An evening. Welcome to an evening how many of you are at one of our events for the first time. Welcome. Glad to hear. We have your email address. In touch once or twice a week. Hopefully youll stay with us. Thank you to our partners who hosted partners in the state. Going to run through some Upcoming Events in the will get into the program. On sunday we have a voices series is a terrific firsttime novelist talking with us. That takes place at the Santa Monica Public Library and it is free. Theres no excuse not to give you a chance to come listen to their work. Monday night, Chris Matthews come store stage. He has a new book out, he will be interviewed by Frank Buckley who is one of the morning host on ktla. On tuesday night tim oreilly is with us. His book titled what is the future wide set of tests. Then, nancy weiner next thursday and a conductor, dan lather, and others. Tina brown is next friday, and jennifer lewis, and we Just Announced her first event for 2018. Tonight were hosting scott adams. A cartoonist from the comic strip at gilbert. Hes the author of several bestsellers. Hes cofounder of. Com and work for 16 years as a technology for major bank and then when he started the column interviewing him tonight is terrance who has been in her stage several times. He helps organizations tell Better Stories in a long time host favorite show of my called freeform. Now he will host a podcast at harvard. Scott adams new book is win big leaf. Persuasion in the world amir to today. Election outcome was predicted by a lot of people differently but not scott adams. He has a lot to share about that. And the world of persuasion. Please welcome terrence and scott. [applause] i want to start by saying that on november 11, 3 days after the election, i wrote of trump and his he spoke to people who wanted to be seen and heard. His facts were wrong, his story was right. Now, i have a Major Political candidate talking to me any such a standard a politician. He is a macho, successful billionaire and tv star. He understands and respects me. And you want to base your whole campaign on running him down telling him hes not good enough to be president. Were of i heard that before . Several minutes into the first debate with hillary i turned to my wife and say were in trouble. From that night forward i knew trump selection was a serious possibility. Scott adams looking at his campaign from a highly informed perspective so much more. He calls trump the most persuasive human being and predicted his win with 90 certain a week after other said he had a 2 chance. His latest book, when bigley, he looks at the strategies trump uses and strategies that you can use anywhere. I want to the bio, but i like listeners to get a feel for the people not just the book and ideas. Tell us about how you see your path. You mean the path to khartoum . While youre working in corporations and then go into cartooning and in some ways theres hypnotism. All give you the password version. At the age of six i saw my first peanuts cartoon book. I couldnt read yet but i said finally a reason to learn to read. I decided to become a famous cartoonist because i saw other jobs, farmer, millman, and i said those didnt look nearly as good. Around the age of 11 you become rational. Is a well theres a one charles scholz, i dont like my odds. So put that on hold and work for a big bank and a number of jobs in a number of things. When my career stalled at those places in enough time went back into the real reason at the bank, my boss come in one day there is an opening for a promotion that i was the obvious person for it. An open, and she said, the Companies Getting a lot of heat because we have node diversity and management. And until further notice we cannot promote you because your white male. They settle how long a second last . Well how long did it take us to get to this point. Its like when to be fast. So i started looking for another job. I went to the phone company and work there and got on the fast track and was recognized as an upper, my boss called me up and said the local newspaper just discovered we have node diversity and senior management. We cannot promote you i dont know when that will change. Know youre thinking, youre thinking that was a bad day for me but youre wrong. Because the day find out that your effort and reward are not related to real case up your schedule so suddenly i had time for working onsite projects and i thought well i wonder if i could have a comic published somewhere he said its a tough business but here some tips so they were immediately rejected and i gave up. A year later jack said he was cleaning his office he was just writing to make sure that i have given up. Thats an important moment and i have given up. So i decided to raise my sites have become a famous cartoonist and created gilbert. Was he originally multipanel . Host what i sent it to magazines i would single panel that a lot of cartoonist you four panels is also famed economist and im thinking thats one third harder than password working for the phone company and that it was 2015 and im in front of my tv like everyone else seen this orange ball theory who has everybody and i started to notice because i have a background as a hypnotist but i was when was that, high school, junior high. Early 20s. I was influenced by my mother who is hypnotized to give birth to my younger sister and my mother reported that she was awake and aware new snow painkillers and had a painless delivery. And i thought well what is the superpower. It turns out maybe one in five people could have that effect. I thought i had to learn what it is and add it to my the resources. Sabina trained hypnotist, people might not make a connection of how that might lead to your interpretation the way that you saw donald trump sumac on top of hypnosis like that communicating everything from listening and writing and also my work my comic is designed with persuasion mechanics, i could talk about that later. When i saw trump come i didnt know that much about him. I noticed he was using like weapons grade persuasion. Essentially bringing a flamethrower to stick fight. His hands are like this but nothing in them. As if you dont study it, you dont notice it. Looks random and crazy and you say he could never get elected and unsaved all my god, thats perfect. It was so consistent. My analysis was on the narrative story thats what i look for and i just thought everything is a story. Let me talk a little bit mo more, im sure theres some people here because of that, how do you write gilbert . I used to do it every day with paper and pencil and then it works until the post office figured out who i was which was a common problem in those days. Now i do it can on a computer screen and stylus. Probably reduce my workload by 70 . The drawings are simple, the words and exchanges are the juice, do you write them out, the writing in the drawing. So i could write a sentence and then draw and write and draw and that almost ended up being a trademark approach because it violated a standard, it turned out to be the beginning of what i recall the age of realism and humor. That is changed over the year and then in the 70s it was snl and then can we say on funny because its funny. But if you look at what qualifies as humor today its reality, we watch reality tv shows to laugh. How many of you have left watching the news. Its almost designed as humor so currently a more likely to write first and draw second. In case youre wondering you wrote a few. Yes there are no blank spaces in your newspaper. He talked about how technology has changed, how has the culture change as the economy goes up and down what are some things about that world . It changes with the society. In the 90s the bosses had all the power youre scrambling to keep your job now, if youre an engineer like gilbert is, they have more power so theyre more likely to insult their boss to the face is there hard to so now youre sitting there in 2015 he comes on the escalator and you watch a couple of debates probably are some rallies how soon did you know this is something you had to write about and then how soon did you know it could be a book . I cant remember exactly. But there is too big points, one was the first debate where he got the question from megan kelly about his comments about women any normal politician thats a kill shot, sober. What a cd. You people remember, that wasnt the big grabbing like him that was just you called them pigs, some just setting and what does he do, instead of engaging like a normal human being, he cuts offenses only rocio don. So remember he had a strong feeling about Rosie Odonnell but heres the first confirmation point, its visual. He took all of the energy from the question to the answer the genius was, it wasnt an answer. He almost in care, it was so entertaining. Now if youre wondering, was that a lucky play, remind you, there was an interview with chris cuomo on cnn. In he asked another question and a possible trap imagine how units this. He said the pope has said some bad things about capitalism. What he say to the pope . What is he do . Say bad things about capitalism while running for president . Say bad things about the pope . No. Theres no way out. So he says i tell the pope to worry about isis taking over the vatican what was the question . I dont know they never got back to it it didnt matter. Its visual, provocative but before that the second row confirmation was the lowenergy job, i felt i was a little out of line because i started writing about powers of his persuasion on the first clues. I couldve been wrong, maybe luck but by the time he got to lowenergy job compared to regular insults, that was geek technique which would be visible to the audience theyre not random at all salami contrast that to the bad attempts people use about him. One that someone came up with was dangerous donald. Problem, and his supporters wanted a dangerous candidate. Someone who would drain the swamp or beat isis. Danger was too easy to flip to a positive. They also tried, chito jesus, remember that one. Its hilarious to mock him. Heres the prom, people like chitos available their jesus. You put those together and i want to take very so look at his, lowenergy job. Cant turn that into a positive. The moment you heard it he said thats an unusual thing to say contacts a politics and watch how often he uses hes consistently operating in this thin band. Its just always a little not what a president should say. So the little bit wrong secant look away. That is this highenergy campaign. Before you heard the probably thought, this jeb bush guy looks like a calm collected executive. I could see him as president. The moment you heard lowenergy and in comparison to highenergy trump you can see him the same again. Same with other nicknames like cooking hillary. You could guarantee something would come up with the foundation. Doesnt matter if any of its true you be drawn to that nickname and reinforced. When you say it doesnt matter, you be drawn how broadly do mean that . Do you have to be somewhat inclined toward him for it to really work or will it sorta work with everybody. In the context of the president ial race get Something Like 5050 no matter what. Facts dont matter towards his decisions but matter towards the outcomes. But we probably had more like an 8020, 20 are paying attention but the others got it so your part trying to persuade 2 of the public who can be persuaded over 18 months. When you have the best persuader the world may have never seen. I know not everybodys buying into this concept yet or is he says is true, its true you have 18 months to work on the public and nonstop coverage, youll get it done. By the way, you didnt just say you predicted he would win, you predicted a 90 chance he would win. And when did you do that . 2015. It was at the same time they said the 2 . Im also trained in persuasion. Why did i think it was 90 . Is it because i did the math . No. Its because they said 2 . You can get that connection out of your head. I intentionally tied my reputation to the most respected predictor in the field so is easy to imagine at the same time in other words, this is new business so you bask in the sentences that say 98 when he says to. I often say one of the signals for someone trained in persuasion is that they can change fields without practice. He became a reality tv star without any practice. Steve jobs to go to college and a few other businesses that also succeeded. As i said, from as i watched him i was mesmerized, horrified, depressed, all that with what he was able to including upending peoples worldviews. Yesterday you thought the world was, and so even if you lost her persuasion would be worth the book, but i also believe that a marginally smarter campaign in the rust belt may have beaten him. What happens to your prediction of 90 the . Im not stupid so if i have been wrong i wouldve embarrassed for a year and but i have an unnatural ability to deal with shane to practice skill. I could disrobe, not going to actually learn skill,. So to hear there is you looking at him as the master but in choosing the book in the 90 and going out on the limb youre following many of the same technique. I consider myself a commercial grade persuader. If you hear anybody say that i have something wrong in your cognitive scientist, dont leave me and then above the the master persuaders theres something about their personality and risk taking, something bigger than the persuasion skills. You say that notion that he has a distortion, that use the description of a master persuasion. Once youre focused on this thinking and blogging about it, did you try to figure out how did this happen . How did he become a master persuader . A lot of people do not know his pastor was Norman Vincent he had a close connection to the most motivational boast selling author who wrote the power of positive thinking. He was the person who thought you could think your way to a better situation. You see that intron. He was an interview and said we had 3 gdp but without the hurricane it would been 4 . No normal president would say we get 3 , thats great. But hes every talked the economy into 4 . And whos watching . The people who invest. Thats what make it sit for percent. The economy moves on psychology. Theres no resource shortage. He had a father a Good Business negotiation probably saw firsthand. Obviously he knows branding, you know sales. He knows marketing and has a sense of humor. His he great communicator quick on his feet. Hes even tall and has something going on appear. Watch emily persuaders of something were going on there. He has the full package of skills on top of his personality and size. Reading your book made me stop and think. I often thought he was some sort of savant. I watch him play a crowd and where did you get the near getting that to become his work and at this. If you write a book about how to negotiate its important to you. His quirkiness. Let me ask about bernie sanders. Bernie drew crowds at least his biggest trump elicited similar passion and loyalty into things he does is he does dealer narratives, narrative of class in history. He comes across as authentic hes not polished, but he doesnt seem to be the persuader that trump is. Will they might have a better answer what happened bernie, but wouldnt you agree that bernie outperformed compared to what you expected . And did you notice, maybe you didnt that Hillary Clintons persuasion gave was prophetic pathetic until things drop down. She went from limitary about my boring politics and then she went to, these dark and hes going to destroy the world. She used fear and as soon as i saw it and all the pundits i got the memo, its a dark speech i said, i think i know who is advising her. And i think he was advising bernie before. Remember bernie had the most awardwinning campaign in, the one where simon and garfunkel. I got chills when i wash it. It was so good. Then suddenly, she went from nothing to something. I speculated one of the greatest persuaders of all time and have joined her team after leaving the sinking bernie ship. Ive been called godzilla in my blog skits i didnt want to name him. But i thought i saw the fingerprint on the work. Ive seen a book called presuasion before most people had from robert and presuasion talked about things like using that word dark that would just prime you to see things in a different way. I thought, i see his fingerprint. Ive finally set a publicly set true a reporter and he tracked it down the center you consulting for clinton and his comment was, no comment. Now, if youre not consulting for president do you say no . I dont think so. Then some of his associates confirmed that it was. Keep in mind i picked that up from one word because it was so wellchosen. And i requisite from his writing. But think people who have the same training ahead could have recognized it. It wasnt magic, its a result of training. Some of the things that i saw bernie with or without the raw, authentic, passionate how does that fall into persuasion . Working against them, he didnt have a good visual. His hair was the crazy hair maybe it needs to be crazier or more orange his biggest secret was he was promising people free money for nothing. You dont have to be the best persuader in the world, free healthcare, free college you get some energy. He had a good advisor have lots of questions. If i wash trump now his most successful move our executive orders in choosing the Supreme Court justice, neither of which call for much persuasion. Who is he persuading these days . Keep in mind he didnt get to do those until he persuaded enough people for him to be president. Now its a whole new bag. He has to persuade his face, even the republican senators who hate him and cant stop talking about what a bad person his. So the entire republican side pretty much dancing as long as his basis passionate. If we go on a point by point level is he persuading isis . Compare obamas approach which is where going to leave and at days which persuades isis to stay around, we just wait them out. Trump says that persuasion. Were you say were here forever when i can adjust tracy were to destroy you. Them worse in the first surrenders. Isis has largely been wiped out. Part of this is how they treated the military. He told mattis to figure it out and the morale is probably the best its ever been. Certainly the economy he has talked up, yes, obama is responsible for 75 of the good times. Obama was great. In 2009 when things were going to hell you dont want the orchard it on the the lawyer who says is going to be okay ive looked into it so he gets credit for the strong base. Clearly there is a trump bump to the economy. I have isis and the economy and i think pretty well true now, hes in china. China loves him. Hes a rock star. Shes clearly persuading. But they have this lovely dance at the time where this alliance is crucial to north korea. Are they persuaded . I have a feeling that little rocket man for the first time doesnt know if