Ask A Genius 1304: Why Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen Have Talked for 10 Years – A Legacy of Ideas
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/03/04
Rick Rosner: Every night, Carole and I watch some quality TV downstairs. Tonight, it was The White Lotus, the latest episode, plus the opening monologue of SNL. After that, we do squats, I do sit-ups, maybe some curls, and then, after an hour downstairs, we move upstairs and watch another 30 to 40 minutes of semi-quality TV.
Tonight, it was Running Point, the Mindy Kaling-produced and written show based on Jeanie Buss and the Lakers, starring Kate Hudson. Then Carol starts falling asleep. We turn off the TV or switch to something I can watch, and I rub her legs for a while. Then I say, “I gotta go,” and she asks, “Where are you going?” It’s the same thing every night: “I’m going to talk to Scott like I do every night.” But tonight, she asked, “Why?”
So, I’m thinking tonight’s topic should be why. Why? We’ve been doing this for 10 years—roughly 3,650 nights. We’ve probably talked over 2,000 times, done more than 2,000 sessions, maybe more than 2,500, generating millions of words.
So why? Why the fuck are we doing this? I have some answers. What’s your answer?
For one thing, it leaves a legacy—a record. I’m too lazy to sit down and type this shit, but at least we can talk it out, and then, if people are so inclined, they can sort through it at some point. I want to be around, or at least be cryonically preserved somewhere or some shit. But if somebody—whether you or someone else—wants to go through it and mine it for meaningful insights or as an example of self-proclaimed giftedness gone awry and squandered, they can do that too.
Or I can mine it myself, which I hope to do to some extent. Are you familiar with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? The book from, I don’t know, almost 50 years ago now, by Robert Pirsig. It’s a story about a man’s quest to find himself and the philosophical foundation on which he attempts to do so. It was big in the ’70s—probably came out in ’74—and it was a less sensationalized version of that Carlos Castaneda stuff. People were trying to find themselves, right?
And we’ve talked a lot about physics, informational cosmology, and the role of self—anyway, all this shit. If I’m trying to write this novel, and in this novel, the main character has the same self-proclaimed insights into physics that I do, then it’s a start. It needs to be distilled by about 98 percent and boiled down, but at least it’s the raw stock to be simmered for hours, right?
Now, why are you doing it?
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Personal interest. I cover a wide range of subjects. You’re far from the majority or even the only person I discuss physics or other topics with.
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