Personal Growth

I interviewed Richard Harris - he’s a man in England with a beard and blue eyes that beam with the brilliance of a quasar.

He has one of the top channels on Odysee where he inspires thousands to reject the slavery that the modern world imposes upon us. In this wide-ranging conversation, we get deeply into the weeds, connecting the philosophical to the pragmatic...

Aristotle vs Plato.
Everything philosophically comes down to Aristotle vs Plato, especially personal growth.

Plato gave us the cave and the perfect Forms: the ideal versions of things that exist in a higher realm, of which our ordinary lives are only imperfect shadows. Aristotle rejected that separate realm. He was the empiricist, the realist who insisted we start with what is actually in front of us.
In our own development we face the same choice. We can take the Aristotelian path: clear-eyed, empirical, sometimes hard on ourselves, working with the person we actually are. Or we can lean Platonic and reach for the perfect version of ourselves that seems to exist somewhere beyond our current reality.

Neither is universally right. People have different tolerances for unvarnished truth. Some need the bracing realism of Aristotle. Others need the aspirational fire of Plato. That is why I distrust one-size-fits-all personal growth systems. You have to experiment. You have to stay relentlessly curious until you find the philosophy that actually fits your particular mind, body, and spirit.

You need a reality check on the relative state of comfort in your life.

We all do.
If you're listening to this podcast, you exist in a state of historically unprecedented material comfort...

Society puts smart people on quite a lofty pedestal but there are some real downsides to being highly intelligent.

2026 Update: I've spent the past 14 years doing lifestyle design experiments, trying to systematize and build habits to minimize the idiosyncrasies and insecurities that arise from my intellect. I've done a pretty good job of beating the "smart people problems." I put together a Lifestyle Plan flowchart that visually breaks it down, it's a peek into some of the wacky, unconventionally yet seriously effective lifestyle strategies that empower the pretty awesome life I have, get it here.

You read Limitless Mindset because you were either born a smart person (which, as you will see by the end of this article. is not such a lucky roll of the genetic dice) or on your way to becoming a very smart person. Whether you're a part of the club already or still (like me) paying your dues, some things suck about being smart...

My thoughts on a morbid National Geographic documentary about a guy named Ryan, who drinks himself to death. He has been drinking three pints of vodka a day for three years. Why I watched it twice...

Happiness is the enemy of the future. Happiness is like a mirage in the desert; it eludes your grasp when you most strive for it. And yet, in my first book, I wrote about how…

“I’ve found the happiness that I didn’t give a damn about…”

Here I’ll explain why not giving a damn about happiness makes you happier, quantitatively and qualitatively...

In this (admittedly overdue) June Q&A, we deliver anti-ultracrepidarian responses to your inquiries, ranging from mental health, repairing the brain, and biohacking belief to... geography. Mrs. Limitless is busy with the Limitless baby, so co-hosting is Joel Bein. He shares his innovative method for rapid belief change, we explore the subconscious roots of habits, and discuss Biohacking strategies for mental and "sexual sovereignty." Discover how to clear limiting beliefs in just 15 minutes and transform your life permanently; check out his Belief Clearing Guide and podcast.

In the film Inception, a team of espionage agents is highly compensated by multinationals to manipulate people through their dreams.

Lucid Dreaming is the closest thing outside of the silver screen to this. It's not hyperbole when I say that lucid dreaming can and will make your REM sleeping hours the most vividly exciting part of your day.

A few examples of my vivid and memorable experiences...

Aristotle said...

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

For most of history, true mastery of self-control and willpower was regarded as a mythological act or feat of accomplishment that could only be reached by individuals who were more than human.  Today, we are exceedingly lucky to live in a time when attitudes have matured, and the science of biology has quantified the factors that determine the degree of self-control we have and practice. This article will present some cutting-edge biohacking techniques along with some rare philosophical mindsets for significantly increasing your willpower, focus, and ability to resist addictive behaviors.

You’ve been sold sweet lies by the mainstream personal growth pop culture.

That you should “just be yourself.” That you should “go with the flow” of life more. That you can “manifest” the life you want via positive thinking. That you should “be kind to yourself” no matter what. That obsessive self-improvement feeds an inherent psychological defect somewhere in the murky depths of your being. That you should do less to get what you want.
These lies are comforting, and perhaps they work for some people. But not for me, and they probably won’t help you.
Those peddling them, for profit, or just because they are popular, underestimate just how detrimental a physical imperfection can be (we’ll explore this more in chapter 2). Doesn’t it seem that these bland platitudes often come from people - authors, influencers, gurus - who are conventionally attractive (or were for decades of their lives)? They are almost certainly also underestimating the significant advantage of being good-looking while misattributing their success to personal growth principles that appeal to the natural human bent toward laziness.
If you, like me, were cursed with a conspicuous physical imperfection, you must lifehack relentlessly. You need the underground, unconventional, barely legal, ride-the-ethical-edge shortcuts to what you want. If you’re not occasionally called a “control freak,” you’re underestimating the amount of agency you need to bring to bear in life. And when you’re called that, just do what I do: smirk.
You need to bring sharper tools to the project of architecting a beautiful life.