561. Scott Adams and Jordan Peterson
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What is Scott Adams’ current health situation and how does he view his terminal cancer diagnosis?
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Some of your viewers know that I have terminal cancer, prostate cancer that's metastasized. And once it metastasized, you don't have the options of curing it like you would if it was localized. So part of my system is to be open to all the possibilities, but the other is the belief that nothing's impossible.
The spirit of your aim answers your prayers. This is literally the case because once you set up an aim, your imagination and your cognitive systems orient themselves to serve that
aim. It wouldn't be the first time I had an incurable disease that I cured. I'm a really cocky bastard. I kind of enter a lot of situations thinking, I could do this. As an adult, I started thinking that, you know, I must be living in some kind of a simulation. And that somehow the way I steer the simulation is by imagining what it is that I want to go toward. And then things fall in line.
We're navigators and we navigate towards a destination. Like we set our sights by the stars. All of this is true. Most of us know Scott Adams as the creator of the world-famous Dilbert cartoon, wherein for decades he offered a satirical critique of corporate culture and office life. But Adams is also a sage. and a suffering sage. In mid-May, he announced that he had received a prostate cancer diagnosis, which is most likely terminal. We spoke at length about his career, about his strange life, about the role of faith and affirmation in his movement forward, about technology, about optimism and service. And much more. Join us. It's a great conversation. First, I'd like to thank you for two things. For Dilbert, and also on behalf of my son for Dilbert, because he was an immense Dilbert's fan when he was younger than he is now.
And I spent a lot of enjoyable time reading Dilbert. And so it's great to...
How does Scott explain the idea that we might be living in a simulation and how it guides his actions?
What? It's a little bit of satirical lightness in a world that often lacks humor. So thank you for that. And also thank you more personally. You wrote a cartoon about me when I was in the midst of my, I'm still in the midst of my interminable war with the College of Psychologists in Ontario. And I don't think they were very happy about that. I certainly hope not. Apparently, I'm to be re-educated this month. So, I'm dead serious. They've reduced my penalty to one two-hour session by Zoom, which I'm supposed to keep private, but certainly will not continue. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, well, I think part of their problem is that everything I said turned out to be correct. And so that's kind of annoying three or four years later.
So thank you anyways. Much appreciated for Dilbert and for the personal touch as well.
Glad to help. You know, I should add that I owe you an apology for something you might not be aware of. Okay. When you first burst onto the scene and became sort of the biggest thing everywhere, I had not yet been exposed to your content. But when I was doing my podcast, the chat would turn into just a nonstop, what do you think of Jordan Peterson? Yeah. And I had to start blocking people because it just completely took over my podcast. And then finally, after, oh, it must have been months and months of that, I thought, all right, I'm going to go look at your content. And I thought, oh, I get it now. I completely understand why everybody was pestering me because when I watched your content, I had this weird sensation that I was like the less educated form of you, meaning that I largely agreed with everything you were saying, but I didn't have the science behind it.
So that was like a big awakening for me. And then I got hooked on your content and absorbed a lot of it.
Well, so apparently we're approximately equally reprehensible. Is that the moral of the story?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Scott Adams’ current health situation and how does he view his terminal cancer diagnosis?
0:00–2:57
2
How does Scott explain the idea that we might be living in a simulation and how it guides his actions?
2:57–10:53
3
What role do malicious envy and compassion play in shaping political attitudes, according to Jordan Peterson?
10:53–21:21
4
How did Scott’s childhood ambitions and early career choices lead him to become a cartoonist?
21:21–31:10
5
What are the key moments and “coincidences” that helped Scott break into syndication with Dilbert?
31:10–41:05
6
How do affirmations and the reticular‑activation system influence perception and success in Scott’s life?
41:05–49:07
7
What mindset and systems does Scott use to stay optimistic while facing illness and personal setbacks?
49:07–59:00
8
What final insights do Jordan and Scott share about meaning, narrative perception, and living an absurd world?
59:00–1:21:01