I have not followed Scott Galloway closely and only came across him recently through the Huberman podcast. Some of the points he made seemed reasonable on first listen, particularly around young people needing more social connection, resilience, and real-world interaction.
However, one piece of advice confused me: his suggestion that young people should go out, drink more, take more social risks, and make some bad decisions.
I am not anti-drinking, and I understand the broader point may be about getting offline, being more social, and accepting some discomfort or failure. But taken literally, “drink more” seems like pretty bad advice, especially when it is paired with the idea of “making bad decisions”. To me, that suggests drinking more than just a couple of social drinks and getting to the point where judgement is impaired.
Given the current social, legal, reputational, and health risks around alcohol, that seems like a fairly reckless message. After a quick search, it also looks like he has repeated similar advice on other podcasts and shows, so I am trying to work out whether this is a running joke, deliberately provocative phrasing, advice intended only in moderation, a generational framing that does not translate well today, or just genuinely bad advice.
For people who follow him more closely, what is the actual context here? Is he making a serious argument, or is this being overstated in clips?