3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
Another monster episode today, this time with Eric Weinstein.
3+ hours covering absolutely everything from physics to conspiracies.
Plus Eric played a ukulele-sized guitar for 5 minutes to explain how human emotions work.
Go listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Anyway, this week I’ve been thinking about the price people pay for the success they have.
“Accept that all of your heroes are full of shit.
Your heroes aren’t gods, they’re just regular people who probably got good at one thing by neglecting literally everything else.” — Jason Pargin
This insight seems to be the best solution for jealousy that I’ve found.
The people you look up aren’t human-wide examples of admirable traits.
They’re usually extremely competent in a very narrow domain, but outside of that they’re just totally normal, deficient or embarrassing humans.
Tiger Woods – GOAT golfer but quite a suboptimal husband.
Alan Watts – life-changing spiritual teacher who died of alcoholism.
James Joyce – masterful author who also wrote a massive series of detailed fart-fetish letters to his wife.
The people you put on a pedestal are dealing with the same erectile dysfunction, self doubt, un-peaceful mind, existential crisis and daddy issues that you are.
They just happen to crush at a singular pursuit too.
Sure, you might want to play some of the greatest golf in history, but do you want your ex wife to chase you down the driveway with a golf club while the press watches?
Sure, you might want to reach the edges of enlightenment and be able to communicate it to millions in a gorgeous British accent, but do you want to die young due to alcohol poisoning?
Sure, you might want to write blockbuster novels like Ulysses or Finnegan’s Wake, but do you want to write odes to the different types of farts that come out of your wife while you have anal sex with her?
The price you’d need to pay to be the people you admire is often one you wouldn’t be prepared to foot the bill for.
Your heroes aren’t gods, they’re just regular people.
MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast which has had 280 million+ downloads. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Eric Weinstein – meeting Jeffrey Epstein, UFO disclosures, interstellar travel, the beauty of architecture and much more from one of this generations legendary podcast guests.
Thursday.
Zack Telander – me and my housemate catch up for 90 minutes about whether watching porn is cheating, an entire new category for trans athletes in weightlifting, and what’s been happening in our lives.
Saturday.
Avi Loeb – the first interstellar material has been found on earth and Avi’s team collected it a few months ago, so how can we reach other star systems and what are his projects to fire things across the galaxy with lasers?
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
Cats suck.
Women find men with cats to be less attractive.
Straight men who reveal that they own a cat have a 5% lower ‘like’ rate from women on online dating.
The ‘like’ rate for both straight & gay men who have dogs is 20% higher on average.
A man photographed with a cat was viewed as less masculine, more neurotic and, ultimately, less datable.
When a man asked women for their numbers, he was successful with 9% of the women he approached.
When he was accompanied by a dog, he got three times as many.
2.
Rich American men are the workaholics of the world.
“They put in longer hours than middle-class Americans and rich men in other countries.
Between 1985-2010, the weekly leisure time of college-educated men fell 2.5 hours, more than any other demographic.” — Rob Henderson
3.
Comfort is a diseconomy.
“Comfort is short gain.
Regret is long pain.
Fear is short pain.
Fulfilment is long gain.
You wanna trade short pains for long gains.
Not short gains for long pains.
It’s not the safe bet.
It’s a guaranteed loss—for later.” — Alex Hormozi
LIFE HACK
The 3 most underrated performance enhancers on the planet.
Enthusiasm, sleep and curiosity.
They’re also free.
Don’t scrimp on utilising them.
Big love,
Chris x
Tell your friends they should read this Newsletter.
PS
I’m back in the UK! Speaking in Brighton this Friday at IFS with Steven Bartlett, Ali Abdaal, James Smith & more. Here’s a friends & family link for 50% off tickets.
