How to Fail at Almost Everything with Scott Adams

Recorded on July 12, 2017
The Dilbert comic strip artist and political philosopher Scott Adams sits down with Peter Robinson to discuss his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. He discusses with Peter his theory of “talent stacking,” the idea that rather than being an expert in one particular skill (i.e., Tiger Woods and golf), one can become successful by stacking a variety of complementary nonexpert skills. Adams demonstrates how talent stacking has been beneficial in his life because he has stacked comic artist skills with his MBA and experience in corporate environments to create a wildly successful comic strip that resulted in spin-off books, a television series, a video game, and merchandise. His business skills gave him the tools to create a business satire comic strip and the skill set to manage the business that evolved from that strip.
Adams also discusses how he uses his Dilbert blog to discuss his political philosophies and observations about the Trump administration. He wrote blogposts about the 2016 election and predicted that Donald Trump would win based on President Trump’s talent stack as a media mogul and businessman who had spent significant time in the public eye so was immune to scandals and thick-skinned enough to handle what the media and other politicians would throw at him. Adams argues that President Trump is one of the best branders, influencers, and persuaders he has ever seen, in that the president uses persuasive techniques in debates and on social media as a way to get people to do what he wants. Adams contends that President Trump’s persuasive techniques will help solve the problem of North Korea because he has already set up China to get involved by intimating that it tried and failed. Adams believes this will cause China to get involved to save face.
Scott Adams and Peter Robinson finish by chatting about Adams’s views on the story arc of life. Adams
says that he believes he started intentionally selfish so that by the end of his life he can give away all of his wealth, knowledge, and wisdom, a process he says he has already begun. They also briefly discuss his new book, Win Bigly, about the persuasive strategies of Donald Trump.
Scott Adams is releasing his new book, Win Bigly, in October 2017.
For the full transcript go to
www.hoover.org/research/how-fail-almost-everything-scott-adams
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[@bentphilips8330]

Peter Robinson is the best interviewer I've ever watched! He draws out people's points and let's them talk

[@brettmclaughlin338]

My father used to say "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."

[@jackgoldman1]

Peter Robinson is one of the finest interviewers I have ever witnessed. What an excellent job he does. Great man.

[@MyBallzGotShocked]

Idk why, but i was shocked when the interviewer allowed adams to speak, finish a thought, and actually answer the question before interjecting and trying the lead the answer.

[@legatejakius5386]

The Hoover institution never fails to surprise me with its guests literally a diamond in the rough of KZbin.

[@gughunterx437]

Or at the very least figuratively.

[@edwardganio2699]

While I cringe at yet another improper use of the term "literally", I do agree with the sentiment. It's even more surprising that such discourse occurs at Stanford University, which is a hotbed of leftism (which comes as no surprise, considering its locale in the heart of Silicon Valley). To their credit, however, they do strive to be classically liberal and have productive discussions.

[@Tenebrousable]

@@edwardganio2699 Some dictionaries have updated the meaning of "literally" to sometimes meaning "figuratively". It's quite annoying to watch the growth of inaccuracy of a language.

[@danstewart2770]

*Trump's greatest quote* (icymi): "The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?" -- President Donald Trump

[@karamlevi]

If men have no say in reproductive talks we should also have no paychecks involved. Anything other than that is not compromise nor equality.

[@wdboyd88]

I just found this channel and I'm not disappointed

[@downeybill]

please tell me your name is an SCTV reference!

[@davidarbelaez4395]

One of the hardest things in life is to be able to admire someone without necessarily agreeing with their politics. There are millions of people who genuinely despise everything about President Trump which is unfortunate because he does have some admirable strengths. What’s nice about being an independent thinker and in the middle per se, is that Scott Adams is relatively high in compassion and politeness, which allow him to be objective.

[@stephenalexander6721]

There should be more interviewers like you. Good job this time and every time.

[@nth7273]

"whatever women collectively agree" - now that is funny

[@gibertusalbans1779]

this interview won bigly

[@javiertrevino5535]

this man is a genius at observing people's behavior

[@gregarioussolitudinist5695]

This is the best program on KZbin on a consistent basis. WELL DONE!!

[@GordieGii]

The reason you can't go swimming for a half hour after eating is so that mommy and daddy can finish eating before they have to be hyper-vigilant again.

[@showmetheevidence777]

Who knew the "author" of Dilbert (that I've read for years) - is such an intelligent guy. I like him (even though I don't agree with absolutely everything he said).

[@Georgesbarsukov]

He was a delightful guest

[@Sixus1Media]

Around 39min in, reference to "could be riots in the streets"... listening right now, 3 years after this interview and here they are. Riots. Bizarre.

[@perugino25]

First Liberal who actually converse...very smart person...thank you for your lessons..

[@robert9296]

THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST SHOWS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWS AND POLITICS!

[@CAngel57ful]

I adore Scott Adams, his thinking fascinates me and this is an excellent conversation that portrays his unique thinking. Thank you for this upload.

[@Malagnts]

I believe that history will look back on Scott Adams as one of the great[est] minds of this time.

[@robertlebrell2085]

I had a Thermo professor who drew a graph on the board, on the Y axis was "model accuracy" and on the X axis was "adjustable parameters" and the graph rose in value until around ~10 and then tapered off to 0. He said, "after a certain point you're just guessing at the values of the inputs and this makes the model worse." It's interesting to see Scott Adams talk about exactly that.

[@gordonstewart8897]

'The harder I work...the luckier I get.' -Arnold Palmer

[@OneMoreTag]

Love his daily live Periscope, “Coffee With Scott Adams”.

[@cliffdariff74]

Wow this is almost two years old and Scott's predictions are spot on 😊

[@charlespatterson8412]

I haven't listened to this yet but the name "How to fail at almost everything" is intriguing enough for me to pen down my impression of the whole idea, so here it goes: In order to fail at most everything is really not a bad goal but a glimpse at the eventful journey to an ultimately successful outcome. For one to fail at an endeavor they first must "try."

[@Confucius_76]

Peter Robinson is so likeable! It must be nice to be interviewed by him

[@user-zu1po6er8o]

Awesome interview, Peter! Thanks!! This guy has WAY too much common sense.

[@ShayneNelson]

Thanks so much for this video. What an education in 43 minutes!

[@Captain_MonsterFart]

The worst part of American's view of politics is that they can't get past the character and theatre of it, to realize that those people are actually DOING things that affect the lives of people on Earth.

[@Charrison9918]

You are One of the best interviewers that I’ve seen. Thanks Mr. Robinson.

[@ME-fo7si]

Enjoyed this interview, my first introduction to Scott Adams

[@moved2bitchute779]

I ❤️ Scott Adams... Couldn't recommend enough his video Periscopes, usually called "Coffee with Scott Adams." (The insights and perspectives he offers are sublime, and epiphany inducing). REALLY looking forward to his new book. 👍👍

[@cindyjo9093]

I was mortified during the debates at his put downs. In retrospect, I think that he was the only guy who would be able to beat Hillary, and stand up to the stuff the left is throwing out. Sometimes I cringe at his Tweets and sometimes he cracks me up. I am not disappointed with Trump. I think he is a far better leader that most people thought he was going to be. Twitter is enormously important to him because the main stream media attacks him constantly. He's communicating directly with us. Love his hair. Lol. I'm Scottish too so I understand the coloration thing. No biggy.

[@DarrenSemotiuk]

Watching this end of October 2018. After watching one of his "Real Coffee With Scott Adams" videos where he was about to be a guest on Fox... wearing the SAME shirt, which he also wore when a guest with Ben Shapiro. Scott called it his "TV SHIRT". He wasn't kidding! Even 15 months ago, same shirt LOL.

[@MENDLER1]

Great guest. Love people who can think outside the box.

[@mrpopsful]

Scott Adams: Cartoonist, Writer, Genius, Philosopher, Hypnotist, Mesiah. Who deserves to be president more? The best talent stack I have ever seen.

[@PRODOS]

Greatly enjoyed this interview. Both Peter Robinson and Scott Adams were splendid! Two honest, independent, thinking blokes. Thanks. :-)

[@moved2bitchute779]

PRODOS, me too. Well said. 👏

[@artemisshaffer8654]

PRODOS It is rare, and this case refreshing, that an interviewer will let their subject talk without interupting. I am usually not interested in an interviewer's views or agenda.

[@pendejo6466]

Yeah, people take Trumps victory personally, both his critics and supporters.

[@eternalsnows6071]

Amazing interview from beginning to end. Thanks so much for this!

[@yianni28]

I voted for Trump, but I'm not a Trump supporter and I like what Scott Adams had to say

[@sjkdec18]

I LOVED this!!!!! Thank you to both Messrs. Adams and Robinson!!!!

[@Airriel333]

wonderful interview LOVE Scott and his POV and Philosophy

[@dutchdaedalus]

7d interdimensional intergalactic underwater chess.

[@farenheit3513]

Replying to let you know that youtube censored your comment from my view with the default "top comment" sorting. I guess it's not censorship to them if they outsource it to a botnet.

[@winmine0327]

Just to explain this for busy people: This meme gets shouted out whenever Trump makes a Clintonian move to the middle, as if he were getting a policy goal in return. What he's really getting in return, is political capital for re-election. Clinton got re-elected in 96 because Gingrich couldn't find any reason to complain about him, and Clinton's base had no-one else to vote in. The same will happen with Trump.

[@michaelo.1320]

More like backgammon

[@trentbell2718]

Scott doesn't claim Trump is a super genius- people who pretend Scott claims Trump is a genius aren't listening. Straw man.

[@DevinAK49]

Farenheit 351 have a foil hat

[@renesingg]

My regard for both you Mr. Peter Robinson and Mr. Scott Adams has soared 'bigly'. Thank you for the interview and sharing some thought provoking perspectives.

[@testertaster]

These interviews are just superb. Well handled, and the most fascinating people. Top quality!

[@ehong123]

If you haven't read the book or listened carefully on Scott's words from the interview because your confirmation bias towards Trump, you're missing the best career advise that you can get from a little guy from upstate NY who succeeded in life because his system.

[@moved2bitchute779]

and his IQ. The guy is VERY smart.

[@cmhardin37]

Dan Scott Ya. The biggest factor is his iq.

[@smileychess]

I just ordered his book, on sale on Amazon for about 11 bucks.

[@randellporter8747]

Peter Robinson actually read Scott Adams book. Scott is very insightful. Loved this interview. Thx

[@jameseenacoene7680]

This program just gets better and better. Robinson is tops as an interviewer. His guest selection opens up so many topics and points of view. Thanks to the Hoover Institute.

[@fdoeppen]

What do you mean men have no responsibility for the pregnancy? 1: without a man there is no baby; 2: If there is a baby he is legally responsible for paying to support it.

[@massimo7219]

Fantastic analysis of Trump, and the pearl clutching Liberals who interpret everything at a level 10.

[@wangbot47]

This is a fantastic interview

[@RobertVanGilder]

Peter Robinson is one of the best interviewers in America.. The Friedman interview is also excelent.

[@CondorFlyingHigh]

Maybe, but somehow I feel he didn't answer what advice he would give to Donald Trump himself. And his comment about "low energy Jeb" 36:34 _Before I heard that my impression of Jeb Bush was this is a cool calm executive, this guy is gonna be the perfect guy, if there 's war he is not gonna get to it, the moment I heard "low energy" I couldn't see him any other way._ I wonder if his impression of Trump changed when people started to call him pussy grabber, Don the Con and what not.

[@georgeapplegate3535]

+CondorFlyingHigh Those were just insults. Trumps characterizations _essentialized_ his opponents, dismissively summarizing what everyone already sensed but couldn't name.

[@moved2bitchute779]

Yup, the interviewer was REALLY good.

[@moved2bitchute779]

+CondorFlyingHigh He did answer that question with the entirety of his interview (those people were not Trump's market--they were the ones that would be "perpetually confused," etc (if it's not Don the Con, Pussy Grabber, etc, it's Nazi, Cheeto, etc - e.g. whatever the media said that week)). Scott is high IQ, and therefore not susceptible to the emotional whims the more malleable group-thinkers are subject to (he sees the forest). For example, bullshitting about what groupie women "let" you do is definitely not even a tree in that forest (it's barely a weed). People only care about that silly banter because the media tells them to. "Don the Con" is another great one. People that use it lack the self-awareness to realize they are just feeding their own confirmation bias (why is Don a "con"? because he embellished something, which is EXACTLY what he writes about doing in his books... If anything, he's the most honest politician this country has ever had). High IQ, "forest see-ers," like Adams see this stuff. The best, most objective, measure of "rightness"/competence is diverse success (not just success in one thing like Zuckerberg, but consistent success in multiple things, like first FB investor, Peter Thiel), and Scott Adam optimizes that.

[@BarrieSchaef]

I was Dilbert, but due to Bush & Obama this STEM Computer Science trained my H1B replacement who was paid 7/hr

[@GlennGaasland]

Always fun listening to Scott :)

[@dianenelson6732]

Scott has the gift of contrarianism. By that I mean, he runs against conventional wisdom and has the intellect and the ability to deftly poke holes in it. This interview highlights his gift which adds to his "talent stack".

[@dennisbeardall2949]

Very interesting viewpoints from Scott Adams! Great interview!

[@fineartz99]

Superb. Uncommon clarity with class. // An exemplary tribute to both Scott, and Peter!

[@_Free_Thinker]

Love this! Thank you, Uncommon Knowledge, for interviewing Scott.

[@patrickmolidord1777]

Mr. Robinson, you manage to get such insightful guests with so much to say. Bravo! This is easily my favorite channel and sadly I've only found it recently. I have some catching up to do.

[@IntentionalityMentor]

This was impressive, enlightening and entertaining.

[@charleschenhua]

Can’t stop watching this channel

[@scienceisgod1]

I am suddenly a Scott Adams fan!

[@JustLikeParadise]

What a interesting show. Loved it. Thanks.

[@88Turbo88]

Excellent interview. Thanks Scott Adams. MAGA

[@LTHuddonDesignOfficial]

Thank you Scott I am in tears at 81 I have arrived at the point in life. I give give give and love it and I love me!!!!

[@millamilla10]

38:38 - and Peter's smile at the end! :-) Just wonderful!

[@testertaster]

He is wrong about y2k bug. We were working for years on that. Old programmers were coming out of retirement and getting £1500 a week to rewrite code 30 years old. It was an absolute gravy train.

[@dogcow666]

testertaster yup i remember the co i worked for at the time was paying big bucks for old school.cobol dudes

[@MrGtargy]

Right. Scott could have used a better example showing how humans 'rise to the challenge of seemingly insurmountable problems'. For the Y2k problem, once it was identified, there was no waiting. It was all hands on board .The 'geniuses' weren't called in at the last minute -- it was more a matter of detailed analysis and applying fixes in a way that didn't break anything.. -- great contract $ for old Cobol coders as dogcow666 says.. below...

[@zenden6564]

Not entirely wrong, the Y2K thing was greatly exaggerated (yes & I was in the industry) for extreme commercial advantage, ie., gouging. Nice work if you can get it. But little did we know at the time it's real purpose would be to prove the politics and funding model that could be scaled up beautifully for monetising Climate & Carbon anxieties, now cranking over merrily at an annual $1.5trillion "global business". Kerching!

[@ronj9448]

Y2K was real and the risk was unknown. People are cheap. They don't have intrusion detection, keep up with their patching and other such security foolishness because it "saves" money. Not responding to Y2K left you open to risk. It left you open to risk on older systems that just hummed along without upkeep which was a huge savings - until it needed attention and there was nobody around that was a subject matter expert. I am in IT and was back then as well.

[@mfawls9624]

@@zenden6564 it was the consulting firms dream situation. Lots of money spent on almost nothing. There were a few things that would have been critical but the vast majority was fear mongering and idiocy. Thank God it only comes once every hundred years, I'd have a hard time going through it again with a straight face.

[@tomvyse]

Awesomely revealing and insightful interview. Get a good look inside the brain and soul of good old Scott.

[@lukecage9836]

Great interview as always sir!

[@donaloregan7481]

I really enjoyed that. Thank you. Great interviewer.

[@gustavf.6067]

Great interview. Thank you.

[@austinthaijam7009]

beautiful mind. really enjoyed these two

[@jonschmidt9845]

the man the myth, the legend.

[@rctube1958]

Great discussion and interview.

[@corm1000]

I have noticed, that the people who are most prone to believe the things that experts have to say, are perfectionists. Perfectionist's always seem to believe that there's a group of people out there that know best, and they're always trying to get their achievements or work validated by this unnamed group of experts. Then you look at who these quote-unquote experts are and you find out that they don't even know what the hell they're doing half the time.

[@SlippinJimmy4Life]

Fantastic audiobook. Don't let your potential disagreements with him on global warming turn you away from so much good stuff the book is offering. Systems not goals people, systems not goals :)

[@olinzodd]

Very good interview! I wish more people could see the world like this man does!

[@nicoled6991]

Love Scott Adams! Thanks for interviewing him!

[@triplecheesemac]

I do too. Oh My God I just realized him and Trump says something identical about luck.

[@TheRogermursick]

Nice. The internet like AM radio is truly a wonder. Great interview and great guest as was Douglas Murray and so many others.

[@luissalazar2021]

I admire Mr. Adam, he is brilliant!😎

[@jimmaculate3802]

At the 7-minute Mark I noticed two things about Peter. He has his arms folded and his facial expression is that of bewilderment if not repulsion. Fun so far.

[@joesterling4299]

Terrific. Smarts, experience and honesty lead to enlightened discourse, regardless of politics.

[@tobias7104]

Thank you very much for this interesting conversation. Keep up the good work :-)

[@StrikeTeam23]

GREAT interview, really enjoyed!

[@veleriphon]

He even slipped in a dad joke. "I worked in the corporate world for sixteen years. So, I have something to draw upon."

[@katana1960]

I never heard of Scott Adams and I didn't read Dilbert. This guy is the kind of liberal that I defend when talking to my far right conservative friends and family. I consider myself a Libertarian, and wish the war in politics would end. Realizing that most liberals and conservatives aren't the extreme nut cases that the media portrays is a good start.

[@MissionComposition]

Great interview

[@NishantMittalVideos]

Such a nice interview! A big thank you to the host. :))

[@jbe6929]

What a great interview. President Trump's quote is just as pertinent today. Thank you.

[@corythatcher777]

Dilbert is my favorite cartoon and now I like the man behind it too.

[@leedufour]

Thanks Scott and Peter.

[@james5460]

That's a good interview, the interviewer managed to avoid showing any kind of political bias and that is a rarity these days. Btw, if anyone is wondering about how real this is about Scott Adams - he's the real deal. He was calling balls and strikes when it mattered during the 2016 campaign and getting them all right. You may or may not like Donald Trump, but Scott Adams understands the phenomenon of Trump.

[@markanderson9772]

everyone should watch this

[@KTF.4.EVER1961]

Enjoyed this very much! Thank YOU

[@afifahhamilton8843]

Great interview! Two of my favourite men.

[@regalianpeaches1]

wonderful interview!

[@badgerrrlattin35]

At least Scott Adams and I have something in common. Climate Change is on the bottom of my list of things to worry about, too.

[@benjaminthomas8988]

Men have an equal responsibility, carrying the child does not change this.

[@dorothycain2307]

Love this guy.

[@jinlee3574]

Excellent point. Thanks for insight

[@christinakfjeffrey]

Excellent Interview!