Personal Growth

Yes, I’m wearing an eye patch now. And it’s finally time I told THE TRUTH about why my eye is… like that.

It begins with my mother.
After college, she took a solo Euro trip -- the kind of spiritually expansive journey you go on before seed oils ruin everything. She ends up in Crete. She is big into hiking, sunlight exposure, and keeping her circadian rhythm synced with Mediterranean daylight cycles. Just really living her best proto-biohacker life!
She goes hiking along the coast. There were caves. Of course, there were caves. And in one, there was this big opening in the roof where the sunlight streamed in like something out of a perfume commercial. She stood there, basking in the moment, contemplating her future -- so full of mystery and adventure...

The relentless seeker of wisdom and knowledge is sometimes rewarded with a "Satori experience" - a powerfully transformative moment of TOTAL spiritual clarity about your life and what you are in the world to do. In the past, I was skeptical of such things, but no longer because this happened to me this year. It was pretty mindblowing, and while I'm still processing it, I'm ready to talk about it. But in describing this, I prefer to use the Greek word Anakainōsis, which means a renewal, renovation, or complete change for the better. I like this word more, I'll tell you why a little later...

I was reading this entrepreneurship book, 10x Is Easier Than 2x, about exponential growth hacking in business and life. And I was getting really uncomfortable as I read it because it was calling out all the things I've been doing wrong with Limitless Mindset. All the ways I'd been limiting myself and the good I could do for you. It showed me how small I've been thinking. I've long prided myself on being a rule-breaker, a dissident, and an innovator, but this book showed me how I'm falling far short of my potential because mostly I'm unoriginal in my endeavors. This book reminded me that I must find what I can do uniquely well that virtually no one else on Earth is doing.

Over the past decade, I’ve followed a handful of podcasters and public thinkers whose work genuinely shaped me...

• They sharpened my thinking.
• They introduced tools I implemented.
• They accelerated my personal growth.

But something has changed. I’ll see a new episode drop. I’ll click. I’ll listen. And by the end, nothing new; just remixing, repackaging, and reiteration.

• Ideas I’ve already metabolized.
• Tactics I’ve already implemented.
• Wisdom that has already been digested.

I'm tremendously tempted to start internet drama by calling out a few of them, but I'm genuinely grateful to them, so instead I'll try to surmise why this is happening...

The story of how I met the disciple of the most hated man in the world is illustrative of how to (NOT) spend money on personal development...

I had just arrived in an exotic, new (to me) city...

I knew nobody there. I started by requesting to join the local Real Social Dynamics' wingman Facebook group. As I've explained elsewhere, my lifehack for forming intimate relationships fast is devoting my socializing time to high-affinity groups with deeply shared values; RSD-trained pickup artists are actually one of the best such groups. In the Facebook group, a cool-looking local guy had posted that he was offering free introductory pickup artist boot camps, which is infield dating coaching. I've never taken a boot camp, but have always been interested. If I had several thousand dollars just burning a hole in my pocket, I would do a boot camp.

He had posted a couple of indicators that he knew what he was doing, and it was a novel application of the freemium model, so I thought, why not? What do I have to lose? 
I contacted him and made what I thought was a generous offer of buying him dinner, and then we could go out at night and do the free coaching.
If he turned out to be an effective coach, I might purchase one of his coaching packages. If he sucked, then at least I would have explored the city a bit and had a stimulating conversation over a succulent meal.

The Internet is making everyone stupid, and that's a good thing!

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains is a book that dramatically changed how I view the Internet. You don't need to read this book because the title says it all - your suspicions are correct, the Internet is NOT very good for our minds.

While everyone else is hoping that 2026 will be a better year than those earlier this decade, I suggest that you think more about 2031...

And I know what you might be thinking…

When I originally recorded this video in a ridiculously cheap (yet very professionally run) coworking space in Kyiv (filled with tempting cookies and beautiful Ukrainian women working on their laptops), I didn't know about the importance of audio quality - it was an atrocious listening experience! I managed to fix this with AI in this upload - that's why I sound a little funny in this presentation, which could be invaluable to someone who wants to put their adult ADHD behind them.

I had a classic ADHD childhood

I had boundless energy that I channeled into serial passion projects; reading everything I could get my hands on about dinosaurs, aviation, World War 2 history, and even studying Islam for a while. I designed spaceships, created amateur action movies, and wrote science fiction stories as a creative outlet. I practiced Tae Kwon Do, Karate, swordsmanship, and breakdancing.

Perpetually a starter, rarely a finisher.

The only thing consistent was my bad grades. I was moved from one special ed program to another. I lacked social calibration, though I constantly tried to ingratiate myself with the most elite social group I could find. I was constantly trying to upgrade my social circle, but I didn't have what it took to be one of the cool kids, and I frequently found myself an outsider and a loner.

I was diagnosed with ADHD at age eight and given Ritalin.

I just finished this very entertaining and informative adventurer’s manifesto by Jon Levi, a behavioral scientist who likes to party.

This book follows the storytelling-rich principle, anecdote, and scientific reference format that makes non-fiction a pleasure to read. The author has a formula for epic experiences, but first…

Is stoicism past its due date as a mindset?

The philosophy articulated by the embattled Marcus Aurelius as his personal life and empire threatened to collapse around him in 170 BC. It's over 2000 years old, and we are now living in a world utterly inconceivable to even the most imaginative Roman aristocrat in the midst of a psychedelic Dionysian fever dream. Modernity seems architected to conflict directly with every facet of evolutionary psychology and the philosophical values that have edified men and women for millennia. While new science, thinking, and practice from the fields of Biohacking and personal growth seem to offer pragmatic solutions in a world doing its damnedest to claw away our free will with digital talons.
In a world utterly corrupted by politics, big business, big government, and devouring ideology, is stoicism as a mindset an individualistic "cope" to keep your metaphorical hands off pitchforks that should be raised?
That's the question I'll be exploring today with Will R. Young, a behavioral finance strategist, philosopher, top-performing superforecasters in the Good Judgment Project, author of a new book, "The Enough Equation," and avid surfer - he knows a thing or two about dodging shark fins.