bazera

Yea, as you said before, doing couple years of pickup and learning attraction skills will benefit most guys, but if you do it for 25 years and build a career out of it, jesus, imagine the mental habits you'd build along the way, especially if it earns you good money, good luck unstucking from that hole. That would be painful. Imagine Owen stopping what he's doing, how painful would that be for him.

Do these RSD guys have a course on how to find the most ridiculous shit to wear?

[6/30] ✅ Rough day, but I still meditated, worked-out (run for 30m), and read for 30 minutes. Currently reading Ralston's Pursuing Consciousness. It's a dense one, just like his other books. I want to finish this one and the Genious of Being before I tackle the newest book that I ordered. Weight loss goes very well. It's locked in basically, I'll get my desired result in 6-7 months. Gotta focus on other things with more intention. I realized I need preperatory practices for Kriya Pranayamas, when I did those a year ago, pranayama was more effective. So I need to include those as well. Just a reminder for me, these 30 days are about: getting used to caloric deficit and consistent exercise getting used to spiritual practices avoiding relapses as much as possible That's mostly it.

For the past few years, I’ve been struggling to stay consistent with myself — with the promises I make to myself, with integrity, and with discipline. I’ve examined this many times and identified some fundamental issues that I’m working to fix. This journal will serve as public accountability while I build the foundation for the next phase of my life. I’ve just turned 30, and I now realize how little time I have and how easy it is to waste most of it. I need to take much more action than I did in my 20s. Currently, I’m struggling with addiction, I’m overweight, I do the bare minimum at my job as a software developer, I don’t exercise much, and I deal with some anxiety. I know how to fix all of it — and more. I know what to do to make my life unrecognizably better (at least to try my best), and inaction only makes me resent myself more. I know what to do. I just have to do it. This thread will help me stay accountable. I’ll be posting every Saturday with a report on the previous week. This is how it will go. Phase 1: 3 Months I’ve been overconsuming pornography and engaging in compulsive masturbation. Since I’m single and somewhat isolated, I need to control this habit. I will abstain from both to reset my dopamine reward cycle. I’ve been slacking off at work, so I need to refocus and concentrate more. I currently work in 45-minute blocks, then rest for a few minutes, repeating this 2–3 times a day. I want to increase this to at least 6 blocks. Work inconsistency has caused me to sleep very late or work late into the night. As I fix my work habits, my sleep habits should improve as well. My goal is to sleep at least 7 hours, from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. I’ve gained a lot of weight. I’m currently around 105 kg and eat a lot of junk food. The plan is to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously until I reach 72–75 kg. Eat 1,800–2,000 calories with at least 160 g of protein Weight train at least 3 times per week Jog for 30 minutes at least 3 times per week Cut out junk food at least 90% of the time I work as a software developer, and the industry is changing rapidly. I need to keep up. I will invest at least 1–2 hours per day in studying, building side projects, or diving deeper into AI. Read books for at least 1 hour per day. Summary of Phase 1 No porn or masturbation No social media Limited YouTube/Reddit for recreation 6–8 daily 45-minute work blocks 1–2 hours of study 1 hour of reading Fixing sleep routine Weight loss: 1,800–2,000 calories 3x weightlifting, 3x cardio weekly Cut out junk food Phase 2: 3 Months On top of the foundation built in Phase 1: Add spiritual practices: Mindfulness meditation (breath-focused) and Kriya Yoga pranayama Add therapeutic practices such as shamanic breathwork, TRE (Trauma Release Exercises), and self-therapy journaling to work through unresolved trauma and issues from the past few years Continue weight loss and exercise — likely reaching target weight by the end of Phase 2 Continue reading and studying Allow masturbation at most once per week after the first 90 days, since more than that negatively affects my life Phases 3 and 4 I can’t say much about these yet. I imagine strengthening spiritual practices, making them more focused and prioritized, socializing more, and possibly starting to date — though dating may be too distracting at the moment, and I don't want it honestly since I've recently got out of a LTR. Phases 4+ Getting involved with psychedelics More socializing More dating experience Starting to work on additional income streams aside from my job Working on creative projects Traveling Meeting new people Exciting things — but first, the foundation. That’s the plan. I won’t plan further than this because planning is a trap for me. Planning gives me a false sense of accomplishment, but it isn’t real progress. Real accomplishment comes from daily execution — day in and day out. It’s that simple. I’ll update every Saturday. 52 updates total. Let’s see how far I go. See you next week.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/steven-spielberg-ufos-disclosure-day-sxsw-1236530186/ 👽

You should still do it. How else would you know what works and what doesn't? It's just the core of the practice is Pranayamas, so everything else seems like a practice to help with the core in some way. But I guess you could just do the core and see where it takes you. You could always add 1-2 prep practices and see how it affects the core.

@Leo Gura What about prep practices for pranayama? Like alternate nostril breathing or maha mudra? I've heared they are conditioning and preparing you to do pranayama more effectively. As if the pranayama is the main engine, and all other stuff are supporting preparation tools. I'm experimenting with doing pranayamas but only after 10-20 mins of prep work. I'll update you guys on progress in 6-12 months, it's interesting where it will go.

I think people in general aren't good at filtering good insights out of a speech of someone like Owen, and all those guys will develop same biases that he has, especially since he doesn't talk much about taking more responsibility and observing self-bias, but maybe it's not part of his job to do so. It's sad when all your mental resources and energy goes into building a luxurious lifestyle that you could afford 250k$ jewelry and rotation of 10 girlfriends. But I think that's better than sitting in your moms basement eating cheetos and watching porn all day. So there's value in these videos if it gets people motivated to change their lifestyle. But it would be cool to see Owen talking about not getting stuck at it, but well, he seems stuck too.

He would kill it on the dance floor though.

LLM assisted coding has a big potential and I'm heaviliy invested in it, both on a practical and theoritical sides. But there are many downsides that I don't want us to miss, especially for people who depend on it daily now, like software developers. Vibe-coding doesn't come without a cost. You pay with certain stuff, and if you're not careful, it might bite you further down the road.

I'm using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, etc to automate and improve my job daily. I'm learning all the intricacies of Claude Code to use it effectively. I'm also digging into LLM architecture, learning to build a smaller scale of it from scratch to understand it deeper. I've also build couple small to medium sized web-apps with 90% AI generated code. It's awesome. I was just pointing out that it's unrealistic to expect that AI dependense will get you very far when you're gonna try to scale up systems, without technical knowledge. First, you need to understand what you are doing at those levels, and then AI would help a lot. I'm not saying AI is a fad, obviously. I just haven't seen a huge distributed systems built with AI by people with no technical expertise. That's just silly. As I said before, Claude Code is very powerful in hands of an expert, who can actually take charge when things go south. And it does many times. Btw, I'm not arguing that you can't build some relatively easy web app from scratch with Claude Code for example and earn some money. I think you can. But based on my experience, when working with already existing systems, you still need massive technical knowledge and experience.

Sorry, I just don't buy into that idea. Maybe on a very small scale, that could work. But when you are talking about huge systems with lots of moving parts, you might end up issues like this one:

Good post, wanted to share it.

3 years ago: Now: Lol In 3 years we'll have a full feature Balenciaga movie on this channel probably.

Lately, after Seedance 2.0 came out, I've been seeing pretty cool AI short-movies on YT, wanted to share some of them here: Most of internet is filled with AI slop videos, but some of them are pretty cool. And just a reminder, this is the worst it will ever be, so 😂 Personally, I don't see much value in AI video, I think it will cause more harm then good. But the genie is out of the bottle, so we might as well embrace it.

@Leo Gura Have you considered stopping teaching in the last 10 years because of this? If so, what was the reason that you didn't do it?

@LordFall Just saw it. I need to go get my pet and cigar for photos Jokes aside, yeah it's just irresponsible to not care about all those points shared in the video if you want some success in online dating. Weight loss, grooming, clean and sharp dressing, showing an adventurous lifestyle (cigars, pets, travel, etc), proper posing are all great and would help in any form of dating attempts. But my point was that there are features that are simply unattractive for most people, things you just can't change with a proper pose or holding a cigar, and that's a reality you have to live with and work with whatever you've got.

Why is there such a need in the first place? I guess it's a part of building deeper intimacy with another person.

What would you change if you still had some time? I'm just asking because that was also the issue for me and just want to know your perspective on it. What I'd do is, as you said, share more of my struggles and inner processes more honestly, not hide anything out of shame, and in general be more open with her on my intentions and inner turmoils. That's isn't easy to do for someone who doesn't feel a need to share all that. But that's exactly why it comes off as avoidence. Because it probably it. Avoidance of vulnerability. Maybe it was different for you, I don't know.

That's a curse to being a man You look for straight-forward solutions that can be applied on problems. But of course reality isn't that straight-forward and most of the times there are not step-by-step instructions that can be applied to problems. It's much more fluid. That's the best way, building a proper environmnent and set of circumstances that then allow emotional expression to naturally arise. Since it can't be forced, all you can do is try to minimize the blocks and see where that takes you. Again, it's a whole process that needs emotional investing and thought. Especially if both partners aren't that good at expressing emotions, it all quickly turns into a mess if none of them things about these things explicitly. But it's an interesting process, as you said, it's like a separate domain of consciousness work. Of course it comes together in a big picture with all the other stuff you're doing, but it also can be tackled separately. Yup

@VioletFlame Sorry to hear that. Loss of loved one is one of the most painful experiences that one can go through, but also a great opportunity to derive important lessens on life such as impermanence, roles of attachment and loss, etc. It all plays out in real-time. Stay strong 🙏🏻 I lost a father 2 years ago, he was quite young for an unexpected death, and I wasn't able to tell / show him my love the way I wanted. I'm sure your nana already knows that, but if you still have a week to be with her, talk and listen to what she has to say, that's a great opportunity to give much love for her future journey as she goes. Is she able to listen and talk?

@Oppositionless When you say you are able to locate the I after 3 months, what exactly do you mean? It just arises itself after doing the exercises, or you have that intention to locate the I while doing the practices? I'm asking because I also re-started my Kriya practice in last 1-2 weeks and would like to hear your perspective since you've had some progress.

Yes it's a very nuanced topic, lots of variables. I'm like that, and I felt I had a bit of a pressure to over-share emotions when I was in a recent relationship, when naturally I'd not do it. I don't know if that's wrong or not. Wrong in the sense that it requires some work to be fixed. I'm still trying to figure that out, some somatic practices help me with that, connect with my emotions more and observe why isn't there a need to share more of it. There can be shame, guilt, etc, that might be getting in the way. Of course you have to have an ability to feel and name your emotions, to then be able to share them. I observe most guys are not good at doing that. They are more in their minds then in bodies, where emotions reside. What helped me was journaling as well, just sharing my emotions with myself, not to a woman. It's a whole aspect of a self-discovery journey for me, to actually trigger pent-up emotions somehow to the surface (or daily more subtle emotions), and integrate them, seeing what they're up to. It's interesting because a huge part of experience is dictated by those. But still, even after doing a lot of emotional work, it doesn't mean that my personality will change drastically from somewhat stoic one to someone who just shares and is always open emotionally. I just want to figure out if anything is blocking the process, that's all. I think that's valuable, most guys will really appreciate that. That then creates more space for a man to open up emotionally and be more vulnurable. If a woman is just focused on herself and doesn't care about what I'm going through, there's something wrong with a relationship. I think in a healthy relationship both parties should care about each other needs and try to integrate and merge their own life priorities with their partner's ones, while also being able to stay independent. It's a tricky balance. That's why I feel like I'm not suitable for LTR at the moment because I'm way too focused on myself due to some pressing issues that I feel I need to fix. It's won't always be that way, comes as a phase from time to time.

[5/30] ✅ Sleep shedule 11-12 => 6-7 is still intact. Still trying to figure out a healthy way of handling sexual cravings while single. One thing is clear, porn or any other substitute detrimental. So that much is clear. Did meditation and yoga, still feel no progress but it's literally been couple days since I started so, no expectations. I've to continue this path for 6-12 months. I'm working towards 45-60m meditation sessions and 30-60m yogic sessions. Studied for 45m, I'm learning how to use Claude Code more efficiently, doing a course on it. Read for an hour. Caloric deficit and weight loss goes really well, already down to ~2kg. This is also 6-7 month journey so I need to get comfortable with the current routine, it will be like this for months to come. So, to summerize, everything goes relatively well, considering on where I was a month ago, in a total mess. Gradually all the things that I struggle now will get fixed, not all at one. I'll continue document my thoughts and processes here. Today's goals: Meditation, yoga, study, reading, caloric deficit, exercise, as usual. Doing TRE, breathwork. Starting (over again) no-porn or external stimulation counter from day 1/90 Good luck!

I think if you've watched a lot of Leo, contemplated a lot on your own, and even had Awakenings, you could skip the not knowing one. But still, it's full of juicy insights, so I'd spend some time going through it anyways. I find that Ralston is one of those individuals that whatever he produces publicly, I never regret consuming it over and over again. The book of not knowing is really good, I have read it 2 times and I'm sure if I read it 2 more times, I'll find more and more value in it. His books try to fascilitate contemplation, it's a very slow and contemplative read. You can't just skim through it, it feels like work when you read it.