The Renaissance Man

I probably didn't fully understand what you mean by "why" in my answer

I only listen to mongolian throat singing. It's absolute goodness-God-antievil-enlightened masters. I only trust teachers who listen to this.

it's a cult, we've all been brainwashed

@OBEler lol

You don't need to do that whole process to get into entrepreneurship. Plenty of people don't. I believe people just have a drive for more... and in most cases, for more money, and that's it. I believe what you said is useful, and is a more conscious way to do it, but even blindly venturing into entrepreneurship, "unconscously" if you want, will teach you A LOT. One can get a lot of experience and wisdom just going in trying to make money at all costs. When you're broke, not being poor will be a much stronger driver than purpose or consciousness. It's Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I believe there's no best time, and that even if you go into it unconsciously but actually make the experience, even if it's not aligned to your purpose, you'll be much better off than philosophising.

In terms of content, you must cover what you love, otherwise you're never going to have the drive to do enough to succeed. But you can do that in a smart way. Then, understand doing Youtube well is hard as fuck. Don't underestimate what goes behind the videos that make millions of views. The theme, the charisma, the editing, the lighting, the storytelling. In media you have one or more professionals for each. Here you have to do everything yourself, and you have to become very good at it. Finally, a lot of consistency is required. Years of going on trying to master your craft relentlessly, posting video after video and every time improving. If you skip a single point, you can say bye bye to your Youtube success. If you don't, in a few years you may be surprised. Don't expect people to just watch your videos because you made the effort of making them lol. Would you actually watch your own videos, with the sea of competition that there's out there? You've got to find ways to be unique, otherwise I'm always going to choose the Youtube that does the same thing you do, but with 1 million subs.

@undeather Thank you! I eat the vast majority of my protein from lean unprocessed chicken (the rest from the rest of the diet), but I'll try to include more legumes and fish to make my protein intake more varied

Why is that?

You keep stabbing yourself in the foot because you're not conscious enough. Otherwise you couldn't sabotage yourself. Becoming conscious is easier said than done, otherwise we all would be perfectly disciplined with only good habits. But regardless of how hard it is, that's ultimately the root cause of the problem. If you focus your efforts there, you'll see true, long-lasting progress. How the fuck do you become more conscious then? Well, it's the ultimate problem. You're fighting with the nature of the ego. I found a few VERY helpful ways, that are transforming my life. I suggest you experiment and try stuff beyond what I'm going to say, as it's a blog post and I honestly won't bother writing a thesis on self-deception. Understand the root of the problem (why do I keep behaving this way if I know it's wrong?). It's so helpful to not just tackle the surface like "I act impulsive so I will force myself to not act impulsive". Understanding Survival (Leo's video) has been very revelatory on this. The defense mechanism your mind will use is distraction. Proactively dedicate time to reflect on those experiences. Just sit and think, nothing fancy. But actually do it every day. "What did I say, what was the reaction, why did I act like that, where did it come from (it's often some kind of trauma and resentment)". Leo's video on Developing Introspection is a major key in this practice. You can also use a journal to give your ideas some more order, although using thought will add an emotional aspect to it that I found very helpful. Understand the situation deeply. Why you desire to share your opinions, why that's wrong (or not), how would a positive interaction look like, why would that be a positive interaction, what's the role of authenticity in communication, what's the role of understanding the perspective of others, actually understanding the perspective of others (spiral dynamics can be an introduction), openmindedness, and everything concerning communication really. It's complex as you can see. But look around you. If it was simple everybody would've fixed their emotional and instinctive problems. Pay attention to every word of the 3 points I listed. Don't skim through them. Leo made hours and hours of content on those topics, a few lines of text are the bare minimum. I'm seeing massive progress in my life adopting these principles. I'm not parroting some teacher. How would I apply practically the 3 points? I'd study Leo's videos on Survival for point 1. Simple as that. I'd dedicate some time every day to sit and think with eyes closed, and to contemplate. 30 minutes of thinking + contemplating one topic EVERY DAY should be a must. The 30 minutes can be split up. Leo's video on developing introspection will give you a ton of examples on what to observe and contemplate about your own mind deceiving itself. Observing and learning, seeking first-principle understanding, and not surface level trusting other teachings. Points 1 and 2 are an absolute MUST. Point 3 is something you can build up gradually, by observing and learning. If doing point 3 is too much, just set 1 and 2 as a priority, and 3 as an extra if you have spare time and energy.

Calories in, calories out. You can eat shit and not gain weight as long as you don't eat more than you burn. Try 1.5x the amount of food you eat and you'll see the magic of fatness.

@28 cm unbuffed Lol Conflict of interest is a real damn thing. I believe people who have had success with women, successful "redpillers" know very well that money and status is not the full picture. As if a rich shy creep could have that much success. No way. It's not a belief, you can observe it. I lived it when I was trying to sell my services, and at the same time had to provide some value on social media. I couldn't reveal the full picture. It was before knowing Leo, so I was much less mature, and I wanted to rely on arrogance and selling absolute certainty, since others had success behaving that way. Pure orange. It could also be that they place riches over everything in dating because of ignorance and lack of awareness. BTW it was kind of a joke too. It's clear that not everybody in the red pill has get rich quick courses to sell. But there's surely some truth there

This could be one of my best insights yet, and could help explaining a lot of what spirituality is, using logic. What's the relationship between being conscious (as an attribute of an ego) and infinite consciousness? Being conscious is not something absolute, as there can be more and less conscious people. We can all agree on that. You can be more or less conscious. Is there a level where this attribute is at zero? I'd say with a rock. A rock is not conscious. It may be consciousness, but it's not conscious (right?) Survival = Maintaining a virtual boundary from infinite consciousness = Ego Ego is what's being survived, not the physical body (see video series by Leo on Survival). Martyrs will sacrifice their bodies to survive the ego. So it seems like being conscious is actually something inherent to the ego and survival. Being conscious is not thus absolutely true, since it's inherent to the ego. That's the first distinction from infinite consciousness. Then my question is: what's the relationship between levels of being conscious and infinite consciousness? Is "being conscious" even the correct expression? Q1 - It seems the relationship is in the sense that as an ego becomes "more conscious", it gets better and better at unwinding self-deception. You could say perception becomes more accurate. Accuracy of perception = How conscious you are. This would also imply that if you want to become more conscious, you need to directly work on the accuracy of your perception. The most accurate perception would be nondual, nonbiased, and all of that beautiful stuff. It would be 100% true. Q2 - I feel like the expression "being conscious" can deceive you, since it's a relative concept, and the word "conscious" makes it seem like it's absolute. I think a better expression could be along the lines of "being aligned to truth, or to reality". It would make it much easier to understand what being conscious means, and how to frame self-actualization practices. Let me make another logical guess here: We said as we become "more conscious", we get closer to truth. That's the definition of it. Does this also mean that if there's a prevalence of certain kinds of emotions in conscious people when interfacing the whole of reality, those emotions are more metaphysical and not "just emotions"? - Lower stages are unable to integrate, so they will hate and receive resistance from the environment (for example other societies) - Higher stages are better at integrating, so they will love more, as they see more of the world as part of their ego. The result will be that lower stages will feel more hate, while higher stages more love. Is this why Leo says Love isn't an emotion, but an actual metaphysical aspect of reality? Is this the process that leads to discovery of the various facets of awakening? Meaning what does remain when you strip everything? If something remains which is not the ego, then that's actually a metaphysical aspect. Having first principles understanding of how self-actualization works can save you from months and years of mistakes from blindly trusting teachers. Obviously, I still keep an open mind, I may be wrong. The logic I used may have fallacies. The only thing I'm lacking is an awakening experience. But I've been able to notice how accuracy of perception = quality of life and how conscoius you are, and how accuracy of perception = love. I also have been able to notice directly some of the devilry of the ego, and how what I'm surviving is not just my physical body. I've grounded as much as possible in direct experience, while assuming (for now) infinite conscoiusness as the nature of reality.

@bebotalk Of course! Otherwise how could they sell you courses on how to become rich?

If we're talking about poor countries, then yes. Malnutrition also affects IQ heavily during development. But there are diminishing returns to that law. If a person isn't rich in a developed country it's probably because of culture rather than nutrition. By that I mean limiting beliefs, lack of discipline, distractions, and whatever influences that convince you that a 9-5 is better than risking entrepreneurship. While it's true the average person's nutrition habits could be a lot better, I believe the impact on cognition isn't so radical. I even think (I don't have evidence), that if you only consider the population above poverty, basically where they can always afford food, even if they may make sacrifices elsewhere, that you wouldn't see much difference compared to rich people, if you look at the entire diet and lifestyle. And finally, a lot of IQ is genetic. Once you aren't malnourished, your potential shouldn't be affected by much by the circumstances. And I'm sure the correlation between IQ and healthy habits is there. So the correlation between health and wealth MAY be caused by genetics.

@Someone here It's like hedonism vs eudaimonia. One is pleasure the other is fulfillment. One is dopamine the other is serotonin. Happiness is generally intended as the 2nd. The 1st is pleasure that has a higher peak, but then fades quickly.

@trenton I suggest you watch Leo's video on nihilism. Anyway, I'm also grappling with this a bit, and the mindset I'm shifting to, and it's making me feel much happier, is to follow my intuition more. I can't follow meaning anymore since meaning is not real. So I am getting more and more in tune with what is FUN, what I FEEL is right, what is AUTHENTIC to me, my values, my personality. I don't know if this can work for everybody. I combine this with careful awareness of how I feel and what I want. Following my intuition doesn't mean falling into endless addictions and instant gratification, or being rude and egotistical to people, as it's too apparent that it will not lead to the fulfillment and happiness I want. I can OBSERVE how integrity makes me so much happier than hedonism. Basically I'm stopping giving a shit about how things "should" be, and I'm starting to build a new model of what I do that's based on "feeling good". Because, if there's no meaning, then the best thing you can do is to live the best life possible.

The model "levels of transformation" explains how different stages will need different approaches to improve in life. I feel like this model describes the evolution of your behavioral drivers for improvement. Basically, the lower you are on the scale, the lower your energy will be, and the unhealthier your driver for improvement will be. At the same time, you can't jump up more than 1-2 levels, as it would be too far from where you currently are, and wouldn't be effective. The levels from "worst" to "best" so we all have them in front of us: PS - He talks about those in his videos plenty of times, so I'm not divulgating some paid secret material. Apathy Grief Fear Anger Courage Desire Purpose Love He says this model is original to him. This is quite different from spiral dynamics. I think it maps an entirely different aspect of the psyche, although higher spiral levels may gravitate toward higher "transformation levels". Do you know other resources that could help understand this model? Maybe some other psychological models that are similar, or some other principles that explain this evolution in other terms and more detail. My question for you, please only answer if you have some well-thought opinions and ideally experience. What's your experience with the model? What's your opinion and why? Did you actually find it practical and effective? I'm especially talking about the model and how you progress through the levels, not about the "letting go" technique.

This thread has an interesting point on that: 3. All Egos desire attention of some kind, this is rooted in the Egos desire to share their accumulated experiences with an OTHER. Egos love to feel connected. Why? It may be because evolutionarily it's helpful to be a tribe rather than individual. But take this with a grain of salt lol. The answer is either in survival or in spirituality. And I know very little about spirituality, zero from direct experience.

@rachMiel It already is a reality (trophy wives/husbands). If you have something rare and hard to get, and others know it, that will equal some status.

Exactly, same for me. At the same time, I'm nobody to say what's possible to know. But I see spiritual teachers debating all the time so.... you can probably only speculate about another individual's experience and not have direct experience of it. It may be possible to have insights into absolute truth, but having proof of another individual's state of consciousness may be at the same level of using psychic powers to create a table out of thin air in front of you. Edit - I have zero experience with spirituality, that's why I say "it may be". But I still see spiritual debates between "enlightened people".

@Schizophonia Liquid substances if you want, not really food. But that's alright man I'm not trying to convince you if half a liter works for you that's all good I can also drink less and not feel thirsty, and honestly my recommendation comes from cross-referencing a lot, and it seems like everyone is pointing to what I said. I haven't conducted experiments on myself. At the same time, I rather drink more than I need to, than risk being on the edge and having performance decreases here and there. Doesn't cost me anything and I know it's surely not unhealthy

@Schizophonia 3 liters is not that much for a grown man.

If it doesn't correspond to actual reality it will backfire in all sorts of ways. Nobody has perfect thinking but if the point of self-improvement is to improve (how crazy). Also, what's the point in making this post? To preach?

If your pee is clear and you drink 3L of water per day, you're alright. Hydration is pretty simple, as are the basics of nutrition: calories, macros, whole foods & vegetables & hydration, and you're done, you have a diet that's 95% optimized.

Distraction, immediate pleasure, lower stages of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, are much more sensitive for the brain. It's more useful for survival to seek whatever brings you immediate pleasure, rather than philosophize and have self-discipline. It's not like a dog walking away from fresh meat. Animals don't have these concerns, and will shoot themselves in the foot plenty of times, just reacting to their instincts and causing unnecessary trouble. Higher needs such as fulfillment will always be weaker in comparison to lower ones. Leo's series on Survival explains those concepts very well. He talks about "levels of survival strategies". Lower levels will be more primitive and useful in basic scenarios, while higher levels are the more human ones, the spiritual and self-actualizing ones. Lower and higher level strategies will often contrast each other. Biases and traumas are a low level strategy. They're useful in navigating a complex world and learn from suffering, but they can backfire as an adult who wants to self-actualize. Everything you do is or has been useful for your survival at some point. Just like pain, it's there for a reason. Without it you'd be dead. It's the same for laziness and procrastination.