Name: Jordan Peterson on the Illusion of Success
Uploaded: 2023-10-09T13:54:20.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jordan Peterson on the Illusion of Success' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-09. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jordan Peterson on the Illusion of Success' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-09. Transcript available.

Yeah, it's interesting also, too, that you would think you would find happiness
in, not goal scoring, but, like, I noticed in my own life in the past year,
since I spoke to you last, you know, I've probably had a decent amount of
success, and life kind of got a little bit more exciting with doing some
touring, and, you know, was more financially rewarding.
And I always, but I found that I was really, not unhappy, I was grateful, but I
was, I guess I was a little unhappy.
I think I always felt like when I got to a certain level of success, that the
questions that I had inside of my heart, or inside of my brain, or the
discomfort, I felt like everything would go away, like life would hand me some,
like, magic answer book that had a couple decent answers in it, you know.
You mean, like, beyond order?
Yeah, yes, yes, like, beyond order.
Like, there would be, okay, you did it, you know, like, somebody comes out from
behind the door, and they're like, all right, bucko, you know, like, finally,
Oz comes out, you know, and.
Right.
But it.
And says, good job.
But that never happens.
No, no, well, you know, that's, that's another indication of, of the perverseness
of human beings, to some degree.
So, look, there are, there are two kinds of reward, technically speaking.
There's satisfaction, and there's incentive reward.
And satisfaction is the reward that you were sort of dreaming about.
It's, it's the, so you're hungry, and you have Thanksgiving dinner, and you're
no longer hungry.
That's a reward, that's satiation, it's satisfying, it stops you from being
hungry.
Well, you think, well, I'm hungry, I don't want to be hungry anymore, but
hunger did give you something to do.
And there was the anticipation of the meal, you know.
And sometimes on Thanksgiving Day, people will not eat all day, just to heighten
the anticipation, right?
Because that, that increases the incentive reward.
And incentive reward is what you experience when you're moving towards a
desired goal, rather than when you attain it.
And we do have this vision, it's a vision of utopia, and probably is what
motivates utopian thinking,
motivates ideas of the promised land, which is milk and honey.
That if we just turn the corner and get to here, everything will be all right.
Yeah.
And that, that isn't the case.
We're, we're wired up so that the pursuit is often more engaging than the, than
the acquisition.
Yeah, I wish I'd have realized that though, as I was trying to acquire, I didn't,
there were, it's like, it's such a tough thing.
I missed some of the moments of the pursuit because I was so focused on, I
think, on this end goal that would make any of the uncomfort or all,
it would make all the pain of the, the sacrifice, it would make it all worth it,
kind of.
Right, right, right.
Well, that, that, there is some utility in that sort of dream too, because it,
having that image of the future also motivates you to pursue it.
But the problem with that kind of thinking, I suppose too, is that this is, Dostoevsky
raised this in notes from underground.
It's a great short book, and he, if it's short, I'll give it a chance, man.
If it's a great book, it's a great book, it's really, it's a real punch, that
book.
And it contains a very powerful critique of the idea of utopia and Dostoevsky's,
and he was talking about the sort of precursors to the Russian communists and
their notion.
If you just gave everybody enough material resources, then all of a sudden the
problems of the world would disappear.
And Dostoevsky, first of all, points out that that's nonsense because, for
reasons that are similar to the ones that you laid out.
And also that even if it was true, people are so perverse, in a sense, we're
such peculiar creatures that we would smash our happiness all to pieces out of
sheer boredom, just so something new and exciting could happen so that we would
have something to do again.
And I read that and I thought, wow, that's exactly right.
It's that it's this searching that's part of our essential nature is not only
insatiable, but it's actually desirable because, well, what do you do?
You shake hands with awes and then you die?
It's like, done, I'm over.
Well, you don't because you want to get on to the next great adventure.
And so it is, you know, the Sermon on the Mount seems to address this to me,
this fundamental problem, and my reading of it anyways, is something like,
align yourself with the highest good that you're capable of imagining.
And so for all intents and purposes, that's God, the sum total of all that's
good, and you live in relationship to that.
And then concentrate on the moment.
And see, it seems to me that way you get to have your cake and eat it too,
right?
Because you're aiming at something that's like the promised land, this proverbial
utopia.
It, by definition, is the best possible thing.
And maybe your view of that's going to change as you mature, but it doesn't
matter.
That's still going to orient you.
And having that in mind, so now you're pointing in the right direction, you can
attend very carefully to the details of the pursuit.
And that's, I think that's...
That's the best we can do?
Well, I certainly haven't...
Well, I did come from the Sermon on the Mount, so hypothetically it's a
reliable source, you know.
But I think it makes a tremendous amount of sense psychologically.
Yeah.
I mean, why would you not aim at the best that you could conceptualize if you
were going to aim?
Right.
And having done that, well, then it is reasonable to concentrate on the present.
And then you can immerse yourself in the present and enjoy it.
Thank you.