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I sometimes think "The Young Napoleon Bonaparte Studying At The Military Academy" is the hardest painting of all time

Tucker Carlson: "Moscow has not been degraded by postmodern architecture that destroys your spirit" Chris Cuomo: "You believe postmodern architecture is designed to kill your spirit?!" Tucker: "Of course." Cuomo: "Why?" Tucker's answer will blow your mind. A rant for the ages:

Nietzsche asking the hard questions

> therapy is invented > 120 years pass > everyone's more anxious, neurotic, and depressed than even before how did this happen?

Women: "Do men even have feelings?" Meanwhile men:

> humans suffer from a recurring problem > eureka! solution found > solution becomes a "tradition" > future generations dont have the problem > as they cant see the problem, they think the tradition is useless > tradition thrown away "muh efficiency" "muh progress" > problem back

Nietzsche asking the hard questions

Women: "Do men even have feelings?" Meanwhile men:

Tucker Carlson: "Moscow has not been degraded by postmodern architecture that destroys your spirit" Chris Cuomo: "You believe postmodern architecture is designed to kill your spirit?!" Tucker: "Of course." Cuomo: "Why?" Tucker's answer will blow your mind. A rant for the ages:

Nietzsche asking the hard questions

> therapy is invented > 120 years pass > everyone's more anxious, neurotic, and depressed than even before how did this happen?

Nietzsche asking the hard questions

> be some bored shitposter > write a kino monologue that overturns the message of the biggest film in history > the monologue, which isn't actually in the film, has a bigger fanbase and cultural impact than the film itself > refuse to explain further > leave

Women: "Do men even have feelings?" Meanwhile men:

After the French revolutionaries beheaded their king, they had another bright idea: "Let's make the day 10 hours long" This is NOT a joke. Left-wing "experts" actually changed the length of minutes, hours, and weeks in the name of science... This is the story of that disaster:

REMINDER that Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in a mental asylum, Dostoevsky wrote "The Gambler" to pay off gambling debts, and Dickens wrote "The Christmas Carol" when he was broke and his wife on their 5th child. Stress has produced more art than "slow saturdays" ever will

This is why therapy often backfires

After the French revolutionaries beheaded their king, they had another bright idea: "Let's make the day 10 hours long" This is NOT a joke. Left-wing "experts" actually changed the length of minutes, hours, and weeks in the name of science... This is the story of that disaster:

Elon Musk very different beast than his BBC interviewer Elon clearly driven by a sense of destiny - he says twitter HAD to be brought, the PAIN LEVEL of running it is high, but all is well that ENDS well The reporter's brain is overwhelmed by the desire to conform - "people boo'ed you at the Chappelle show"🤣 For the reporter, getting boo'ed is the worst possible outcome, but for Elon, due to his tendency to go on Impossible Tasks, getting boo'ed is part of life Beyond a certain level of intensity, ambition, and drive, of course "normal" people will start squirming around you. Elon knows this and has made his peace with it a long time ago

You, a modern biohacker: No screens after 8, melatonin gummies, eye mask Meanwhile Napoleon:

You, a modern biohacker: No screens after 8, melatonin gummies, eye mask Meanwhile Napoleon:

Only Ayn Rand was smart enough to predict that incompetence and an ENVY for excellence will lead to dystopian social outcomes. Orwell thought we'd need total mind control, Huxley thought we'd need a permanently drugged populace, but Rand knew: all you need is resentment

> neil degrasse tyson > space scientist > has no interest in exploring space behold the ideal Public Intellectual

This is Joe Overton The famous "Overton Window" is named after him It's the best mental model for understanding how political change ACTUALLY happens A thread...

Napoleon was a master orator But we would NOT know this without Balzac In 1838, Balzac went through all of Napoleon speeches And saved his best insights in a book 10 bangers from the king👇🏻 1/ "I found the Crown of France lying in the gutter, and picked it up with my sword."

This banger has haunted me for years

I sometimes think "The Young Napoleon Bonaparte Studying At The Military Academy" is the hardest painting of all time

This banger has haunted me for years

Distance is the acid test for love

Nietzsche describes 3 modern vices

Distance is the acid test for love

Nietzsche asking the hard questions

Beauty is unbearable to the spiritually ugly

This is why therapy often backfires

This is why therapy often backfires

Women: "Do men even have feelings?" Meanwhile men:

The king was arrested in the French Revolution 1 man volunteered to be his lawyer With the king, he was beheaded too Decades later, the lawyer's grandson wrote a book on the DARK SIDE of democracy, equality, & liberalism His name: Tocqueville. Book became a classic. A thread:

Nietzsche wrote in 1889 that overworking is a "modern vice." You get lost in a thousand little things that don't matter so you have an excuse to avoid the 2-3 big things that are heavy, difficult, and important. Work becomes a tool not for power, or even happiness, but evasion...

This banger has haunted me for years

The king was arrested in the French Revolution 1 man volunteered to be his lawyer With the king, he was beheaded too Decades later, the lawyer's grandson wrote a book on the DARK SIDE of democracy, equality, & liberalism His name: Tocqueville. Book became a classic. A thread:

Nikola Tesla: Self-taught Wright Brothers: Self-taught Hermann Hesse: Self-taught Henry Ford: Self-taught Van Gogh: Self-taught Ray Bradbury: Self-taught Hemingway: Self-taught Galileo Galilei: Self-taught Lesson: You can learn anything. Choose speed not credentials.

Bill Watterson created Calvin and Hobbes and got featured in 2,400 newspapers worldwide... Then he rejected a film offer from Spielberg & LOST $400 million by never agreeing to a merchandizing deal On Watterson's 66th birthday today... Discover 11 lessons from a real maverick:

You need to be vocabulary maxxing because there are some thoughts you'll only have if you have the words for them. Nietzsche: "We have only the particular thought for the words that are present in our minds." Knowing more words means giving more clay to your mind to sculpt ideas

Nietzsche describes 3 modern vices

> therapy is invented > 120 years pass > everyone's more anxious, neurotic, and depressed than even before how did this happen?

This banger has haunted me for years

This is why therapy often backfires

Ayn Rand explains how the world's problems are caused by men who refuse to judge

Carl Jung once noted the 7 psychological traits of great men:

After the French revolutionaries beheaded their king, they had another bright idea: "Let's make the day 10 hours long" This is NOT a joke. Left-wing "experts" actually changed the length of minutes, hours, and weeks in the name of science... This is the story of that disaster:

C.S. Lewis almost died in the trench warfare of WW-I Became best friends with Tolkien Sold 100 million books On the cusp of WW-II, he gave an iconic lecture at Oxford University (1939) His question: Does beauty matter when bombs start falling? THIS is his profound answer👇🏻

Why is a man worth $6.2 billion trying to tell me communism works

John Fowles explains in "The Aristos" (1964) how high IQ can subvert your will to act: "High intelligence leads to multiplicity of interest and a sharpened capacity to foresee the consequences of any action. Will is lost in a labyrinth of hypothesis." Rule 1: Do not lose the will

Nietzsche describes 3 modern vices

Napoleon was unstoppable because he understood the paradox of prep

Nikola Tesla: Self-taught Wright Brothers: Self-taught Hermann Hesse: Self-taught Henry Ford: Self-taught Van Gogh: Self-taught Ray Bradbury: Self-taught Hemingway: Self-taught Galileo Galilei: Self-taught Lesson: You can learn anything. Choose speed not credentials.

Nietzsche asking the hard questions

Mozart on when his ideas flowed best

John Fowles explains in "The Aristos" (1964) how high IQ can subvert your will to act: "High intelligence leads to multiplicity of interest and a sharpened capacity to foresee the consequences of any action. Will is lost in a labyrinth of hypothesis." Rule 1: Do not lose the will

This banger has haunted me for years

10 concepts that explain the modern world 1. Parkinson’s Law: Companies become bigger and worse over time. Clerks manufacture work for each other as overall capacity dips. When British Navy ships went down from 68 to 20, officials increased by 78%. 2. Chesterton Fence: If you don’t know what an old custom does, don’t touch it. It may be holding back problems you’re completely unaware of. You’ve not seen the wolves yet because of the very fence you’re about to demolish. 3. The Medici Effect: Sculptors, painters, and architects converged in Florence as the Medicis were funding the artists. Their proximity led to a fertile dialogue which, in turn, led to the Renaissance. The internet will amplify this cross-pollination of ideas. 4. The Centipede's Dilemma: Ask a centipede which one of its hundred legs moves the fastest and it forgets how to move. Reflecting on what we normally do without thought ironically worsens performance. A culture of endless self-reflection, therapy, and navel gazing is eroding important life skills. 5. Tyranny of small decisions: Individuals make small decisions to maximize convenience but this leads to massive social failure. We nod along to contagious ideas like “gender is fluid” because resisting them is too much work - till kids start getting transgender surgery. The slippery slope is not a fallacy but a fundamental reality. 6. The Zebra Effect explains why people don’t want to stand out. Zebras are hard to individually study as it's nearly impossible to track one of them for long (lost in the striped chaos). So scientists once put a big red dot on one zebra so he could be tracked & studied. Lions zeroed in on him and hunted him with ease. Getting lost among others is a survival mechanism. Hence the human desire to conform. 7. Why the ruler can’t rule: The executive head can’t implement his ideas on ground because the bureaucrats are closer to it, and have an agenda of their own. The Tzar of Russia had to deal with the Deep State too. Nicholas II: “I never ruled Russia. 10,000 clerks ruled Russia.” 8. Gall's law: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. Only fools and modern technocrats try to create complex systems from scratch. 9. Minimal Self Hypothesis: Narcissism is a “strategic retreat” into the safety of one’s own self. When the future looks random, inexplicable, and informationally overwhelming, people enter survival mode. The self becomes “minimal” to reduce its surface area to pain. People today are giving up on commitment of all sorts to conserve energy for vague and upcoming disasters. 10. Tetris Syndrome: The world will eventually start looking like Tetris blocks if you play the game too much. What we do most often becomes the metaphor through which we look at the world. Takeaway: Most people today are addicted to their 2D phones - and this will hurt the general aptitude for dealing with the 3D world.

Everything beautiful, charming, and analog will be destroyed by a flat black screen You must never see a sculpted bust Never hear music from an actual instrument Never feel the texture of real things A silicon slab (and Tim Cook) will permanently stand between u and the world

Only Ayn Rand was smart enough to predict that incompetence and an ENVY of excellence will lead to dystopian social outcomes. Orwell thought we'd need total mind control, Huxley thought we'd need a permanently drugged populace, but Rand knew: all you need is resentment

Enter a high-ceilinged room and 3x your creativity. This actually happens and it's called "The Cathedral Effect." The higher the ceiling, the more *space* your thoughts get to stretch and soar. This is why you feel more creative in cathedrals, airports, and under the open sky...

Napoleon was unstoppable because he understood the paradox of prep

Napoleon was unstoppable because he understood the paradox of prep

You, a modern biohacker: No screens after 8, melatonin gummies, eye mask Meanwhile Napoleon:

NO one has ever painted contemplation better than Caspar David Friedrich

Distance is the acid test for love

Napoleon: don’t overthink it

John Fowles explains in "The Aristos" (1964) how high IQ can subvert your will to act: "High intelligence leads to multiplicity of interest and a sharpened capacity to foresee the consequences of any action. Will is lost in a labyrinth of hypothesis." Rule 1: Do not lose the will

Demonic inversion You say "Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to CREATE" But the video shows a thousand beautiful things being DESTROYED

REMINDER that Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in a mental asylum, Dostoevsky wrote "The Gambler" to pay off gambling debts, and Dickens wrote "The Christmas Carol" when he was broke and his wife on their 5th child. Stress has produced more art than "slow saturdays" ever will

If you're competing against someone who's low in agreeableness, high in openness, high in conscientiousness, and low in neuroticism, just give up. It's over for you

Mozart on when his ideas flowed best

Serious question What do the hyper-productive know that most people don't?

Goethe wrote in 1833 that a culture of constant news eviscerates the past and the future, leaving you no time to metabolize lessons or sketch out a plan, always pulling you into the whirlpool of Something Important Happening Somewhere

What happened to this type of man

Orwell v/s Huxley That last line will haunt me...

I love Nietzsche's definition of friendship, which is "people with whom you share one great suffering and one great hope." You can't be friends unless you hate the same things and worship the same Gods

Nietzsche on the most important choice you'll ever face

What do the hyper-productive know that most people don't?

Liberal democracy: jailed for memes Meanwhile Napoleon the dictator:

The most important thing you'll read this Sunday... Nietzsche's brutal takedown of the modern cult of busyness

The Nerd-Jock Dichotomy Is False Let me show you 10 writers who lived like action heroes 1/ Ernst Jünger

10 concepts (from Ancient Rome) that explain the modern world: 1. The Tacitus Razor: “If you want to know who controls you, see who you’re not allowed to criticize.” This is how comedians accidently reveal a society's hierarchy—they call everyone naked, and soon discover who the king is. 2. The Slavery Syndrome. Roman historian Sallust: “Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.” Genuine liberty means making decisions 24/7; parsing right from wrong; solving pesky dilemmas using nothing but one’s own mind. Liberty is thus too cognitively taxing for most…people would rather outsource their agency. 3. The Polybius Warning: 2nd century B.C. historian Polybius warned that a falling birthrate precedes civilizational collapse. Fewer births mean men and women have checked out. Sloth grows, spiritual concerns are replaced by material ones, and population falls. Polybius believed the Greek civilization fell due to its “low birth rate…” 4. The Pliny Principle: Rene Descartes pinned bodily existence onto the mind—“I think, therefore I am”—but Ancient Rome’s magistrate, Pliny the Younger, said it was the other way around: “It is wonderful how the mind is stirred and quickened into activity by brisk bodily exercise.” Only physical exertion leads to healthy mental activity… 5. The Uses of Folly. Roman historian Herodotus: “If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad.” Fun is your brain stretching, dancing, moving without the shackles of logic. You need it. Lesson: Combine monumental sincerity with...some trolling. 6. The Vitruvius Rule: Modern architects love asymmetrical structures, but Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius said a building out of proportions is like a deformed body. Nature herself “composed the human body” and the rest of creation using “due proportions.” The Vitruvius Rule: No symmetry? Off to cemetery. 7. The Tyranny of Laws: More laws don’t mean a more just society. Tacitus: “The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.” Make a million laws and you can catch anyone for anything, anytime you want. 8. The Cassius Hypothesis: Historian Cassius wrote that while monarchy needed only one man to make the right decision, democracy needed millions. Which one is more likely to succeed? No wonder, Cassius wrote, that “successes have always been greater and more frequent under kings than under popular rule…” 9. The Livy Effect: Historian Livy lived through the Roman Civil War and discovered the butterfly effect 2000 years before the chaos theorists: “Events of great consequence often spring from trifling circumstances.” Politics, economics, human decisions, ideas…they form one giant mesh of life, and tiny acts can snowball. 10. The Juvenal Principle: “Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.” Roman poet Juvenal believed a “long peace” was as evil as a war. The modern world needs to heed Juvenal's warning against luxury. To let “bread and circuses” sedate us into inaction is to betray our very soul...

This quote has been stuck in my head for hours

Nietzsche describes the resentful man...a chilling passage

Modern art is bad because artists have forgotten the paradox of originality

Nietzsche describes the resentful man...a chilling passage

SOURCE of modern man's weakness, stupidity, and general lack of vitality? His leisure activities Aldous Huxley predicted the degeneracy of modern amusements in a 103 year old essay: Pleasures (1920) Huxley on why and how to radically rewire the way you spend your free time👇🏻

Feminism's first mistake

C.S Lewis almost died in the trench warfare of WW-I Became best friends with Tolkien. Sold 100 million books... On the cusp of WW-II, he gave an iconic lecture at Oxford University (1939) His question: Does beauty matter when bombs start falling? THIS is his profound answer👇🏻

I love Nietzsche's definition of friendship, which is "people with whom you share one great suffering and one great hope." You can't be friends unless you hate the same things and worship the same Gods

Reject slow saturdays. Reject meditation retreats. Dostoevsky wrote his books to pay off gambling debt. Dickens was broke and on his fifth child when he wrote "The Christmas Carol" (200 million copies sold). You don't need work life balance—you need pressure. You need to be GREAT

In 1997, Hans Eysenck died the most cited psychologist in the world. THEN he was posthumously cancelled. An enquiry said his work was "unsafe" Code for "problematic but TRUE" Eysenck studied human intelligence and discovered 8 traits common to geniuses across history. A thread:

Women: "Do men even have feelings?" Meanwhile men:

Aldous Huxley explains how communists won’t stop until every last man is an NPC

SOURCE of modern man's weakness, stupidity, and general lack of vitality? His leisure activities Aldous Huxley predicted the degeneracy of modern amusements in a 103 year old essay: Pleasures (1920) Huxley on why and how to radically rewire the way you spend your free time👇🏻