Nilsi

I want one of them as a cleaner. Probably does a better job than those robots.

Why did you decide to create a course instead of just offering consulting. I would imagine the latter is way more lucrative (in the beginning) and has a lower entrance barrier.

Dan Koe is a great resource for this. According to him, the key to success in this market place is to synthesize all your interests and expertise and thus create a totally unique product/service (your „Purple Cow“).

A serious relationship is probably the only place you shouldn’t do that. But in general, yes, being a good actor and is key to power.

According to Jordan Peterson it’s literally Agreeableness (Big 5 Trait).

I'm speechless... Much love to y'all...

I actually teared up a bit reading this, but I don’t really know what to say. Not that long ago I was also an aspiring musician and put my heart and life into it from roughly age 17-22; I even broke up with my girlfriend back then (I really loved her; haven’t had a serious relationship since - that was 5 years ago…), because I wanted to get rid of everything that could distract me from realizing this dream. I slowly outgrew this dream and have made my peace with it, but that’s taken a while - of course. But that‘s life: everything you love and cherish you will have to let go at some point — but once you truly let go, a blissful sense of relief will set in and pretty soon the next chapter of your life will unfold and a new love will start to grow. Maybe you are not ready to give this up, I don’t know, but that’s how I dealt with it.

You are still an organism. When I stop smoking or drinking coffe, I feel like aboslute shit the following days. Don't think you're above this.

…which would you take and why? I would pick async by Ryuichi Sakamoto. It‘s so universal, yet very human; at times beautiful, at times ugly; transcendent and immanent at the same time… Anyways, here is a cut I particularly like:

I think it became „popular“ in the wake of the enlightenment (the new rationalist revolution at the tail end of the dark ages). Descartes started this trend (and arguably the entire era of the enlightenment) with his famous „cogito ergo sum“ („I think therefore I am“), claiming that all we can really know is that we think and that this is the basis for all other knowledge (which is still a flawed idea, since even that is just an assumption - nonetheless a step in the right direction, considering the previous millennium of people taking scripture as absolute indisputable truth). Cartesians (his groupies) took this idea to it’s „logical“ conclusion and claimed that we can only ever know our own existence, since all other cogitos (subjects) are inaccessible to our own intellect (- it’s not hard to see why such a worldview would be brutally isolating and bleak). That‘s where Kant and the tradition of German Idealism stepped in to save the subject from it‘s alienation and imprisonment and differentiated the transcendental subject (I-I) from the ego subject (I). Finally the subject (I) could form genuine relationships with other subjects again and was freed from it‘s „egoic solipsism“ (for lack of a better word; the kind of solipsism people are still bitching and moaning about on this forum) Something like that.

The more interesting question in my opinion is what‘s the underlying condition/state of consciousness of an organism asking such a question?

I used to be a sucker for Midwest Emo back in highschool.

... and rediscover yourself anew - for all eternity.

This is incredibly profound stuff on the concept of the "mask."

There is nothing behind this mask though -- THAT'S THE TRICK! You can keep peeling away masks forever and you will never get to the bottom of it, so chill out and enjoy the carnival.

I hope this doesn't make me look like a leftist and I'm usually not one to seek the problem out there, but this guy Mark Fisher puts forward a really profound and compelling sociological analysis on mental health and it kinda stuck with me:

Many indigenous societies have access to enough dope to be shitfaced till the literal end of history, yet in 9/10 cases they are extremely functional and healthy - that says it all.

I view addiction as more of a historical curisoty, as opposed to being some underlying biological reality. It's THE symptom of Nihilism and works as follows: Late-stage capitalism and consumerism offers us unprecedented access to all of human culture and history, ironically resulting in a profound sense of alienation from all tradition. The historical process is rendered completely meaningless and self-knowledge is turned into yet another commodity. Think about Fukuyama's prophecy of the "End of History" - the perceived triumph of the enlightement, as embodied by American liberal democracy, over all other ideologies. The dominance of modern science and it's cultural monopoly on "truth" (privileged over any other epistemologies, or aesthetic/moral claims), culminates in someone like Bryan Johnson literally selling their soul and free will to the mechanistic clockwork of scientific realism. Take this guys supplements away and I guarantee you he would suffer from a panic attack. And of course, how could we forget Hegel and dialectical Christianity - the ghost that keeps on haunting; throwing us into the eternal rat-race of becoming more "whole;" an incessant cycle of so called "self-development;" the carrot of "perfection" dangling in front of us - always BARELY out of reach -- while we remain forever "ignorant" to some new "injustice" that is yet to be taken responsibility for. The outcome of this mess: the historical alienation, scientific hegemony, and quasi-philosophical pursuit is a self-imposed, sealed fate. We find ourselves trapped in an endless rat race; the Wheel of Ixion, where we spin ceaselessly in a desolate landscape of nihilism. As we grapple with addiction, it becomes the lifeline we cling to in this seemingly bleak world of perpetual anguish. It is the coping mechanism that provides a semblance of control and comfort in a reality that appears futile and unendingly miserable. So, addiction is the proverbial straw we cling to in a world seemingly devoid of meaning.

"Lift up your hearts, my brothers, high, higher! And for my sake don't forget your legs! Raise up your legs, you fine dancers, and better yet, stand on your heads! This crown of the man who laughs, this crown wreathed with roses—I have placed this crown on myself. I speak out my holy laughter to myself. Today I found no one else strong enough for that. Zarathustra the dancer, Zarathustra the light hearted, who beckons with his wings, a man ready to fly, hailing all birds, prepared and ready, a careless and blessed man. Zarathustra the truth-teller, Zarathustra the true laugher, not an impatient man, not a man of absolutes, someone who loves jumps and leaps to the side—I placed the crown on myself! This crown of the laughing man, this crown of rose wreaths: my brothers I throw this crown to you! Laughter I declare sacred: you higher men, for my sake learn to laugh!" - Friedrich Nietzsche

If you insist on giving Macchiavellian psychopaths even more power, fine. The only thing preventing this type from gutting the lower and middle class alive are antitrust/consumer-protection laws, welfare programs, human rights, etc. Get rid of these checks and balances and you will be in for one hell of a rude awakening.

Unironically a good pick.

I like it. Sounds exactly like what I'd imagine your favorite album to sound

Everyone will fall into this trap at some point in their journey. Good on you, for recognizing it so early. I would challenge the idea that you have to "evolve yourself towards Godhood" though. What are you really saying? Is that not just a different way of saying "you have to slowly get rid of the ego." This is why I like Nietzsche so much, because he will tell you it's all about affirming life, as it is; coming face to face with the eternal tragedy of life and saying yes to it nonetheless; that the true nature of infinity is finitude; that the one is the many... You seem very sincere. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for sooner or later, if you keep going like that.

Work?