The Backwards Law: Stop Chasing Happiness. Become Anti-fragile Instead. | Gad Saad
149,082
Published 2023-09-19
Reboot Your Brain in 7 Days: Start Your 7 Day Free Trial Now! → bit.ly/3LIfYwx
This episode is sponsored by Viome. As a special offer to my viewers, Viome is offering $110 off your test. Go to bit.ly/ViomeImpact and use code IMPACT to save.
I hope you’re ready for another enlightening episode of Impact Theory, where we’re exposing the surprisingly controversial paths to happiness. Today, we feature the brilliantly unconventional evolutionary behavioral scientist, Gad Saad, a renowned author, YouTuber, and award-winning professor who asserts that happiness is not a destination, but a byproduct of specific behaviors.
In this thought-provoking episode, Gad reveals the dangerous yet rewarding pursuit of truth and authenticity, which has resulted even in death threats. He delves into why being anti-fragile, and pursuing truth and authenticity are key to the Saad truth about happiness. We also dig into the importance of intellectual variety, and expose why a non-fragmented personality can better handle opposing views and challenging ideas.
“The only road to individual dignity and sustained existential happiness is to adopt an ethos of personal agency. You are the ultimate architect of your own happiness, so get to work.”
-Gad Saad
After watching this episode, you'll be equipped with a fresh perspective, understand the true nature of happiness, and will hopefully be inspired to foster an anti-fragile mindset. Discover why your ability to solve novel problems is more than critical, why apologies can sometimes be an attack on your identity, and so much more. Don't miss out on this riveting conversation with the ever-authentic and truthfully controversial Gad Saad!
Check out Gad’s latest book, The Saad Truth About Happiness, 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life: www.amazon.com/Saad-Truth-about-Happiness-Secrets/…
Saad Truths:
“It's very very difficult for me to not be authentic if I need to defend some truth claim, [...] so the death threats come from the fact that I have to decide, am I going to be a fanatic and walk away from a defense of truth, or am I going to be authentic not only to myself, but to truth by stepping on some toes? And regrettably, at times I step on the wrong toes, which yields some death threats.”
“Don't worry about taking a statin to lower your LDL scores. Make sure that you have two, three, four friends that you really trust and love and you can engage in reciprocal rituals with.”
“I don't think you can solve some of the most important novel problems if they're not at the cusp of interdisciplinary.”
“Having a conciliate mindset, being a generalist, in my view, are probably the best ways to crack novel problems.”
“Groups that are religious out survive groups that are not religious through the mechanisms of greater cooperation communality cohesion. So they are very earthly biological reasons for why religiosity confers greater survival rates to the religious than the non-religious.”
“The justification for why you should have a punitive progressive tax is that as you make more money, you pay more and more inexorably very aware of it. Exactly. So that argument stems from exactly of the things that I talk about in the parasitic mind, which is the confusing of equality of opportunities with equality of outcomes.”
“I think that if you can crack those two things in whatever profession you choose, creativity, impulse, temporal freedom, you're well on your way to being happy.”
Follow Gad Saad:
Website: www.gadsaad.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/GadSaad
YouTube: youtube.com/@GadSaad
Instagram: www.instagram.com/doctorgadsaad/
All Comments (21)
-
WARNING: I will never ask for your contact info in the comments section, that is someone impersonating me!
-
It would be nice if you bump up your volume levels. When YouTube ads come on, they are about 3x louder than your recording levels. Painful
-
This is an amazing conversation. I love hearing people converse that have open minds and love learning new things, have a teachable mindset, love challenging themselves on their beliefs, and aren't rigid if there is more to learn about a topic. Fantastic.
-
I love how genuine Tom is with how he asks his questions and projects his thinking. Just love all his interviews! And Gad just makes me wish I was part of his family lol ❤❤ thank you for great discussions
-
amazing energy between these guys.. Would love to see them talk again in future
-
Someone who constantly has to point out how humble he is doesn’t strike me as neither secure nor humble!
-
We need more Saad Gads on this planet🥰!! Thank you very much for such a great interview 🙏☺️
-
this interview/talk revealed how thoughtful and smart Tom is. I was blown away by how he navigated such touchy topics so well. Bravo!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
-
Gad always reminds me of one of my favourite quotes, used to describe Catch 22 author Joseph Heller: "...he smelled of the world... you could smell the world on him." I find it easy to picture him, and imagine myself with him, in a foxhole, in a Church, in a dive bar, at a banquet, on stormy waters and on calm, watching an orchestra or a punk band.
-
Gad is brilliant, with a fascinating background and wonderful stories to tell. He advocates for seemingly just causes, but humble he is not.
-
Food for thought: my almost seven yr old grandson has “ will to power”. He hears truth about people die, they don’t live forever, he’s seen it. Then he tells me how death is not going to happen to him or anyone he loves. He’s 7 but like Tom and others out there try to seek information that helps them fight against their fear, in this case of mortality, their are ways I can fortify, armor myself; body, will and emotion (thoughts/truth) so I can now live in this world, presence, circumstances I’m in. Jack is almost 7, he’s just started the dance ,I’m 69, and have done the dance, through a lot of circumstances, but less and less struggle against the reality that I’m mortal.
-
I also suggest to stop chasing your "passion" and instead chase the things that fit with your personality and top 3 skills (no matter the type of industry). All those things will feel appreciable to do without calling them "a passion".
-
TOM! 🙌 I’ve come across your channel and wanted to share my experience of reality with you. I exist in a state where my consciousness is free to assert attention directly on one aspect of my experience. I can entirely empty my mind of thought and remain there. It’s been a journey and a difficult one I’ve had to learn to settle into especially in a western world. I can feel the air flow through the passages of my face and into my lungs, I can sense which eye is dominant. It’s the same for anything I can recognise within my conscious experience. I don’t have one coherent experience of wholeness at all times. My sense of oneness is fluid to the lighting and setting. But being this way has given me such a profound awareness for how the mind and consciousness works. And really how reality works. Though the hardest part is knowing how much the world hurts, that really is too much to carry. I just wanted to share this because it excites me to see you talk about the things I’ve always felt for myself. Hopefully people like me will have a space in society where we can share our experiences and be understood, because it’s just too profound for most to hear. And you’re doing amazing work in bringing our world closer to that reality. ✌️
-
I am SO GLAD YOU WENT LONG! This was such a great conversation and I got SO MUCH from it. …and I really don’t think it would have been THIS productive if it were under any time constraints. So THANK YOU BOTH. 😃🤚
-
Im so used to seeing Gad on bad cameras that he looks so different on your pro camera. Who knew his eyes were so blue lol😂
-
You had me at the admission money doesn't equal happiness. Only those who have had it can understand what the sentiment means.
-
I love this dude. Im definitely going to look into him more.
-
One Love! Always forward, never ever backward!! ☀️☀️☀️ 💚💛❤️ 🙏🏿🙏🙏🏼
-
One religion grasps the elephant's trunk, the other seizes it's ear, the other hangs from its tail, the last pushes against its side, but blind as they are, they cannot see that only together will they understand the elephant.
-
Tom earned my respect at 2:18 by empathysing with how Gad felt about his point of view, while biting back on his own views, and then changing frame of reference as he saw no benefit in providing a different frame of view given how deep Gad is in his belief.
