Leo Gura

Mostly you just need that money to pay for your living expenses as you go about building out your life. Stocks return 8%/year average. If you think you can beat that you're mostly fooling yourself. And once you invest in stock you gotta keep it there for years. You can't use it. And you'll be paying 30% tax on profits if you ever cash out. But more likely you will lose that money in the market as a naive investor. It very much depends on how high your income is. If you got a good income then you can invest more in stocks. But if your income is low then I wouldn't put my limited money in stocks. Stocks are for money you don't need. I invest in stocks because I literally have money I don't know what else to do with. If all I had was $30k, I would be using it more directly to bootstrap myself. You're just not gonna feel 10% gains on $30k. You are better off investing that in therapy and meditation retreats.

That's good. The problem wasn't so much that it was self-destructive but women-destructive. It's not good for a leader of young men to model behavior which is harmful to women. But that's water under the bridge. He is much more careful now in how he speaks. Well, of course mainstream media is not going to deeply understand Owen and his work. That's not surprising at all. And again, it's not some conspiracy to bring down the little guy. That would be like me complaining that people call me a cult leader because the elites are after me. No, it's just that mainstream media will never understand the things I teach. The fact that guys like Owen and myself are still allowed to post YT videos is evidence that there is no conspiracy theory or elites looking to suppress deep truths. No one is going to ban Owen as long as he teaches in a responsible way -- which he is now doing. I put out way more edgy and risky content these days than him and I don't have some paranoia about the mainstream not understanding me or trying to silence me. If media ever writes about me, it's gonna be extremely distorted to the point where it will look like it's full of lies. It's not lies, it's just their inability to understand based on their limited paradigm and life experience. But hey, if my life's work was taken down overnight, yeah, I would develop a chip on my shoulder about that. So I understand Owen's frustration. Society has always had taboo subjects, such as homosexuality, pickup, socialism, or mysticism. Teachers of such topics tend to get demonized. It comes with the territory. Jesus was nailed to a cross. MLK was assassinated.

He's both arrogant and humble. He's doesn't think he knows it all. But as far as pickup he does know a lot so...

I carefully watched interviews of Musk. He's not a libertarian but leans that direction. He acknowledges that regulation is necessary. He even wants a new gov agency to regulate AI. But he is very sympathetic to reducing the role of government. Misleading because what matters is not monthly users but influence potential.

Yes, but you can't ban 50% of the country from a public square. That will not work. The reason banning Nazis works is because it's a tiny 1% of people.

I would keep it in cash and use bits of it to develop yourself, your life, and your career/biz. Don't go investing that in stocks, crypto, etc. The ROI from that will not be substantial enough to make much of a difference to your life. However losing it will be devastating and trap you into wage slavery. Use that money to escape wage slavery.

Well, this is the big question as it relates specifically to Twitter. I know he isn't a libertarian. He understands the value of government regulation in the physical domain. But I'm not sure how well he understands the need for regulation in the digital community domain. He seems to believe it's okay to let anyone tweet whatever they want as long as it's not illegal or a spambot. This would be very close to a "freedumb" position in my book. Way more moderation than that is required.

@Hardkill Man, you're not thinking straight. It is not illegal nor wrong to be MAGA or to support Trump, as long as it's done in a healthy way. Most people who support Trump are not foaming-at-the-mouth rioters or racists. Let people have their political opinions as long as they aren't being violent, hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic, or spreading outright lies.

No, that is not acceptable. Right-wing POVs must be allowed. They just can't be allowed to get toxic. We cannot have a healthy public square with only left-wing views. The left-wing is wrong on some things and there is value to conservative perspectives like those of Jordan Peterson.

I mostly consider that an inaccurate statement. Men are easily jealous. Definitely more than in any of those books. You haven't watched enough old RSD content then. Saying that is not the issue. The toxicity was something deeper than simply alphas and betas. Of course RSD was not any more toxic than the community as a whole. RSD just got a lot of blame and attention because it was the biggest and most popular company. But also to be fair Julien was doing some really toxic immature shit back in 2015 -- which is what got RSD canceled. When I saw what Julien was doing back in 2014 I was disappointed and had problems with it. It wasn't even solid game, it was just cruel and egoistical. I wanted nothing to do with that and I was a big fan of RSD back then. I published my video: A Rant Against The Pickup Community back then. And a lot of PUAs hated me for it. RSD was definitely to blame for its own downfall. It was some "elites" who took it down. They were promoting a sub-culture of treating women like shit. This is not cool and should not be acceptable by larger culture. If RSD has emphasized respectful treatment of women, they would never have been canceled. What gets you canceled is unethical shit. And rightly so. That is not "censorship", that's just society protecting vulnerable people from exploitation by immature selfish assholes.

Well, that's been my approach. But many guys who get into pickup end up just settling down with a girlfriend. It's usually just a matter of time. But even so, that doesn't solve some of the ethics problems, immaturity problems, and toxicity problems in this niche. It's hard to get really good at game while also maintaining high integrity, ethics, and maturity. This is extremely hard and rare.

That sounds nice but that doesn't work for me. You can't put in energy you don't have. People who are able to do such things take their health for granted. Only a healthy body can generate that much energy from pushing it. If I push myself too hard I don't get energy, I get sick.

I understand. But you must recognize that that is trauma distorting your view of things and your behavior. That trauma requires digging into and healing. Introspection, therapy, love, forgiveness -- this is necessary to fully heal and become secure again. Healing trauma is a huge part of becoming confident with women. The issue is not that women are laughing at you, it's that you have some very deep-seated insecurities which stem from past trauma which have made you are easily triggered. You can do work to undo that.

People who call for the eradication of Twitter are being silly. A Twitter-like platform will always exist because it serves an important function despite any toxic elements on it. If Twitter dies, some clone will just replace it. So that is not a solution. You can't put this toothpaste back in the tube.

Well, it all starts with theory. You have to start somewhere, so don't beat yourself up.

It is that way IF you imagine it to be that way. What I realize is that I am imagining you imagining that.

The first time may be scary and not the best. So don't quit if you don't like the first trip. That's just the start. The real payoff comes in future trips.

I think it was a net positive but he just needs to bite the bullet and admit to himself that it wasn't all positive for everyone, and then just move on to doing more wholesome and anti-toxic dating advice. He's basically gotta shed the old selfish pickup ways -- which is hard to do after 20 years of nonstop pickup. It would help if he did a video actually addressing the immaturity, narcissism, and toxicity of pickup culture. Then he could lead people to a more ethical and conscious form of socialization, dating, and relationship advice.

There is some problem with this, yes, but it's mostly coming from the extreme left. Those 10% of the far left. Obviously the extreme 10% of the far left should not be setting Twitter's moderation policy. Then again, there plenty of actual Nazis, neo-Nazis, fascists, racists, and anti-semites on Twitter. I don't consider Margery Tailor Green as Nazi, but she has spread anti-semitic conspiracy theories, like the "Jewish space lasers". So Twitter needs to moderate more than just pure Nazis but various lesser forms of anti-semitism. 1) Notice that Ben Shapiro isn't banned from Twitter. 2) Ben Shapiro is one of the top recievers of anti-semitism on Twitter. There have been actual studies done on this. He gets thousands of antisemitic trolls. Which is not good. Even though I hate Ben Shapiro's worldview, I would not ban him from Twitter and in fact I would protect him against antisemitic trolls. This is proper moderation. But also if you don't label them they keep growing and eventually start to organize actual rallies to overthrow the government. I don't think Musk has some secret power-grab or money-making agenda. He's a pretty earnest guy. I take his motives at his word. Musk doesn't need more money or more power. That's not what drives him. What drives him is whatever he thinks is the best good for mankind. Of course he could be wrong about what's actually good for mankind. And the bigger issue is that one man shouldn't get to have his ideas about what's best for mankind run the public square. The irony here is that even though Musk says that Twitter is an important public square, he's actually bought the public square for himself and taken it totally private. It's like Musk buying up all the national parks and setting the rules because he thinks he knows what's best. This is fundamentally not proper for a public square. A public square must be subject to democratic control.

@Adam M Yes, there are many versions of Buddhism. But in my mind I like to think of Buddhism in its purest form, the form that was taught around the Buddha's time. Other, more flowery versions of Buddhism evolved much later and I have not studied all those. At some point you gotta stop studying all the niggly spiritual schools and just go awaken. The goal here is not to become a scholar of religion.

Yes, it's completely pointless. I have nothing else to do. Anything you do in life will be completely pointless. So enjoy it for its own sake or don't do it. I enjoy posting on the forum, which is why I do it. It helps me clarify my thoughts and it makes me feel more socially connected. Otherwise I would feel all alone and that's not fun. I am in a dream in order to experience dreaming. There's no other game in town other than to stop dreaming -- which I don't want to do because I enjoy my dream. It's like I am playing a video game and you come into the room and ask me, "Why are you doing this?" Yes, everything is constructed from the NOW because NOW is all there is. The past and future are imaginary and couched in the NOW.

He definitively has this meta-narrative going (which smacks of conspiracy) that elites are using the little guy as "batteries in the Matrix". I really don't like this meta-narrative because it's fundamentally not how society works -- although at the same time there is some truth to it. But it's a very partial truth. Here's an example of where Owen goes way too much in the conspiracy narrative: Unfortunately he is inadvertently brainwashing his audience into believing this kind of stuff. The notion that Twitter or the internet used to be such a good place back in 2015 is absurd. Twitter was a toxic cesspool back then but Owen ignores such basic facts. Moderation has not made Twitter worse. And the moderation was not done by "elites" to keep the little guy down. It was done because it was being exploited for devilry by both little actors and giant actors like foreign governments. The are fundamental biases within pickup advice. And even when Owen is giving his more philosophical takes which don't have anything to do with pickup, he still can't shed those biases. That's how deep those biases run. And almost no one in the pickup community who follows Owen will sense that until years after they have been indoctrinated with his biases. It's very subtle. It requires a high level of development and consciousness to see it.

That sums it up beauitfully.

What isn't understood by free speech absolutists is that to have truly robust free speech the public square must feel safe enough to most people such that they feel safe to express their ideas. When trolls and such are given free reign this actually reduces effective speech because the normal sane moderate people don't feel safe or good enough to express themselves. The public square cannot allow shitslingers or all the best people will leave. This is the paradox of freedom. What people really want is not pure freedom but freedom that is useful, productive, and healthy. Effective freedom. And of course what you consider "useful" and "healthy" is relative. A neo-Nazi will feel his speech is useful and healthy. But what must happen is the neo-Nazi gets overpowered. It isn't fair from the neo-Nazi's POV. But it creates a better society.

This is so problematic because we cannot have one private overlord of the entire education system.