3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
Well, this week has been one of the wildest things I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve never had so many messages of love and praise and good will.
Genuinely feeling on top of the world.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported me on the come-up, and to everyone that’s new – welcome aboard you gorgeous humans.
Anyway, obviously I’ve done a ton of learning this week.
One quote from Tuesday’s episode really stuck with me.
“Look at the car he’s driving, look at the watch he’s wearing, look at the girl he’s with.
That’s unattainable to many people so it seems like it’s valuable, but then you attained it.
And then you realised oh, this is not valuable, this is just difficult to get.
And there’s a difference. There’s a big difference.” — Joe Rogan
Some things aren’t valuable, they’re just difficult to get.
I’ve never considered that before but dear lord that’s a great insight.
In a world which has never been more convenient, our ability to avoid discomfort is very high.
It means we can sail through life in a chasm of comfortable complacency.
Most smart people also realise that there is value in stepping outside of this comfort, that on the other side of the discomfort is something valuable.
We’re told that worthwhile things are difficult to attain, because if they weren’t difficult to attain, they wouldn’t be worthwhile.
This is how non-valuable but difficult things get slipped into our desires without us noticing…
Attaining something worthwhile is often going to be difficult, but just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile.
We use the challenge as a proxy for virtue or value or alignment or integrity.
There’s some signalling going on here too – difficult things, by design, will be attained by a small number of people which makes them desirable simply because it’s an easy way to stand out from the crowd.
We need to realise too that sometimes easiness can be a signal of value.
In my opinion, valuable relationships shouldn’t be hard.
Your partner should be someone you would take into war, not someone you are at war with.
Your friends should make your life better, not more difficult.
Your parents should make you feel enough, not insufficient.
Valuable work on the other hand is a beautiful blend of difficulty and ease.
An Apple employee once asked Tim Cook about whether it should still feel like hard work when you do something you love…
“You’ll have to work harder than you ever have before in your life, but the tools will feel light in your hands.”
Beware the difficult things, masquerading as valuable ones.
MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast which is the front end of the funnel to a future global-domination cult. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Zack Telander – men are taking more viagra than ever, Beyonce gets in trouble for an ableist slur about jizz, Demi Lovato adds more pronouns and Batgirl is cancelled. Great ep.
Thursday.
Max Dickins – male loneliness is currently at all time highs. Why are men suffering, how do male and female friendships differ and what is the evolutionary explanation?
Saturday.
Will MacAskill – on the potential far futures for humanity and why we need to take seriously the trillions of unlived human lives that are yet to come. Some awesome deep philosophy here.
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
America has the most Nobel Prizes but isn’t even in the Top 20 countries in terms of average IQ.
The USA has 368, the UK 132, and Germany 107 Nobel Prizes.
Meanwhile the countries with the highest average IQ are dominated by the East:
Singapore – 107.1
China – 105.8
Hong Kong – 105.7
South Korea – 104.6
Taiwan – 104.6
Japan – 104.2
Finland – 100.9
Canada – 100.4
Netherlands – 100.4
Liechtenstein – 100.3
Switzerland – 100.2
Mongolia – 100
Macao – 99.9
Estonia – 99.4
Belgium – 99.3
Australia – 99.2
UK – 99.1
2.
Firehosing.
“With so many competing narratives in the digital age, disinformation agents can’t convince you of any single narrative, so instead they overwhelm you with many contradictory narratives until you start to doubt everything and become confused, demoralised & passive.” — Gurwinder Bhogal
3.
Growing creators need to play the game before they can redefine the game.
“Clickbait is a tax you have to pay to create the content you really want.”
LIFE HACK
Jacket potatoes are an elite, under-appreciated food.
Honestly I can’t believe how much of my life I’ve spent forgetting about jacket potatoes as a potential meal.
I want to reinvigorate them as a staple part of my diet so… here I am, shilling them to you too.
Big love,
Chris x
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PS
For real, hello to all you newbies. The rest of 2022 is going to be wild.
