Transcript

Episode 3075 - The Scott Adams School 01/19/26

From Real Coffee with Scott Adams · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 2 min · 10,609 words · 113 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Episode 3075 - The Scott Adams School 01/19/26", an episode of Real Coffee with Scott Adams published January 19, 2026 (1 h 2 min, about 10,609 words). It mentions 12 people, works and ideas, including Artificial Intelligence, Simultaneous Sip, Owen Gregorian, Kevin Summers, Locals.

What this episode is about

In this session, Scott Adams engages the audience with a mix of humor and insight as he prepares for a discussion that intertwines politics, artificial intelligence, and social media. He humorously addresses common online shopping frustrations while inviting viewers to participate in a refreshing "simultaneous sip" to enhance their morning experience.

Key takeaways

  • A hand in product photos could revolutionize online shopping and save us from Barbie chairs.
  • Grieving may not get easier, but honoring legacies helps ground us in turbulent times.
  • Simultaneous sips and shared laughter could be the antidote to the chaos of modern life.
  • Amazon’s UX triumphs, yet one misunderstanding can lead to a world of disappointment—literally.
  • In times of loss, community and shared wisdom transform grief into resilience and strength.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Simultaneous Sip, Amazon, Locals, Artificial Intelligence
  2. – 30:00: Locals, Cindy Harmon Jones, Owen Gregorian, Western Sydney University
  3. – 50:00: Locals
  4. – 1:00:00: Face Act
  5. – 1:01:34: Simultaneous Sip

Notable quotes from "Episode 3075 - The Scott Adams School 01/19/26"

  • Okay, you guys, let's just make sure Locals is live. Especially before we do, I can see Stephen Gunner.
    about Locals · at
  • It's the thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous that happens. Now go.
    about Simultaneous Sip · at
  • Exactly the same. And so I suggest the following human interface improvement for Amazon. Jeff Bezos, if you're listening, I suggest this. In any situation in which there might…
    about Jeff Bezos · at
  • Which is back for sale, you guys, by popular demand. Kevin Summers is joining us today and the voice of Owen Gregorian.
    about Owen Gregorian · at
  • You bet. Thank you. So, we're going to do the wanting versus deciding reframe today. And this is like the third page of chapter 2. If you have the soft copy, it's page 15. in my own.
    about Kevin Summers · at
  • Dominance. The study author Cindy Harmon Jones, a senior lecturer at Western Sydney University, explained the motivation. Men seem to have a lot more admiration for large…
    about Western Sydney University · at
  • Yeah. A. And basically what he said in his interview is that AI won't destroy jobs, it'll create a massive labor shortage instead of the opposite. and he defined he pointed out three things.
    about Artificial Intelligence · at
  • Pam Bondi are trying to do something about it under what under the law of the face act which punishes intentional acts to try to stop worship. it is in extremely it has become…
    about Face Act · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Owen Gregorian — Person · Co-host / recurring panelist · 2 mentions · first at
    He helps run the continuation stream, transitions the group into 'the news,' and provides commentary on AI, protests, and geopolitics.
  • Kevin Summers — Person · Guest contributor (reframe reader) · 1 mention · first at
    He reads and explains Scott Adams’ 'wanting vs deciding' reframe, anchoring the episode’s main self-help segment.
  • Sergio Below — Person · Panelist / community organizer (memes & AI prompting) · 1 mention · first at
    He speaks about grief, service, and legacy; references Jocko Willink’s grief advice; and is credited with inspiring an 'army of memers' using AI prompting.
    Oh, you guys, I'm sorry. I'm Erica. Marcela just spoke. We have Sergio Below with the beanie, the Scott Adams beanie, which is back for sale, you guys, by popular demand. Kevin Summers is joining us today and the voice of Owen.
  • Cindy Harmon Jones — Person · Referenced academic (study author) · 2 mentions · first at
    Named as the senior lecturer and study author quoted in a psychology news summary about masculinity insecurity and valuing large penises.
    High value on having a large penis, viewing it as a symbol of status and dominance. The study author Cindy Harmon Jones, a senior lecturer at Western Sydney University…
  • Jeff Bezos — Person · Referenced business leader · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in Scott Adams’ Amazon UI critique as a rhetorical addressee ('if you're listening') regarding product scale ambiguity.

Companies & orgs

  • Locals — Company · 5 mentions · first at
  • Amazon — Company · 3 mentions · first at
    I'd like to start with a helpful tip. Have you ever bought anything on Amazon?
  • Western Sydney University — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • Grok — Company · 1 mention
    Concerned we people that have jobs, people the majority of us have jobs. Jonathan Ross, the founder of and CEO of an AI chip company named Grock, is that how you pronounce it? Gr.

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

Okay, you guys, let's just make sure Locals is live. Especially before we do, I can see Stephen Gunner.

Yeah, Locals is live. Awesome. Yay. Hi, guys. Good morning. I don't see you, too.

Okay, guys. Are you ready? We're going to mute for the simultaneous sip. Good morning. Um, we're we're doing it with Scott today. You guys ready? And then we'll introduce everyone. Okay, let's let's get ready for the simultaneous sip.

Good morning everybody and welcome to the highlight of the entire civilization. It's got a little coffee with Scott Adams and if you didn't think it could get any better, surprise. It's whiteboard day. Yes, we will have a whiteboard in which I'll connect the uh seemingly different fields of politics, artificial intelligence, the simulation and Twitter. Yeah, I'll do all that. And in order for you to be primed and ready for that, this mindblowing experience that is the simultaneous sip and coffee with Scott Adams, you're going to need to get ready. And all you need to be ready for this amazing amazing experience is a cup of bugger last time.

a vessel of any kind filled with favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure. It's the dopamine of the day. It's the thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous that happens. Now go.

That ladies and gentlemen is amazing. I'd like to start with a uh helpful uh tip. Have you ever bought anything on Amazon? Well, if you have and you've bought more than one thing, you may have run into a situation I run into often. It's called the scale problem. As in, I think I'm buying a big old bag of something and it shows up like it's a free sample. How many times does that happen to you? You know, you buy a chair for your living room and it shows up it's like it's a Barbie chair. You're like, "Yeah, you know, that looked like a real chair." In my defense, I did not check the specs. It looked like a chair. It said a chair. I bought the chair. It just happened to be 2 in tall.

Well, this brings me to my recent purchase, which should have been about this tall, about this wide, the big one. But when you look at the little picture, looks exactly the same. And so I suggest the following human interface improvement for Amazon. Jeff Bezos, if you're listening, I suggest this. In any situation in which there might be any potential ambiguity about the size and scale of a of an object, it is not good enough to include it only in the description, which you must click. You must also have a human hand in the picture.

Preferably the same human hand. Because if this had a human hand to it, I would know exactly how big it was every single time. And how hard is it to put a hand in a picture? Not very hard. You can even digitally add it just nearby. Hand picture. So please user interface developers at Amazon. We're by the way some of the best in the world. Uh Amazon has some of the best user interface. That one thing, that one thing bites me in the ass about one time in five, probably literally. I I just guess I'm weird size. All right.

I miss him, you guys. I can't believe it's another, you know, that we're into another week now and um it's not getting easier, obviously. How do you guys quickly, you know, feel? It's not easier.

No, I think I think it's harder now uh as the days go. Um because you realize the weekend we didn't have coffee with Scott Adams and

and how many decades is that? Like it was one decade without that. Um so it hit me hard yesterday. I think I told you guys, but um

yeah, it's not easy. It probably um will get easier with time, but um is forever. Um I saw a post or a reply online saying, "Oh, you know, I'm going to be sad when when people forget uh Scott." No, people are not going to forget. And we're not going to allow people to forget Scott Adams.

That's right. He's unforgettable. Serge. Oh, you guys, I'm sorry. I'm Erica. Um, Marcela just spoke. We have Sergio Below with the beanie, the Scott Adams beanie, which is back for sale, you guys, by popular demand. Kevin Summers is joining us today and the voice of Owen Gregorian.

Good morning, everyone. Sergio, you wanted to say something about that about Wen?

Uh, no. About how we It's not easier and it feels almost harder now, you know. Um, well, I'm a pro at this, unfortunately. you know, I'm a pro and I've been through it um with the the strongest ones and um and I got to say that that Scott's advice of u putting yourself into service, being useful, and honoring uh that person's um legacy and transition too. It's the most important things to do to to stay sane because um it's not going to get easier. Uh we all have to get stronger. Okay. Is um Jooko Willing is the best at it. He has a beautiful song on this that I played over and over again when uh when that happened. Marcela, do you not remember the name of the song? Because I forgot the name of the song.

Maybe you can post it in the um notes later. Post it later. Yeah. Joo. Yeah, I'll post it.

Through lots of you know, he's a Navy Seal. He went through Afghanistan and the Iraq war and he has a lot of advice on grieving.

Yes. And uh Yeah. So I think we we are um it's been helping a lot you guys you know like you know talking to you guys and and I look so happy to see Kevin by the way. Kevin is one of the OGs uh in the chat and everybody knows Kevin and uh Kevin has been very supportive with me uh for a long time too and I appreciate that Kevin. Thank you.

He's known as Kev. I go by Kev on Locals. Yeah, it's been tough and I keep reminding myself of

some of Scott's reframes on death and grieving and loss and it um I lost my mom about a year ago and and it was super helpful and and just using his own advice on him has has been um just sort of a saving grace, I'll say.

A Owen smile smile that it that I got to know him. Yeah. Yes. Well, I mean, I'm c It certainly hit me hard and I'm still going through it, but um I would I was going to say the same thing that I I think SJV just posted one of Scott's segments on getting rid of anxiety, but it really focused on getting ready for a loss and like a loss you know is coming. In his case, he was focusing on like the death of a pet because he knew that he would have to deal with Snickers death coming up. And um so he talked about how you could prepare for that and a lot of it was the reframe about it being an honor and a privilege to be part of it.

Yeah. Um but it's it's worth seeing. I I think I reposted that from SGB on my timeline this morning. But um you know that that sort of thing is helping me. I mean, that is really how I'm thinking about it is that it's been an honor and a privilege to be part of the process and just to be, you know, helping to keep Scott's legacy going. So, that's what I'm focusing on.

Yeah, that's amazing. you guys on all the platforms listening if you hear us mention someone's name like Joo or SJV um if you guys would in the chat can you at them so people can say oh who's Joo or who's SJV or whatever we're talking about that would really help the others that are watching the chat to know who these people are and perhaps follow along. So I like that you know you guys shared that I was having a really bad night last night some of you know. Um, but if this is like a great time and Kevin has decided to do a reframe for us. So, listen, we can reframe anything as Scott has taught us. It's so important and all you have to do is think about reframing whatever situation you're in and create it. If there isn't one written in his book, create it. So, I'm going to hand it over to Kevin. He's gonna tell us um what page in your reframe your brain book and let's get a reframe and then we're gonna go right to

the news with Owen and Marcella. Okay. So, thanks Kevin. Take it away. You bet. Thank you. So, um we're going to do the wanting versus deciding reframe today. And this is like the third page of chapter 2. If you have the soft copy, it's page 15. Um, in my own little hierarchy of reframes, this is like a big daddy reframe upon which many many reframes hang. Uh, so I I I absolutely love this wanting versus deciding. If you want something, you might be willing to work hard to get it within reason. But if you decide to have something, you will do whatever it takes. Usual frame, I want to do something. Reframe. I've decided to do something.

If I were to make a list of all the business startups and other money-making schemes I've worked on during my career and then divide that long list into what worked out well and what failed, there would be a pattern. You wouldn't notice the pattern, but I would. The efforts that failed were all ones I wanted to succeed, and I worked hard to make them succeed. I wasn't doing all-nighters or risking money I couldn't afford to lose, but I put in great effort and yes, some cash. None of those wants worked out. Luckily, several business projects did work out. Dilbert became an international sensation. I wrote several best-selling books and I was one of the highest paid speakers in the country for several years. To be fair, I was only able to do all of that because the original Dilbert comic strip took off.

And there is one thing that stands out about that initial Dilbert success. I didn't want to be a successful cartoonist. I decided to be one. When I was offered a syndication contract in 1988, the ultimate big break for a cartoonist, made a promise to myself that no matter what happened, I would never allow myself to look back and say I didn't work hard enough to make it a success. I knew I was entering a field in which the odds of making it big were around 1% even after getting the syndication contract, which was already insanely unlikely. The syndication company sells comics to newspapers and web platforms and splits the money with the cartoonists. I had a contract, but zero newspaper clients on day one. By the end of the first year of selling Dilbert comics to newspapers, only a few small newspapers were carrying the strip. that point, seeing no hope of a big hit, the salespeople moved on to the next comic that was

being launched. If Dilbert was going to succeed, I would need to make it happen on my own. And so I worked my day job while also writing and promoting the Dilbert comic for several years. I later wrote books and did licensing. For over 10 years, I had the equivalent of three full-time jobs. I worked seven days a week, including holidays. I did everything I could do to promote the comic, putting 100% of my mind and body into it. For many of those years, I answered hundreds of emails per day from fans. By the way, I sent an email to him and he did he did respond within um a day. It was really neat. 30 years ago, I traveled the country for book signings and autograph sessions that would last hours. I did photooots and interviews several times per week for a decade.

Dilbert was the first syndicated comic to be published on the internet which also took a lot of work on my p on on paper. My workload from those years looks impossible. If I had merely wanted to succeed, I don't think I could have lasted. But I didn't merely want to succeed. I decided to succeed. And once you decide, the psychology of the situation changes. A crushing workload felt like a privilege. I reminded myself that almost any cartoonist would want to trade places with me. It was never easy and it was never painless, but I was unstoppable because I had succeeded decided.

If you are wondering how you can know if a if the thing you desire is a want or a decision, I can help with that. It's easy. If you are not sure, you have not decided. If you decide, you won't have any doubt. That That's what makes it a decision. I just love that reframe. Um

yeah, uh it I think about this constantly and uh I think about it I I try to generally I'm an optimist and I I try to think it about it very positively but I have had family members who've done the opposite here and um you know you can talk yourself into just any reality you like. So for me um you know this informs the the sort of that talk track you have going on in your head and um the decisions you make the way you prioritize you know you are what you think about and uh for me again it's it's a big daddy reframe and uh I love this one. I need to remind myself about this too because sometimes like, oh, I want to do that. And honestly, maybe it's a Libra thing. You guys, I'm bringing the reality to the engineer minds. I'm sorry. I'm not like a I must be like a shock system for a lot of people. But anyway, um I live like in this Libra balancing act on top of a fence all the time. I can see both sides

of a story. If you ask me, do I want to go to this restaurant or this one? I will vacasillate for an hour about it. So, I definitely teeter between wanting and deciding a lot. And I have to push myself more for the decision. Um because if I stay in the want, I often have regrets. So, I I'm glad that you brought this up today because there's a few things I need to really make the decision to do. And I'm going to remember this and I'm going to think about um Scott up until the end. Like everything you read about his career and how he did Dilbert and for the amount of years and working a full-time job and this and that like yeah he made a decision and he also made a decision to keep going till the very end with us and he could have not he could have stopped anytime he wanted and any one of us would have fully understood. So yeah, I think that's a great lesson for me today and maybe for you guys.

Yeah, I think I think also when you are a decider and become known as a decider and there's no question, oh, he's a decider, he's a decider, people look at you a little differently instead of, you know, oh, you know, I I want this, I want that, I want a million bucks, you know, what have you.

Yeah. You you you develop a reputation with yourself. You start you know you start

oh my gosh you started you know thinking you know this guy means business and or this girl you know

and uh the more you do those and one guy that reminds me of that is Trump too. So Trump uh decide you if you read the out of the deal you know that is when he goes from wanting to deciding basically when he says Greenland might be nice that that means that he decided to have it. So that's a I don't know I wanted to inject that because uh it's happening right now. So

Oh Erica I cannot hear I just said yeah I I agree. Does does anyone else want to expound on the um on the reframe?

I think there's a lot of deciders within the group because this is a very you know intelligent successful group of people Scott has cultivated but I think we in some aspects of our life we are still sitting on the want instead of deciding. So maybe maybe everybody today your homework could be like what's something I've been wanting to do and I haven't decided to do it

and then either make a decision that is worth the decision or let it go and and then like figure out what what else you need to do to to get where you want to be. I'm going to do that today. I actually have a couple things I'm going to take off and then a couple things I'm going to make the decision. So I'm looking forward to I'm going to do this.

People can post it. They can post it online that assignment. public publicly sharing those commitments as we know um sure uh sure helps.

Mhm. I like that. Yeah. I mean I think I I think one thing I would add to it is just you need to be careful what you decide on. I mean because the frame we're talking about here is a real commitment like you're going to do whatever it takes to make this happen. And so you can't do that with everything. You know you can't just be like well now I'm a decider so everything I decide I'm going to do. And like that doesn't work right. You have to you have to be selective about probably only one thing at a time really of saying I'm going to make this thing happen and I'm going to put aside whatever else and sacrifice whatever else I need to to make that happen. And so I think that's an important part of it. Um and I think Scott has talked about that too. Um where you need to be willing to make sacrifices. You need to be willing to you know put off other things or prioritize other things. And then, you know, to Kevin, to your point,

this leads into a lot of other reframes or a lot of other things Scott has talked about in terms of once you've decided to do something, then you might develop a system for it. And and that would be how you would get that going. You would say, okay, what what needs to be true or what needs to happen? What is a system for making this happen? And I I know Scott has talked about that in the same story of his career, saying how he developed his system uh for that. And you know, we've seen it every day where he has his routine. He does his thing every day, same way. Um, but that's the result of a very honed system. He he figured out how do I manage my energy?

How do I, you know, get out of writer's block? How do I make all these things happen so that I can always achieve the result that I need to achieve? And so, I think, um, it definitely ties into a lot of his other wisdom that he's shared with us. One one of the things that um I agree with that Owen, but one of the things that he says that Kevin read is

not only do you have to decide, but you have to work for your like I can't just decide I'll be a billionaire and just sit around. Um no, he worked um tirelessly.

Yeah. Even almost to his death. Um, and that's that's a great um example and I think all of us uh want to want to be like that and uh it's it takes work and it takes focus because that's one thing that he said in what Kevin read is like I I did this non-stop interviews, non-stop work and when I felt tired I realized everybody would want to be in my place. So I needed to be unstoppable. Um so that goes together with deciding.

Yeah, I think I mean it certainly it is all about taking the actions and I think that ties into his talk about affirmations because that focuses your mind on a particular thing and he's talked about that saying you can't do affirmations for lots of different stuff. you have to pick one thing and just, you know, write it a h 100 times, say it a 100 times, you know, do it over and over again until it really sinks in and that focuses your mind on that one outcome or that one thing that you're trying to make happen. And I think it ties directly into this deciding and um but that's where like the secret if anybody remembers that book was wrong

because that they had the same affirmation sort of message but they said what you were just saying like oh you can just say I'm going to be a billionaire

and then the universe is going to make it happen for you and it's like they only gave you half the answer. It's like

and and it and I would also say it doesn't mean you can just ask for whatever you want. I mean, I, you know, Scott has said a lot of very amazing things have happened to him based on this process. So, I'm not trying to limit that, but at the same time, he he says, you know, don't be necessarily so specific. Like, don't say, I want a billion dollars. Just say, I want more money or I want to be successful or something that's more general so that it can be a lot of different things that would fit that description as opposed to maybe something impossible. And he said certain things like winning the lottery, you know, it's not going to work. But um but if you if you make that decision and you make those affirmations to focus on that outcome, you still need to take action. You need to do the things that come into your head that says, "Okay, if I want this to happen, I need to put this system in place. I need to take

these actions. I need to call these people. I need to do these things." And and that's what actually makes it happen. It's not it's not just the thought. It's the actions you take as a result of that. Well, and oh, and like this is exactly where, like you said, systems for your goals. So, you got to put in the place of systems, probably work on your talent stack. You might fail along the way, but you know, fall down seven, get up eight, right? So, you just keep going until like if you and if you exhaust all of it and you're like, okay, there's no way around it and I really worked on it. It's also okay to move on from it. Um, not I mean Scott has shown us how many ideas and different business ventures he started and and had to stop, but he really put his all into it. And um I think we're like better armed now than Scott was because he taught us all the things that he did to be able to achieve the big

goal. So now we know how to do it, how to reframe and how to put in systems and and yeah like just utilize all the resources around you like everybody you know everything is a resource. You have AI now to help you as a resource. So my god if I if I owned any of the businesses I've owned in the past now with today's technology

so much easier. But um so we're lucky we have a good jumping off point. I think that's great Kevin. I'm going to move on to the news, you guys, cuz we're at like the halfway point of anything. But stick around, Kev. And um take an interstitial sip, you guys. And we're going to move on to Owen and Marcela have picked out some news for us. And um definitely drop your chat in there. We're trying to read. I'm reading locals mostly, so you guys definitely participate.

Thanks, Kev. Thank you, Kevin. Yeah. Well, I would say Marcela, go pick some pick out some of the stories you were looking at from my feed and we can talk about them.

Um, so I picked out a few things from your feed. Um, Owen and um, Owen has a great feed. Go check it out on X at Owen Gregorian. Um, this is Marcela. Um, I wanted to bring out a few stories, but I don't know which one you would like to talk about first. Um,

I I think we typically start with something that's more in the science realm, either science or psychology or technology, and then then we'll get into the politics.

I have a favorite story, Marcela, you could start with. Which one is it? Um, it's the one about the penis size.

Okay, start with that one. What am I Thank you. Um, so there was um a a story on Cypos by Eric Dolan. Uh, a new research links Trump support and masculine insecurity to valing large penises. Um, they act as if large penises are a bad thing. Um, new research published by psychology of men and masculinities find that men who feel insecure about their masculinity are more likely to place high value on having a large penis, viewing it as a symbol of status and dominance. The study author Cindy Harmon Jones, a senior lecturer at Western Sydney uh, Western Sydney University, explained the motivation. Men seem to have a lot more admiration for large penises than women do. Uh, anecdotally, I observed the men who admire large penises seem angry and hostile. So, you know, put it in the chat what you think Scott would have said about this. I think there's there's there's there's three words that you would say

and if you can put it in the chat. We're waiting for it to Well, Andy got it right. Just ask God. Right. Right. Right. Right. He would have said just ask God. Um the re the reframe of all this is that that as I see it, it's a feature. It's not something that should be a negative. Um the Trump is the large penis metaphor for national revival. Strong borders, strong economy, strong military. No apologies for that. So that's what he would have said. Um and I think that he would have seen it as a feature. I think most men would see it as a feature. Most women would see it as a feature. Um the fact that Cindy Harmon Jones, who I don't know, thinks it as hostile and also has to study it. Um why would you have to study something that you could just ask everyone, not just Scott? So

yeah, I wonder how how that grant proposal looked and and what they were thinking when they approved that study. Um it definitely seems like I mean the phrase I I remember that was big for a while was big dick energy. Um and and I think that's probably part of at least the meme part of this that is has gone through our culture. Um, it see it does seem hilarious to me that like people who are not supporting Trump and are, you know, somehow not valuing large penises. I I kind of wonder what that says about him. But, um, you know, I I I also understand that like men would obviously care a lot more about women about that than women because they're the ones that have the penis and they only have one size and so it's natural to compare against other men. and um you know worry about that and have those insecurities. Um so it would be kind of obvious to me that women wouldn't care as much about that.

Um but you know I I I guess that's it depends on the woman how much they care about that. But um you know it's uh it may be that I I I would wonder if they went as far as correlating the actual sizes of Trump supporters versus non-Trump supporters too. Well, like somebody just wrote in the locals chat who funded the study and then like imagine this woman being like I'll do the story, you know, she's like I got it.

But I love it. And someone just wrote like, you know, today in backwards science. I mean, yeah, it's all the things.

Yeah. Any comments, sorry George? Well, um, yeah, you had to get me into the dick conversation here. No, I love it. I think that, uh, uh, this is, uh, important, uh, because right now, um, Trump right now, he's deploying his guns everywhere, right? He's deploying, um, flirtas everywhere, Armaras, and um, and he's just uh, you know, taking control of the security, making sure that everything is safe. um just imagine a neighborhood and and he's the the head guy of the neighborhood and making sure that everything is nice in all all around. So yeah,

I would just also add there was there was a story that I posted might have been a couple years ago and it was a study about firearm ownership and penis size

and it got the highest engagement of probably almost any story I've ever posted on X. And I think it might have been because, as you might guess, firearm owners have larger penises than non-f firearm owners, which I guess it is counterintuitive to what the researcher was probably hoping to find out because they were saying, "Oh, this kind of debunks the idea that people have firearms because they're, you know, worried about their small penises, but they actually have larger penises." So, yeah, it's uh it's interesting when they when the science turns their attention to this sort of thing. Well, the Kevin and I, we had we have guns. I don't know if the ladies here have guns.

I must have a big penis because I have them. Okay, let's move on. Let's just let's just say eggplant parmesan is one of our favorite dishes here in in our house.

All right. All right. Um the other story that I saw and a lot of us are are going to be concerned uh we people that have jobs, you know, people uh the majority of us have jobs. Um Jonathan Ross, the founder of and CEO of an AI chip company um named Grock, is that how you pronounce it? Gr.

Yeah, it is. But it's spelled different obviously than the G. Yeah. Yeah. A. And basically what he said in his interview is that AI won't destroy jobs, it'll create a massive labor shortage instead of the opposite. Um, and he defined he pointed out three things. Um, huge deflation, um, people working less and explosive creation of new jobs. That's key. Um, I think that people when they argue about AI changing the economy and changing uh factory work and um even possibly getting rid of lawyers, which I doubt, um, or any kind of other white collar work is that when we had the internet uh explosion of the dot era, there was more jobs created than they were they were they were different type of jobs, different type of things, but it it does go to the point that there could be more explosive job creation. Um, and what he does um, highlight, and I don't know what your thoughts are on this, everybody, but he says we're not going

to have enough people, which I guess can go to Elon Musk and all the other points of population and depopul. I was reading uh Wall Street Journal this morning and one of the stories was that China is shrinking in um sorry I'm going back to the first story um that China um is is lessening in population and there is a huge issue because there's a lot old more older people than there are young yet they have robots. Um, and that's just one of the economies. We have the same issue here. So, he might be right. Um, I'm not sure if it's because of AI will lead to more jobs, which is why we will have not enough people or is it just because of the population going down. So, thoughts?

Well, I think in Go ahead, Owen. Sorry. Well, I I think there's there's an argument to be made for what he's saying that I certainly think as AI and robots make things, you know, as they gain capabilities to do work, they will make things cheaper. At least I think so. I mean, there is some debate about how much it costs to do all this AI and robot stuff, but I think generally speaking, if you have a robot working 24/7, you can probably produce a lot more widgets for the same price as if you hired a person to do it. And so a lot of things will get cheaper and so I think that will be deflationary in terms of how how you know a lot of things will cost less than they did in the past. Um I don't think that'll happen to everything like real estate would be the obvious exception where you can't make more real estate. So you know that may be even more scarce but um but I think that even that might be alleviated by

it. You know if we can get robots doing construction of homes we might be able to build a lot more homes and make those cheaper. But um I do find a little bit of inconsistency when he says people will work less cuz that to me would imply there's less jobs or less work to be done by people. Um so I I I get a question mark in my head when I hear that. But um I I do think there's a possibility that he's right in the sense that when you when you make things cheaper to build or to produce and or to deliver a service, that means more things are worth doing at a profit, right? Like you can make money doing more things than you could in the past. Whenever you look at a startup, for example, you might say, "Okay, does is this thing ever going to make a profit? Can I, you know, are people actually going to pay the price that they would need to pay for this to be profitable to be sustainable as a business? And every business really has

to look at that like, you know, are customers willing to pay the price for this product or service? And so the lower you can make that price and still be profitable, the more businesses you would say, yeah, that's a good one. That'll make money. And so I think there would be a natural uh trend that would say businesses you might have said no that's never going to work before you might say you know what now it would work and um so more things would potentially be possible in terms of starting new businesses and having additional products and services that wouldn't have been profitable before but now that we can automate a lot of it is profitable. So I I do think there's a lot of potential for that and I really hope this is how things go. Um, but I would point out that it would probably still shift the types of jobs that would be available because if I make all these assumptions about how things are going

to go, a lot of types of jobs like manual labor and repetitive tasks and simpler things, even writing and some of the things AI can do, um, you're not going to need people to do those things anymore. And so you you'll need people who know how to use AI and who know how to come up with the ideas and to guide the AI and to review the output of the AI and to just you know just have do all the things like the creative things the humor things all the things that machines can't do still and I don't know if they ever will be able to do. So I think it'll shift jobs in that direction and that means some people might be very busy because they have those skills.

Other people might have a hard time finding a job because they all they could do is manual labor. So, I don't know if it's going to work for everybody, but it'll probably work for some people.

Yeah. I mean, Greg Gel just said the other day to Scott that he had AI write the summary of his book or the first chapter of his book, and he's like, "Oh my god, it was really good." So, yeah. I mean, I I think you're right. It's going to I think that's a a way that all the creative minds could really have a job too because AI is all about prompting like Sergio was teaching us. And by the way, Sergio, you've created an army of memers and you guys they're so good. Everyone's doing so good. Okay, sorry. Back to your story.

All right. Well, Kevin, I think you wanted to jump in on this, too. Yeah. I so I I work in this domain very closely and I I I think it's it's going to be profound the change. It is going to be a disruption but in many many ways um we're going to be more productive. It's just like the same as it ever was. Talking heads, anybody? Um new tech, it's going to enable people to be more productive, right? Yeah. Your job is going to change. Yeah, you might be able to do what took three or four or 10 people to do, you might be able to do with one person. Um, but I think it's it's I I take the David Sachs sort of glass half full kind of position. It's it's going to be um a profound uh positive um uh advancement. I do think just like you should question always question numbers or what you're reading you know people need to cultivate this critical assessment of oh this a has given me this answer is that true or not

so I think it's going to be important that in in education young folks are taught to to think critically about the results that they're getting um I know personally you know with code generation you don't rely on a single tool, right? You're going to you're actually relying on a couple of tools and and you're weighing how these different tools which which tool is yielding the best results. And when it comes to software, you know, a newbie software developer doesn't have sort of the experience uh to understand, hey, yeah, I got the the basic functionality to work, but there's, you know, all the robustness uh the reliability perhaps security things that an experienced developer would be able to frame out, you know, in a um in working with AI. So, I'm I'm very bullish. Uh I think it's going to be an age of immense productivity improvement

types of jobs. The point it reminded me something that Erica said right now reminded me of something Scott would have said um and it was regarding art and music and how we would deal with with it coming from AI. Would it be the same or would these people still have jobs? Because when you have an artist, you have a musician, you have a movie or something else, it's not the same if it comes from a human than it is it comes from a a

artificial uh intelligence. And so I thought that maybe those were one of the few jobs that would stay around because because there was uh you know Scott liked to play drums and he talked about drummers and how he realized that the best drummers didn't follow any of the rules. So they weren't perfect per se, but they were um just created their own rules. That's not something that I maybe AI will eventually do that, but it's a

it's just a I I think you're right, but I would even extend it beyond just artists. Like I I do think that for music and art and other things that people are still going to have those jobs and they're still going to people are going to value human work in those fields more than AI or robot work. And

I agree with that. I I think a lot of other white collar jobs and other types of jobs will also like even even manual labor jobs will will still have a place for the artisans. They'll have a place for the real masters. I mean, I you know, I went to Europe once and I looked through a museum of some of the furniture that was in this castle and I was just blown away by it because I I I saw these desks with all this inlaid stuff and all these complicated things in it and I was like I could I couldn't believe it. Like I was like that not only took many years to build just that one desk, but it took somebody probably 30 years to get good enough to be able to build a desk like that. like that that was someone's life work in that desk and and no machine can produce that. I'm sorry. I mean, you you might be able to duplicate it if you really, you know, had some laser 3D thing to try and replicate it, but it

probably still wouldn't be perfect. And it wouldn't have that artistic flare of like this is a unique desk with this unique artistic thing. And so I I think the same is probably going to be true to some extent within all human interactions. like you already had the experience of saying, "Oh, oh great, I'm talking to some computer right now on the phone, right?" Like you hate it. You you want to say, "How do I get to a human?" And I think that's probably going to be true with a lot of things. And and people have already started complaining about like this email looks like it's AI generated or this news article looks like it's AI generated.

Like it's different and we can tell the difference. And I think both of them are going to coexist. You're not going to say we won't see any more AI anymore, but I do think people are going to value that humanness and and that difference that humans put into things because that's that creative piece of it, that intuitive piece of it where you connect with another person and people do value that and I think it's still going to have a greater value than something that was produced by AI or something that was produced by a machine.

I I see both sides of that as the Libra again because I think our prompting is going to have to get better because I feel like you could tell AI to carve that desk and to make it look just slightly imperfect. Um, and also my my huge gripe for the last 10 years I've just been like on this tear that we're not making artistic things anymore. Like everything's like a dying skill. Like look at all of the All right. I love Bill PTE. Amazing. But he just built something right near me where Netflix is going. Netflix is moving to my town, you guys. Like I live in a very tiny town.

Netflix is moving here. And um but everything that's being built is so uncreative. And then I'm thinking, well, maybe AI can make it creative. If nobody has the architectural wherewithal to make things pretty and interesting and that we'd want to see longlasting, like you go buy like an old house somewhere that's got like detail and we, you know, we're like, "Wow, that's so beautiful." But then we build all these like institutional looking buildings with no thought. I'm thinking AI could do it cheaper and put creativity into it and make some interesting things all around, including furniture, including whatever, but it's going to be about the prompting. So, I feel like we need a lot of like QVC style hosts to prompt uh AI, people that can talk about, you know, this water bottle at nauseium and describe it for an hour to make the most amazing things.

Yeah. Can I say something about that? Go ahead. Go ahead. Oh yeah, sorry Owen. You know, I wanted to because um when we talk about art um and AI and people, I think that we are underestimating the power of uh the fusion of humans with AI. This weekend what I saw it was people that have never drawn anything in their lives that have they thought that they had no talent at all and and and and they were making amazing images that uh on their first time and there were a bunch of people that were like oh I I I don't have time to try it. But a lot of people tried it and um and when when you start and they were so happy that finally they were able to express what they wanted to express, right? And and the same thing is going to is going to happen with construction too because it's monopolized by architects, right? And designers and all this stuff, right? So if you have an idea, they tell you to

just, you know, f off, you know, they go like, "Hey, you're not the expert. I'm gonna tell you how to draw this." If everybody can start drawing their dream house and their dream ideas and start sharing with everybody, that's how Trump got Kim Jong-un to to, you know, when he showed him a video of like what it could be in North Korea, right, Owen? I mean, I think I'm not wrong on that. I think he did that. And um and that's what that's what is that's what this does. You know, all these people that creating all these memes and and videos and and movies.

Yeah. they are just spreading the the this spark of creativity and everybody. So yeah.

Yeah. No, I I think there's a lot of power in that. I've certainly seen it myself using AI and I and I think it does get a lot messier in terms of how to look at it when you say it's a combination of a person using AI because with the right person with the right expertise you can do some really powerful things with it and and you're still putting that human judgment and intuition and you know like Scott talks about how it can't you know it can't write a DER cartoon right and

and I think that that's because of a couple things. One is it it can't know when something's funny the way a person can. So, you know, you could have it infinitely generate Dilbert cartoons for forever, but it would never know which one was funny. But a person like Scott will almost instantly know if some idea is funny, right? And that's very different between that. And I think, you know, it to me it's it's that there there are certain things that are kind of uniquely human to have intuition and to have that feeling and that embodiment of I can just instantly know when I hear an idea whether it's funny or not. And most people, maybe at least twothirds of us, according to Scott, have a sense of humor and we can do that. Um, but the other part of it is that whenever Scott sits down to write a Dilbert, it's got to be some joke that no one's ever told before, right? He can't just do the same

Dilbert over and over again. AI could copy his Dilbert real easily, but if you ask it to say, "Go create a joke that no one's ever told before." I I I would defy you to try and get AI to do that. It It won't It won't be able to because

Another difference between AI and us is that AI doesn't have any friends to share memes to. Okay,

that's the difference. that all the memes that I share and and uh uh most of us my bear too he's amazing with those memes is is is same things that we as soon as we see it and and that happens to all of you think about it right as soon as you see a meme you think of the person that you're going to send it to

you start imagining the smile on that uh on your husband your wife your friend oh my god I cannot wait until I send this to that person and all the memes that I was posting on locals for example it was because all you guys were my friends I didn't have anybody else to send memes to uh if I had a bunch of other friends, I would be sending them to them. But you guys were my um uh my circle of friends, right? My my thread on my phone. I see a good meme and I share it right away. I don't even think about it. I don't like, oh, let me think. I'm gonna No, I'm just going to let it go. So AI doesn't have that, you know, like that. So we need to tell it, we need to become his friend so it knows he wants to please us, you know.

I just want to interject one thing sir. Um Sergio as as typical uh had a gold nugget in there and he said um AI democratizes things for us. I've got a great example of this. A buddy of mine in an unnamed state uh lives on a lake in a subdivision and he teaches ski shooting um on in his backyard. He's right on the lake. And uh apparently the homeowners association complained and sent him a cease and desist letter and he took that letter and interacted with uh his favorite LLM and lo and behold came back with multiple um rulings. Um, remember our law is based on precedent and uh fired off a a lovely uh email um letter back to the homeowners and um that solved his problem. He didn't have to actually get a lawyer. I'm not saying LLM should replace your lawyer and what have you, but my point is um there are a lot of things where you know intuitively or maybe you've got a little bit of information but boy you're not trained

in that domain. you know, this just uh relaxes a lot of those those barriers uh in a in a huge huge way. I've personally used it for cooking and for um my own health uh journey and goals and so forth. It's just really really um uh a big a big deal I think.

Oh yeah. Immense. Um do you guys want to switch topics? I I love Oh, wait. You guys, let's do like a little assignment again today. You guys practice your AI memeing. Tag Sergio again. He loves it and we all see it. So, why don't we try today to create um something that we think is like a desirable home or building and keep adding and improving upon it with your AI. So, like let it give you what you said, see how your prompts made it, and then say, "Okay, like I like that, but change this and do that." And post your let's say homes. Let's say like it could be crazy fantasy home like on another planet if you want, but let's try to see what AI can come up with via our prompts to make a cool ass house that you might want to live in wherever you want. Okay, that's the challenge for today. Tag Sergio. Okay. And by the way, the the ladies are winning here.

I've seen the all the memes. I've seen there's a little bit of a edge of women not caring about what anybody says. There's a lot of guys that are going like, um, you know, I'll do that later. But a lot of women are taking action. So guys start

get rid of get rid of that embarrassment and just do it. Yeah. So I I can run through some headlines real quickly. I know we only have a few more minutes to the hour, but um,

talk about Don Lemon. I I don't think I caught that one. So, if you want to talk about Don Lemon, then go ahead.

Okay. So, real quick, I have to bring it to the from forefront. Uh Don Lemon, he just wants attention. And I mean, I guess Scott would say that's one of the main things to be persuasive. And he got it yesterday. he with uh protesters, anti-ICE protesters went into a Minnesota church in St. Paul, Minnesota. While they're worshiping, um they didn't care that there was worship. They didn't care. It's not a public place. and he actually made comments um and and interviewed the and was trying to interview the uh believe the the pastor there. But the and and going back to Serge's memes, he made a great meme of that. Um but the heinous it was a heinous act because he was saying, "Oh, the constitution allows us to protest wherever we wherever we want.

There's nothing about there being um some kind of indication that you can't protest here or there's no time to protest now because there's worship. And he's basically wrong legally. And that's why for me as an attorney, I was like, "No, that's not true." And Megan Kelly made a post um under the United States Constitution through the Supreme Court decisions there's a time, place, and manner where you can protest. But on top of that, the US Constitution only applies in regards to protesting in public uh places.

Yeah. And really just protesting government, right? And and they also have the separation of church and state, which really means the government needs to stay out of all the the religious stuff. So the assistant attorney general Har Dylan um and uh the attorney general Pam Bondi are trying to do something about it under what under the law of the face act which punishes intentional acts to try to stop worship. Um it is uh in extremely um it has become extremely how would I say Minnesota has become extremely uh on fire. Um it's all it's all not organic and it's the winter um of love in a way and they're just trying to keep it going. But I think it's going to backfire because Christian people aren't going to take very well. That's just my opinion.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think we're going to see more protests. We're going to see more interactions between them and ICE. And I'm hoping it doesn't get violent, but we do see the stories coming up about it in terms of deploying National Guard. Um Trump apparently is getting about 1500 troops ready to go back into Minnesota and um you know so we may see more conflict there but I I think um I'm hoping it'll stay peaceful and then it'll die down and um we'll see less of this over time. But you know it's certainly still seems like it's blowing up there and then around the world we have Iran blowing up. We have Ukraine still blowing up. We have uh maybe some progress in Gaza where they're putting out this peace board and starting phase two and Trump just said that he wants a billion dollars from everybody that's going to be having a permanent seat on the Gaza peace board.

So he's monetizing it which I thought was funny. Um but maybe that's meant to help rebuild Gaza and you know make it all work. So I'm sure it's not for him, it's just for the cause. But um it does seem like he's using his creative mind to say how can we fund this? Um and I'm hoping we don't have another military conflict in Iran, but I would have to say based on the headlines I'm seeing that it looks like it we may. Um it looks like every all the signs are pointing to maybe something happening soon there. So um got a lot of things going on around the world, but I think we do have some good news here at home.

Um there's a story about border crossings being at historic lows again. So that seems to be continuing. Um housing payments apparently have dropped $260 a month under Trump. So housing is becoming more affordable. And so I think there's plenty of good news we can point to as well.

So thank you for some good news. I want to ask Marcela on a legal um is what law did Don Lemon break any law? Did he break a law that we can, you know, jail him?

Um, I mean to I want to they they are trying to investigate him and um that's what was said and they're going to look into charges under the face act. He would fall not just him but the anti-ICE pro protesters would fall under that. Um, under the face act, you would have um any anything that intentionally interrupts like a a place um like this of worship. And

what is the face act with an intention to with an intention to of threat and um what I saw there I mean it was sickening the fact that uh there was children there and he kept saying I mean I guess he this is what makes this is what why we're talking about him today right so he got attention it's just to me there's there's ways Right. And he was saying about the children leaving. He's like, "Oh, they deserve it or they they uh they need this in order to wake up or something like that and they they need to see this." And it it wasn't. Um so yeah, he's being investigated. I don't know if um a grand jury will uh find charges. Um and then at the end of the day when when this this is questioned um as a lawyer you're like well a jury would have to find him guilty and so would so would this anti-ICE protest but they do need to look into who is paying for this who is behind this and these are the people that need to be in jail.

Yeah. And I think uh Scott would probably inject somewhere in here that Don Lemon might enjoy going to prison if you know what I mean.

Oh my gosh, you guys. It's the top of the hour. Um and I like to just keep it, you know, under an hour like Scott like to try to do an hour. So, I'm going to respect that and also Shelly and um all of you guys. So, we'll uh we'll be back tomorrow. Owen, do you have closing thoughts for everybody?

No, I just I appreciate everyone coming here and participating in this. And if other people have reframes they want to share or, you know, other people that have been a big part of the community for a long time, you know, reach out to Erica or me or somebody and we may be able to get some other voices on here as well. Um, because it's all this is all volunteer, you know, we're just doing this because we want to keep it going. And um I I know every not everyone can do it every day, but if there is a day that you can do it, maybe you can step up and be part of this too. So I appreciate everyone's help and um let's just keep it all going. Thanks everyone.

And even if you guys just want to come for the simultaneous sip and then you got a jet but you want to have a sip with everybody, come have the sip and go on to your day. Like again, we'll never we'll never be Scott, but we all have that in common. how much we love, respect, miss, and appreciate him and his wisdom. But man, there's so much of it out there. So, if you want to commune with, you know, Scott, Scott's friends and have a sip, please join us Monday through Friday right here. And um Shellyley, thank you so much for um providing this stream to us every day.

You you make it possible. And Marcela, Sergio, and Kev, thank you so much. Owen, love you guys so much and we'll see you guys tomorrow and do your memes for Sergio of a Dreamhouse. Okay.

All right. Thanks everyone. Thanks everyone. Have a wonderful week. Gonna leave the stream.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Episode 3075 - The Scott Adams School 01/19/26"?

Scott Adams (Guest), Erica (Guest), Kevin Summers (Guest), Owen Gregorian (Guest), Marcela (Guest), Sergio Below (Guest).

What is "Episode 3075 - The Scott Adams School 01/19/26" about?

In this session, Scott Adams engages the audience with a mix of humor and insight as he prepares for a discussion that intertwines politics, artificial intelligence, and social media. He humorously addresses common online shopping frustrations while inviting viewers to participate in a refreshing "simultaneous sip" to enhance their morning experience.

What is mentioned in this Real Coffee with Scott Adams episode?

12 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Artificial Intelligence, Simultaneous Sip, Owen Gregorian, Kevin Summers, Locals, Face Act. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Episode 3075 - The Scott Adams School 01/19/26"?

The episode runs 1 h 2 min; the transcript is about 10,609 words in 113 timestamped sections.

More from Real Coffee with Scott Adams

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.