movie, unless it's a romance,

00:25:55.000 what you're watching is some variant of a hero story.

00:25:58.000 Because there's a hero, the protagonist,

00:26:00.000 and he or she encounters all sorts of obstacles

00:26:02.000 and deals with them either successfully or unsuccessfully.

00:26:06.000 If it's unsuccessfully, then, well, that's sort of a negative hero.

00:26:10.000 That's something to avoid, not something to be.

00:26:12.000 But it's still salutary, it's still educational.

00:26:15.000 So, I tried to lay out in Maps of Meaning, and also in 12 Rules,

00:26:20.000 the basis of the hero story.

00:26:23.000 Because I think it's the best description, not only of reality,

00:26:26.000 but of how to conduct yourself in the world.

00:26:29.000 And it's an ancient story.

00:26:30.000 Well, because human beings have been working on it for as long as we've been able to reflect

00:26:35.000 on our own being and to represent it.

00:26:38.000 And so that's, who knows how long that is.

00:26:40.000 In articulated form, it's probably 150,000 years.

00:26:44.000 In dream form, God only knows how long.

00:26:47.000 Maybe a million years, maybe longer than that.

00:26:51.000 We don't know.

00:26:53.000 It stretches back into the dim mists of prehistory.

00:26:56.000 But one of the things I realized when I was dealing with my students was that

00:27:02.000 they never, they never asked, they were never asked to craft their own story.

00:27:07.000 And so, it was a, the realization came for a bunch of reasons.

00:27:12.000 So, it was a bunch of threads.

00:27:14.000 So, I was, at the same time, I had been working with corporations,

00:27:19.000 trying to work with corporations, which is a different thing.

00:27:23.000 I had figured out how you could hire people effectively.

00:27:26.000 I figured that out when I was working at Harvard with a student of mine,

00:27:29.000 who wrote a PhD on, on predictors of human performance.

00:27:33.000 A really, really good thesis.

00:27:35.000 And we realized, we figured out the most efficient way of hiring people,

00:27:41.000 selecting people for complex jobs.

00:27:43.000 And we produced some technology that would allow that to occur,

00:27:46.000 in a relatively straightforward manner.

00:27:48.000 Which, if used properly, had tremendous economic value.

00:27:51.000 And then we tried to sell it to corporations, which was impossible.

00:27:54.000 We tried for like 15 years, and just essentially got nowhere with it.

00:27:58.000 It was quite a, it was an amazing learning experience,

00:28:01.000 because we had a good product.

00:28:02.000 And we had great scientific evidence that it worked.

00:28:05.000 And it was still impossible to sell.

00:28:07.000 We did end up using the technology.

00:28:09.000 I partnered with this company in California called the Founder Institute,

00:28:13.000 which is the world's largest early stage tech incubator.

00:28:17.000 And they produced 3,000 companies in the last five years.

00:28:21.000 And I select, my colleagues and I select the entrepreneurs that they're training.

00:28:26.000 They have 165 entrepreneurial schools all over the world now.

00:28:30.000 So, so we did find a niche for it.

00:28:32.000 But, but...

00:28:34.000 Going online without ExpressVPN is like not paying attention to the safety demonstration on a flight.

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00:29:02.000 And let's be clear, it doesn't take a genius hacker to do this.

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00:31:21.000 So, that's a bit of a side story.

00:31:23.000 But one of the things that happened when I was talking to middle managers, and I talked to hundreds of them.

00:31:28.000 Talking about how to select people properly for employment.

00:31:32.000 They would always say, well what do I do about the people that I have that I've already hired that aren't doing very well?

00:31:38.000 You know, and what's interesting, if you're a manager, if you manage people.

00:31:42.000 You spend almost all your time dealing with the small proportion of people that you have, maybe 10%, who aren't doing very well.

00:31:48.000 And it doesn't work.

00:31:51.000 All the management literature suggests that you do exactly the opposite.

00:31:54.000 If you're managing people, you ignore the people who aren't doing well.

00:31:57.000 You spend all your time with your most productive employees.

00:32:00.000 But no one ever does that.

00:32:01.000 And so, for all sorts of reasons.

00:32:03.000 And maybe it's not even possible.

00:32:05.000 But that's still what you should do if you're interested in maximizing productivity.

00:32:10.000 And the evidence also suggests that there isn't much you can do with your employees who aren't doing very well.

00:32:17.000 Because, well, they have complicated problems and you don't have much time.

00:32:20.000 And what the hell do you know anyways?

00:32:22.000 How are you going to help sort out their lives?

00:32:24.000 There's just not enough of you, especially if you have lots of employees, to even make a dent in it.

00:32:31.000 Anyways, what people kept asking me was, well what do I do with the people around me that aren't doing very well?

00:32:37.000 And my answer was, don't hire any more of them.

00:32:40.000 That's all I can do.

00:32:42.000 That's all I can do.

00:32:43.000 But then people kept asking me the question.

00:32:46.000 And I thought, well, that's not a very good answer because it actually doesn't address the problem.

00:32:51.000 So I went into the psychological literature and I thought, okay, is it possible to come up with an intervention of some sort that would actually help people?

00:33:00.000 And so I only found two, you know, that was practical, that you could actually do.

00:33:04.000 I only found two.

00:33:05.000 So, for example, if you want to make people smarter, so if you want to make yourself smarter, by the way, the best thing to do is exercise.

00:33:15.000 Oddly enough, you know, you see these Lumosity programs and cognitive training programs and that sort of thing online.

00:33:20.000 Those things don't work at all.

00:33:22.000 So, there's no evidence whatsoever, there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that engaging in cognitive training will increase your cognitive ability.

00:33:30.000 You can get better at the tests that you practice and you will get way better.

00:33:34.000 But it doesn't make you generally any smarter.

00:33:36.000 And it's actually quite a catastrophe because psychologists have been trying to figure out for, well, 50 years, how to raise IQ.

00:33:43.000 And education raises verbal IQ, but we don't know how to raise IQ.

00:33:48.000 We know how to lower it, but we don't know how to raise it.

00:33:51.000 Well, it makes sense, too, because it's easy to make something worse, but it's not so easy to make it better, especially if it's complex, you know.

00:33:58.000 But, as you get older, your fluid IQ, which is the central measure of your ability to utilize abstractions, to generate them and manipulate them, your fluid IQ declines quite precipitously.

00:34:14.000 And so, that's not so good.

00:34:17.000 But you can really stave that off with exercise.

00:34:20.000 So, both aerobic exercise and weight lifting.

00:34:23.000 If you're 50, you can restore your cognitive ability to about the level it was when you were 30.

00:34:27.000 If you engage in relatively rigorous exercise on a regular schedule.

00:34:33.000 So, that's, I thought I'd tell you that, because it's kind of counterintuitive.

00:34:36.000 You think, well, how do you get smarter?

00:34:38.000 Lift some weights.

00:34:39.000 It's like, no.

00:34:41.000 Yes.

00:34:42.000 And the reason for that, it's strange, eh?

00:34:46.000 But the reason for that, the reason for that is bluntly physiological.

00:34:50.000 Your brain is an incredibly demanding organ.

00:34:53.000 And so, and it's very, it requires a very functional cardiovascular system.

00:34:59.000 And so, if you start to degenerate physiologically, the first thing that goes is your highest order, your highest order, your ability for higher order abstraction.

00:35:08.000 So, it makes sense, because, you know, you're a biological organism, after all.

00:35:12.000 And you have a brain, and it's a biological organism.

00:35:14.000 And it's a resource-hungry enterprise.

00:35:17.000 And so, if you're in good physical shape, then it works better.

00:35:20.000 Okay, so that was one thing.

00:35:21.000 The second thing was, I found two other branches of literature that were very interesting.

00:35:25.000 That bore directly on the subject.

00:35:27.000 One was produced by a group spearheaded by a psychologist, Gary Latham, at the University of Toronto, at the business school there.

00:35:37.000 And he was interested in how to make people more productive in enterprises.

00:35:41.000 And so, he had people do a goal setting, basically, personal goal setting.

00:35:47.000 And so, here would be a, there's two research questions embedded in that.

00:35:52.000 The first would be, if you set goals, does that make you a better employee?

00:35:58.000 And so, that would be the first question.

00:36:00.000 And the second question would be, what sort of goals should you set if you're going to be a better employee?

00:36:07.000 Okay, so the answer to the first question was, yes, if you set personal goals, that makes you a better employee.

00:36:13.000 You might ask, well, how do you measure whether or not someone's a good employee?

00:36:16.000 And, well, if they're directly involved in sales, then you can look at their sales.

00:36:20.000 And you can get reports from their peers.

00:36:22.000 You can get reports from their subordinates.

00:36:24.000 You can get reports from their managers.

00:36:26.000 So, there's ways of calibrating the measurement to see if you're accurately determining whether someone is doing a good job.

00:36:33.000 And if people set goals, then they do a better job.

00:36:36.000 Then the next question, this is a more subtle one, would be, well, if you're going to get people to do a better job at whatever they're doing,

00:36:42.000 which seems like a worthwhile thing, assuming that what they're doing is useful, they might as well do it better, right?

00:36:47.000 That's sort of our general rule for life, if you're going to do something.

00:36:50.000 You might as well do it better if you could.

00:36:52.000 Then the next question would be, well, do you get your people to set goals for their work, or do you get them to set goals for their life?

00:37:02.000 And so, they did the experiments, like group A would do goals that were personal, and group B would do goals that were oriented only towards work performance.

00:37:11.000 And the answer was, people who set personal goals turned out to do better than people who set business goals.

00:37:18.000 And that's very interesting to me, it's very interesting, because you might think, well, what motivates you to be productive in whatever you're doing?

00:37:28.000 And the answer to that is something like, you have something worthwhile to do.

00:37:34.000 You have a life. You're actually committed to it.

00:37:37.000 You have a life, and you think it's worth committing to.

00:37:40.000 And then, within that life, so the life, the fact that you want to have a life, that's the top thing.

00:37:45.000 And then the secondary thing is, well, you have to work, you know, because you need to generate resources so that you can have a life.

00:37:52.000 And so, if you're going to have a life, and you're aiming at something that you find meaningful and useful, and your work is facilitating that in some way,

00:38:02.000 then your work becomes part of the worthwhile enterprise of your life.

00:38:06.000 And so, that makes you motivated.

00:38:08.000 And it works two ways, which is quite cool.

00:38:10.000 One is that, you know, let's say you have a rather mundane job.

00:38:14.000 And that's often the case, because lots of people have mundane jobs.

00:38:17.000 Because mundane things need to be done, and they need to be done well.

00:38:21.000 And you might say, well, you know, why should you commit to that?

00:38:25.000 And that's a really good question.

00:38:27.000 And the answer might be, well, because it's serving a higher order purpose.

00:38:30.000 But you have to have the higher order purpose before that's the case.

00:38:33.000 And so, one thing having a life does is give you, it produces the possibility of real engagement.

00:38:42.000 So, if you're pursuing something worthwhile, the way this works neurologically, essentially, is that if you set a goal that's worthwhile,

00:38:49.000 then the systems that produce positive emotion, that they run on a neurochemical called dopamine,

00:38:54.000 you set a goal, and the world transforms around that goal, so that everything becomes related to the goal.

00:39:01.000 Everything that isn't relevant, you don't see.

00:39:03.000 And everything that's relevant either becomes a facilitator towards the goal or an obstacle.

00:39:08.000 So, you need to specify the goal to organize the world.

00:39:11.000 Then, whenever you see that you're making progress towards the goal, the systems that produce positive emotion kick in.

00:39:18.000 And so, that's how being meaningfully engaged in the world works.

00:39:24.000 Set a goal, that arranges the world.

00:39:27.000 Then, when you see yourself moving towards the goal, that produces a sense of engagement and meaning.

00:39:32.000 That's why in rule, I believe it's rule eight, rule seven.

00:39:37.000 Do what is meaningful and not what is expedient, is based upon precisely those principles.

00:39:42.000 And rule ten is, be precise in your speech.

00:39:46.000 And the reason for that is, that with precision of speech, you can specify a target.

00:39:51.000 And you need a target, because you have to aim at a target.

00:39:54.000 If you don't aim at a target, nothing worthwhile happens in your life.

00:39:57.000 And the more particularly and precisely you specify the target, the sharper the world gets,

00:40:03.000 and the more likely it is that you're going to be engaged in what you do.

00:40:06.000 So, it actually really matters that you're precise in your speech.

00:40:09.000 And then, the other thing that happens is, if you organize a goal,

00:40:13.000 and the world gets organized around that goal, it simplifies the world to some degree.

00:40:18.000 Because if you have a sharp goal, you can tell what's relevant and what's not.

00:40:22.000 And what happens when you get anxious, is you get flooded with things that might be relevant.

00:40:27.000 And that's not good. You don't want that.

00:40:30.000 When everything becomes important, you're done, man.

00:40:33.000 You don't know where to turn. What should I do next? Everything's coming at me.

00:40:36.000 It's like, it's too much.

00:40:38.000 So, a sharp goal also simplifies the world and keeps your anxiety down.

00:40:43.000 So, you win two ways.

00:40:45.000 You sharpen up your goal, then you experience more positive emotion,

00:40:49.000 but you also keep your negative emotion under control.

00:40:51.000 And so, that's some of the advantage of being precise in your speech.

00:40:55.000 And so, that was interesting. That was the goal setting literature.

00:40:59.000 And so then, I came across this writing by a psychologist named James Pennebaker.

00:41:05.000 And Pennebaker, he did some interesting work.

00:41:08.000 He was trying to do experimental tests of a hypothesis that was generated by Sigmund Freud.

00:41:13.000 So, Freud believed that if you had negative past experiences, childhood experiences, but not just childhood experiences,

00:41:24.000 things in your past that were still bothering you, crises, traumas, that sort of thing,

00:41:30.000 that if you talked about them, and you had a chance to express the emotion that was associated with that experience,

00:41:37.000 then that would be curative.

00:41:39.000 That's the catharsis model of psychodynamic cure.

00:41:45.000 Express the emotion.

00:41:47.000 And so, Pennebaker decided to test that.

00:41:54.000 So, what he did, it's a very cool set of experiments.

00:41:57.000 He had students come in, university students come in,

00:42:00.000 and for 15 minutes a day, for three days in a row,

00:42:05.000 they would write about the worst thing that happened to them, or the worst thing they did.

00:42:10.000 And then he had a control group, just write for the same amount of time,

00:42:14.000 about some, you know, trivial daily occurrences,

00:42:17.000 so that he could test whether or not it was the writing,

00:42:20.000 or if it was the specific writing.

00:42:22.000 And what Pennebaker found was that if you did that,

00:42:25.000 first you felt worse.

00:42:27.000 That lasted for about two weeks.

00:42:29.000 But if you followed people up for about six months,

00:42:32.000 they got physically healthier.

00:42:34.000 That was the biggest effect.

00:42:35.000 They got less anxious, that was...

00:42:37.000 and their mental health improved,

00:42:39.000 but they got physically healthier.

00:42:41.000 Their immune systems even improved.

00:42:43.000 There's about 40 studies demonstrating this now.

00:42:45.000 It's been generalized, actually,

00:42:47.000 to the point where it turns out

00:42:49.000 that if you get people to write about anything in their life that's uncertain,

00:42:53.000 it has that curative effect.

00:42:55.000 And in some sense, that's not surprising,

00:42:57.000 because, well, obviously uncertainty is stressful,

00:43:01.000 whether it's about the past, or the present, or the future.

00:43:03.000 And just as obviously,

00:43:05.000 one of the things you could do about what's uncertain is think about it.

00:43:09.000 I mean, that's what thinking is for.

00:43:12.000 You think about things you don't know,

00:43:14.000 and hopefully that clarifies them.

00:43:16.000 Hopefully that's useful.

00:43:18.000 And if it's useful, and it simplifies the world,

00:43:20.000 then perhaps you can be less stressed.

00:43:23.000 And if you're less stressed, you don't produce cortisol,

00:43:25.000 which is a primary stress hormone.

00:43:27.000 And cortisol overproduction makes you age.

00:43:30.000 So if you can reduce the uncertainty in your life through thinking,

00:43:35.000 then you get healthier.

00:43:37.000 And that happens.

00:43:39.000 That happens.

00:43:40.000 And a really good way of thinking is writing.

00:43:42.000 One good way of thinking is to think,

00:43:45.000 but thinking is very hard,

00:43:47.000 and it's not clear how many people can do it.

00:43:49.000 Because to think,

00:43:51.000 thinking isn't just having something occur in your head.

00:43:54.000 That's just the first part.

00:43:55.000 You know, a thought occurs to you.

00:43:57.000 To think, you have to let thoughts occur to you,

00:44:00.000 or allow them to.

00:44:02.000 Then you have to notice the thoughts.

00:44:04.000 Then you have to generate like an avatar that isn't you,

00:44:07.000 that takes a counter position to the thoughts.

00:44:10.000 Then you have to have an argument between the thoughts,

00:44:12.000 and you have to do that all inside your head.

00:44:14.000 And that's hard.

00:44:16.000 The easiest thing to do is just assume that what you thought up is correct.

00:44:19.000 It's like, it's not.

00:44:21.000 Right?

00:44:22.000 It needs some work, man.

00:44:23.000 Like, plenty of it.

00:44:25.000 And so, it's not easy to think.

00:44:27.000 And it's a lot of internal conflict.

00:44:29.000 It's very stressful.

00:44:30.000 And so, what people usually do to think is talk.

00:44:34.000 They talk to other people.

00:44:36.000 Because other people will help you clarify your stupid idea.

00:44:41.000 And so, then you won't walk off a cliff while you're enacting it.

00:44:45.000 Right?

00:44:46.000 And so, this is part of the reason why free speech is a paramount responsibility.

00:44:50.000 Not only a right.

00:44:52.000 Because, yeah.

00:44:53.000 Well, the reason is...

00:44:55.000 The fundamental reason is, is life is very hard, so you have to think.

00:45:03.000 And mostly you think by talking to other people.

00:45:06.000 And so, if you don't let people talk stupidly, which is how you talk to begin with,

00:45:13.000 then you don't let them think.

00:45:15.000 And if you don't let them think, then they don't think.

00:45:18.000 Then they do stupid things.

00:45:19.000 And then everything goes to hell.

00:45:20.000 And so, that's why...

00:45:22.000 Free speech isn't another right.

00:45:25.000 That isn't how it works.

00:45:27.000 It's the fundamental process by which everything else manifests itself properly.

00:45:33.000 And so, to misunderstand that is to misunderstand what's most fundamental.

00:45:38.000 So, anyways, so Pennebaker showed that if you had people write about what was uncertain,

00:45:43.000 they got physically healthier.

00:45:45.000 And then it turned out whether it didn't matter whether you wrote about the past

00:45:48.000 and terrible things that had happened to you,

00:45:50.000 or things you were uncertain about in the present,

00:45:52.000 or whether you wrote about the future.

00:45:54.000 And so, I could see the parallel between Pennebaker's work and the goal setting work.

00:46:01.000 And then there was another thing Pennebaker showed too, which was really cool.

00:46:04.000 So, he was testing the catharsis hypothesis, right?

00:46:08.000 Write about terrible things that happened to you,

00:46:10.000 express the emotion that's associated with that, and be better.

00:46:14.000 So, what Pennebaker did, and he kind of pioneered this,

00:46:17.000 was he went in and analyzed the words that people used

00:46:20.000 when they were writing about things that happened to them that weren't good.

00:46:23.000 And he classified them.

00:46:25.000 He classified them into emotion words, that was one category.

00:46:28.000 He used a bunch of categories, but the ones we're concerned about,

00:46:30.000 he used emotion words and cognitive words.

00:46:34.000 So, an emotion word would be hate, or anger, or fear, or joy, something like that.

00:46:40.000 And a cognitive word would be understand, or see, or illuminated, or enlightened,

00:46:45.000 or something like that.

00:46:47.000 And what he found was, it wasn't the use of emotion words

00:46:50.000 that predicted whether or not people got better.

00:46:52.000 It was use of cognitive words.

00:46:54.000 So, when you face your past, the terrible things in your past,

00:46:59.000 or when you face uncertainty, it isn't the fact that you express emotion

00:47:03.000 that is what does the trick.

00:47:05.000 It's that you understand what the experience was,

00:47:08.000 that you come to comprehend it.

00:47:10.000 And then you might ask, well, what does it mean to understand a terrible experience?

00:47:13.000 Well, it's sort of like coming to master fire.

00:47:16.000 Like, if you don't know how to deal with fire,

00:47:19.000 you stick your hand in the fire and you get burnt.

00:47:21.000 And that's a terrible thing.

00:47:23.000 And then you might think, well, fire is dangerous, and you should stay away from it.

00:47:26.000 But if you learn to master fire, well, then it's not dangerous at all.

00:47:30.000 Then it's a tool, and an unbelievably powerful tool.

00:47:33.000 And so, the terrible things in your past are sort of like that.

00:47:36.000 It's like, what you want to do is,

00:47:38.000 you don't want to express the emotion that's associated with them.

00:47:41.000 You want to figure out how it was that you were in a position where that terrible thing happened.

00:47:46.000 What were all the causal connections that led up to it manifesting itself.

00:47:51.000 And then you want to retool yourself,

00:47:53.000 so the probability that that thing won't happen to you again in the future.

00:47:56.000 So there's a high probability that won't happen to you again in the future.

00:47:59.000 So, the issue is, why do you remember the past?

00:48:03.000 And the answer isn't to form a record of the past.

00:48:06.000 The answer is so that you can extract from the past information needed

00:48:11.000 to not repeat stupid things that happened to you in the past.

00:48:15.000 So basically, it's a mapping function, right?

00:48:17.000 You're walking through life like it's a territory.

00:48:20.000 Now and then you fall into a pit.

00:48:22.000 And when you come out of the pit, you think, okay,

00:48:24.000 here's a bunch of reasons I fell into that pit.

00:48:27.000 How about if I don't do that again?

00:48:30.000 And so then, even though there's pits everywhere,

00:48:33.000 because the world is full of sharp places and nasty turns,

00:48:36.000 you can maybe learn how to negotiate through it,

00:48:38.000 so that you don't fall prey to it.

00:48:40.000 And so if you do that, well that's understanding.

00:48:43.000 Then you don't have to be anxious about those situations anymore.

00:48:46.000 And so then you don't have to be afraid of them.

00:48:48.000 So the emotions disappear.

00:48:49.000 But not because you expressed them.

00:48:51.000 It's a secondary consequence.

00:48:53.000 So that was extremely useful as well.

00:48:56.000 Pennebaker's discovery and his clarification of what the curative process was

00:49:01.000 in facing things that made you uncertain or afraid.

00:49:05.000 So I read all that stuff and I thought,

00:49:07.000 oh, and then the other thing I had picked up,

00:49:11.000 this really, really shocked me when I realized it.

00:49:14.000 Partly because it was a shock of realization.

00:49:19.000 But it was also a shock that I hadn't realized it before.

00:49:22.000 I have all these students and they'd been in school for 19 years,

00:49:26.000 because these were 3rd year students, or 15 years.

00:49:29.000 12 years of school, obviously, and then 3 years of university.

00:49:32.000 And I realized that nobody had ever sat them down, not even once in their whole life,

00:49:37.000 and made them write out what the hell they were going to do with their life and why,

00:49:43.000 with the same degree of seriousness that they were maybe called on to write an essay about the War of 1812.

00:49:49.000 And the more I thought about that, the stranger it got.

00:49:53.000 I thought, well, what the hell? Why is that?

00:49:55.000 How can we set up a whole education system

00:49:58.000 and never ask students at any point to say,

00:50:02.000 okay, well, what are you aiming at at life?

00:50:05.000 In sort of a detailed way.

00:50:07.000 Well, how about you justify that?

00:50:09.000 How about you don't just say, well, I think I want to be a nurse.

00:50:12.000 It's like, great.

00:50:14.000 You got a whole sentence there as a plan for your life.

00:50:17.000 A whole sentence. Congratulations.

00:50:20.000 And what's terrible about that is that most people don't even have the sentence.

00:50:25.000 And so, it's good when someone can come out and say,

00:50:28.000 well, here's a sentence about what my future is going to be.

00:50:30.000 It's like, good for you. You've done some work.

00:50:33.000 It's not like a 20-page document, but it is your life after all,

00:50:38.000 so maybe it's worth a 20-page document.

00:50:41.000 Like, at least once to think it through.

00:50:44.000 And so, that just blew me away when I realized that.

00:50:47.000 I thought, how the hell could we be so dumb

00:50:50.000 as to not help compel students to do that?

00:50:54.000 It's like, you got a plan?

00:50:56.000 Okay, let's hear it.

00:50:58.000 And how about if I tell you 50 stupid things about it,

00:51:01.000 so that you can think through how you would justify it,

00:51:06.000 and how you would overcome those objections,

00:51:08.000 so that it's not just some little one-sentence plan.

00:51:11.000 It's a plan, man.

00:51:12.000 It's formulated and solid.

00:51:15.000 It's like, it's your life.

00:51:17.000 How is it that that couldn't be of primary importance?

00:51:20.000 So, then I read this guy named John Gatto.

00:51:23.000 And Gatto won the award for the best teacher in New York City

00:51:27.000 and then in New York State.

00:51:28.000 And then he quit teaching.

00:51:30.000 Yeah, right.

00:51:32.000 And he did a history of the education system.

00:51:35.000 And this is what he laid out.

00:51:38.000 He said, the education system, the public education system,

00:51:44.000 was developed in the United States, in Chicago, to begin with.

00:51:47.000 And it was based on the Prussian education system.

00:51:50.000 Which is, by the way, is the same education system that the Japanese used before World War II,

00:51:55.000 when they were trying to modernize.

00:51:57.000 Now, the question is, what was the purpose of the Prussian education system?

00:52:02.000 And the purpose was, to produce good soldiers.

00:52:06.000 And good, what's a good soldier?

00:52:09.000 A good soldier is obedient, above all.

00:52:11.000 Because a good soldier marches into gunfire when you tell him to.

00:52:15.000 And that's obedience.

00:52:17.000 And it's actually the case.

00:52:18.000 We did some work to see what was the best predictor of success among military personnel.

00:52:23.000 And by far the best predictor is conscientiousness.

00:52:26.000 Which is, it's not obedience exactly, but it's dutifulness, let's say.

00:52:31.000 And so, the Prussians wanted to produce soldiers.

00:52:35.000 Obedient soldiers.

00:52:36.000 And they were still monarchical under this situation.

00:52:39.000 So they really wanted, that's what they wanted.

00:52:42.000 They didn't want autonomous individuals.

00:52:44.000 They wanted soldiers.

00:52:46.000 And the people who started the public education system in the United States,

00:52:50.000 and it spread into Canada.

00:52:52.000 Weren't exactly interested in producing soldiers.

00:52:55.000 Although that was part of it.

00:52:56.000 They were interested in producing workers.

00:53:00.000 Okay, now why?

00:53:02.000 Well, the industrial revolution was in full swing.

00:53:06.000 And lots of rural people were moving to the cities to work in the factories.

00:53:10.000 And they needed factory workers.

00:53:12.000 And factory workers needed to be working by the bell.

00:53:15.000 They needed to attune themselves to the clock.

00:53:17.000 That's why there's factory bells in schools.

00:53:19.000 You know, that's what they are.

00:53:21.000 When the bell rings and it's time to sit down in your neat rows.

00:53:24.000 That's all factory work ethos, let's say.

00:53:28.000 And so the idea was, well, rural people were flooding into the cities.

00:53:31.000 A, something had to be done with their children because they needed to work.

00:53:36.000 So, you know, so partly schools are warehouses for the children of workers.

00:53:41.000 And second, the idea was that, well, the children of workers were going to grow up to be workers.

00:53:46.000 And so it was fine to fundamentally put them through the same kind of education process

00:53:52.000 that you would put soldiers through.

00:53:54.000 Well, so that was like 1880.

00:53:57.000 And now it's like 2018.

00:53:59.000 And no one noticed that 130 years has gone by.

00:54:04.000 And so we're not, we haven't tooled our schools to produce autonomous individuals.

00:54:10.000 We've produced, we've tooled them to produce obedient workers.

00:54:14.000 And that's fine except that that's all gone.

00:54:18.000 And what we need now are autonomous individuals, increasingly.

00:54:21.000 And people don't have one job for their whole life, you know.

00:54:24.000 On average now, people switch jobs every five years.

00:54:27.000 And the probability that that's going to, that rate is going to increase is quite high

00:54:31.000 because things are changing very, very rapidly.

00:54:34.000 And so a little, a little training for autonomy might be a good thing.

00:54:39.000 So, so that was very shocking to me when I read all that.

00:54:43.000 So I built this program with some of my colleagues and my students.

00:54:46.000 And, and it's online, it's called self-authoring.

00:54:49.000 And if you guys are interested in this program, if you go to online and you use this code 12 rules,

00:54:54.000 then you can use the programs for half of their normal price for whatever that's worth to you.

00:54:59.000 But the programs do three things.

00:55:03.000 So, they're, they're designed to help people reduce the uncertainty and anxiety in their life,

00:55:08.000 to map their paths, and to plot their course into the future.

00:55:12.000 And so, the first program is an autobiography program.

00:55:15.000 So, you know, if I just say, well, will you write your autobiography?

00:55:19.000 You'll say no, because you don't write, and writing's very hard.

00:55:23.000 And so, what the, what the program does is, is asks you smaller questions like,

00:55:28.000 well, can you break your life up into six epochs, six stages?

00:55:32.000 Well, you can usually figure that out.

00:55:34.000 Maybe, you know, birth to kindergarten or something, then elementary school, junior high.

00:55:37.000 You can kind of parse your life up into six.

00:55:40.000 Then maybe ask, well, can you list eight experiences in each of these stages or epochs that had emotional significance to you?

00:55:47.000 And don't worry about writing it well.

00:55:49.000 Just scrawl it down, man.

00:55:50.000 Get it out.

00:55:51.000 Get it out.

00:55:52.000 You can edit it later.

00:55:53.000 Like, the important thing first is to get the damn story out, and then to organize it.

00:55:59.000 And so, people can do that.

00:56:00.000 And then, you know, we ask, well, why were these emotionally, emotional experiences particularly important?

00:56:07.000 And how did they come about?

00:56:08.000 And so forth.

00:56:09.000 And, you know, you can trudge your way through the document.

00:56:11.000 And the purpose there is, in order to orient yourself in the world so that you can take care of yourself properly, one thing you have to know is where you are and who you are.

00:56:22.000 And in order to know that, you have to understand where you've been.

00:56:26.000 Because otherwise, you're all over the place.

00:56:28.000 And if you're all over the place, then you can't figure out how to get to where you're going any more than you could if you were in a car and you were driving somewhere and you didn't know where you were to start with.

00:56:38.000 So, you have to collect yourself to begin with.

00:56:41.000 So that you're in one place.

00:56:43.000 And figure out who you are.

00:56:44.000 And then, perhaps, you can figure out who it is that you want to be.

00:56:48.000 Which would be part of taking care of yourself.

00:56:50.000 And so, well, that's the first program.

00:56:52.000 The second program uses a big five model of personality.

00:56:56.000 Which is kind of a well-established personality model.

00:56:59.000 To outline what your virtues might be and what your faults might be.

00:57:03.000 And it's something you do yourself, you know.

00:57:05.000 What elements of your personality have got in your way that might need to be rectified.

00:57:10.000 And what's good about you that you could use to prevail in the world.

00:57:14.000 And how could you capitalize a bit more on what's good about you.

00:57:17.000 And how could you, perhaps, rectify those things that aren't so good about you.

00:57:21.000 And so, that's the second program.

00:57:23.000 That's called Present Authoring.

00:57:24.000 The third program is the one I really want to concentrate on.

00:57:27.000 So, because I think it's a nice way of delineating out what it would mean to take responsibility for yourself.

00:57:34.000 As if you were someone that you were responsible for helping.

00:57:39.000 So, here's the first suggestion.

00:57:43.000 And you can do this in your life without having to do this exercise.

00:57:47.000 The reason I'm bringing it up is because we did a lot of scientific work.

00:57:50.000 Looking to see whether this program worked.

00:57:52.000 And I wanted to tell you about that.

00:57:54.000 To give it some credibility.

00:57:56.000 Because we weren't going to assume that just because we made this stupid program.

00:57:59.000 That it was going to work.

00:58:00.000 Because most things that people make to help other people don't work.

00:58:05.000 And so, this is part of the reason I became a traditionalist once I became a social scientist.

00:58:10.000 It's like, the evidence is overwhelming in the clinical intervention literature.

00:58:14.000 That your stupid intervention to help people is not going to work.

00:58:17.000 And probably will make it worse.

00:58:19.000 And so, you have to be damn careful.

00:58:22.000 You know, the faculties of education have been absolutely horrible about that sort of thing over the last 20 years.

00:58:28.000 They've done all sorts of things that were absolutely counterproductive.

00:58:31.000 They used whole word reading in California, for example.

00:58:34.000 Based on the idea, if you study expert readers, expert readers read whole words.

00:58:38.000 Or even whole phrases at once.

00:58:40.000 So, the idea was, well, let's teach children not the alphabet, not phonetics.

00:58:44.000 We'll just teach them to recognize whole words.

00:58:46.000 Because then they'll be expert readers.

00:58:48.000 Without understanding that an expert doesn't do things the same way that a beginner does.

00:58:53.000 And so, by studying experts, that doesn't mean that you know how to train people who don't know what they're doing.

00:58:59.000 So, they started to train this.

00:59:01.000 They started this in California.

00:59:02.000 They started to train kids to read whole words.

00:59:05.000 And what happened was, California went from number one in literacy tests in the US to number 50.

00:59:11.000 Right.

00:59:12.000 And so, whole word reading was a catastrophe.

00:59:14.000 And it took over the whole school systems for about 10 years.

00:59:17.000 Then there was the self-esteem movement.

00:59:20.000 And mostly what training in self-esteem did for kids was make them narcissistic.

00:59:24.000 Because that's what happened.

00:59:26.000 Because you can't make people have self-esteem.

00:59:29.000 That isn't how the world works.

00:59:31.000 Like, maybe you can make them competent.

00:59:33.000 Maybe you can help them be competent.

00:59:35.000 So that now and then they can feel that their miserable existences are justified.

00:59:39.000 But you can't train them to have self-esteem.

00:59:43.000 Well, for all sorts of reasons that I won't go into.

00:59:46.000 So, then there was multiple intelligence theory.

00:59:51.000 That was Howard Gardner.

00:59:52.000 That was a complete bloody catastrophe.

00:59:54.000 Then there was learning styles.

00:59:57.000 None of which exist.

00:59:58.000 No evidence whatsoever that that works.

01:00:00.000 And now there's implicit bias and what unconscious bias retraining.

01:00:06.000 The implicit association test is a sham.

01:00:09.000 Mostly.

01:00:10.000 Especially when it's applied politically.

01:00:11.000 And there's no evidence whatsoever that unconscious bias retraining programs work even a little bit.

01:00:17.000 And a fair bit of evidence that they are counterproductive.

01:00:20.000 It's a complete bloody scam.

01:00:22.000 I'll tell you another little story about intervention.

01:00:29.000 So, I knew this woman named Joan McLeod.

01:00:31.000 And she was a criminology PhD.

01:00:33.000 She was an elderly woman when I met her.

01:00:35.000 And was one of the first women in the United States to get a PhD in criminology.

01:00:38.000 She was a tough cookie and she was really smart.

01:00:41.000 And she was involved in this project called the Somerville Study.

01:00:44.000 Very famous study that was done in the 1930s in Somerville, Massachusetts.

01:00:48.000 So, here's what people wanted to do.

01:00:50.000 They took kids who were antisocial, who were likely to become antisocial.

01:00:53.000 Rough neighborhoods, right?

01:00:54.000 So, they had higher probability of growing up criminal, let's say.

01:00:57.000 They decided, well, we're going to intervene and see if we can deflect them so that they grow up better.

01:01:03.000 And so, they divided the kids in a rough neighborhood in Somerville into two groups.

01:01:09.000 The control group and the intervention group.

01:01:11.000 And they just threw the book at the intervention group, man.

01:01:14.000 They had their parents trained in more effective parenting.

01:01:17.000 They put literacy programs in place.

01:01:19.000 They did nutrition counseling.

01:01:22.000 Everything that a well-meaning social scientist might throw at a child to improve their lives, they did it.

01:01:29.000 It was one of the first studies of this sort.

01:01:31.000 And to top it all off, they set up a camp out of the city so that the inner city kids, the deprived inner city kids could go to summer camp for two weeks a year and, you know, enjoy the outdoors and have a little chance to get away from it all and have a vacation and maybe, you know, learn some skills and make some friends.

01:01:49.000 And so, everyone was thrilled about this.

01:01:52.000 The kids were thrilled about it.

01:01:53.000 The parents were thrilled about it.

01:01:54.000 The social scientists were thrilled about it.

01:01:56.000 Until they analyzed the results.

01:01:59.000 And the results were that the kids in the intervention group did worse on virtually every measure.

01:02:04.000 More drug abuse.

01:02:05.000 More alcoholism.

01:02:06.000 More criminality.

01:02:07.000 More insanity.

01:02:08.000 Like, you name it.

01:02:09.000 They were worse.

01:02:11.000 Why?

01:02:12.000 Don't put antisocial kids together in a group in the summer.

01:02:21.000 Right?

01:02:22.000 It turns out to be a very bad idea.

01:02:24.000 And the unexpected consequences of doing that outweighed all of the positive interventions.

01:02:32.000 And so, Joan McCord spent a lot of her career after that because she was so shocked by the results, going around talking to social scientists and saying,

01:02:40.000 Don't be thinking that your stupid good intentions are good enough to make the world a better place.

01:02:46.000 You turn your good intentions into a concrete plan.

01:02:49.000 That's hard.

01:02:50.000 Then you implement it.

01:02:51.000 That's hard.

01:02:52.000 Then you evaluate whether your implementation worked.

01:02:55.000 Because it probably didn't.

01:02:57.000 Because it's not easy to make things better and it's really easy to make them worse.

01:03:02.000 Right?

01:03:03.000 If you know social scientists or politicians that don't follow that doctrine, that means they're ignorant and arrogant.

01:03:12.000 That's it.

01:03:13.000 It's one or the other or both.

01:03:15.000 The ignorance is they just don't know that good intentions aren't enough.

01:03:20.000 And the arrogance is they know that they're not enough, but they think their good intentions are good enough.

01:03:25.000 And they're not.

01:03:26.000 And one of the things you learn, even working in a lab, even doing small interventions with people, is that you don't understand your intervention and you can't predict how people are going to respond to it.

01:03:36.000 Because your intervention is more complicated than you think.

01:03:39.000 And people are way more complicated than you think.

01:03:42.000 So, it's easier to make things worse than it is to make them better.

01:03:46.000 So you have to be cautious.

01:03:48.000 So, anyways.

01:03:49.000 So, we built this program.

01:03:51.000 Based on this data.

01:03:53.000 And then we tested it.

01:03:54.000 Right?

01:03:55.000 Because that was what we were duty bound to do.

01:03:57.000 So, in the first part of the program, you're asked to adopt a particular attitude toward yourself, which is sort of detached.

01:04:05.000 And the attitude is, let's assume that you're worth having around.

01:04:10.000 Despite your flaws.

01:04:12.000 It's okay that you're here.

01:04:13.000 Maybe it's even a good thing that you're here.

01:04:15.000 Hypothetically.

01:04:16.000 And so, because of that, maybe it would be a good thing that your life wasn't full of more dreadful suffering than necessary.

01:04:24.000 That would be the next thing.

01:04:26.000 So, it would be okay if things worked out alright for you.

01:04:28.000 It wouldn't be a blot on the structure of the cosmos if you weren't being tortured to death all the time.

01:04:34.000 So, it would be okay if you could set things up for you so that it was good.

01:04:39.000 And I don't mean by being easy on yourself or any of that.

01:04:42.000 Because that doesn't make things good.

01:04:43.000 And everyone knows that.

01:04:44.000 It's more complicated than that.

01:04:45.000 But that you could, if you could set up, you could set up a life for yourself like you would set up a life for someone that you cared about.

01:04:53.000 And that would be a laudable thing.

01:04:55.000 Okay, so that's proposition number one.

01:04:57.000 Proposition number two, that's rule ten.

01:04:59.000 Be precise in your speech.

01:05:01.000 Or do, or what, rule eight, seven.

01:05:03.000 Do what is meaningful, not what is expedient.

01:05:05.000 Let's assume that you should do something worthwhile.

01:05:09.000 You can define it, but it should be something worthwhile.

01:05:13.000 And that if you decide to do something, there's a better, there's a better chance that it will happen that if you didn't decide to do it.

01:05:23.000 That doesn't seem completely unreasonable, right?

01:05:25.000 And that would be painfully optimistic to make the case that if you aim at something and then work towards it, there's a higher probability that it will occur than if you don't aim at all and act randomly.

01:05:35.000 Okay, so that's all you need to accept in order to do this.

01:05:39.000 But there's something profound about that.

01:05:41.000 Because, basically, what it suggests is that if you laid out a vision for yourself, that it could manifest itself in reality.

01:05:48.000 That could happen.

01:05:49.000 That's echoed.

01:05:50.000 There's a New Testament statement that's quite mysterious.

01:05:52.000 It says something like, knock and the door will open and ask and you will receive.

01:05:57.000 It's like you think, well, no way, that can't happen.

01:05:59.000 It's like, yeah, actually.

01:06:01.000 One of the things I really noticed as a clinician was that a lot of the time people didn't get what they needed and wanted was because they wouldn't specify it.

01:06:10.000 And partly they were afraid.

01:06:12.000 You know, because if you keep your goals vague, then you can't exactly tell when you're failing.

01:06:19.000 And it's harder to be fundamentally disappointed, right?

01:06:22.000 Because if you're not after anything concrete, you can't tell when you fail.

01:06:26.000 So, in some sense, you don't fail.

01:06:28.000 But in another sense, you just fail all the time.

01:06:31.000 It's just, you're failing small ways all the time rather than risking like a really blunt and clear failure.

01:06:38.000 So, you'll obscure the world so that you don't have to face the consequences of your error.

01:06:43.000 It's a very bad strategy.

01:06:45.000 And the other thing I noticed was that if people started to clarify what they were after, the probability that some of that would happen ramped way the hell up.

01:06:55.000 I had one client, this client was so afraid, afraid, socially afraid, that even though I was her therapist, she couldn't go and have coffee with me in a cafe.

01:07:06.000 That was one of the things she was afraid about.

01:07:08.000 And she worked on that for like 10 years.

01:07:11.000 And by the end of that, she could do stand-up comedy.

01:07:14.000 And like, that's a lot different, man.

01:07:16.000 That's a lot of improvement.

01:07:18.000 You know, and I saw people, once they had set their mind to something, pull themselves out of pretty damn catastrophic circumstances.

01:07:26.000 Not always, like it doesn't work for everyone.

01:07:28.000 You know, because life is hard and you can't actually fail.

01:07:32.000 But people can pull themselves out of some pretty vicious holes, man.

01:07:36.000 And they do that by, well, first of all, deciding not to dig further down, which is a bad idea if you're in a hole.

01:07:43.000 But to actually try to get out of it, specify what you want.

01:07:47.000 So, the program asks you to imagine that you could take care of yourself.

01:07:53.000 And then, to ask yourself, like you're asking someone that you cared for.

01:07:58.000 Well, if you could have what you needed and wanted, if you were taking care of yourself, what would it look like?

01:08:04.000 And so then, that's broken down.

01:08:05.000 It's like, okay.

01:08:06.000 You get to have what you want, but you have to specify it.

01:08:09.000 You can have the family you want.

01:08:11.000 Siblings, parents, children.

01:08:14.000 But you have to decide what that's going to be.

01:08:16.000 What would your family look like if it was put together the way you wanted it to be?

01:08:20.000 What about your intimate relationship?

01:08:23.000 How would that look if you could have it the way you wanted it?

01:08:26.000 What about your job or your career?

01:08:29.000 What about how you're going to educate yourself?

01:08:31.000 Because you don't know enough, so you should learn some more.

01:08:34.000 So, how are you going to deal with that?

01:08:36.000 If you had to deal properly with temptations, like drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexual temptation.

01:08:42.000 If you're going to deal with that properly, you can use your own judgment, but by your own standards.

01:08:47.000 What would that look like?

01:08:49.000 How could you and might you use your time outside of work productively and meaningfully?

01:08:56.000 I think that's it.

01:08:58.000 I think those are the seven questions that we ask.

01:09:00.000 And so, there's other important questions that are relevant to your life, but that's not a bad start, you know.

01:09:05.000 And say, okay, just write a sentence or two about what your life could be like three to five years in the future.

01:09:10.000 If, along each of those dimensions, if you could have what you needed.

01:09:16.000 And don't worry about whether or not you're right about it, because you're not going to be right.

01:09:19.000 You're going to be a little more right than you are now.

01:09:22.000 That's rule four.

01:09:24.000 Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.

01:09:29.000 Right? So, you can make a plan.

01:09:31.000 And you're not omniscient.

01:09:34.000 So, your plan is going to be flawed.

01:09:36.000 But a flawed plan is way better than no plan.

01:09:40.000 Partly because when you execute a flawed plan.

01:09:42.000 Well, first of all, because you will execute it.

01:09:44.000 And then, if you do execute a flawed plan, you can tell exactly why it's flawed instead of hypothetically why it might be flawed.

01:09:51.000 And if you can figure out exactly where it's flawed, then you can fix the plan.

01:09:57.000 So, partly you make a plan knowing that you're going to have to fix the plan.

01:10:00.000 But, so really what you're making is a meta plan.

01:10:03.000 And a meta plan is a plan to make a bunch of plans.

01:10:06.000 And to start with a stupid plan, because you're not very bright.

01:10:09.000 And so, all you're going to do is be able to start with a stupid plan.

01:10:12.000 But hopefully, your ability to plan will get better as you continue to plan.

01:10:16.000 So, it doesn't matter.

01:10:18.000 Okay, so then you write out these seven sentences.

01:10:21.000 Then you can sit for 15 minutes and you just write.

01:10:23.000 Do it badly.

01:10:24.000 Don't get obsessive about it.

01:10:26.000 You have what you want in three to five years.

01:10:28.000 What does it look like?

01:10:30.000 So, you write all that out.

01:10:32.000 Then we reverse it.

01:10:33.000 Because it's one thing to be motivated because you're going for something that you want.

01:10:37.000 That's good.

01:10:38.000 That's motivation.

01:10:39.000 That's positive motivation.

01:10:40.000 That's meaning.

01:10:41.000 A promise.

01:10:42.000 That's hope.

01:10:43.000 But another thing that's really useful is to be terrified.

01:10:46.000 Because terror is also one hell of a motivator.

01:10:49.000 And often, people are terrified about what might happen if they do something.

01:10:53.000 But often, they're not nearly terrified enough about what might happen if they don't do something.

01:10:58.000 And so, you've got to think that through too.

01:11:00.000 It's like, whatever course you're on right now has a cost.

01:11:05.000 Like, you might have written the cost off already.

01:11:08.000 Because you're not being attacked on all sides right at the moment.

01:11:11.000 So, you feel you're safe.

01:11:12.000 But, if your life isn't engaging and it's not meaningful.

01:11:14.000 And you don't have a vision.

01:11:16.000 Then, the clock is ticking.

01:11:18.000 Tick, tick, tick.

01:11:19.000 And your time is running out.

01:11:21.000 And that's costly.

01:11:22.000 And so, one of the things that we ask people to do next is, okay.

01:11:27.000 Take stock of your weaknesses and your inadequacies and your faults.

01:11:30.000 You know what they are.

01:11:31.000 And, imagine that they get the upper hand for the next three to five years.

01:11:36.000 So, you're a little bitter.

01:11:37.000 You get real bitter.

01:11:38.000 You're a little cruel.

01:11:39.000 You get real cruel.

01:11:40.000 You're anxious.

01:11:41.000 You get terrified.

01:11:42.000 You drink a little bit too much.

01:11:43.000 You're an alcoholic.

01:11:44.000 You know.

01:11:45.000 You fall apart in that particular horrible way that only you would fall apart.

01:11:49.000 And that only you know about.

01:11:50.000 You write out that.

01:11:51.000 It's like, okay.

01:11:52.000 I don't get my act together.

01:11:53.000 What the hell does my life look like in three to five years?

01:11:56.000 That's a little concrete vision of your own personal hell.

01:11:59.000 And now you have that.

01:12:00.000 You have.

01:12:01.000 And then that's useful.

01:12:02.000 Because you can always refer to that.

01:12:03.000 Because you get up in the morning and you think, oh, God.

01:12:05.000 I got some difficult things to do.

01:12:07.000 Why should I do them?

01:12:08.000 Oh, yes.

01:12:09.000 It's to stay away from hell.

01:12:11.000 Right.

01:12:12.000 That'll get you out of bed.

01:12:13.000 Especially if you make that vision real.

01:12:15.000 It's got to be something you believe in.

01:12:16.000 It's like, yeah.

01:12:17.000 This is where I could end up.

01:12:19.000 People know.

01:12:20.000 Bitter.

01:12:21.000 Alone.

01:12:22.000 Alcoholic.

01:12:23.000 Anxious.

01:12:24.000 Depressed.

01:12:25.000 Suicidal.

01:12:26.000 Self-destructive.

01:12:27.000 You name it, man.

01:12:28.000 Hard on you.

01:12:29.000 Hard on your family.

01:12:30.000 A terror to your community.

01:12:31.000 A hole in the world instead of a presence in the world.

01:12:33.000 You know.

01:12:34.000 Someone that's doing everything they can to make things worse.

01:12:37.000 That's certainly a possibility.

01:12:39.000 So you've got to make that real.

01:12:41.000 And then the next part of the program asks people to make a plan.

01:12:44.000 To bring the positive vision into being.

01:12:46.000 Break it into eight parts.

01:12:48.000 And to make a little plan for fulfilling each goal.

01:12:52.000 And justifying why if you, you know, managed to make goal one, your life would be better.

01:12:57.000 And your family's life would be better.

01:12:59.000 And maybe the community around you would be better.

01:13:01.000 Because you want to lock that down.

01:13:03.000 Like it's important.

01:13:04.000 Because it is.

01:13:06.000 So.

01:13:07.000 Then we tested it.

01:13:09.000 So the first thing we did was.

01:13:11.000 We used this on students at McGill.

01:13:14.000 And we took 80 students who were on academic probation.

01:13:17.000 So they're bright kids.

01:13:18.000 Because they wouldn't have gone into McGill.

01:13:19.000 But they were failing.

01:13:20.000 So we had 40 of them do the future authoring program.

01:13:23.000 And we had 40 of them do a bunch of psychological assessments that took about as much writing.

01:13:28.000 And then we tracked them for six months.

01:13:31.000 And the kids who did the future authoring program were 30% less likely to drop out.

01:13:37.000 None of them dropped out in the control group.

01:13:39.000 In the intervention group actually.

01:13:40.000 And they got.

01:13:41.000 And their grades went up by about 25%.

01:13:43.000 So we were pretty damn thrilled about that.

01:13:46.000 So then this woman in Holland named Michaela Shippers picked up the program.

01:13:51.000 She works at this business school at Erasmus University called the Rotterdam School of Management.

01:13:56.000 And so they had all their first year students do the program.

01:13:59.000 About 1,000 per year.

01:14:00.000 And so that's been going on for about 10 years.

01:14:02.000 And we studied about 6,000 students.

01:14:04.000 And what happened was the same thing.

01:14:07.000 People who completed the self-authoring program.

01:14:10.000 They did it as part of a course assignment.

01:14:12.000 They got about 15% of their course grade.

01:14:15.000 Or 5%.

01:14:16.000 I don't remember.

01:14:17.000 Some small amount for doing the assignment.

01:14:19.000 And their academic achievement improved by about 30%.

01:14:24.000 Then we stratified it.

01:14:26.000 Because we were kind of interested.

01:14:27.000 So we were looking.

01:14:28.000 We did a basic demographic analysis.

01:14:31.000 Did it work better for females or males?

01:14:33.000 And did it work better for Dutch nationals?

01:14:36.000 Or non-Western ethnic minority people?

01:14:39.000 So those were the stratifications.

01:14:40.000 So we had four groups.

01:14:41.000 Dutch women.

01:14:42.000 Dutch men.

01:14:43.000 Non-Western ethnic minority women.

01:14:45.000 Non-Western ethnic minority men.

01:14:47.000 Before they did the self-authoring program.

01:14:50.000 The Dutch women were doing the best.

01:14:52.000 Then the Dutch men.

01:14:53.000 Then the non-Western ethnic minority women.

01:14:55.000 Then the non-Western ethnic minority men.

01:14:57.000 And they were underperforming the Dutch women by about 83%.

01:15:00.000 A walloping difference.

01:15:02.000 Something usually attributed to sociological factors.

01:15:05.000 You know, like oppression and prejudice and all of those things.

01:15:08.000 When we broke the groups down.

01:15:11.000 In terms of their post-intervention performance.

01:15:14.000 The non-Western ethnic minority men.

01:15:16.000 Two years after doing the future authoring program.

01:15:19.000 Were outperforming the Dutch women.

01:15:21.000 So the psychological intervention obliterated the ethnic difference.

01:15:26.000 And so that just blew us away.

01:15:28.000 Because we didn't expect that at all.

01:15:29.000 So that was really exciting.

01:15:30.000 The future authoring program actually didn't have much of an effect on the women.

01:15:34.000 The Dutch women.

01:15:35.000 But I think that was because they were already doing very well.

01:15:38.000 And so the program seems to work better.

01:15:41.000 Weirdly enough.

01:15:42.000 And this is the answer to that management problem.

01:15:45.000 What should I do with my employees that aren't doing very well?

01:15:48.000 Have them write out a plan for their life.

01:15:50.000 That actually works.

01:15:52.000 Now it's not a cure-all.

01:15:53.000 And it won't necessarily work for everyone.

01:15:55.000 But it does work.

01:15:57.000 And so their performance went way up.

01:16:01.000 And so that was.

01:16:02.000 We're absolutely thrilled about that.

01:16:03.000 Then we did it again at Mohawk College in Ontario.

01:16:06.000 Vocational college.

01:16:07.000 We had kids come in during the.

01:16:09.000 Their summer orientation.

01:16:11.000 And just do this for an hour.

01:16:13.000 Cold.

01:16:14.000 They had no instruction about it.

01:16:15.000 They just sat down at the computer and did it.

01:16:17.000 So they did it badly.

01:16:18.000 Because they only took an hour.

01:16:20.000 You know.

01:16:21.000 So.

01:16:22.000 And then it increased the probability that the men would stay in college in the first semester by 50%.

01:16:27.000 So it was walloping effect.

01:16:29.000 Again it had a bigger effect on the males.

01:16:31.000 But they were more likely to drop out.

01:16:33.000 So.

01:16:34.000 Anyway.

01:16:35.000 So that was sort of.

01:16:36.000 I'll tell you a funny story about that too.

01:16:38.000 So.

01:16:39.000 We implemented this program at Mohawk.

01:16:41.000 And it really worked.

01:16:42.000 And so then.

01:16:43.000 They decided.

01:16:45.000 Some of the people decided.

01:16:46.000 That they would make it part of the course work.

01:16:48.000 Which is a much harder thing to do than you think.

01:16:50.000 And so they tortured us to death for about six months.

01:16:53.000 Rewriting the software.

01:16:55.000 So that it would fit into their bureaucratic regime.

01:16:57.000 We didn't really want to do it.

01:16:59.000 Because it took a lot of work.

01:17:00.000 And there was no funds available for that.

01:17:02.000 So it was expensive and difficult.

01:17:04.000 And so we did that.

01:17:05.000 And then they used it for a year.

01:17:07.000 And then dropped it completely.

01:17:08.000 Even though.

01:17:09.000 The evidence that it worked.

01:17:11.000 Which was generated in their own institution.

01:17:13.000 Was absolutely overwhelming.

01:17:15.000 There was no.

01:17:17.000 Bureaucratic buy-in in the long run.

01:17:20.000 To decrease the probability.

01:17:22.000 That young men in the college would drop out by 50%.

01:17:25.000 So.

01:17:26.000 But that's another.

01:17:27.000 Just another example of how difficult it is.

01:17:29.000 To design an intervention that works.

01:17:30.000 Because even if it works.

01:17:31.000 Doesn't mean you'll have institutional buy-in.

01:17:33.000 Because it's really hard to get institutional buy-in.

01:17:36.000 And God only knows how you get it.

01:17:38.000 But mere demonstration that something works.

01:17:40.000 Is not sufficient.

01:17:42.000 You'd think it would be.

01:17:43.000 But it's certainly not.

01:17:44.000 So.

01:17:45.000 Okay.

01:17:46.000 So.

01:17:47.000 What's the upshot of all that?

01:17:50.000 Well.

01:17:51.000 It's a meditation on.

01:17:53.000 Rule two.

01:17:54.000 And rule three too.

01:17:55.000 Rule three is.

01:17:56.000 Make friends with people who want the best for you.

01:17:59.000 It's the same thing.

01:18:00.000 Right?

01:18:01.000 If you're going to take responsibility for your own life.

01:18:04.000 As if you're something of value.

01:18:06.000 Then.

01:18:07.000 One thing you do.

01:18:08.000 Is you surround yourself with people.

01:18:09.000 Who are unhappy when you do things.

01:18:11.000 For yourself that aren't good.

01:18:13.000 And who are pleased.

01:18:14.000 Pleased as can be.

01:18:16.000 When you're moving upward.

01:18:18.000 And so you want to.

01:18:19.000 Think hard about.

01:18:20.000 Whether those are the people that you have in your life.

01:18:22.000 Because those are the people.

01:18:23.000 That you should have in your life.

01:18:25.000 Because you need to be bolstered in your.

01:18:27.000 In your willingness to presume that you're a divine locus of value.

01:18:30.000 Let's say.

01:18:31.000 Just like our.

01:18:32.000 Entire political and economic system.

01:18:34.000 And religious system.

01:18:35.000 For that matter.

01:18:36.000 Insists.

01:18:37.000 Insists.

01:18:38.000 That that's the case.

01:18:40.000 And so.

01:18:41.000 Well.

01:18:42.000 I think it is the case.

01:18:43.000 And.

01:18:44.000 I think part of the reason that.

01:18:46.000 The lectures that I've been doing.

01:18:48.000 Including this one.

01:18:49.000 Perhaps.

01:18:50.000 Have been popular.

01:18:51.000 And have hit home.

01:18:52.000 Well.

01:18:53.000 It's partly because the new technology.

01:18:54.000 Has enabled.

01:18:55.000 Longer form discourse.

01:18:57.000 And it turns out.

01:18:58.000 That people actually have a bit of a hunger.

01:18:59.000 For philosophical discussion.

01:19:01.000 Even longer form philosophical discussion.

01:19:03.000 Who would have guessed that.

01:19:05.000 Seems to be the case.

01:19:06.000 But.

01:19:07.000 Even more importantly.

01:19:08.000 I think that.

01:19:09.000 It is.

01:19:10.000 Possible.

01:19:11.000 For people to realize that.

01:19:12.000 There is.

01:19:13.000 You know.

01:19:14.000 That it's.

01:19:15.000 Necessary to pursue meaning in your life.

01:19:16.000 You need a meaning to offset the catastrophe of life.

01:19:19.000 And it has to be a profound meaning.

01:19:21.000 Because life is profoundly catastrophic.

01:19:24.000 And so you need something real.

01:19:26.000 To set against that.

01:19:27.000 And.

01:19:28.000 One of the things that's real.

01:19:29.000 To set against that.

01:19:30.000 Is the responsibility.

01:19:31.000 That you have towards yourself.

01:19:33.000 And.

01:19:34.000 Our whole society.

01:19:35.000 Our whole philosophical tradition.

01:19:36.000 As I said.

01:19:37.000 Our religious tradition.

01:19:38.000 As well.

01:19:39.000 Insists.

01:19:40.000 That you are in fact.

01:19:41.000 Something of.

01:19:42.000 Incalculable value.

01:19:44.000 And that as a consequence of that.

01:19:45.000 You have a responsibility.

01:19:47.000 To act towards yourself.

01:19:48.000 As if that was the case.

01:19:50.000 And one of the things.

01:19:51.000 That's so interesting about that.

01:19:52.000 Is that.

01:19:53.000 If you.

01:19:54.000 And then.

01:19:55.000 This is.

01:19:56.000 Something that I don't think.

01:19:57.000 Has been made clear to people.

01:19:58.000 Properly.

01:19:59.000 Is that.

01:20:00.000 You need a meaning in life.

01:20:01.000 And the best.

01:20:02.000 And the.

01:20:03.000 The most effective.

01:20:04.000 Way.

01:20:05.000 Of making that.

01:20:06.000 Meaning manifest.

01:20:07.000 Is not to insist upon your rights.

01:20:09.000 And not to insist upon.

01:20:10.000 Your.

01:20:11.000 Your instantaneous.

01:20:12.000 Impulse gratification.

01:20:13.000 Or anything like that.

01:20:14.000 Which sort of goes along.

01:20:15.000 With the dialogue.

01:20:16.000 Endless dialogue.

01:20:17.000 About rights.

01:20:18.000 But.

01:20:19.000 Conversely.

01:20:20.000 To take.

01:20:21.000 As much responsibility.

01:20:22.000 For the state of things.

01:20:23.000 As you possibly can.

01:20:24.000 Starting with yourself.

01:20:25.000 And that's a meaningful.

01:20:27.000 Thing to do.

01:20:28.000 And I think.

01:20:29.000 This is.

01:20:30.000 Rule.

01:20:31.000 Eight.

01:20:32.000 Do what is.

01:20:33.000 No.

01:20:34.000 Rule seven.

01:20:35.000 Do what is meaningful.

01:20:36.000 Not what is expedient.

01:20:37.000 Here's the kicker.

01:20:38.000 You have an instinct for meaning.

01:20:41.000 It's deep.

01:20:42.000 It's not.

01:20:43.000 It's not a shallow thing.

01:20:44.000 It's not just cognitive.

01:20:45.000 It's deep.

01:20:46.000 It's embedded in your nervous system.

01:20:47.000 Sort of.

01:20:48.000 All the way down.

01:20:49.000 At multiple levels.

01:20:50.000 And that instinct.

01:20:51.000 Tells you.

01:20:52.000 When you're on the right path.

01:20:53.000 And.

01:20:54.000 That instinct.

01:20:55.000 Tends to kick in.

01:20:56.000 When you're doing things.

01:20:57.000 That are difficult.

01:20:58.000 And responsible.

01:20:59.000 No.

01:21:00.000 You think about the people.

01:21:01.000 That you admire.

01:21:02.000 Or even yourself.

01:21:03.000 When you admire yourself.

01:21:04.000 You know.

01:21:05.000 In the rare moments.

01:21:06.000 When you actually do that.

01:21:07.000 It's almost inevitable.

01:21:08.000 That the people.

01:21:09.000 That you admire.

01:21:10.000 Are at least people.

01:21:11.000 Who take responsibility.

01:21:12.000 For themselves.

01:21:13.000 Because you don't admire someone.

01:21:14.000 It's like.

01:21:15.000 He doesn't take any responsibility.

01:21:16.000 For himself.

01:21:17.000 You know.

01:21:18.000 There's an admirable character.

01:21:19.000 It's like.

01:21:20.000 No one ever thinks that.

01:21:21.000 Ever.

01:21:22.000 So you think.

01:21:23.000 People who take responsibility.

01:21:24.000 For themselves.

01:21:25.000 That spontaneously.

01:21:26.000 Produces admiration.

01:21:27.000 And it's even more.

01:21:28.000 For themselves.

01:21:29.000 In a way.

01:21:30.000 That's also a benefit.

01:21:31.000 For their family.

01:21:32.000 That's right.

01:21:33.000 That's something.

01:21:34.000 That's something.

01:21:35.000 You could be happy about.

01:21:36.000 You help someone out.

01:21:37.000 Your sister.

01:21:38.000 Your father.

01:21:39.000 Your mother.

01:21:40.000 You genuinely do it.

01:21:41.000 It's like.

01:21:42.000 Yes.

01:21:43.000 That's.

01:21:44.000 That shows.

01:21:45.000 There's something to you man.

01:21:46.000 And then maybe.

01:21:47.000 You can take responsibility.

01:21:48.000 For yourself.

01:21:49.000 And your family.

01:21:50.000 In a way.

01:21:51.000 That also benefits.

01:21:52.000 The community.

01:21:53.000 Then you got a nice weight.

01:21:54.000 On your shoulders.

01:21:55.000 Then you think.

01:21:56.000 Oh look man.

01:21:57.000 As you bear up.

01:21:58.000 Under that weight.

01:21:59.000 You get stronger.

01:22:00.000 Now.

01:22:01.000 I mean.

01:22:02.000 You can be crushed by it.

01:22:03.000 And if something too heavy.

01:22:04.000 Is dropped on you.

01:22:05.000 Well.

01:22:06.000 You know.

01:22:07.000 Too bad for you.

01:22:08.000 But.

01:22:09.000 But you don't go to the gym.

01:22:10.000 On weight.

01:22:11.000 You know.

01:22:12.000 You go to the gym.

01:22:13.000 And you lift.

01:22:14.000 Progressively.

01:22:15.000 More difficult weights.

01:22:16.000 And what happens.

01:22:17.000 Is you get stronger.

01:22:18.000 And stronger.

01:22:19.000 Why the hell.

01:22:20.000 Wouldn't that work.

01:22:21.000 Ethically.

01:22:22.000 There's no reason.

01:22:23.000 That doesn't work.

01:22:24.000 Ethically.

01:22:25.000 It's exactly.

01:22:26.000 The same thing.

01:22:27.000 That's a good thing.

01:22:28.000 To get more.

01:22:29.000 Illusion.

01:22:30.000 Rule two.

01:22:31.000 Treat yourself.

01:22:33.000 Like you're someone.

01:22:34.000 Responsible.

01:22:35.000 For helping.

01:22:36.000 Why?

01:22:37.000 What helps you.

01:22:38.000 Helps your family.

01:22:40.000 Helps your community.

01:22:42.000 It's the foundation.

01:22:43.000 Of the world.

01:22:44.000 It's the pillar of society.

01:22:45.000 All of that.

01:22:46.000 It's the pillar of society, all of that.

01:22:48.560 And it's on you, as the sovereign individual.

01:22:51.480 It's your responsibility.

01:22:52.660 And the reason that you have rights, as far as I can tell,

01:22:55.260 is to allow you to exercise that responsibility.

01:22:58.620 And it's necessary to exercise that responsibility,

01:23:00.900 because everything depends on it.

01:23:03.180 Literally, everything depends on it.

01:23:05.680 Thank you very much.

01:23:06.800 Thank you very much.

01:23:16.000 So, first off, I'm going to feel guilty for the rest of the year.

01:23:24.040 I called Edmonton, Toronto.

01:23:25.700 It's bad.

01:23:26.500 You have no idea.

01:23:27.580 Because you're an American, eh?

01:23:28.760 That's like confusing something in the Midwest with New York.

01:23:33.000 Like, it's just, you just don't.

01:23:34.180 Or worse, San Francisco.

01:23:35.620 Or worse, L.A.

01:23:36.940 Like, it's not good, Dave.

01:23:38.900 So, anyways.

01:23:40.980 But it was funny, so that's something.

01:23:44.080 Yes, yes, it was funny.

01:23:46.000 So, we've got this one a couple times while we've been doing this,

01:23:52.160 but I haven't asked it to you in a couple weeks.

01:23:55.200 Was there a 13th rule that didn't make the book?

01:23:59.040 Oh, there's a bunch of them.

01:24:02.080 I wrote, I wrote, well, the original list from which the 12 were derived is 40 rules.

01:24:09.420 And originally, I was going to write a book.

01:24:12.320 I was actually going to write a book called 42.

01:24:13.980 If you remember, there was the life, the universe, and everything.

01:24:17.260 I think the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

01:24:20.860 Yeah.

01:24:21.500 And the answer to the riddle of life was 42.

01:24:24.620 And so, I thought I'd write a book called 42 and lay out the rules, you know.

01:24:28.620 But I started writing them.

01:24:31.000 And I was writing longer essays.

01:24:34.040 And so, like, 42 would have been this thick.

01:24:37.420 And so, I wrote 25, and then it was 16, and then 12.

01:24:42.160 So, I kept cutting it down.

01:24:43.540 Which is a good way to write, by the way.

01:24:44.960 If you're interested in writing, this is something, a couple of things that are useful to know.

01:24:49.960 90% of what you write, you will throw away.

01:24:53.940 Okay, so you've got to just get used to that right off the bat.

01:24:56.320 Because you're lazy, eh?

01:24:57.820 And so, you think, well, I'm going to write a sentence, and I'm going to keep it.

01:25:01.580 Because it's hard to write a sentence.

01:25:02.880 I'm not just throwing the damn thing away once I've, like, put all the blood and sweat into creating it.

01:25:06.720 It's like, no, that's wrong.

01:25:09.280 You're going to throw at least 90% of what you write away.

01:25:12.740 If you have any sense.

01:25:13.660 Because you only want to keep the 10% that's the best.

01:25:16.320 But that also frees you up.

01:25:17.660 Because if you know you're going to throw most of it away,

01:25:20.100 then you can just write down what you think.

01:25:21.640 You don't have to get so obsessive about editing while you're producing.

01:25:25.080 And you shouldn't.

01:25:26.000 You should produce.

01:25:27.640 And then you should edit.

01:25:29.620 And so, anyway, so, that's a great thing to know if you need to write something.

01:25:33.980 Write a whole bunch and throw most of it away.

01:25:36.320 That's what you do.

01:25:37.800 So I threw away a lot of the rules.

01:25:39.680 And some of it was because I tried to make a book where every rule related to every other rule.

01:25:43.920 So there was a demand for coherence.

01:25:46.040 But there was lots of other rules.

01:25:47.880 Like, make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.

01:25:51.000 That's a good rule.

01:25:52.260 And I started, well, I started writing the next book.

01:25:55.260 Because I'm going to write another book.

01:25:56.380 I think it's going to be called Another 12 Rules for Life Beyond Mere Order.

01:26:01.180 I think that's the working title anyways.

01:26:04.020 And so, make one room in your house as beautiful as possible is one of the rules.

01:26:08.240 Which I really like.

01:26:09.240 Because it's really necessary to establish a relationship with beauty.

01:26:13.740 And that's what art enables you to do if it's genuine art.

01:26:17.640 Is it enables you to establish a relationship with what's beauty.

01:26:20.380 Beautiful.

01:26:21.180 And beauty is a window into the transcendent.

01:26:24.040 And it's soul-sustaining.

01:26:26.040 Which is one of the reasons why everybody goes to Europe.

01:26:28.380 Like, everyone makes a pilgrimage to Europe, right?

01:26:30.220 It doesn't matter where you are in the world.

01:26:31.900 Everyone goes to Spain.

01:26:33.440 And everyone goes to France.

01:26:34.760 There's more tourists in Spain and France than there are people.

01:26:37.500 By a huge margin.

01:26:39.080 Well, tourists are people too.

01:26:40.500 I mean, citizens.

01:26:41.300 So, when people go there.

01:26:44.600 Because the beauty is overwhelming.

01:26:47.100 And you need.

01:26:48.120 That isn't optional.

01:26:50.140 Because the transcendent isn't optional.

01:26:52.740 That's the place from which you derive the sustaining meaning in life.

01:26:56.160 And to establish a relationship with beauty is to bring that into your life.

01:26:59.240 Now, it's very daunting.

01:27:00.800 Because the first thing that will happen if you attempt to bring beauty into your life.

01:27:04.320 Is that you'll find out that you have appalling taste.

01:27:07.500 And so, and no wonder.

01:27:08.760 Because it's like you're not a good cook when you first start to cook.

01:27:12.700 You're a terrible cook.

01:27:14.040 And when you start to engage with the world of artistic production.

01:27:17.720 You're going to do a bad job of it.

01:27:19.500 But it's really necessary to grapple with that.

01:27:22.760 And if you can learn to make one room beautiful.

01:27:25.320 Then you learn how to make a relationship with beauty.

01:27:27.400 And that's, it's, it's not optional.

01:27:31.480 That's the thing.

01:27:32.840 Because man does not live by bread alone.

01:27:35.840 You have to be associated with something that's beyond you.

01:27:39.280 And beauty is a window into that.

01:27:41.120 You know, believers or non-believers.

01:27:42.480 It doesn't matter from a religious perspective.

01:27:44.320 Beauty is still a window into the transcendent.

01:27:46.540 And so, that would be the 13th rule.

01:27:48.740 Make one room in.

01:27:49.600 That's after you clean it up, right?

01:27:52.260 Right.

01:27:52.700 Clean, clean up your room so it's functional, right?

01:27:59.200 So you don't feel like a degenerate being there.

01:28:02.220 And then the next, because unless you want to feel like a degenerate.

01:28:05.560 Like, and I don't know why you would.

01:28:06.840 Unless you were bitter and resentful.

01:28:08.500 And were hating yourself.

01:28:09.740 And looking for an excuse to be violent and cruel.

01:28:12.000 It's like, why would you want to feel like a degenerate?

01:28:14.960 And so, clean up your damn room.

01:28:17.000 And then maybe your house.

01:28:18.620 And then if you can manage that.

01:28:19.880 See if you can make part of it beautiful.

01:28:21.540 That's really something, man.

01:28:23.780 It's a great thing to practice.

01:28:25.540 And so, that would be the 13th rule.

01:28:29.520 I like this one.

01:28:31.220 What's the biggest load of bulls**t you've ever heard?

01:28:37.220 The best way to choose your cabinet is on the basis of gender.

01:28:40.160 Man, you had that ready to roll.

01:29:00.820 We did not set that up.

01:29:03.100 That was right.

01:29:03.900 That was spontaneous spite.

01:29:05.760 How do you like your steak done?

01:29:14.860 Hmm.

01:29:16.020 Medium.

01:29:18.040 Yeah, well look.

01:29:18.880 If you ate three pounds of steak a day, facing another piece of raw, slightly raw meat would be too daunting.

01:29:26.700 So, I started out medium rare, but it's medium now.

01:29:30.640 I like how that's the one thing that was going to turn you guys against him.

01:29:33.440 Yeah, I know.

01:29:34.360 You know?

01:29:35.140 Well, they are Albertans, you know.

01:29:37.020 Yeah.

01:29:37.260 Yeah.

01:29:39.900 They take their beef seriously here.

01:29:42.740 Apparently.

01:29:49.060 Will you run for Prime Minister of Canada?

01:29:51.460 I've thought about that, you know, I've thought about that at various times in my life.

01:30:06.620 And I really thought about it quite seriously.

01:30:11.160 One of the things I thought about a couple of years ago was throwing my hat in the ring when the Conservatives were choosing a new leader.

01:30:17.900 And I'd actually thought about it before that, when the Liberals were choosing a new leader, too.

01:30:28.940 So, but there were a variety of reasons that I didn't do it.

01:30:34.900 Well, yeah, well, the thing is, I thought it also thought it through with regards to what's happening in Ontario, you know.

01:30:49.600 Because the Conservative Party fell apart very badly there a couple of months ago.

01:30:53.080 And so, there was a lot of people who suggested that I run then.

01:30:56.440 And I thought, okay, let's think this through.

01:30:59.140 All right, the first is, I'm not a professional administrator.

01:31:04.140 And running a province is actually very hard.

01:31:06.540 You have to know things.

01:31:08.260 You have to know something about the power grid, for example.

01:31:10.980 Or you end up with a situation that we have in Ontario.

01:31:13.620 Where electrical prices spiked way the hell out of range.

01:31:17.940 While the world market price for electricity plummeted.

01:31:21.120 Like, there's actual consequences if you're stupid about such things.

01:31:23.800 And it's really, it's really hard to run something as complicated as a whole province.

01:31:29.680 And so, I thought, well, if I was going to bring myself up to speed, I'd probably have to work 16 hours a day for about a year.

01:31:35.380 Just to get vaguely in the ballpark.

01:31:38.580 And then I'd have to drop everything else.

01:31:40.400 I'd have to quit writing.

01:31:41.360 I'd have to quit touring.

01:31:42.300 I'd have to quit speaking.

01:31:43.240 I'd have to drop my YouTube channel.

01:31:44.960 I'd have to retool my whole life.

01:31:47.540 And then, well, that was just the beginning.

01:31:51.360 Because I actually thought it through.

01:31:52.500 And I thought, I wasn't sure that I had the stamina to do that.

01:31:57.860 That was the first thing.

01:31:59.620 Even though it would be very interesting.

01:32:01.420 And the second thing I thought was, well, it isn't clear that I'm finished doing whatever it is that I'm doing right now.

01:32:07.420 Because this is pretty useful, as far as I can tell.

01:32:10.080 You know, like.

01:32:10.500 So, I thought I would just keep doing this and see what it is and where it goes.

01:32:25.400 And that that would be better.

01:32:27.700 And I haven't seen any reason so far to assume that that was the wrong decision.

01:32:33.120 Even though the other idea is tempting.

01:32:36.000 It would be a tempting challenge.

01:32:38.320 You know, but it isn't exactly what I've prepared, so to speak.

01:32:43.780 It's not what I've prepared in my life to do.

01:32:45.960 And there's some danger in just making a lateral move into a complex domain that you're not prepared for.

01:32:52.700 Well, that's what Justin Trudeau did.

01:32:54.360 You know, like, I don't know why he thought it was ethically acceptable for him to present himself as qualified to be prime minister.

01:33:10.780 Because there was no evidence.

01:33:16.660 You know, it's actually a really hard job.

01:33:20.960 And it's a really hard job.

01:33:22.700 And you need to know what the hell you're doing.

01:33:26.120 And it seems to me that in order to know what you're doing, you should have, well, you should have done a lot of other really, really difficult things.

01:33:34.520 Like a whole bunch of them, extremely well.

01:33:37.920 And then maybe you could tentatively assume, well, I was successful at this and this and this and this.

01:33:43.580 And all of that was rather unlikely.

01:33:45.460 And so maybe I could tentatively assume that I would be less awful than the other people that are running.

01:33:52.700 That's what you could assume.

01:33:55.560 But you should do that with trepidation.

01:33:58.980 And so, well, and as I said, I think what I'm doing now is useful, sufficiently useful to continue to investigate.

01:34:07.900 Because God only knows where it's leading and why.

01:34:10.540 So I'd just as soon do this.

01:34:11.900 So what you're saying is you're going to run.

01:34:27.200 Do you pray?

01:34:32.680 It depends on what you mean by that.

01:34:34.520 I don't ask God for favors.

01:34:40.480 And that's usually what people mean.

01:34:44.940 But I do engage in what's a kind of meditative practice, I would say.

01:34:53.720 Especially when things go wrong around me.

01:34:56.840 You know, I usually sit on the edge of my bed.

01:35:02.060 That's usually where.

01:35:02.920 And I close my eyes and I try to clear my head.

01:35:06.020 And I try to think, okay, I would like to know what stupid things I've done to radically increase the probability that this undesirable outcome has occurred.

01:35:19.600 And then I get an answer.

01:35:21.860 And it's usually not one I like.

01:35:23.680 And so, now, does that constitute prayer?

01:35:30.320 Probably.

01:35:31.460 I think it does if you consider the word properly.

01:35:36.360 Because I think that it's the same idea that I referred to earlier.

01:35:41.680 If you ask, you can have what you need.

01:35:45.220 But that assumes that you want it.

01:35:48.540 And if you want something, that means there's other things that you're willing to give up to get it.

01:35:53.680 Right?

01:35:54.100 And so, if you really want something, and this is a prayerful posture, let's say.

01:35:59.300 Here's what I need.

01:36:01.520 I'm willing to give up anything to have that occur.

01:36:06.160 Okay?

01:36:06.980 That means you want it.

01:36:09.020 Otherwise, it's a lie.

01:36:10.200 And so, if you're trying to figure out what stupid things you've done to make your life miserable, and you want the answer, then you'll get the answer.

01:36:21.160 But you have to want it.

01:36:22.400 So, that's part of the reason why so many religious traditions emphasize humility.

01:36:27.560 Because if you want the answer you need, it isn't going to be one that, it isn't going to be the one you hoped for.

01:36:34.120 Because it's going to point to something in you that isn't right.

01:36:37.720 That's going to be painful to give up.

01:36:39.940 And painful to realize as well, you know.

01:36:41.900 Because it's bad enough that something not so good is happening to you.

01:36:45.080 But then when you realize how it was that you were at fault for bringing it about, that's even more bitter.

01:36:50.480 But at least then you can rectify it and move forward into the future.

01:36:54.140 And so, the humility attitude is, I probably did something stupid, at least in part, to bring this on myself.

01:37:01.240 You know, and that isn't, I don't, I'm not trying to imply that, like, if you are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer tomorrow, that it's somehow your fault.

01:37:11.080 Like, I understand that people get cut off at the knees.

01:37:13.720 I know that life has a tragic element.

01:37:16.200 That's not my point.

01:37:17.860 My point is that you can want to, you can want to know about how it is that you're at fault.

01:37:24.620 And if that's the basis of your prayer, then it will be answered.

01:37:29.880 So, if that's prayer, then that's what I do.

01:37:36.900 And that works.

01:37:38.380 But it's not, I wouldn't call it pleasant.

01:37:41.860 But it's useful.

01:37:43.360 That's for sure.

01:37:51.160 Here, you can try this.

01:37:52.660 Here, you can try this at home.

01:37:54.560 So, the next time you have an argument with someone that you love, and it's a bad argument,

01:37:59.880 go into your room and sit on your bed and think, okay, despite the fact that I live with the most unbearable human being that's ever been created by God,

01:38:10.840 there's some possibility that I've contributed to this in some tiny way.

01:38:16.080 So, you can sit on the edge of your bed and you can think, all right, I want to know what I've done stupid in the last six months that increased the probability of this argument.

01:38:30.340 And then once I realize it, I'm going to go tell the person that I'm arguing with.

01:38:34.000 So, that's like two bitter pills, right?

01:38:35.860 First of all, you have to figure out why you're the stupid one.

01:38:38.060 And that's really annoying when you know you're 100% right.

01:38:41.960 And then you have to go to the person who's torturing you to death with no cause and tell them why you're a moron.

01:38:48.960 So, that's, it's very unpleasant.

01:38:51.280 But one of the things that will happen if you do that is that you'll move through the argument.

01:38:57.400 Because you can go offer that person something.

01:38:59.400 You can say, look, you know, despite your bullheaded ignorance and unbearable temperament, I'm also at fault here.

01:39:09.880 Here's how.

01:39:11.040 You know, and that, that, what is, it's an offering.

01:39:15.240 It's a peace offering.

01:39:16.180 That's what that is.

01:39:17.560 And maybe if you have any sense, you want peace and not victory.

01:39:20.540 Especially over someone that you live with.

01:39:22.480 Because there's no victory over someone you live with.

01:39:24.700 That's for sure.

01:39:26.160 So.

01:39:29.400 I feel like after the personal way you answered that, we should give a shout out to your wife, who's in the crowd here somewhere tonight.

01:39:49.320 What's the best way to overcome regret?

01:39:51.940 Well, that, that's, that's a really good question.

01:40:02.260 The first thing to realize is, you might have wasted a lot of your life.

01:40:07.040 You probably did.

01:40:08.380 But people do.

01:40:10.180 And better late than never.

01:40:11.880 So, if, if you're going to get your act together and you're going to start now, that's not so bad.

01:40:16.500 One of the things I learned when I was doing these biblical lectures last year, I learned this from the story of Abraham, which is, you know, a very profound story and a foundational story.

01:40:24.600 And Abraham is like 83 when God calls him out to adventure.

01:40:29.800 And so forget about the God bit for a minute.

01:40:32.140 The story has something to say, is that Abraham is hung around his father's tent till he's like 80.

01:40:38.560 He's old.

01:40:39.200 And it isn't until, it's way past time that he decides he's going to go venture out in the world.

01:40:45.320 But he does.

01:40:47.220 Even though he wasted all that time.

01:40:48.900 And he's still regarded in this story, in this foundational narrative, as one of God's chosen.

01:40:54.600 And so better late than never, man.

01:40:56.420 If, if you're 40 and you're just waking up, it's like, well, you're not 80.

01:41:00.120 And if you're 80, well, maybe you can put things together in the next five or six years.

01:41:03.840 And that's something.

01:41:04.480 Like, well, look, you know, sometimes, sometimes you go to a movie and it, it's not a very good movie.

01:41:12.280 You're just not very happy for being there the whole damn time.

01:41:14.880 And then all of a sudden, the writer puts a twist in it and ends it.

01:41:19.000 And the ending is perfect.

01:41:20.540 And the whole movie justifies itself.

01:41:23.100 And you can do that with your life.

01:41:25.700 And maybe you can do that even at the last moment.

01:41:28.300 You know, now, the longer you wait, the harder it's going to be.

01:41:30.980 No doubt about that.

01:41:32.120 But that doesn't mean that it's impossible.

01:41:34.480 And so, I would say, the first thing is to have a certain element of mercy in your judgment towards yourself.

01:41:40.560 It's like, just because you're ignorant and just because you've made mistakes doesn't mean you're irredeemable.

01:41:44.980 And if you're going to start now, good for you.

01:41:48.300 Really, better late than never.

01:41:49.660 And I've seen that with lots of my clinical clients.

01:41:51.720 Like, it would be better if they would have started earlier, but later, later is okay, too.

01:41:57.480 So, the next thing is, well, if you regret things.

01:42:01.860 You know, I just wrote the preface for this Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is going to come out in its 50th anniversary form this fall.

01:42:11.960 In the abridged version.

01:42:13.440 And I got invited to write the introduction, which I just finished.

01:42:16.700 And so, that was a great thing.

01:42:17.900 That was a great thing for me to be able to do.

01:42:20.320 And one of the things that Solzhenitsyn did when he was in the prison camps in the Soviet Union is he was watching people that he really admired in the camps.

01:42:31.680 So, there was rare people who conducted themselves nobly while they were being tortured to death.

01:42:37.060 And I'm not sure everyone is called upon to act in that manner.

01:42:41.260 You know, because it's asking a lot.

01:42:42.620 But he did see people who did that.

01:42:44.300 And Viktor Frankl saw that, too, in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

01:42:48.380 And so, it looks like it's possible for people to conduct themselves nobly, even under conditions of unbelievable privation.

01:42:56.600 And so, Solzhenitsyn watched these people.

01:42:58.520 And it really made him ashamed.

01:43:00.860 And, I mean, and so, one of the things he decided when he was in the camps was that he was responsible for being there.

01:43:09.920 In the same way that you're responsible when you have a fight with someone that you love.

01:43:13.620 It's not like all the fault is yours, precisely.

01:43:16.480 You know, because the world is a complicated place.

01:43:18.860 But, some of the fault is yours.

01:43:21.020 And certainly, a lot of the responsibility is yours.

01:43:23.160 And so, one of the things Solzhenitsyn decided to do was to go over his whole life.

01:43:27.500 And to see if he could figure out where he had gone wrong in his life.

01:43:32.140 And then, as far as he was concerned, right?

01:43:34.240 He wasn't relying on external sources of judgment.

01:43:36.600 It was him and his own conscience.

01:43:38.520 And then to see if he could put things right now, in the present.

01:43:41.720 And that's why he wrote the Gulag Archipelago.

01:43:45.260 And that had an unbelievable effect on the world.

01:43:49.420 And so, I would say, well, if you regret things, figure out what you regret.

01:43:54.080 Make a list, man.

01:43:55.160 Here's things I regret.

01:43:56.400 Make it as complete as you can.

01:43:59.760 Don't get too obsessive about it.

01:44:01.240 But make it as complete as you can.

01:44:02.800 Here's things I really regret.

01:44:05.180 Okay.

01:44:05.600 Those are things you regret.

01:44:06.820 Okay.

01:44:07.060 So, those are things you shouldn't do again.

01:44:09.180 Right?

01:44:09.460 Because that's really what regret means.

01:44:11.060 Is that's something I shouldn't repeat.

01:44:13.560 Okay.

01:44:13.900 Then you've got to figure out, well, why did I do those things that I regret?

01:44:17.340 You know?

01:44:17.800 What led me down that path?

01:44:20.400 And then what and how could I improve my character so that I wouldn't do that again?

01:44:25.580 That's what you're trying to figure out when you regret.

01:44:27.720 It's like, when should you forgive yourself?

01:44:29.740 It's easy.

01:44:30.440 When you figured out what you did wrong.

01:44:32.680 And you decide that you're not going to do it anymore.

01:44:34.840 Then you let yourself off the hook.

01:44:36.960 Because why beat yourself up after that?

01:44:38.800 You've learned your lesson.

01:44:40.320 That's also the same condition that you might apply when you're going to forgive someone.

01:44:44.240 You know?

01:44:44.640 Someone's done you wrong.

01:44:45.700 And they come to you and say, here's exactly what I did wrong.

01:44:50.440 Okay.

01:44:50.680 First of all, you want to hear that.

01:44:52.060 Because you want to know that the person knows what they did wrong.

01:44:54.580 You want to know they thought it through.

01:44:56.280 And then you want to hear them say, here's why I did it.

01:44:59.200 And not in the way that justifies it exactly.

01:45:01.700 But in a way that explains it.

01:45:02.960 Because then you know that they thought it through.

01:45:05.400 And then they say, and here's how I'm going to change.

01:45:08.420 So that it doesn't happen again.

01:45:09.640 And here's some evidence that that's already happening.

01:45:11.920 Will you give me another chance?

01:45:14.100 And the probability under those conditions is, even if they've done something quite horrible.

01:45:19.460 The probability that your heart will open up, let's say.

01:45:23.020 And you'll say, yeah, okay.

01:45:24.800 You know.

01:45:26.380 Okay.

01:45:26.960 You can have another chance.

01:45:28.160 The probability you'll do that is really high.

01:45:30.240 And it's the right thing to do.

01:45:31.360 Because everyone's a damn fool.

01:45:32.780 And we all make mistakes.

01:45:33.760 And if you get beat to death because you make an error.

01:45:35.980 Then everyone's dead.

01:45:37.560 And so you can't beat yourself to death either.

01:45:40.080 You know.

01:45:40.420 You have to balance judgment with mercy.

01:45:42.900 And with the possibility of development.

01:45:44.780 So what you do is you figure out why you're a damn fool.

01:45:47.380 Exactly.

01:45:49.260 Precisely.

01:45:49.820 And then decide that you're not going to do that again.

01:45:53.460 And then you let it go.

01:45:55.320 Say.

01:45:56.120 I'm a fool.

01:45:57.040 Like everyone else.

01:45:58.020 That's actually one of the advantages of the doctrine of original sin.

01:46:02.100 It's like, yeah, you're a bad person.

01:46:04.540 You are.

01:46:05.960 But so is everyone else.

01:46:08.060 And so it's on you.

01:46:09.300 It's your responsibility to do something about it.

01:46:11.340 But it's also a universal part of human nature.

01:46:14.340 And so you're not obligated to beat yourself to death for it.

01:46:18.640 And so that's helpful to know that.

01:46:20.260 And it helps you also sort of live with the sort of universal sense of guilt that people have.

01:46:25.460 Everyone feels that they're not who they could be.

01:46:29.180 You know.

01:46:29.380 And that they've fallen short of the.

01:46:32.060 Their arrow hasn't hit the mark.

01:46:33.940 Everyone feels that.

01:46:34.960 And that's why the doctrine of original sin was originally codified.

01:46:38.980 It was to kind of make that concrete.

01:46:41.100 It's like, yeah, yeah, you're a bad person.

01:46:43.480 So am I.

01:46:44.680 So is everyone that's ever lived.

01:46:46.620 It's not an excuse.

01:46:47.720 It doesn't alleviate your responsibility.

01:46:49.620 But it does mark out that you're not alone in your sin, let's say.

01:46:55.740 Because to sin, by the way, means to miss the target.

01:46:58.420 That's what the word means.

01:46:59.500 Which I think is a lovely thing to know.

01:47:01.080 So let yourself off the hook when you've learned your lesson.

01:47:06.080 Because otherwise you just accrue your errors and that will crush you.

01:47:11.060 And having another crushed person around is just not that useful.

01:47:15.500 Even if it's you.

01:47:17.460 So, yeah.

01:47:19.120 What's the most heartwarming experience you've had with a person impacted by your words?

01:47:35.720 Oh, man.

01:47:39.200 Well, we had one today.

01:47:41.420 So we were driving along in the car up from Calgary.

01:47:46.240 And my phone rang.

01:47:47.520 And it was FaceTime.

01:47:49.500 And I don't use FaceTime.

01:47:51.720 And so I thought, what the hell is this?

01:47:53.420 Somebody's calling me on FaceTime.

01:47:54.800 Must be someone I know.

01:47:56.280 So I handed the phone to my wife, Tammy.

01:47:58.400 And I said, will you answer this?

01:48:00.380 And so she answered it.

01:48:02.420 And it was this woman who'd been going to my biblical lectures.

01:48:05.380 And her son had died a few years ago.

01:48:07.720 And he was buried in a cemetery in an ugly spot that was dismal and unpleasant.

01:48:16.640 And kind of not cared for.

01:48:20.820 And she'd mentioned that to the person who ran the cemetery.

01:48:26.560 And he wasn't inclined to do anything about it.

01:48:28.840 And so this was really bothering her.

01:48:30.300 And she said that one of the things that she'd learned from watching my lectures

01:48:34.080 was that if something is bothering you, then you should do something about it.

01:48:37.720 So she went and had a really elaborate Celtic stone cross made.

01:48:43.740 Very, very fancy and beautiful.

01:48:46.900 And she had a grave marked with it.

01:48:48.500 And she had him exhumed and put into this beautiful spot.

01:48:51.400 And so she was telling us today she was all in tears about that.

01:48:54.180 About, you know, because she was all broken up.

01:48:56.020 Her son wasn't very old when he died.

01:48:57.540 And she was all crushed by that, obviously.

01:48:59.680 And so that was something that she brought herself to do.

01:49:02.640 And so she was all in tears and told us about that today.

01:49:05.220 So that was one of the things that happened today.

01:49:08.340 And like these sorts of things, that was pretty dramatic.

01:49:11.040 But these sorts of things happen all the time.

01:49:13.620 You know, I was down in L.A.

01:49:14.820 I think this is the best thing that's, I can tell you the funniest story.

01:49:19.480 This is a good one.

01:49:20.660 I think this was in Vancouver.

01:49:22.920 Some guy came up to us.

01:49:24.860 And my wife and I.

01:49:25.840 And he said, I got to tell you what's happened to me in the last six months.

01:49:29.300 He said, six months ago I was 50 pounds overweight, I was alcoholic, and I worked for the NDP.

01:49:38.100 And he said, now I haven't had a drink for six months, I've lost 50 pounds, and I work for the Conservatives.

01:49:48.640 So that was unbelievably funny.

01:49:53.040 It was so witty.

01:49:54.520 And then I was in L.A.

01:49:56.920 This was a lovely story.

01:49:58.180 So I was in L.A.

01:49:59.200 Walking along with Tammy again.

01:50:00.940 And downtown L.A. is pretty rough.

01:50:02.780 We were down by the Orpheum Theater.

01:50:04.280 And there's places downtown L.A.

01:50:05.960 You're not so happy if you're walking down those streets.

01:50:09.800 And so, anyways, we were walking around.

01:50:12.300 And this car pulled up beside us.

01:50:13.880 And this kid hopped out.

01:50:15.060 And he was about 19 or 20.

01:50:16.920 Kind of a good-looking Latino kid.

01:50:18.480 And he rushed over and he said, are you Dr. Peterson?

01:50:21.100 And I said, yes.

01:50:21.800 And he said, oh, I'm really happy to meet you.

01:50:23.240 And he was sort of bouncing around being happy.

01:50:25.400 And he said, my life has really changed because I've been watching your lectures.

01:50:28.600 And things are much better.

01:50:29.800 And he said, can you wait a minute?

01:50:31.540 Can you wait a minute?

01:50:32.220 And I said, yeah.

01:50:33.340 And so he ran back to his car.

01:50:35.980 And he got his father out of his car.

01:50:37.800 And then his father came over with him.

01:50:39.240 And they were, like, smiling away.

01:50:40.820 And they stood there.

01:50:41.920 And they had their arms around each other.

01:50:43.300 And the kid said, ever since I've watched your lectures, I've really been working on my relationship with my father.

01:50:48.660 And, like, we're getting along great.

01:50:51.100 And I really want to thank you.

01:50:52.800 And you could tell that it was true because they were both, they were just beaming away.

01:50:56.240 You know, they had that full smile that people have when they're actually happy about something.

01:51:00.080 And so that was, that was also really good.

01:51:03.100 That's a lovely thing to have happen when you're wandering around in the city.

01:51:06.340 And a stranger hops out of his car and, you know, tells you that his life is better.

01:51:10.280 And that his relationship with his father is better.

01:51:12.520 And it's like, that's the kind of interaction you want to have with people you don't know.

01:51:16.520 So, that's so.

01:51:28.040 Is another world war inevitable?

01:51:32.140 How's that for a segue?

01:51:33.160 Well, nothing's inevitable.

01:51:41.180 You know, and we've managed to stave it off for, through some pretty rough times for how long now?

01:51:46.540 It's 50, 55, almost 70 years.

01:51:52.940 And the rate of warfare has gone way down over the last 70 years.

01:51:56.500 Like, if you look at number of deaths in battle, it's just down and down and down and down and down and down.

01:52:01.380 So, like, things are, you know, there's no wars in the Western Hemisphere right now.

01:52:05.720 That's the first time that's ever happened that people know of.

01:52:08.880 Zero wars.

01:52:10.820 So, that's really something.

01:52:13.360 And so, you know, and, you know, the levels of absolute poverty around the world are falling precipitously, incredibly rapidly.

01:52:23.220 So, between the year 2000 and 2012, we have the number of people in the world that were in absolute poverty by UN standards.

01:52:31.240 Three years ahead of the UN Millennium Goal.

01:52:34.100 And so, child mortality rates are way down.

01:52:38.500 Maternal mortality rates are way down.

01:52:40.920 The child mortality rate in Africa is now the same as it was in Europe in 1950.

01:52:45.760 So, that's an absolute bloody miracle.

01:52:47.580 It's absolutely beyond belief.

01:52:49.040 So, you know, and there's no starvation in the world anymore except where it's politically produced.

01:52:59.260 So, we have enough food for everyone.

01:53:01.300 We still have some distribution problems, but there's plenty of food for everyone.

01:53:03.940 There are more fat people now than there are starving people by a large margin.

01:53:07.220 So, that's a real marker of success.

01:53:09.760 You know, it's a comical marker of success, but it's still a marker of success.

01:53:13.020 Yes, and so, the best projections suggest that by the year 2030, there'll be no one in the world in absolute poverty.

01:53:20.560 So, that's absolutely, absolutely unbelievable.

01:53:24.440 And so, it looks to me like with dedicated effort and with collective will,

01:53:29.720 we could continue to make things incrementally better at quite a rapid rate.

01:53:33.760 And that we could, we could have a situation where we didn't need to have wars.

01:53:40.240 Now, you know, that's a tough needle to thread.

01:53:45.500 But, by the same token, we don't have anything better to work toward than that.

01:53:50.420 That's a noble goal.

01:53:51.740 A world of peace.

01:53:53.120 A world where all, where the potential that every child brings into the world is capable of being fully maximized.

01:54:01.040 That would be of such immense benefit to all of us.

01:54:04.000 Because there's untapped genius out there everywhere that could be of unbelievable value to us.

01:54:09.920 And we could, we could make a concerted effort to foster that.

01:54:13.740 There's a guy named Bjorn Lomberg, who I would highly recommend.

01:54:16.900 You know about, yeah, you know about Lomberg?

01:54:19.580 He wrote a book called, How to Spend 75 Billion Dollars to Make the World a Better Place.

01:54:24.700 And that sounds like a lot of money, but when you're spending it on the whole world,

01:54:29.120 that's like 10 bucks a person.

01:54:31.040 It's not that much money.

01:54:32.820 And one of the things he pointed out, because Lomberg's a very smart guy,

01:54:36.720 and he takes all those high-flown goals that people have, like, like,

01:54:41.640 and then does a rigid cost-benefit analysis,

01:54:44.540 trying to figure out where, if you were going to devote resources, you'd get the best return.

01:54:48.300 And by far the best return is to increase the nutrition levels and the medication levels for young children.

01:54:55.240 The return on that is something like 250 to 1.

01:54:58.000 It's unbelievably valuable, and it's dirt cheap.

01:55:01.200 And so, we could do that.

01:55:03.280 Bill Gates is heading a foundation that's trying to get rid of the world's worst five communicable diseases.

01:55:11.000 We could do that.

01:55:11.740 We got rid of smallpox.

01:55:12.900 Polio's just about gone.

01:55:14.040 We could get rid of malaria.

01:55:15.300 That would be a big deal.

01:55:16.680 That would do Africa a lot of good, to get rid of malaria, right?

01:55:20.860 And so, Gates is after another four diseases, and I don't remember which diseases they are,

01:55:26.200 but they're, you know, deadly killers, and we could get rid of those.

01:55:30.380 You know, we're becoming unbelievably technologically powerful.

01:55:34.020 God only knows what we could do.

01:55:36.060 You know, I think we could make this place hum everywhere.

01:55:38.840 And we could have our cake and eat it, too.

01:55:42.700 You know, if that's what we decided to do.

01:55:45.220 I don't see anything stopping us except lack of will and bitterness and resentment and all the things that drag people down.

01:55:52.600 And I understand why people get dragged down, because the world's a harsh place, but we could improve it a lot.

01:56:00.320 And we are improving it a lot, and we could accelerate that.

01:56:03.240 So, that'd be a great old William James, a great moral philosopher and psychologist.

01:56:10.720 He said something very, very insightful, many things, but this is one of them.

01:56:14.900 People need a moral equivalent to war.

01:56:19.300 Like, war is exciting.

01:56:20.740 You know, like the people who are called into ISIS.

01:56:24.380 Nihilistic, leading useless lives.

01:56:26.820 You know, the ideological radicals say, here is something to live and fight for.

01:56:32.460 You know, and when they're in their bitter, resentful, nihilistic state, that sounds pretty good.

01:56:38.940 It attracts the best and the worst at the same time.

01:56:42.540 It's like, well, people need a call to action.

01:56:44.860 You know, because you need something to justify your miserable existence, and it has to be something noble.

01:56:49.560 And the vision of making things better, that's something that is a call to war.

01:56:56.840 You could do that.

01:56:57.600 You could fight to make things better everywhere, in your own life, in your family's life, in your community's life.

01:57:02.500 You could dedicate yourself to doing that.

01:57:04.520 And there's meaning in that.

01:57:06.980 And it actually works.

01:57:08.200 Like, you're a way more powerful force for evil than you think.

01:57:11.800 Way more.

01:57:12.340 But also a way more powerful force for good.

01:57:15.240 And so you could decide that, that you were going to try to do good in the world.

01:57:18.960 You know, not to live according to some restricted set of rules, or to do what other people think is right, or any of that.

01:57:26.100 I don't mean any of that.

01:57:27.440 I mean, you could decide for yourself how you could address the problem of the suffering and the malevolence in the world, and you could devote your life to that.

01:57:36.460 And if we all did that, a little bit more than we're doing it even, man, we'd put things together so fast, it would stagger the most cynical of us.

01:57:46.020 So that would be a lovely thing to see.

01:57:47.640 And that would be a good alternative to war.

01:57:49.360 And I think it's something that could actually happen.

01:57:52.900 So, yeah.

01:57:56.860 All right, last one.

01:58:03.280 Are you going to do something really great for yourself at the end of the tour?

01:58:08.220 This is great.

01:58:10.600 This is great.

01:58:11.640 Like, I'd like to have a rest, but...

01:58:13.360 But, like, there isn't anything that I would rather do than what I'm doing.

01:58:21.180 I have a month off in August, with a bit of exceptions, and that's not been the case for a while.

01:58:28.080 But I'm not...

01:58:29.700 This isn't a burden.

01:58:32.400 Or if it is a burden, then it's unbelievably...

01:58:35.340 It's a burden to be unbelievably thankful for.

01:58:37.860 Why wouldn't I be...

01:58:40.240 It's not pleased isn't the right word.

01:58:42.260 Why would I rather be anywhere at all than talking to 2,000 people about how they can put their lives together and make the world a better place?

01:58:50.560 Why would you want to do anything other than that?

01:58:52.820 Well, on that note, I just want to say to you guys here in Edmonton...

01:59:08.740 That you were way better than the Toronto crowd, okay?

01:59:15.020 On that note, I'm getting out of the way.

01:59:16.860 Make some noise for Jordan Peterson, everybody.

01:59:18.880 If you found this conversation meaningful, you might think about picking up Dad's books, Maps of Meaning, The Architecture of Belief, or his newer bestseller, 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos.

01:59:30.460 Both of these works delve much deeper into the topics covered in the Jordan B. Peterson podcast.

01:59:35.140 See jordanbpeterson.com for audio, e-book, and text links, or pick up the books at your favorite bookseller.

01:59:40.760 I really hope you enjoyed this podcast.

01:59:42.980 If you did, please leave a rating at Apple Podcasts, a comment, a review, or share this episode with a friend.

01:59:48.600 If you didn't like it, don't leave a review.

01:59:50.560 We're trying to keep it at 5 stars.

01:59:52.420 Thanks.

01:59:53.440 Next week's episode is another 12 Rules for Life lecture from Winnipeg, making our way through the 12 Rules Canadian tour from 2018.

02:00:01.000 Also, I should mention, Dad's working on his next book, so that's exciting.

02:00:04.780 And, other news, did you hear that Cora removed Dad's answer that started his 12 Rules for Life book?

02:00:11.860 It was called 42 Rules for Life.

02:00:13.980 They told him it violated some policy.

02:00:16.460 Some guy named James emailed him.

02:00:18.460 Little did James know that that wasn't a very good idea.

02:00:21.260 Anyway, I'll talk to you next week.

02:00:23.520 Thanks for tuning in.

02:00:24.620 Follow me on my YouTube channel, Jordan B. Peterson.

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02:00:37.740 Details on this show, access to my blog, information about my tour dates and other events,

02:00:44.060 and my list of recommended books can be found on my website, JordanBPeterson.com.

02:00:49.720 My online writing programs, designed to help people straighten out their pasts,

02:00:54.820 understand themselves in the present, and develop a sophisticated vision and strategy for the future,

02:01:00.140 can be found at SelfAuthoring.com.

02:01:02.660 That's SelfAuthoring.com.

02:01:05.740 From the Westwood One Podcast Network.

The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - August 25, 2019

Why You Should Treat Yourself as if You Have Value

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