What this covers
Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist and tenured professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL_f53ZEJxp8TtlOkHwMV9Q
All Dr. Peterson’s self-improvement writing programs at https://www.understandmyself.com/ 20% off for Rogan listeners. Code: ROGAN
Source description (no synthesized summary yet).
Peterson argues that individual responsibility, hierarchical competition based on competence, and voluntary adoption of meaningful challenge are prerequisites for both personal flourishing and societal health, and that postmodern identity politics based on resentment threatens these foundations.
- Taking responsibility for oneself, family, and community generates meaning and prevents descent into malevolence or resentment
- Hierarchies based on competence and reciprocity are natural, necessary, and beneficial; the problem is tyranny within hierarchies, not hierarchies themselves
- Identity politics and postmodern denial of the autonomous individual undermine free speech, dialogue, and the possibility of genuine social progress
This asset isn't compiled yet
You're seeing its claims, ranked. Compile it to build the argument threads, weight them, and check each claim against your library — the full view.
Whether personality differences between men and women are biological or social is complicated because the relationship between biology and culture is itself culturally dependent; in societies where people are starving, economic factors mediate biological differences like malnutrition.
“the answer to that is tricky because how much something is social and how much it is biological actually depends on the social circumstances so well here's an example if you have a society where no one has enough to eat and people are starving then there's a huge cultural effect on people's intelligence let's say that's mediated by economic factors even though it's got a biological origin right that's the starvation so the relationship between biology and culture is actually partly culturally dependent so it makes it complicated”
The fundamental difference between traditional free speech defense (as negotiation between autonomous individuals producing mutual benefit) and postmodern opposition to free speech is that postmodernists don't believe in autonomous individuals or dialogue—they believe in power struggles between hierarchy-groups.
“there's the classical defense of free speech so the classical defense of free speech is that it's better for both of us if we're able to exchange our opinions because i have the opportunity to learn from you and you have the opportunity to learn from me and you have the opportunity to learn from your own mistakes and social feedback and so do i and negotiation beats war okay so that's kind of the classical now but that's predicated on some assumptions and those are you're an autonomous being you're capable of formulating an opinion that that's actually unique to you and that in dialogue we can mutually modify each other's unique opinions in a way that produces a mutually harmonious and beneficial outcome”
Even though the average man and woman differ on agreeableness, with women being more agreeable, if you took a random man and woman and bet that the woman was more aggressive, you'd be wrong 60% of the time; there's substantial overlap, but selection takes place at extremes where differences become decisive.
“so with agreeableness for example if you took the average man if you took a typical man and a typical woman out of the population just randomly and you had to bet that the woman was more aggressive than the man you'd be wrong 60 percent of the time so there's quite a bit of overlap right because you'd be right 40 percent of the time but the problem is is that a lot of selection takes place at the extremes maybe you're only concerned about disagreeable people when they become violent and maybe it's only the one in 50 most disagreeable person who's violent and they're all men”
There are two kinds of equality to pursue: equality of opportunity (where people with different talents are given positions to manifest those talents) and equality of outcome (where every job at every level is stratified to match population percentages, ensuring 50% women, 13% minorities, etc. in exact proportion).
“okay so imagine first of all that there's two kinds of equality that you might pursue one would be equality of opportunity and so that would mean that um you know there's there's wide range of talent across people regardless of their type whatever that might be sex gender race ethnicity there's there's talent distributed everywhere”
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is where adults talk to children at slightly above their comprehension level, pulling them forward; this is also the zone of meaning in adult life—right at the edge of competence and chaos.
“which i believe is where the phrase the zone came from and so in the zone of proximal development this is what adults do with children little kids that are learning to talk adults automatically talk to little children who are learning to talk at a level that slightly exceeds their current vocabulary they do that without even knowing it and that puts those kids in the zone right because if you just talk baby talk to kids then all they learn is baby talk and if you just talk like an adult then they don't understand a word you're saying so you'll find this happy medium in between where the kid mostly understands what you're talking about and that you're pulling them forward so you put them in the zone and that's a meaningful zone”
Peterson figured out that intersectionality—calculating victim status across multiple group identities—creates a logical trap: everyone is in at least one group where they're a victimizer, making everyone guilty and the system one where everyone is both victim and criminal.
“and this is really worth thinking about man so the intersectional claim is that you know each person has more than one group identity so fundamentally if you're going to calculate their victim status then you have to calculate it across all the different groups that they might be victims in and so you know maybe uh oh who knows a native american is one form of victim in this line of thinking but a native american victim is a female is is like twice the victim or however you would calculate that mathematically”
The narrative that men have massive advantages and male privilege is built on a zero-sum belief that if there are winners there must be losers, but this is 'complete bloody nonsense' because every person who puts themselves together ethically is a net positive with no downside to the community.
“that's the funny thing well that's it and that's part of that narrative that well if there's winners there there has to be losers and the reason that there are losers is because there's winners and that's complete bloody nonsense because as far as i'm concerned that and i really believe this is that every single person who sets out to put themselves together ethically is a net positive to everyone around them there's no downside to that”
In Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands), the so-called 'gender paradox' has emerged: the more egalitarian and gender-equal a society becomes, the greater the differences between men and women in their occupational choices and expressed preferences, which has 'put their tails in a knot.'
“so i was there i went to stockholm twice in oslo twice in helsinki twice and and copenhagen once in the last month and i spent quite a bit of a lot of interviews um and a lot of discussion about the so-called gender paradox that's a very interesting thing because it's really put their tails in and not in scandinavia”
Games like hockey and soccer are simultaneously competitive and cooperative, and Piaget showed this structure is essential for human development and cannot be separated without destroying the benefit of the game.
“so let's take it apart it's like well is hockey a competitive game or a cooperative game okay well so first of all everyone's trying to do the same thing that's cooperative...everyone plays their position that's cooperative they all follow the same rules that's cooperative right so so there's competition but it's nested inside a fundamental structure of cooperation”
We are evolved for reciprocity and cooperative relationships, not for power dominance, and power as a strategy for success is inferior to competence plus genuine reciprocity, as evidenced by primate hierarchies where brute force alone fails when coalition partners defect.
“we are evolved for reciprocity we really are we're not evolved for power right right this is this is what's so deeply wrong about the damn post-modernists and the marxist is that that isn't what human first of all power is not the best strategy to attain success it's simply not”
When you put yourself in a new situation, new genes code for new proteins and build new neural structures and nervous system structures; stress from situational challenges unlocks genetic potential and builds new parts of you, similar to what happens when you work out.
“if you put yourself in a new situation then new genes code for new proteins and build new neural structures and new nervous system structures same thing happens to some degree when you work out right because your your muscles are responding to the load but your nervous system does that too”
Twitter's 280-character limit facilitates angry impulsive responding more easily than alternative platforms like Facebook, which promotes verbose rambling first-drafts; Twitter forces you to be succinct but also tends toward harsh emotional expression.
“the character limit um facilitates angry impulsive responding so you're trying to get people to respond to you but the alternative is facebook where you have these long posts that are just rambling first drafts”
There's a difference between prejudice and discrimination: discrimination involves setting standards relative to the task at hand (e.g., intelligence for a job), which is appropriate, while prejudice involves arbitrary judgments about group membership.
“there's a big difference between prejudices and discrimination i think those two get conflated yes there is a big difference between prejudice and discrimination right and hopefully discrimination has to do with uh setting your standards in relationship to the task at hand yes right that that's what you'd hoped for that that's the appropriate form right of discrimination right that's that's like intelligence sure everything everything isn't the same about everything all the time so you discriminate you rank order things”
People who critique competition while enjoying products created by intensely competitive corporations exhibit performative contradiction; they should have gratitude for the competition that created their iPhones and laptops.
“they're denying the benefits of competition and the fact that they reap those very benefits of competition by enjoying the products that are created by these corporations yes well it's very hypocritical and well that's for sure that's that's called a performative contradiction it's like well i'd like to i like to complain about left-wing issues on my iphone right exactly you know it's like well yeah fair enough but you know you should have a little gratitude for the fact that you've got your iphone to complain about and those and those organizations those uh corporations are unbelievably competitive and they fall apart almost instantly when that competition starts start stops being an issue”
Humans are designed to overcome the natural world, which is filled with predators, prey, and competition; overcoming adversity is so fundamentally human that it should be brought back to the center of conversation about how we organize society.
“we're designed to overcome the natural world the natural world is filled with that the natural world is filled with things trying to eat things this is just everywhere you look that's all you observe you observe predators and prey and animals eating vegetables and that's it and i think that this this concept of overcoming adversity is so it's so human it's so a part of what we are that i want to bring it back”
Disagreeable people are more likely to be incarcerated, which is the best predictor of incarceration (though not a very good one); men are incarcerated at about a 10:1 ratio compared to women and are more likely to be antisocial and conduct disordered.
“with agreeableness that's also borne out by the clinical literature in some sense the medical literature sociomedical literature because disagreeable people are more likely to be incarcerated because it's the best predictor of being incarcerated even though it's not a very good predictor and men are incarcerated at about a ten to one rate compared to women and are more likely to be antisocial and conduct disordered”
Even an elite female Muay Thai champion like Miriam Nakamoto (eight-time world champion) shouldn't fight men because she could beat some of them, but a really tough man can beat all women, and this is just reality that people don't want to hear.
“i had miriam nakamoto on yesterday she's a good friend of mine she's an eight-time world muay thai champion and she's a monster but she doesn't fight against men and she shouldn't fight against men although she probably could beat a bunch of them right it's not she shouldn't have to and she's tough women a tough woman can beat a variety of men yes but a really tough man can beat all women yes right”
When entering a job out of college, you encounter people further ahead in the race because they're better at what they do or have more experience; some may be crooked and sneaky, but the fundamental game is agreed-upon competition where hierarchies are natural.
“if you're entering into a job straight out of college you leave university and now you're entering into you know your first year in the workplace it's it's just a natural fact of life that there's going to be people that are further ahead in this race than you yeah because they're better at what they do some of them because they have more experience some of them are more crooked and sneaky too possible as well because but it's the it's the agreeing everyone agreeing that this is a game yeah this is some sort of a competition yes”
The people who are good at solving problems get financial incentive because we're greedy and desperate—we want them to keep solving problems, so we reward them to encourage their continued effort.
“the people who solve those problems get financial incentive to solve those problems yes and they do that and they do that because the rest of us are greedy and desperate it's like you know we want the people who are good at solving the problems to keep solving them and so what we're trying to do is to reward them so that they'll keep doing it even if it's difficult to give them some status extraordinarily if necessary”
Peterson wrote the forward to a new edition of Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago' and discovered why the Russian Revolution went wrong so rapidly: the Bolsheviks used group identity and economic status to determine whether someone was an enemy of the state, not individual guilt or innocence.
“one of the things i wrote the um forward for the new version of of solzhenitsyn's gulag archipelago the abridged version it came out november 1st and i was trying to figure out why the russian revolution went wrong so rapidly because it went wrong right from the beginning”
Superb athletes like Wayne Gretzky are admired not just for skill but for fair play; the best players play the game properly and earn broad respect, showing that playing by the rules and with integrity is compatible with dominance.
“the imagine the best thing that you can see at a sports event is someone who does something purely in the spirit of fair play and in a manner that's unbelievably excellent wayne gretzky was very good at that right because he was an excellent excellent sportsman and also unbelievably skilled and so people loved him and that's that's perfect because he was he was a player who played the game like it was more important to play it properly than to win and he was on the top of his game at the same time right”
During Nazi Germany, people who opposed it likely felt helpless, and it's hard to take the jump early because you're not sure where it's going; the longer you wait to resist tyranny, the higher the price you pay.
“during that time the people that were not in support of it felt helpless...i don't necessarily know if it's a lack of discipline or just complete fear and paralysis it's a fear for sure i mean no knowledge of how to deal with it disbelief”
Dostoevsky, in 'Notes from Underground' (1860s), criticized the idea of socialist utopia by arguing that humans are peculiar creatures who, if given a utopia with nothing to do but eat cake and continue the species, would smash it to bits just so something unexpected and troublesome would happen.
“dostoevsky knew this because when he wrote notes from underground which i would highly recommend to everyone who's listening it's a great book and it's a very short book he he criticized socialist utopia back in like 1860 way before it became the sort of widespread idea that that it is now and what dostoevsky said was that while human beings are these very peculiar creatures and if you gave us a utopia so that we had nothing to do but eat cake and busy ourselves with the continuation of the species that was that was his line um that the first thing we do is smash it all to bits just so that something unexpected and and and troublesome would happen”
Negative comments on social media hit harder than positive ones because they're still potent as in real life, but positive comments don't seem as real or as emotionally sustaining as positive in-person feedback.
“the negative comments that are part of social media seem to be just as potent as negative comments in real life but the positive comments don't seem to be as positive as the positive comments in real life yes like and i don't they don't seem as real and i guess that's partly because we're wired you know to be more sensitive to threat and to negative emotion because well because we're we can be hurt”
People often fail to live fulfilled lives not because they are dumb or bad, but because they have fallen into destructive behavioral patterns influenced by their environment, peer groups, or substances; finding new positive patterns can rapidly shift them from despair to energy.
“there's a lot of good people out there that live shitty lives and they don't do it because they're they're just dumb or because they're bad they do it because they've been influenced by certain patterns they've fallen into patterns”
Peterson questions where the patriarchal tyranny exists if most nurses are female and organize in hierarchies—is it still patriarchal tyranny if women are at the top, or is the term 'patriarchal' only meaningful if men are present?
“so i keep wondering well where the hell is this patriarchal tyranny like is it massage therapists is it nurses like most nurses are female if you get females organized into a hierarchy which you do in nursing is that all of a sudden is that part of the patriarchal tyranny or is it the fact that now all those people are women does that mean it's no longer well it's still a hierarchy is it no longer a tyranny is it no longer patriarchal like is it patriarchal only because there's men in it or is it patriarchal because it's a hierarchy all this stuff is so incoherent that it just all you have to do is think about it and and that hasn't been done to any great degree and it just dissolves in your hands”
Women have been oppressed historically, but this wasn't the only thing that happened; the entire history should be viewed as men and women laboring under virtually impossible conditions for most of human evolution, doing their best to cooperate and compete for security.
“so i would say that the entire history of i mean you look at it this way is that we oppress ourselves personally with our own malevolence and stupidity and then we're all oppressed by the kind of the crushing hand of the social world that molds us in one way and not in another and then of course nature is doing her best all the time to give birth to us but also to kill us and take us out and so there's this endless like there's this endless what would you call it vulnerability that characterizes our existence psychologically and socially and naturally and and i would say 150 years ago that was even more intense than it was now you know because the typical person in the west lived on less than a dollar a day before 1895”
This is exactly what happened in Russia: the Bolsheviks put compassionate idealists and ruthlessly resentful people head-to-head, and the resentful ones were more vicious in their eradication, so the idealists' heads were 'first on the chopping block.'
“that's exactly what happened in russia and then you think well wait a minute there are a bunch of people who are really compassionate about the poor it's like let's say just for the sake of argument that at the beginning of the russian revolution the 20 of the communists were really concerned about the poor maybe we could say 50 just to be arbitrary about it the other 50 were jealous and resentful about anyone who anything more than they did all right now that you put those two groups head to head in a battle for four years and see who's standing at the end even if you are one of those utopians who actually cares for the dispossessed when the revolution comes you can bloody well be sure that your head's going to be first on the chopping block because the people who are motivated by hate are going to be a lot more vicious”
Everything isn't the same about everything, so you must discriminate and rank order things; to pursue anything of value requires hierarchies, and there's no way around this, making the radical left anti-hierarchy position 'so foolhardy that it's difficult to take seriously.'
“and you need to rank order them even to pursue things that are valuable this is one of the problems with the people who are so anti-hierarchy like the like the radical leftists well there shouldn't be hierarchies it's like okay then why do something well that that argument is so foolhardy that it's it's difficult to take seriously but you do have to engage in it and i think when you engage in it it's really fascinating to watch uh because there's it's like you're playing a game of chess with someone only has a couple of pieces they have this strong move that they do but you've got all these other pieces and you're like well let's just keep this game going until this comes this logical conclusion which is checkmate”
Good sportsmanship means competing within rules while interacting with your competitors (the other team) in a way that enables the entire league to flourish; calling this 'competitive' and opposing it as if competition is purely zero-sum is stupidly unidimensional analysis.
“and also you want to interact with your your enemies let's say the other team in a way that's indicative of good sportsmanship so that the entire league can flourish and to think of that as competitive is absolutely it's so um there's no other way of describing it than stupid that's what it is it's a it's a it's an ignorant unidimensional analysis it's put forward by someone who's reflexively opposed to anything that smacks of competition”
Part of the reason totalitarian horrors of the 20th century manifested was because average people didn't take on proper responsibility, shut their eyes when they should have been open, and failed to say things they knew they should have said, which supported horrible systems.
“one of the things i learned about studying totalitarian systems whether they were on the right or the left was that part of the reason that the totalitarian horrors of the 20th century manifested themselves was because average people didn't take on the proper responsibility they shut their eyes when their eyes should have been open even though they knew it and they didn't said things they knew they shouldn't have done and said and that was what supported those horrible systems”
Rogan argues that if Brock Lesnar transitioned to a woman and wore a dress, he would beat every woman who ever lived due to his bone structure, the years of testosterone influence on his body, and his competitive mind.
“i've always said you if you gave brock lesnar a sex change and put him in a dress he's going to run through every woman that's ever lived in the history of women there's not a single woman that's going to be able to deal with that bone structure and that that mind that guy has had with testosterone pumping through it for 39 years”
Anonymity on social media enables people to manifest their worst selves, especially if they're resentful and angry, but the only benefit of anonymity is the opportunity to explore controversial ideas without fear of social bullying.
“the anonymity is also problematic because it certainly enables people to allow their worst to manifest themselves especially if they're resentful and angry so the only benefit that i can see to anonymity is it gives you the opportunity to explore controversial ideas without bullying true true true i think it's used correctly well that's it i think that that's true i think there's there's some utility”
One of the best predictors of economic development in developing countries is their attitude toward equal rights for women; the more a country is predisposed to female rights, the more likely they are to develop economically, suggesting causality or correlation with openness to new ideas and transformation.
“if you look around the world you see that one of the best predictors of of the probability of economic development in developing countries is their attitude is the attitude in those countries towards equal rights for women and it looks causal the more positively the country is predisposed to female rights the more likely they are to develop economically and maybe that's because that indicates that they're open to new ideas or something like that or open to transformation”
As egalitarianism increases, fewer women go into STEM fields, not more; this directly contradicts the expectation that removing barriers would increase women's STEM participation, and instead shows that when opportunity equalizes, interest-based segregation increases.
“because the other thing that's happened is that the more egalitarian the society the fewer women go into the stem fields the fewer that's interesting”
Human beings are neurologically unable to manage the constant stream of information available through phones and social media; no one can truly manage it, and teenagers are especially vulnerable to the addictive and comparative nature of these technologies.
“well and they are mastering the technology that's the other thing it's not surprising that they're trying to adapt to it but but it's happening at a really early age because if you're giving your kid a phone you're not putting any parental filters on it you're allowing that kid to have full access to google and the world wide web and they're just gonna if you give your kid a phone and you don't think they'll know how to use the phone better than you within a year you're a fool”
Peterson has received mostly positive YouTube comments and coverage despite negative press; he doesn't know what it would be like to be in a world where the majority of responses were against him, but has seen guests affected by negative comments to the point they can't sleep.
“i don't know what the hell it would be like to be in a world where that was reversed where you know the majority of people are against you i've seen jesus i've seen it happen with guests that i've had on the show where i've met them afterwards and you see a physical effect on them you see them beating down like jesus christ those comments are so mean i'm like you can't read those you can't read those and you see how it's affecting them like they can't sleep they really oh yeah it [ __ ] with them they'll stay up for nights”
There's hypocrisy in criticizing the 'one percent' (top 1% economically) while not recognizing that making $32,000 per year puts you in the global one percent, making you a victimizer by your own framework.
“if you make more than 32 000 a year that you're part of the one percent she said well what do you mean i said well that's the worldwide statistic it's like so you're part of the one percent well she didn't first of all she said well i don't believe that statistic and i thought well that's fine you can go look it up yourself but what was so interesting was that for her that characterization the one percent victimizers was only relevant within the confines of her national border right right as soon as i said well no it's all you have to do is expand that out a little bit and you're the problem and not the solution then that was that was completely untenable for her”
In Abraham's story (biblical), he hung around his father's tent until age 80 failing to launch; God gets sick of him 'playing video games in his basement' and commands him out into the world, where he immediately encounters famine, tyranny, and people trying to take his wife.
“so in the in the biblical stories in abrahamic stories for example abraham basically hangs around his dad's tent till he's like 80. he's one of these guys that fails to launch you know in a big way and god eventually gets sick and tired of him like you know playing video games in his basement and says get the hell out there into the world and and have a life”
Capitalists and capitalism enthusiasts often don't understand that capitalism is not a simple good-vs-evil story between good people wanting to help versus ruthless people exploiting; it's a complex system where managers are more stressed by their responsibilities than workers are oppressed by them.
“well that isn't even how capitalism doesn't even work like that you know that managers are more stressed by the people they manage than the people they manage are stressed by their managers i mean then think about it right just all you have to think about that for a minute”
Scientists tested whether personality differences between men and women are primarily social by ranking countries by egalitarianism and looking at magnitude of differences: if differences were primarily social, differences would decrease in more egalitarian societies; the opposite happened—differences increased in more egalitarian and richer societies.
“here's how the scientists decided to address this they thought well why don't we rank order countries by how egalitarian their social policies are which you can do with a fair degree of reliability you know you put the countries where women are second-class citizens at the bottom and you put the scandinavian countries at the top you can get good reliability across raiders for how you'd rate those countries and then look at the magnitude of the differences between men and women by the egalitarian social policies and so then you'll find out and here's the hypothesis if the differences between men and women are primary primarily social then as cultures become more egalitarian men and women will become more alike that's not what happened the opposite happened”
When competition stops being constraining (when organizations become monopolistic), they fall apart almost instantly because the competition was what kept them functioning, not what distorted them.
“those organizations those uh corporations are unbelievably competitive and they fall apart almost instantly when that competition starts start stops being an issue because then there's no constraint on the behavior of the behavior of the system”
People who advocate for outcome equality focus on sex and race, but cognitive ability is a much better predictor of long-term life success than either sex or race; it's unclear that sex and race are even the canonical groups to focus on.
“so they want to concentrate on the significant ones men and women and race well yeah but who's to say those are the significant ones that's the other thing it isn't even obvious that they are because i would say that like a more significant one is cognitive ability because that's a way bigger predictor of long-term life success than sex or race so i don't even think that we've necessarily identified the canonical groups we've just decided that gender and race are the maybe they're the most obvious right”
Working-class Americans are more irritated with the intellectual/cognitive elite than with the wealthy elite, because they believe they could become wealthy but don't believe they could become part of the cognitive elite, and the cognitive elite (liberal left-leaning media and academia) are patronizing and elitist toward typical working-class people.
“most working-class people let's say are far more irritated with the intellectual elite than they are with the wealthy elite and that's because they think they could become wealthy and they could but they don't think they could become part of the intellectual elite and it isn't obvious to me that the intellectual elite so those would be the liberal left-leaning types that dominate the media and academia are particularly um positive in their in their attitudes towards the typical working-class person i think they're prejudiced and elitist i do believe that that's the case”
Psychologists have reached consensus on the Big Five personality traits (extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness) across cultures; women experience more negative emotion (neuroticism) and are more agreeable than men, and these differences are mirrored in psychiatric and medical literature.
“so there's extroversion neuroticism agreeableness openness and conscientiousness and they look fairly stable cross-culturally...inextroverted people are sociable and happy and neurotic people experience a fair bit of negative emotion so that's the positive and negative emotion dimensions agreeable people are maternal and disagreeable people are competitive”
Peterson and Rogan discuss an idea that enforced equality of outcome for transgender athletes could be achieved by biological classification (XY vs XX chromosomes) rather than gender identity, allowing people to choose their gender identity but not allowing XY individuals to compete in physical combat with XX individuals.
“instead of calling people men and women when referring to like because there's there's this very disturbing in my opinion trend of transgender women entering into these competitions now with women who are biologically female yeah and dominating them yeah and that instead of calling people men and women let's dispense with you yeah you can be a man or a woman yeah you can be a man or woman that's your choice and you can change it whenever you want so you're a man or a woman that and that's your choice but we're going to have a new rule which is that if you have an x y chromosome so you're an x y person or an x x person then if you're an x y person you don't get to engage in physical combat with an xy person yes men or one xxx doesn't matter yes yeah how would that be if you're xy you can't engage in physical combat with x that's right xyz cannot hit x x's how's that”
Young people do have a genuine messianic impulse to make the world a better place, which is psychologically healthy and a precursor to taking on responsibility and establishing families, but this impulse can be pathologized into resentment toward those who have more.
“young people have a messianic impulse that's another thing that was documented by piaget that there's a stage you know in late adolescence where you want to make the world a better place”
The transition from childhood to adulthood 40-50 years ago without the internet meant one had refuge from social conflict at home, but modern teenagers have no refuge because bullying and social conflict follow them through social media 24/7.
“like you're this sort of sad suffering creature that's capable of a fair bit of malevolence but if you find out that you can carry a heavy load and take care of yourself and have a little left over for some other people then you can wake up at three in the morning and think well man i could be worse and this is not a political perspective this is a positive constructive way of looking at how to navigate the world”
The fundamental reason for pursuing individual responsibility and putting one's life together is not political but a response to genuine uncontrollable circumstances (suffering, death, adversity) that require meaning-making as a psychological survival mechanism.
“but i think personally this is important and collectively it's very important that i mean i just think it's i think what you wrote 12 rules to life we need rules we need rules to be able to figure out how to navigate this thing that's complicated”
Radical activists are motivated primarily by a quick route to moral virtue: it's difficult to put yourself together ethically in private embarrassing ways, but activism gives instant public moral status with no effort.
“well i think that it's a quick route to moral virtue you know like it's actually really hard to put yourself together and you have to do that in ways that you can't trump it you know because most of the things that are wrong with you are kind of low what would you call it second rate and embarrassing you're all your stupid little habits and your proclivity to procrastinate and all the things that you're minorly ashamed of and then you have to work on those slowly because you the probability that you're going to be able to fix them quickly is low and you can't really brag about it because it's so embarrassing just to admit that they exist to begin with that you can hardly brag about it and it's sort of painstaking private work and you you don't get a lot of social you don't get a lot of quick social status for it”
The new logic extending into sexual preferences is that if you don't want to date an overweight person, you're a 'sizeist'; there's an emerging pattern of characterizing all preferences as illegitimate prejudices rather than reasonable discrimination.
“here's one that's going up lately if you don't want to date a trans woman then you're some sort of a bigot that if you're a man even if you want a family you know you remember in in in uh brave new world in huxley's book it was considered immoral to reject anyone's sexual advances because it was prejudicial oh yes and the thing is it is prejudicial that's the thing now but but to see so that makes the question even more interesting because the the question is at what point do you have the right to your prejudices right”
Young men face particular challenges because if the fundamental presupposition is that culture is patriarchal tyranny and history is oppression of women by men, then masculine behavior is automatically characterized as tyrannical power rather than positive development.
“and you know the issue with men i think with young men and this is one of the things i've been trying to address is that if your fundamental presupposition is that our culture is a patriarchal tyranny which is an appalling presupposition along with the idea that the best way of looking at history is that it it was the oppression the continual oppression of women by men which is also something that i regard as absolutely reprehensible doctrine then okay so it's a patriarchal tyranny but but that in their defense that did exist there has been continual oppression of women it's just not the only thing that's happened”
People who have failed at competition or who are insecure often find successful people distasteful, especially those who earned their success through genuine effort and overcoming adversity, because those examples contradict the narrative that the game is rigged.
“it's a logical it's a logical conclusion to all these other things that have been happening because that is where the rubber hits the road it's like you know when when i when i well i've seen this in in debates that i've had publicly where people you know talk about prejudice”
Peterson's book, especially chapter one on hierarchies, has been criticized by people who read it poorly, with the accusation that he supports power as the right way to be; in fact, he argues that human hierarchies are complex and that winning in hierarchies requires competence and reciprocity, not raw power.
“my book has been criticized by people who've read it very poorly especially chapter one when i talk about hierarchies that i'm somehow supporting the idea that power in a hierarchy is the right way to be and that's there's absolutely nothing and what i've written that suggests that at all like i'm suggesting that human hierarchies are very complex and that the way that you win in a human hierarchy is by being competent and reciprocal”
The identity politics game is based fundamentally on resentment and dangerous because it devolves people back into tribal antagonism, making it so important that Peterson talks about it the way he does.
“that whole game that whole identity politics game that is dangerous beyond belief and it's it's predicated fundamentally on resentment and and the desire to devolve people back into a tribal antagonism”
As you move toward a goal, you encounter things that frighten you—you may need to learn new skills, become a better speaker/writer/thinker, or be better to people around you—and all clinical data indicates that the opposite of safe spaces is to voluntarily confront things you are avoiding.
“as you move towards the goal there are certain things that that that you have to accomplish that frighten you you know maybe you have to learn to be a better speaker a better writer a better thinker you have to be better to people around you or you have to learn some new skills and you're afraid of that whatever because it's going to stretch you”
The Pareto distribution of wealth (unequal distribution with power-law characteristics) exists across all known societies whether capitalist, socialist, or communist, proving that wealth inequality is not a feature of capitalism specifically but of all human hierarchical organization.
“if you look at the pareto distribution so if that's the distribution of wealth you'll find that in every society that we know of whether it's capitalist or socialist or communist for that matter a small proportion of the people have a disproportionate amount of the resources”
A small vocal minority misrepresents Peterson's ideas and creates a false narrative that is then echoed by the broader periphery without genuine critical thinking.
“by a small select group of people it's a very small but vocal minority that wants to misrepresent you yeah and then there's the periphery that listen to this small group and then they sort of parrot those words out without any real thinking about what you've said”
Dreams are particularly useful in therapy with highly rational people because they bypass rationalization—dreams never lie even though they're hard to interpret, and they provide a statement from nature that a hyperrational person cannot deny or explain away.
“sometimes it's useful to turn to their dreams if if they dream because one of the things that's cool about dreams is that even though they're hard to interpret they never lie and so sometimes you can take someone who's hyper rational they'll have a dream and they'll tell you the dream and then you can work through an interpretation which is a tricky business and the dream will tell them something and there's just no denying it it's like well it's a statement from nature”
If you're not paying attention to news and social media, you're psychologically better off; most news is not important in the long term, and the novelty-driven news cycle exacerbates depression and anxiety in vulnerable people.
“and i often recommended to my clinical clients who were depressed and anxious that they shield themselves from the news as much as possible”
Solzhenitsyn comments that under the Bolshevik system, not just the bourgeoisie enemies were killed, but their children and grandchildren as well—a systemic extension of punishment based on group membership.
“and solzhenitsyn comments not just the end of them but the end of their children and their grandchildren as well”
The Chinese government's social credit system (mentioned in Black Mirror) is a reasonably probable near-future technology that rates and tracks all behavior of citizens, raising serious concerns about surveillance and control.
“the only one i watched was the one that outlined what the chinese are now doing to their own people”
Autonomous combat robots developed by DARPA (like EATER) that eat biological material as fuel represent an extraordinarily dangerous development that violates Geneva Conventions and raises existential concerns.
“a darpa one called the eater robot e-a-t-r it operates on it uses as a fuel it uses biological material as fuel which means if you're kidding you're kidding no i'm not kidding”
In the GQ interview, the woman challenged Peterson on neural biology and serotonin; Peterson notes that hardly any psychologists understand that serotonin is associated with hierarchies and dominance—a fact known for 30 years—making her challenge unfounded.
“i was looking into it because this that came up before that it it breaks the geneva conventions if they actually eat dead bodies you can't do that yeah whatever it's like once we have a robot war dude that's even conventions out the window yeah no i couldn't agree with you more and i think personally this is important and collectively it's very important that i mean i just think it's i think what you wrote 12 rules to life we need rules”
Men are more willing to take risks, work longer hours, move for career advancement, and work in dangerous occupations, and these behavioral differences account for significant portions of income gaps between men and women.
“men are more likely to work longer hours and if you work 10 percent longer hours you make 40 percent more money...men are more likely to work outside they're more likely to work in dangerous businesses they're more likely to run full-time businesses rather than part-time businesses”
When people admire someone, they spontaneously admire those who take care of themselves, then their family, then their community, in expanding circles of responsibility, showing that humans naturally value expanding responsibility.
“if you think about the people you admire for example you spontaneously admire people and that's a manifestation of the instinct to imitate and people are very imitative you don't admire people who don't take care of themselves like unless there's something wrong with you you at least want an admirable person to be accountable for themself and then if they've got something left over so they can be accountable for their family well then that's a net plus”
Many young people support socialism and oppose competition because they lack skill and experience in competition and therefore imagine there must be a better way without competitive structures.
“there's an unbelievable amount of people who are going to be able to fix them quickly is low and you can't really brag about it because it's so embarrassing just to admit that they exist to begin with that you can hardly brag about it and it's sort of painstaking private work and you don't get a lot of social you don't get a lot of quick social status for it it's effortful embarrassing humbling and difficult and then you can do something like be an activist”
Aggressive or competitive boys can be socialized to channel their aggressiveness into games and competition within social structures, making it beneficial rather than harmful, and teaching them that bullying weaker people makes them losers.
“you want to take um kids let's say boys the more competitive and aggressive boys just for this example you want to take them and you want to socialize them intensely so that they take that aggressive competitive impulse and they're capable of manifesting it inside a social structure like a game so that it's of benefit to everyone”
Hierarchies become tyrannical through the tendency to ossify and the accumulation of unearned advantages by those in power, which is an eternal problem requiring constant attention from those concerned with justice, but this does not mean hierarchies themselves are fundamentally flawed or predicated on power.
“on the right you have the opposite danger which is well you know you advance because of your competence but then that can ossify and so you want to hang on to that that position even though you know your competence no longer justifies it you start to use the advantages of your position to accrue benefits for yourself that you did not earn”
The radical postmodernists deny the existence of the autonomous individual; you're not a person with ideas, just a nexus of economic and social forces, entirely socially constructed.
“the radical post-modernist types they deny even that there's such a thing as an autonomous individual in any way you're just you're just the nexus of economic forces economic and social forces you're entirely socially constructed there's no you”
The antidote to meaninglessness, suffering, and malevolence rooted in resentment and bitterness is to take on more responsibility for oneself and others; this resonates deeply with audiences because it is aspirational rather than purely duty-based.
“one of the things that strikes the audience is silent constantly because i'm always listening to them to see you know when when the attention is maximally focused is whenever i point out to people that the antidote to the meaninglessness of their life and the suffering and the malevolence that they might be displaying because they're resentful and bitter about how things have turned out the antidote to that is to take on more responsibility for themselves and for other people and that that's aspirational which is kind of cool”
When you work 10% longer hours than competitors, your earnings increase by approximately 40% due to non-linear returns on that additional effort, making this a valuable career strategy.
“if you work 10 percent longer hours you make 40 percent more money there's a non-linear return on that”
Media outlets are exaggerating political extremes to attract attention as their financial models deteriorate and journalistic standards decline, making society appear more polarized than it actually is.
“the mainstream media is under such assault by the up and coming media forms including people like you that as their financial models deteriorate and as their journalistic standards take a hit and as they lose their fact checkers and their time to be careful with the stories they concentrate more on exaggerating the extremes to attract attention”
If you want to be admirable and worth imitating, aim to be the most reliable person at someone's funeral—this provides a concrete challenge that teaches you how to respond to genuine tragedy and develop character.
“i think it's like weight training there's a certain amount where it becomes detrimental where you've over trained your body's breaking down there's a certain amount of problems you have in your life that are extremely beneficial yeah because through going through these problems sorting them out you you build your spirit you you build your character”
As you take on heavier and heavier loads, more of your potential gets informed and unlocked because you're doing more difficult things; if you could look at the darkest, most brutal aspects of suffering and malevolence and stare directly at them, that would turn you on maximally.
“let's assume that that scales as you take on heavier and heavier loads that more and more of you you get more and more informed because you're doing more and more difficult things but more and more of you gets unlocked and so then what that would imply is that if you got to the point where you could look at the darkest thing so that would be the abyss right that would be the deepest abyss if you could look at the harshest things like the most brutal parts of the suffering of the world and the malevolence of people and society if you could look that look at that straight and and directly that that would turn you on maximally”
An ancient myth that Peterson has figured out is the archetypal idea of rescuing your father from the belly of the whale or monster, which represents confronting and integrating ancestral potential by taking on increasingly heavy loads and challenges.
“so there's this old idea you know that you have to rescue your father from the belly of the whale right from some monster that's deep in the abyss you see that pinocchio for example but it's a very common idea and i figured out why that is”
Most Americans (the 'relatively silent majority') consider themselves moderate and report their personal lives are going well, even while thinking others are not doing well, suggesting polarization is less severe than media portrayal.
“an article published in the atlantic monthly about a month ago showing that...the radical leftists and the radical right-wingers are only about five percent of the population on each side and that mo the vast majority of americans consider themselves something approximating the relatively silent majority”
If you are selfish and awake, you must think carefully about your future self—tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, ten years from now, and old age—so because you are self-conscious and aware of time, you are actually a community unto yourself, and true selfishness means serving your future self, not just the impulsive present self.
“if you were selfish and awake because you have to work to take care of yourself and what you want say in this moment but then there's you tomorrow and there's you next week and there's you next month the next year and 10 years from now and when you're old so because you're self-conscious and because you're aware of the future you're actually a community unto yourself”
Peterson uses the example of plumbers: success in plumbing hierarchy is based on competence (can you fix a pipe?) and reciprocity (do you treat customers and employees fairly?), not power; this is typical of western enterprises that survive because they're predicated on competence.
“i use examples of plumbers in my lectures more recently because it's rather comical it's like well on what basis do you hire a plumber so imagine that there's a hierarchy of plumbers ranging from very successful to very unsuccessful okay and you say well what makes plumbers successful well the power theory would would would imply that there are roving bands of mafioso plumbers who like come pounding on your door at three in the morning and tell you that if you don't get their particular posse to fix your pipes leaking or not that they're gonna come and burn down your house”
As soon as people let themselves solve problems socially with others, they cooperate and compete relative to the solution, instantly producing hierarchy because some people are better at solving problems than others, and putting the best problem-solvers in charge benefits everyone.
“so we could look at it this way as soon as you let's assume people have problems everybody can agree on that and then we could assume that people would like solutions to those problems so we could agree on that then we could say well then if you implement a solution socially so with other people then you're going to cooperate and compete in relationship to the solution and that's instantly going to produce a hierarchy because no matter what the problem is some people are going to be better at solving it than others and then if you have any sense you put the people who are good at solving it at the forefront because then they solve it faster and cheaper and better and then everybody benefits but then you get a hierarchy”
One consequence of hierarchies is that people collect at the bottom; you have to be concerned about those people and set up multiple hierarchies so people with different talents can play different games and find success in different domains.
“so we've got to stay awake to that and so we've got to criticize the hierarchies not the fact of hierarchy but the structure of hierarchy so they stay honest and then we also have to be careful because when you do set up a hierarchy then a lot of people collect at the bottom that's the necessary consequence of a few people collecting at the top and so then you have to be concerned about those people and so there's a variety of things that you would do to express that concern is one you might want to have a lot of hierarchies so that people have different talents could play different games”
The antidote to moral relativism is that there are real problems, hierarchical organizations can offer real solutions, and there's a real sense of meaning that tells you when you're in the right place doing the right thing.
“that's the antidote to moral relativism okay so the first thing is is that there are real problems and and hierarchical organizations can offer real solutions socially and personally so you can confront the problems courageously and you can solve them so that's real it ameliorates suffering and limits malevolence and so there's nothing morally relative about that the second is that sense of meaning that we discussed that's not some philosophical second order consequence of thinking it's way deeper than that that sense of meaning tells you when you're vygotsky this russian psychologist called that the zone of proximal development”
The Tao is 'the way' and represents the pathway between chaos and order; this is what meaning is—you can feel it when you're at that balance point in meaningful engagement.
“and so you can feel the operation of that zone in your own life that's what the taoists are on about because they say well you dow is the way right and that's the pathway between chaos and order that's meaning and you can feel that in your life when you're deeply engaged in something like we have deeply engaging conversations okay which is part of the reason that we keep having them”
If you don't get your act together and let yourself slide, something 'really not good' moves in to fill the space you leave empty; people living dissolute lives not only lack positive meaning but also experience something 'hellish' taking their place.
“if you don't get your act together and you let yourself slide then what kind of moves in to take the place of what you could have been is something that's really not good at all so it's not only that if you're living a like a dissolute life that you're not aiming at anything positive and so you don't have any real meaning and you're subsumed by anxiety and all of that hopelessness but something kind of hellish moves in there too”
Setting out a path toward a valued goal provides positive emotion and meaning; the better the goal, the more full and rich your experience when pursuing it, making it necessary to develop a vision and flesh yourself out philosophically to aim at the highest goal you can manage.
“if you set out a path towards a goal which you want to do because you need a goal and you need a path because that provides you with positive emotion right so you set up something as valuable so that implies a hierarchy you set up something as valuable you decide that you're going to do that instead of other things so that's kind of a sacrifice because you're sacrificing everything else to pursue that and then you experience a fair bit of positive emotion and meaning as you watch yourself move towards the goal”
The right way of conceptualizing the Abraham story is that it's a call to adventure, not a path to utopia where everyone is happy; what you want is the greatest adventure you could have, which involves real challenge and difficulty.
“what i realized when i was doing the lectures on it last year was that that was a call to adventure you know and and that the right way of conceptualizing what we're talking about isn't that utopia would be a place where everyone was happy because because and i think because of what you just laid out is you need that polarity you know and people need a load and we need adversity and we need difficulty we need all of that um so maybe what you want is an adventure the greatest adventure that you could have and that would involve you know something to push against it would involve real challenge”
In Christian mythology, Christ takes suffering of the world unto himself because the psychological interpretation is that your job is to accept the world's suffering as your responsibility—past, present, and future—and that you are the potential solution to suffering, not a victim of it.
“so in in the christian story for example you have christ does two things that are messianic one is takes the suffering of the world unto himself because that's a weird idea okay so what does that mean let's think about it psychologically well maybe it means that well that's your job is the world's full of suffering and you should accept that as your responsibility past present and future you're supposed to do something about that as much as you can about it”
Trying to achieve outcome equality is impossible because there is no limit to the number of ways you can categorize people into groups—you can stratify by sex, race, gender, attractiveness, intelligence, temperament, height, age, socioeconomic background, and many more—so there's no possible way to regulate a society so that every single group is equally represented in every occupation at every level.
“now first thing to say about that is that's impossible and the reason it's impossible is because there's no limit to the number of ways that you can categorize people into groups so you know you you know about sex and ethnicity and race maybe those are the obvious ones but now you have gender and then you have ethnicity and you know and then there's attractiveness and intelligence and temperament and and height and age and and socioeconomic background and i mean let's say there's 20 but there's a lot more than that there's no possible way that you could ever regulate a society so tightly that every single one of those groups was equally represented in every single one of those occupations at every single level of the hierarchy”
Free speech is the only mechanism for working out the eternal problem of hierarchies and dispossession because these problems are so fluid in their details that you need linguistic capacity and awareness to address them properly.
“and that's for me that's also the the fundamental reason for the necessity of free speech is because that's the only way to discuss this it is the only it's the only way of working it out”
There's a right to association in intimate matters (who you interact with sexually and choose as friends) that is fundamental; you cannot have preferences without having prejudices, so the question becomes: under what circumstances are prejudices justifiable?
“we seem to cling to um and i would say rightly is that we're allowed to be prejudiced when it comes to who we interact with sexually and then and who we choose as friends and that's right that's the right to association and you know you say but only up to a certain point well that's this is the because this this new logic is kind of leaking into sexual preferences now like if you have a problem with someone being overweight yeah then you're you're a sizes or something yeah like what is that well the thing is is that you can't have preferences without having prejudices of course right”
In meaningful conversation, you're not paying attention to time, you're not conscious of your surroundings, you're just engaged and slightly transformed because information is flowing between you and there's continual little death and rebirth.
“and we're not paying attention to how the clock is ticking or how time is flowing or even to the fact that we're doing what we're doing we're just having a conversation and it's meaningful it's engaged it keeps our eyes focused and our senses um concentrated on what's happening and the reason for that is that there's enough information flowing between us so that we're being slightly transformed as a consequence of the discussion right so we're both comfortable we trust each other we trust that the conversation is aimed at something that's of mutual benefit”
The left's proper role is to speak for the unjustly dispossessed, and the right's role is to stabilize and maintain functional hierarchies while encouraging beneficial competition; the political dialogue is a continual discussion between these positions.
“so you could say well that's the left's place is to speak for the speak on behalf of the unjustly dispossessed and the right's position is to stabilize and maintain functional hierarchies and encourage competition and encourage competition that's of benefit to the whole yes and and to the individuals within the competition and then the political dialogue is a continual discussion between the left and the right saying well you know this hierarchy is getting a little too steep and a little too rigid”
The rise of new media platforms and public lecture circuits attended by thousands of people represents an unprecedented opportunity for direct information exchange and a corrective shift away from traditional gatekeeping institutions.
“one of the things that new media has provided is these new avenues for information to get out there and these new things like these lecture circuits when was the last time you saw public lecture circuits that were popular to the tune of thousands and thousands of people”
Peterson previously accepted the accusation that his male-dominated audience was problematic because he reflexively assumed that if he was being accused of something, there must be something wrong with it; he has since rejected this guilt by realizing there is nothing wrong with encouraging men toward responsibility and virtue.
“one of the things that i have made a mistake about in the past that i just realized in the last couple of weeks was that you know people often accuse me and they say well most of the people that listen to you are men and i think and that you know when you're accused like that your automatic response is well you wouldn't be accused if you weren't doing something wrong”
If men are more interested in things than women by a substantial margin, then way more of them will become engineers, and this would naturally drive occupational segregation in STEM fields without requiring any discrimination.
“so if men are more interested in things which they are by a substantial margin then way more of them are going to be engineers wouldn't that possibly support this idea that an enforced model of of of equality would allow people to be themselves more i mean this is almost what you're saying well that's because that is that is the optimistic viewpoint”
Hypercompetence combined with the capacity for genuine reciprocity is the killer combination that makes someone unstoppable, as these two capacities reinforce each other and generate both individual success and collective benefit.
“there's the the killer combination hyper competence and the capacity for genuine reciprocity that makes you unstoppable”
The Horus/Seth myth from Egyptian religion represents the archetypal encounter with malevolence where the hero (Horus) loses an eye because encountering evil causes damage, even when voluntarily undertaken, but this damage is the price of confronting and transcending malevolence.
“the egyptian god horus for example who's the i and the falcon the thing that can see and pay attention when he encounters his evil uncle seth who's the precursor of satan he loses an eye because it's no joke to encounter malevolence you know it can really shake you”
The rule 'Don't let your kids do anything that makes you dislike them' (from Peterson's book) is meant to help children become desirable to others and capable of interacting properly, which opens the world to them.
“kind of wrote about that in 12 rules for life when you know because part of my advice in rule 5 was not to let your kids do anything that makes you dislike them and that's part of the idea there is that you know if you're really on the side of your children you help them develop in a manner that makes them eminently desirable to other children and capable of interacting properly with adults because then the whole world opens up to them”
Rogan argues that to truly appreciate love you must understand and feel hate; to truly appreciate camaraderie you must feel loneliness; adversity and negative experience are necessary parts of being a person.
“in order to really truly learn about yourself and about life you have to overcome adversity you have to experience things and i firmly believe that in order to truly appreciate love you have to understand and really have felt hate and to really appreciate camaraderie you have to feel loneliness”
Peterson believes people are capable of confronting tragedy and malevolence psychologically and practically and fixing them; despite how tragic life is, our spirit has the capacity to confront and address it, and we could make things much better.
“i believe that despite how tragic life is and how malevolent things are that fundamentally our spirit let's say has the capacity to to confront that and to fix it like psychologically to confront it courageously to be able to bear up under that if you do it voluntarily but also to address it not only to deal with it psychologically but to deal with it practically and that we could make things much better”
When you serve yourself properly, it meshes harmoniously with serving your family properly and serving your community properly; all three align rather than conflict.
“if you serve yourself properly there's no difference between that serving your family properly and serving your community properly those things all mesh in a kind of a harmonious manner”
It's unhealthy to be only retweeting positive things people say about you because it's a form of ego stroking and commerce where you say something positive, they retweet you, creating a mutually reinforcing cycle.
“there's something distasteful if you go to someone's page and they just retweet all the positive things that people say to them because then it has this sort of reinforcing site like people know that i say something really positive to jordan he's going to retweet me there are some people that they engage in this sort of commerce you know like you say something positive they retweet you and you know it's it's a little it's a little too strokey right”
The danger of only reacting to positive social media praise is ego inflation, which is a bad idea, especially for someone like Peterson who became famous late in life as a culturally significant lightning rod without the typical path to fame.
“the danger of that is that possibility of of that ego inflation that you really want to avoid because that's a bad idea yes that's a very bad idea you've done a wonderful job of avoiding those waters because this is a new this for a guy who's in his 50s who becomes famous out of nowhere and doesn't just become fame just just become famous but becomes this culturally significant sort of lightning rod”
Successful people, whether in business or academia, experience genuine intrinsic pleasure in mentoring young people and helping them develop, and this is a primary source of meaning for them rather than pure profit or status.
“one of the things i've learned about people who've run successful organizations whether they're academic or business um is that they really love mentoring young people it's a it's an intrinsic pleasure”
Activists who try to shut down speakers like Christina Hoff Summers or Janice Fiamengo (polite, well-read, reasonable feminists) are immature and acting out; this shouldn't be tolerated in the way it currently is.
“hey so i figured something out that i thought i'd tell you about this took me like 30 years to figure out and i figured it out on this tour so there's this old idea you know that you have to rescue your father from the belly of the whale right from some monster that's deep in the abyss you see that pinocchio for example but it's a very common idea and i figured out why that is”
Young men in their 20s should deliberately push themselves past their limits of tolerance in work, socialization, and other areas to discover where their actual boundaries are, so they can calibrate to sustainable optimal challenge for the long term.
“i would say that you should push yourself beyond your limits of tolerance in your 20s to find out where it is how much can you work how disciplined can you become”
The kingdom of God described in the New Testament as 'spread across the earth but men do not see it' refers to moments when people are deeply engaged and everything is working out right, which they fail to notice as extraordinary until later.
“there's this line in the new testament christ says the kingdom of god is spread across the earth but men do not see it and that's what it refers to is that you you you wander into paradise now and then when you're engaged and you're deeply engaged in something but you don't notice it”
The audiences at Peterson's lectures are overwhelmingly positive; attendees report life-changing impacts including starting businesses, improving relationships, quitting addictions, and achieving personal goals, with one man stopping an addiction and getting nine friends to quit as well.
“they all of them all of them well many of them you know they just say hi and they're polite and we have a photograph and all that but lots of them have stories about how they've been putting their lives together”
Peterson is frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted—so much so that Eric Weinstein called him 'the Roscoe Gracie of the intellectual dark web,' consistently engaging hostile opponents with superior technique and strategy, launching an 'empire' of ideas.
“i've said this many times and i just had a conversation with my good friend steve vanello the other day where he brought it up independently he said i think jordan peterson is the most misunderstood and misinterpreted guy in the world...one of the things that eric weinstein and i had said about you is that you're essentially the the hoist gracie of the intellectual dark web”
Peterson has become increasingly impatient in some interviews, particularly with the GQ interviewer, which he didn't find pleasant; he now screens out the most 'egregious' combative interviews though he recognizes conflict is necessary.
“i went to the to the hotel room in baltimore you know and i went out of my way to do it and um she was hostile to me the second i walked into the room really yes and and that really kind of put me off”
The GQ interviewer had prepared with animus and palpable hostility from the beginning, telling Peterson through actions that she viewed him as an enemy; other hostile journalists have at least maintained professional civility before the interview started.
“she was animus possessed from a union perspective that's the right way of thinking about it one of the ways of thinking about that is that she had a chip on her shoulder in relationship to me so she'd already formulated who i was in her imagination and she it was also maybe a form of projection so like i was the embodiment of all the things that she found distasteful”
Swedish Foreign Minister told Peterson to 'crawl back under the rock that you came from' when he presented this science about gender differences; Peterson views this as unjust personal attack rather than reasoned argument for a high-ranking official.
“so funny because the swedish foreign minister told me to go croc climb back under the rock that i came out from under when i was in scandinavia because i was describing this these this this science i read that but i'm not exactly sure why”
The most relentless attacks Peterson has faced in his entire life have been for saying he thinks transgender women shouldn't compete in mixed martial arts; he suggested they compete in chess or non-physical domains where they should be recognized as women.
“it's the one thing that i was attacked on more than anything in my entire life is saying that i think it's ridiculous to have a trans woman compete against women and mixed martial arts i was like you want to have them do it in chess you want to have them do it in something that's non-physical sure you want them to be a woman yes okay you want them to be recognized as a woman you're sure but as soon as you're compelling people like here's one that's going up lately if you don't want to date a trans woman then you're some sort of a bigot”
A coach described selecting athletes by watching what happens when they score: if they celebrate egoistically alone it's a bad sign; if the whole team mobs them it indicates they'll benefit the long-term team success.
“i talked to a coach a while back and he said one of the things he did to select athletes was to watch what happened when they scored a goal and if they were celebrating on their own you know in sort of an egotistical way then that wasn't such a good sign but if they scored a goal or a touchdown or whatever it was and their entire team came in and mobbed them and then like lifted them up on their shoulders and they thought that guy is an athlete because not only can he put the goal put the ball in the net but he does it in a way that benefits the entire team”
Smart intelligent people who are disordered in personality are particularly difficult clients because their intelligence allows them to rationalize away their problems and construct elaborate justifications for their dysfunctional behavior, making therapeutic progress much harder.
“i've seen this in my clients you know frequently like if i have a particularly smart client who's particularly disordered in their personality that that's just that's often just that's so difficult it's almost unimaginable because there's so much rationalizing”
Peterson has received no negative incidents at any of his 250,000-person tour events in seven months, with audiences dressing formally and behaving perfectly, receiving only one heckler, which contradicts narratives about his dangerous followers.
“i've talked to 250 000 people in in in seven months we haven't had one incident that was negative in that entire time not one nothing no misbehavior on anyone's part we had one heckler who was obviously not a fan of mine given that he was a heckler that was it”
Peterson has maintained his speaking tour schedule visiting 100 cities since January while keeping energy and enthusiasm high, with 1,500 to 2,000 people attending each lecture and 150 people meeting him afterward, representing a staggering opportunity he refuses to take for granted.
“tammy and i have been to 100 cities since january so everywhere you know”
Maidenhood should not be made by politicians, is harmful, and leads to people becoming dissatisfied in their work and relationships and developing patterns that make their lives worse and more chaotic.
“when you have an opportunity that's completely preposterous you're a fool to take it for granted”