What I've Learned From Having Coffee with Scott Adams for 6 years
If you told me when I was a kid in Boston watching my grandfather sip his morning coffee and read the Sunday comics in the Newspaper that when I was in my 30's I would be an avid fan of the Dilbert Guy I would have shrugged my shoulders in confusion. Welp for the last 6 years I have consistently started my day off sipping my morning coffee while listening to Coffee with Scott Adams. In those 6 years, I have learned a lot of things from Scott and since he recently followed me on Twitter I decided to list some of my favorite themes from his livestreams. If you haven't been watching for the full 6 years don’t worry, I've put in the time so you don't have to. So here's what I've learned.
Reciprocity: Give and You Shall Receive
Always be willing to give and people will naturally give back. Since Scott decided to follow me I've decided to give back by saying thank you publicly. (Thanks Scott!) The key with reciprocity is to not have an expectation of getting something in return. Give and let the chips fall where they may.
Listen Out For the Dog That isn't Barking
Sometimes we can focus too hard on what is there rather than looking for what isn't there. This is the nature of confirmation bias. By looking for all the details we can see we are oblivious to all the things we can't see. Sometimes what isn't there is highly informational. To have a more accurate picture of reality find the white space on the canvas.
Create Assets Out of Nothing
In keeping with the last point, value is created in the mind which means it can be manufactured out of thin air. This blog post is also an example of this. I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about what they've learned from watching Coffee with Scott Adams, but if you spend an hour every day watching on Scott’s livestream you're learning a lot. Distilling it into key points is effortless if you're paying attention. When there's free money on the table snatch it!
Talent Stacking
What's better than being the best in the world at one thing? Being pretty good at a lot of things. We are taught from a young age to specialize. Be a Doctor, Be a Lawyer, but in reality some of the most successful people we know are not wildly talent in one arena, they're above average in many different areas. When you have a diverse set of talents you can blend them in a way that is unique to you and increases your odds of success. This also helps us notice the dog that isn't barking, because we can see things from multiple angles. Simone Biles might have been the greatest gymnast we've ever seen, and maybe she would have been able to display that at the 2020 Olympics if she was above average at mindfulness.
Small Changes Lead to Big Changes
If you're having trouble being productive you might be making a mountain out of a molehill. If you want to run a marathon and never have, maybe you should start by running around your block first. If you can make something a habit you're more likely to achieve your end goal.
Systems vs Goals
I know what you were just thinking if you're a regular listener to Coffee with Scott Adams. Why did I say "achieve your end goal" when Scott is an advocate of systems over goals! To induce cognitive dissonance of course! Just kidding! I'm a big fan of the idea of having systems instead of goals. Being a systems thinker instead of a goals thinker is a powerful strategy because goals have a single point of failure while systems are antifragile. They benefit from failure because they teach you what works and what doesn't. A system can be tweaked edited and optimized over time, a goal is a 50/50 proposition so use systems to put the odds in your favor. Goals are for people with a linear path while systems are for people who like to shake the box.
Filter Reality
Humans are not built to see the world as it really is. If you believe you can, you're operating at a low level of awareness. The best we can do is have a filter on reality that predicts. Much like a system your filter can be tweaked and edited based on your life experience.
Affirmations: You Are What You Think About
Scott is a big believer in the simulation hypothesis, the belief that we are living in a giant computer simulation and that affirmations might be a way to hack the program. If true, writing an affirmation 15 times a day has powerful implications. I'm more of a skeptic on the simulation theory, but thanks to Scott I do know a thing or two about hypnosis. If you can narrow your focus to a single point it starts to become a central part of your thinking. You begin to spot things you would otherwise be blind to. A narrowed focus of attention doesn't just alter your reality, it becomes it.
If They're Dancing They're Buying
Have you ever had a friend or family member tell you they really like something you put a lot of work into, but it never gains any traction? The people closest to us are typically blind to whether we have any real talent because they're positively biased toward us. Imagine the football mom who thinks little Timmy is the best player on the team while he spends 90% of practice with his back on the turf. The best test for whether you have something that has potential is sharing it with the world and seeing if people not only like it but actively engage with it. Watch for whether or not your idea makes people do something with their bodies. Our mouths lie but our bodies do not.
Pace and Lead
In order to be persuasive, you have to be able to pace your audience. You have to walk like them, talk like them or look like them. Once you build rapport you can lead your audience to your way of thinking. People like people they can relate to. No one ever became friends with someone they have nothing in common with. Rather than trying to change everyone's thinking first, change yours. Find common ground with the people you want to connect with and they will be pulled towards you like a magnet, then you can bring them closer to your way of thinking.
Persuade Early, Persuade Often, Persuade Ethically
If you apply these principles in your life you might find yourself becoming a master persuader. You might get that promotion you’ve been wanting, you might start to be the person in your friend group everyone listens to, or you might have wild success getting phone numbers at the bar. With that in mind it's important to remember to use the powers of persuasion ethically. Only persuade people in a way that enriches their lives. In the long run, if you use persuasion unethically your slimy ways are going to catch up with you. Think about the reciprocity principle we started with and persuade in a way where you don’t expect things in return.
That’s all Folks
So all and all having Coffee with Scott for 6 years has been extremely insightful. In addition to learning from him, had I not started watching his livestream I would not have heard of some of my favorite thinkers like Naval Ravikant, Nassim Taleb, Mike Cernovich, Balaji Srinivasan and many of my other favorite people on Twitter.
There are many more things I’ve learned from having Coffee with Scott Adams but it's impossible to put them all in one blog post. His ideas are a big piece of everything that I write so to read more feel free to subscribe to my blog.
P.S. My next post for you will be about how to stay creative while having young children. I've had two girls in the last two years while coaching college football, raising money for student scholarships, making music, writing a book, and even picking up how to build voice apps and virtual worlds, so I think I'd call myself an expert on the topic!
