The Jordan Peterson podcast: S2 E33 set your house in order

When I first heard of Jordan Peterson I regarded him somewhat suspiciously. Based on the way he was talked about, I figured that he was some kind of alt-right neo-nazi dog whistle – which is an odd stance for me to take given my disdain for leftism. Nonetheless that’s what I implicitly expected of him.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Peterson constantly impresses me with his even, objective view of the world which is astounding partially because it’s so deep. I have yet to be disappointed with one of his lectures.

I caught this lecture on an 11 hour drive from New York to Ohio - I think I was somewhere in Pennsylvania at the time.

If you’re new to him, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend starting with this lecture since it’s one of the darkest he’s done. He discusses where evil comes from in human nature and uses, among other things, the story of Adam & Eve and Cain & Abel as proxies. One of the things that I love about Peterson is that though he doesn’t claim himself to be a Christian, he uses Biblical stories to great effect and manages to make them very engaging - and I’m saying this as someone who is staunchly agnostic.

Listening to Peterson’s stuff always picks me up, takes me to the well for motivation. Along with Taleb and Csikszentmihalyi (the Flow guy) he’s one of the only modern philosophers I can think of who are worth listening to.