Personal Growth

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.

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.

With the summer season upon us, my podcast assistant par excellence and I elucidate and illuminate in this Q&A. From questions about entrepreneurship, passive income, and the most dire of mighty morality dilemmas dividing a young Moroccan man to delving into Dark Triad brain training and curing COVID-vaccine-caused cancer (yes, I said it!) And my erudite assistant shares a few thoughts on my recently released science fiction/cyberpunk thriller novel about seduction, biohacking, and philosophy.

If you don't suffer from even a bit of "toxic comparison" good for you, but almost all of us do nowadays.

In case you're unfamiliar with the phrase (not sure if I invented it), this refers to the all-too-human tendency to compare ourselves to others and fixate on our failings and where we come up short. Your buddy has a hot girlfriend and you're single and can't seem to get a date. Your sister has a seemingly happy, growing family and you're childless. Your ex-business partner sold a business and is enjoying the windfall profit. Your gym buddy is making greater gains there in the realm of metal than you. Or a guy you went to high school with and stayed connected with on social media now has this fabulous life of traveling the world - posting photos almost every day of them doing fun things in exotic places - and your life in the town you both grew up in now seems terribly mundane.

Comparing yourself to others, you'll often end up feeling like a loser. This is toxic and self-sabotages you in ways subtle and not-so-subtle...

A Quick Story...

When I first saw the movie Limitless over a decade ago, I was in a bad place...

• I was broke, living on my brother's uncomfortable couch.
• I had just been through a very rough business partnership breakup, an experience not unlike getting divorced.
• My dating and social life had gone from rockstar to zero overnight.
• My nights and weekends were spent watching TV on the same couch I slept on every night.
• Living in a very lame suburb, I was miles from a suitable workout location. I got lazy and stopped exercising.
• Additionally, I had some legal problems with my driver's license - NOT from drinking and driving - but I had lost my driver's license due to some unpaid fines from years ago and driving under revocation. I never went to jail, but I had to spend a ton of time going to court and most of my disposable income dealing with the legal system.

When I saw the movie, I knew that some real-life equivalent of NZT-48 had to exist, and I needed to find it! Check out this snapshot of my life in the ensuing decade and judge for yourself whether I found it...

Yes, bad mental health days happen even for Biohackers, I had one last week. And I'll tell you how I turned it around in about 45 minutes.

I had been stressed about more than a few things. To name a few...

• Business has not been great lately.
• I hadn't slept great the night before (it happens, even to sleep hackers sometimes).
• There are some exciting but intimidating pivots I'm in the midst of making with Limitless Mindset (which involves a lot of work and learning some new things).
• And the looming threat of nuclear war (in the part of the world where my little family lives!)

Then my wife made a perfectly understandable, concerned comment while rushing out the door to attend to matters in Sofia, which set me off.

$350 Billion (with a capital B) was the inflation-adjusted personal net worth of John D. Rockefeller.

He was history's wealthiest man, by a long shot, if you consider the wealthiest individuals of our lifetime...

• Elon Musk - $432 billion
• Jeff Bezos - $239 billion
• Mark Zuckerberg - $207 billion
• Vladimir Putin - Up to $200 billion
• Bill Gates - $159 billion
• Warren Buffet - $142 billion
• Carlos Helu Slim - $100 billion

These individuals are mere paupers in comparison. John D's titanic wealth was matched only by his altruism. So much of his wealth was given away to organizations that have made a sustainable positive impact on the world that it would not be unreasonable to say that virtually every person alive today benefits in one way or another from his altruism. Was John D. a lifehacker? Absolutely.

So you're about to invest in a 30, 60, or 90-day supply of a high-quality Nootropic, like those by Ultra Human, to maximize the ROI on that investment I suggest that you plan a simultaneous productivity sprint of equal duration.

Hopefully, you're reading this just prior to (or just after) splurging a not-insignificant chunk of change on some high-quality Nootropics. If you're going to spend your hard-earned money on Nootropics there's an important question you should be asking...

How can I make more permanent the mindset and enhanced powers of cognition that this Nootropic imbues?

There's a lifehacking/Biohacking domain that's been perhaps more rewarding for me than any other.

It's consistently made my life better and better for over a decade now. It's a topic I've researched and self-experimented with exhaustively, enjoying surprising benefits as I learned, self-experimented, and habituated more. And of course, it's a topic I've done a fair amount of writing and content about. But I'm demotivated and I think I'm done spreading the good news about this topic.