Joe Rogan Experience #1564 - Adam Alter

(drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music) Hello, Adam.

Hey, Joe.

How are you? What's going on?

Yeah, not too bad, thanks. Not much happening, just the pandemic.

Uh, I really enjoyed your book, man. It's, uh, terrifying and accurate and, uh, irresistable. (laughs)

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Um, when you write a book like that, I mean, first of all, the irony is not lost on me that we're doing, uh, an electronic show about avoiding electronics. Like, it's so much-

Right.

... of a part of our life, the- the- our- our addiction to all these devices and games and applications and all these different things, but yet, we use them constantly. It's, uh, it's such a weird balancing act, isn't it?

Yeah, it is a weird balancing act. I think a lot of people who write about this stuff and think about it, uh, really just, uh, focus on all the negatives. There are obviously massive positives. Right? This is a time when we're being forced to- to physically distance ourselves from other people and yet, we are incredibly lucky to be able to carry on conversations like this, to be able to connect to other people through screens. And so, so screens are in many ways great, but obviously, there are- there are downsides as well.

Yeah, the good thing is that people can work remotely and I think there's a lot of people that are recognizing that. That there's- it's not really necessary to be in a cooped up office all the time and many people are finding that they're even more productive from home. But then, you've got distractions while you're at home that you, you know, you- you could just look at whatever you want on your computer if no one's looking over your shoulder, and therein lies the problem with being connected to the internet really, right?

Yeah, I think that's a really big part of it is that the- the good stuff, the stuff that brings us value, that, uh, makes it possible to connect to people, you know, there are huge values that come from being on a screen. There's a lot of- a lot of great stuff there, but it's- it's so close in proximity to all the stuff that takes us away from what we should be doing. And so, you're constantly trying to balance these two issues.

Yeah. Um, I know several, uh, comics who write, uh, on a computer that doesn't have wifi. They've disabled the wifi on their computer just so specifically they- they can never get on the internet while they're writing because it is- it's such a pull. Like, there- there's such a- it's so difficult to imagine that people lived without it and that now that we have it, it's so difficult to ignore it, so difficult to get away.