The Backwards Law: Stop Chasing Happiness. Become Anti-fragile Instead. | Gad Saad
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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: https://www.amazon.com/Saad-Truth-about-Happiness-Secrets/dp/1684512603
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: https://www.gadsaad.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GadSaad
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GadSaad
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorgadsaad/
@TomBilyeu
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
WARNING: I will never ask for your contact info in the comments section, that is someone impersonating me!
@bobleguy
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
The more you dig into Lex Friedman's resume, the more HE seems like an actual strawman
@maracummings9767
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Thank you for an interesting dialogue.
In regards to what is truth, may I recommend Jiddu Krishnamurti's inquiries into a human mind. Specifically his book "As one is". JK was a philosopher. In many sources he is referred to as an Indian spiritual speaker and teacher, but he never considered himself either Indian or a spiritual anything.
@Edword317
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
I FOUND THE RELIGION THAT SAYS you SHOULD ONLY LOVE OTHER PEOPLE – but its not a "religion😷" 😮
It is the way of life
"Love the father with all your heart" & "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
Everything else is HISTORY😮 – NOT A STATEMENT OF MORALITY
All the immorality in the bible is No Accident – they are events to reflect on and choose differently than how we "feel"
—-
+ you can always just ask him – for now
Don't wait too long tho (he will come like a theif in the night – no prep, no warning – this and everything else, has been your warning)
Seek and find or don't
@neologian1783
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
My ideal "friendship" = another person (anyone….literally anyone….god please anyone) willing to sit down with me while understanding full well it will consist of a "free ranging conversation" like this and not be comprised of a bunch of inane cliche's or meaningless sports or weather talk while enjoying the exchange.
@sauroros
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
This is heck of an intro. kudos.
@WayneAustin-f3u
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Happiness is short term and is based on what happens, while joy comes from God and is eternal
@ehaley6838
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
So here’s the thing – if we can look back and see the dietary restrictions were for the good of the community following them as was mentioned in the interview with pig meat, why can’t we do the same for the instruction on stoning a “child” (it more accurately reads “young man”) who is unable to be handled by his parents?
If we had signs and indications to warn us about someone who would grow up into the next Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer, wouldn’t it be ethical to prevent mass murder and horrors that would be committed at their hands??
@xelaklement3367
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Comparing Trump to Himmler made him look like a complete idiot. As a German, it's baffling how people, especially some Americans, keep playing down the horrors of WW2 by comparing anyone they don't like politically to literal NAZI leaders. Get a grip, or go read a history book.
@jasonk8775
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Read atlas shrugged
@laneantunes4059
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
It's hard to imagine this super smart guy sees nothing wrong with the way Elon Musk or Trump deliberately lies to everyone (democrats are not much better btw). Some people seem so sincere, so kind, so intelligent, but they will defend whoever will benefit their careers. It's really sad because I thought I had finally found another intellectually honest person to listen to.
@helder3951
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
❤
@ABCD_163
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Bring an amazing guest.
Talk more than the guest.
Truly a tragedy.
@BlakeMiller
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Too many ads, not worth watching even though Gad is amazing. Ads every twenty seconds. WTF
@porter9260
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Saad completely missed the point on gender identity and WTF bro why you just let that pass?
@elizabethk3238
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Tom, you are "disagreeable" in that your language is often offensive to your audience. Especially since you are equipped to refrain from using harsh language.
@mikee6618
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
great take on saccharine lex's bs
@chrismichael9556
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
The audio is normal during the ad and then the rest of the podcast it's like they are whispering
@iuvalclejan
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Gad is right about some things, but wrong about others, and I'm "going after him". First, working hard is not something most of our hunter-gatherer ancestors did. It's a relic from agrarian times that had evolved some special things like "the treadmill of infinite aspirations", when we moved to cities. See Suzman's book "Work" for a better evolutionary perspective. Second, the whole "cuckolding" thing only makes sense in a monogamous culture, which means mostly agrarian, as monogamy is also a relic of agrarianism, as shown by such evolutionary thinkers as Ian Morris. In a tribe, there is not much advantage for spreading my genes more than other men in the tribe, but there is great advantage in collaborating with other tribe members in childrearing. In other words, group selection trumps individual selection in that environment. In a post-agrarian, urban culture, the situation is more complex, with some advantages to monogamous child-rearing (as shown by Henrich et al.) and some advantages to polyamorous child-rearing (as shown by Christopher Ryan). Third, evolution can be used to justify anything, in so-called "just-so" arguments and naturalistic fallacies. Whether something is good for some people's happiness or not is not determined by evolution. It could make us want things that are make us happy in the long-term and unhappy in the long-term. It could also be a mismatch (as Gad pointed out but didn't flesh out here), something that made us happy in the past, but is making us miserable now (like jealousy for some people in agrarian cultures). It could also be that some people don't have the cultural and genetic make-up that causes some behavior in most people, and that they could be selected for in the present and future, although they were deselected in the past, because of a changed environment (e.g. feeling jealousy or rage because of the possibility of being cuckolded).
It is ironic that the European Enlightenment which Gad is a proponent of in his values of individual freedom (moderated by Theory of Mind about others) and authenticity, is also at odds with many of the chimp-like behaviors he is an apologist for (especially the ones with a gender differential).
@0i0l0o
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Yo. Give my high-value lazy a ** tinestamps.
@adoteq_
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
What I do, I answer everything with a question and as a question. If someone tells me something, then to me that is a question. At the same time I answer where I want to go. The answer to that question is the question to the answer of where I want to be
@wendellbabin6457
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
2:55:10 A PhD from the "School of Hard Knocks"?
@wendellbabin6457
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
2:46:42 ALSO NEVER forget that Reputation Destruction and SAVAGING us the NATURAL, "Evolutionary?" playing Field of Women and Machiavellian Sociopath Types Precisely because they are PHYSICALLY Incapable of Retaliation. Especially when Reputation Destruction can be accomplished WITHOUT ANY cost or Repercussions at ANY Level.
And in the Current Pathological "Woke" cultural landscape that is EXACTLY what maybe even Western Civilization is MORE Threatened than anything besides External PHYSICAL DOMAIN Enemies.
BASICALLY "Surrounded" within AND without.
@wendellbabin6457
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
1:19:47 I wonder if Tom is confusing Gallipoli and Lebanon?
@wendellbabin6457
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
33:23 What I think Peterson often describes as viewing History of WWII Germany through perspective of Germans RATHER than the BROADER Allied view.
NOT Perp and Victime or Oppressor Oppressed the "Woke Mob" do NOT even Identify as Marxist uf Not ouright Stalinist at its core. May NOT even be CAPABLE of doing SO. But like just discussed by Solchenytsin in Gulag Archipelago in the Soviet case.
With a nod to someone like Dave Chappelle, the joke in the USSR back then also often mentioned by JBP by the Ordinary Folks was "we pretend to work, and they ("Soviet Government") pretend to pay us.
@wendellbabin6457
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
13:07 I am not educated in any way to level of someone from DR. Saad's "Ecosystem", and when he uses this " Big Word, I guess "Scientific" descriptions I naturally, like most similar folks struggle for the Personal equivalent(s).
My best take at this for those he calls Ontological and (Edit: consequentialist ?), see I would now need to rewind in the middle of typing this comment to even remember the other one "Real Time", but maybe a "Lay Term(s)" would be the Human Level at which these operate IRL.
ONE'S affects or consequences LIKELY go NO FURTHER than MAYBE ONLY one other Human Scale Relationship. Do I look fat in these jeans is his examle for us.
The Other is one that POTENTIALLY has 2nd or 3rd or FURTHER (Edit: add ORDER) consequences if Lied about in either COmission OR OMission or BOTH. (Edit: EVEN unknown, or unknowable. Potentially catastrophic. Why, I believe, The U S Founders and Framers WANTED ANY of these sorts of Political "Experiments" to first be THOROUGHLY tried at the LOWEST POSSIBLE "LEVEL" of Government FIRST. before, say, Amending the Construction at the Federal Level or EVEN multiple States. Of as Diverse as possible as Humanly Manageable. Small vs large, rich versus poorer. Industrial versus Agricultural or mining. Party alliliation. Neither of currently existing ones even EXISTED at the time. Certainly Republican Didn't. Not certain for Democrat if existed or "Evolved form prior" whig for example. Think it was Madison who didn't want ANY. Too old and worried about merely Maslovian Existence at this point in life to LIKE EITHER "Staight Ticket" any more. Haven't for DECADES.)
@jennifermerva9538
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
The problem is people think their opinion is them. That's why they get offered when you disagree with the opinion.
@Nyumc99
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
2:50 minutes , ish. What Tom is saying in my opinion is, be strategic with the use of your personal integrity . Wonderful podcast gentlemen. Thank you. 👌👏☯️
@christobita8038
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
On Lex, there's a discussion to be had about whether his message of love is helpful or not… But the fact Gad can't recognise he's being genuine about it says something about the type of person he is.
@Dorythefish13
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Ew. Man mind porn. Right wing garbage science.
@avogue7831
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
It's interesting the guest can't differentiate between social democracy which are capitalist and their taxation regimes which vary. See Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Australia as examples. New Zealand is a good example of graduated taxation, also known as progressive taxation, in which the tax rate increases as the amount of money being taxed increases. The goal of a progressive tax is to reduce the burden of low-income individuals. No entrepreneur believes this discourages risk taking or expanding their businesses, financial rewards for innovation and hard work (sic) or discourages striving for success, afterall they all have accountants that manage their endeavours within the taxation rules.
@onseayu
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Gad, you are right about Lex. Soooo annoying and fake most of the time
@AnnaMishel
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
I also have an aversion to reading fiction. Reality is INFINITELY more interesting!
@AnnaMishel
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
You don’t have to make a choice on which books to bring. Just have them all on you iPad.
@marnikondor5885
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
I love how Gad brought up Confucius.
@jonnyenglish-10
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Gad is brilliant, with a fascinating background and wonderful stories to tell. He advocates for seemingly just causes, but humble he is not.
@cassiahector3191
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Tom, I do enjoy your podcast! You bring on the most interesting guests, including Dr Sad. What I find disturbing is your need to swear, you’re such a robust individual with an amazing broad command of the English language. I’m so turned off when you use profanity.
@emilyknowlton8602
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
The average person has to constantly work jobs they hate just for food, shelter, and medicine.
@MikhaelaBryden
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Such a good interview and conversation between you two! Love it!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
@cecilcharlesofficial
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
One’s beliefs aren’t a choice, though certainly they can change over
time. While also, they are incredibly and irrevocably important to your experience of life. But they’re not chosen. And this is what allows you to finally have faith, trust.
@RoxannaDayl
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
the law by frederic bastiat has astounding insights – all within 76 pages. spend $6 and see why he and Ben Franklin were friends
@YungKingz__
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Im so much like gad saad
@adriansinclair5323
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
Tom, you so need to host Charles Hoskinson on your show. He would be an excellent source who could fill in your curiosity about potential solutions to the financial future of the world conundrum with very meaningful ideas.
@tapeburner3942
October 6, 2025 at 11:15 am
audio is shit
Comments are closed.