But not too long after that post, I changed my mind about taking a break from Substack. I continued writing essays, while working a corporate sales job, staying committed to the gym, playing basketball all the time, and enjoying social life. I’ve balanced it all well, and still made significant progress on the book, but the progress has been somewhat sporadic. So I’ve decided one of those activities needs to be cut to free up some bandwidth, and the one that makes sense to stop doing for a bit is putting out blog posts every week.

Especially considering another reason my progress on the book has been somewhat sporadic: straight-up procrastination and fear. Working on the blog became a kind of distraction from working on the novel. Which is weird, because I’m so excited about the story, and think it is genuinely funny and clever. I also know I’d be more satisfied just knowing it exists, regardless of any outcomes. So I need to go make it actually exist!

It takes a while even without procrastination and fear. And I’ve been laboring over every word, the good old-fashioned way. I could’ve been done a long time ago if I just used AI, but what would be the point of that? That would feel like a betrayal to myself. I’m not against using an LLM to help find grammar errors in your writing and maybe give a suggestion or two, but to generate or consistently rewrite the text? That does genuinely give me the ick. Better to have something a little bit “worse” that came from your mind than a “perfect” text that came from a data center.

Anyway, I hired a professional editor in December, and his copy edit and developmental feedback letter that I received in February were extremely helpful. While I already implemented his copy edits in the manuscript for the most part, I have not implemented the developmental edits, which is the actual hard part.

Whatever excuses I’ve been using—lots of traveling, moving apartments, starting a more demanding job—are all just that: excuses. So it is time to put my fours up. It is time for me to stop writing Three Point Thursdays and essays for now, as much as I absolutely love doing so. All of my writing energy has to go into Degrees of Absurdity.

Thank you for being here. It means a lot to me. You’ll still catch me on Substack Notes, but until the book is pretty much ready to be published, adiós.

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When I first became aware that a guy named Alex Karaban was transferring to our school, I had never heard of him.

That’s because he was from out of town, and was also in eighth grade.

This was in 2017, and I was a junior at the time. Our school, Saint Peter-Marian, was a middle and high school combined, so talented eighth graders could play varsity sports in rare cases. Alex was one of those rare cases. And he not only played varsity, but was our best player on a team that had some serious talent from all around the city, and competed in the highest division in Massachusetts.

We had an extremely disappointing loss to our rival in the playoffs, but it was a meaningful season that I know no one on that team will ever forget. And seeing what Alex has done since makes it more surreal by the day that I once was in the same starting five as him.

“I’m ultimately leaving UConn in a better place right now from where I started,” he said after his last game as a Huskie, and this is indeed true.

Alex was a four year starter who won two national championships and was runner-up in the most recent title game against Michigan last month. He is also UConn’s all time leader in wins, starts, and three point makes. Read that sentence again. That would be impressive at any college, never mind one that has won multiple championships and produced Hall of Fame NBA playerss. It’s no surprise that no one playing for UConn will ever wear the number 11 again, as it was rightfully retired earlier this year.

The 2023-2024 team that won it all is arguably the greatest college basketball team of all time. It was basically a pro team. Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer, Donovan Clingan, and Stephon Castle are all in the NBA, and Alex is on his way to the league now that he is about to graduate from UConn. This squad went an incredible 37-3, won the Big East tournament, and dominated every March Madness game, including the National Championship against a stacked Purdue team.

It doesn’t get more iconic than that, except for perhaps UConn’s dramatic comeback against Duke in this year’s elite eight, in which Braylon Mullins hit a deep three with seconds left to win the game. Alex hit a key three himself off a down screen a few plays before, which was pivotal. And on that fateful play when Duke turned it over, Alex got the ball and could’ve taken a contested shot, but instead calmly passed it back to a more open Mullins, who nailed the shot that will forever be a part of March Madness lore, at a Christian Laettner, Kris Jenkins level.

That pass was a prime example of how smart he always plays. He never forces. He never panics. During the March Madness games this past season, Bill Rafferty kept talking about how the offense and everything flows through him, and it’s true. He’s always moving, setting screens, boxing out, making the right pass, making the right cut, all while looking to score with his strong finishing and elite shooting abilities. It’s extremely unsurpising that he wins so much.

Add in the clutch gene that he undeniably has, and you have a basketball legend. Long before the UConn dynasty, when guys like me were still on the court with him, Alex was already making heroic plays.

In a city tournament game, we were down by three with a few seconds left, when he hit a three to send it into overtime. After the first overtime, it was still tied, and we went into a second. At the end of the second overtime, we found ourselves down by three with a few seconds left again, and again he hit a three to send it into triple overtime. People in the gym were going crazy. We ended up winning.

Talk about an obvious sign that someone is destined for greatness. And the prophecies have come true. But he has not only become great, he has become one of the greats, putting together the most successful modern college basketball career of all time. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

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One of the most famous ideas Plato gives us is his Allegory of the Cave, in which prisoners chained in a dark cave see shadows of objects on the wall cast by a fire burning behind them, and mistake it for the reality. Recently I’ve been so disgusted with politics and news media that I can’t help but feel like those manipulated people in the cave. What can I trust in a world full of such shameless propaganda, with armies of bots programmed to create division, and AI slop and deepfakes that move at the speed of light? What is just appearances? How much of what I see is literally intentionally made to deceive me? These questions are becoming increasingly harder to answer.

2. When you just can’t look away.

My girlfriend and I have become obsessed with watching movies from South Korea.1 It sounds weird, but despite how brutal most of the ones we’ve seen are, there is something so relaxing about watching a movie in a language you don’t understand. It feels more like reading a book than anything else, and forces you to really pay attention to the story and dialogue. You notice and appreciate themes at a deeper level.

3. Mark 8:36

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

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There’s an Oscar Wilde quote that makes me laugh and feel a bit sad at the same time, like the tragedy and comedy masks from ancient Greece. It says, “there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Some of the deepest truths are paradoxes, and this is a prime example. Fulfilling a desire only leads to the creation of another. It is fundamentally contrary to human nature and evolution to be satisfied. This is the supreme insight of Buddhism: The ultimate cause of suffering and dissatisfaction is desire and attachment, and suffering can be ended through controlling or relinquishing desire and attachment.

2. Be a bookworm and a gym rat.

Be a thinker and an athlete. Play sports and read novels. Do rows and ponder philosophy. Read history and do push-ups. Contemplate thoughtful essays and go on walks. Embrace books and barbells. Study the great thinkers and do pull-ups. Read scientific works and do barbell back squats. Contemplate history and do push-ups. Journal and stretch. Write and run. Read ancient religious texts and pull the sled. Build both mind and muscle. Be a healthy poet, an athletic intellectual, a jacked nerd.

3. Alas!

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”

—Aldous Huxley

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I was recently promoted to a Sales Executive position at the tech company I work for. I’ve been reflecting on the road to this point, and figured I’d share what I’ve learned from the past two and a half years in this crazy space.

Let me acknowledge that 2.5 years is not really that much experience, and, as always, I have an infinity of things to learn. Also, this recent promotion is my first time in a closing role, so I’m now just starting the real sales grind.1

I’m not trying to position myself as some sort of sales guru with this post. This is partly for myself to keep in mind going forward.2 There are few things more gross than fake macho-man scammers pretending to be sales greats on the internet. Besides, the people I’ve observed killing it the most are trustworthy people solving real problems.

With all that said, let’s dive in.

1. Focus on your maximum leverage point

Being fluent in Spanish is the number one thing that makes me different within the company, and is therefore the number one thing I’ve leveraged since day one.

It didn’t take long for me to basically become “the Spanish guy.”

People send me leads and accounts to call on if there are language barriers with an interested prospect, and I’ve always been happy to help. I’ve also hopped on meetings with executives to translate, including during product demonstrations and pricing negotiations.

One of the biggest reasons I got this recent promotion was so I can cover the Miami market, aka North Latin America. In getting this position, I even leapfrogged an entire position in between the position I was just in and the one I’m in now.

My takeaway from all of this is that whatever your biggest leverage point and strength is, you should double, triple, and quadruple down on it.

2. Understanding over memorization

An idea I live by: you don’t want to believe, you want to understand. You don’t want to memorize, you want to understand.

Memorizing lines without actually knowing what they mean doesn’t help you in the end. Doing this in a sales context is like memorizing the sounds of words in another language, and saying them to someone without knowing what their definitions are. Sounds insane, right? Almost like you wouldn’t be able to have a real conversation?

From this perspective you realize how important building genuine knowledge of what you sell is. It helps to be extremely curious through realizing that your ignorance will always be infinite. Whenever I sync with high performing Sales Executives, or managers and senior people, I pepper them with questions. It’s so obvious yet it needs to be said: learn as much as you can from the experienced, older people in your company.

3. Volume, volume, volume, and more volume

The number one contributor to consistently exceeding my quota was volume. Yes, even in a world of AI slop mass emails and robo calls, volume has been key. My lifetime quota attainment in the previous four positions I was in is 123.7%. Cast a wide net. Shots on net. Give yourself a chance to get lucky. Whatever you want to say, the point is the same.

I’ve observed some BDRs and SDRs focused on things that don’t really matter, when they could be focused on just doing more calls.

Dials, bro. The bell curve meme in this post couldn’t be more true.

4. Actually listen to what people say

Two ears and one mouth for a reason, as the Stoic saying goes.

5. Avoid drama and gossip

There is literally nothing to be gained from engaging in any company drama and gossip.

6. Don’t take the work too seriously but prepare intensely

You don’t want to have your identity or self-esteem tied to work outcomes, while at the same time putting serious effort into ensuring you have good outcomes.

People doing the reverse are making a costly mistake for both their finances and their soul.

7. Literally just be confident

People want to be charmed.

The bar to do it is pretty low nowadays. You don’t have to be James Bond. In a remote sales context, it comes down to stupidly simple things: wearing a collared shirt, having a good background and decent lighting, smiling, cracking a joke or two.

Good energy and tone goes a long way. Nobody wants to listen to someone who isn’t confident.

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1. What does Rooted and Rising mean to you?

Rooted and rising is knowing who you are. Knowing your habits, values, the version of you that shows up first. Also wanting more for oneself, not because you feel behind but because you’re genuinely curious about what you can do. I want this to coexist together with everyone.

2. Why did you want to start a Substack?

Honestly, I wanted a space that was mine that I could play with and express myself in. I’m a nurse and I’m around for a lot of “real life moments” and I think women deserve more honest conversations about what it actually looks like to build a life you’re proud of. Substack feels like the right place for this.

3. What will your readers get out of it?

A fun newsletter that doesn’t feel like homework or another checklist. Essays on building a life one loves through practical stuff, personal stuff, and everything in between.

4. What are the biggest mistakes women in our generation make?

Comparing themselves to other women instead of just building what they want. I think that we spend a lot of time looking at what this girl is doing, what she has, where she is and it keeps us in an endless loop. The girl you are comparing yourself to is probably comparing herself to someone else. It’s a cycle that doesn’t end until you put your head down and create. Create something, bet on yourself. The energy you spend watching someone else’s life is energy you could be putting into your own.

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5. What is your highest calling as a woman? Why?

I feel that my highest calling as a woman is serving others. I’m a nurse who chose a career where I literally show up for people on their worst days. This wasn’t accidental, this is who I am. I think it takes a special type of person to make people feel seen and taken care of. Not at the expense of yourself, but because you’re full enough to pour into others. And I stand by that.

6. What are you most fascinated by at the moment?

I’ve been fascinated by the slower life. Reading, writing, and listening to my body more. Making something from scratch is its own kind of answer.

7. What was nursing school like?

The hardest and best thing I’ve ever done. It pushed me to my limit, emotionally, physically, all of it. But it was also the first time I really saw what I was capable of. Like oh, I can actually do this. I can learn this, be great at this, attain this. The feeling of finding where you thrive is just nothing like it. I also had amazing people supporting me through it, and I couldn’t have done it without them.

8. How do you stay disciplined?

Calendars, checklists. Also waking up before the world is awake. I’ve been a morning person my whole life, it’s just how I’m wired. I get more done before 9 am than I do the rest of the day sometimes. But it’s also a mindset thing. Discipline isn’t always about motivation. Sometimes it’s just deciding you’re going to do the thing and then doing it.

9. What is it like being bilingual?

Honestly, it’s just normal to me. Spanish was my first language, so switching between English and Spanish feels as natural as breathing. I don’t think about it. It’s just there, you know? I carry a lot of pride because it’s something my parents wanted to instill in me. It’s not just a language. It’s my culture and roots. It shows up for me every single day.

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Don’t give too much weight to what people tell you to read. Recommendations from friends or suggestions from people on the internet can be valuable. But nothing should take precedence over your own unique curiosity. The most important thing is that what you’re reading is enlightening and enjoyable. Fun is the North Star, and everything else is secondary.

2. Mouth taping for sleep is not safe for everyone, but if it’s safe for you, be prepared to have absurdly vivid dreams.

I’ll never forget the first time I slept with mouth tape on. It was around 4 years ago, and I had a dream that felt so intensely real that I woke up in shock, while also feeling deeply rested. I was instantly hooked. Around this time, my aunt had also given me the book Breathe by James Nestor, and sometime around then I also listened to Andrew Huberman talk about mouth taping and nasal breathing on his podcast. It may sound like a weird thing to do, and I get it. It is. But I don’t care. I never realized that nasal breathing is so much better for you than mouth breathing in pretty much every way. The important caveat is that mouth taping is not safe for everyone. People can’t reliably breathe through their nose for a number of reasons: deviated septum, cold, allergies, obesity, alcohol, sedatives, sleep apnea, and much more. To risk stating the obvious, I’m not a doctor! I don’t really think anyone would start mouth taping blindly without asking a medical professional just because I’m writing it here, but I still wanted to say it for my own conscience. All I’m saying is, as someone it is verifiably safe for, mouth taping has had a profound impact on my sleep and recovery.

3. Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom.

“Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.”

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I started this Substack from a cafe in Barcelona in 2022 because life’s big questions wouldn’t leave me alone. They still won’t.

These essays became my art project. I write about philosophy for people who live in the real world. For people with skin in the game. For people who will read Albert Camus, adventure to a foreign country, and lift heavy weights all within the same week.

Here you’ll get honest essays on those big questions, and short curation pieces called Three Point Thursdays, where I share the best of what I’ve been reading and thinking about.

If this resonates, paid subscriptions ($5/month or $50/year) are the best way to support the work.

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A bit about me: My name is Jeff Sullivan. I’m a 25 year old from Massachusetts now living in Austin. I work in tech as a Sales Executive at athenahealth. I’m fluent in Spanish, with an advanced proficiency certification from Instituto Cervantes (DELE C1). UMass Amherst is my alma mater. My favorite hobbies are playing basketball, getting goosebumps from old music, and laughing until my stomach hurts.

If you enjoy reading the classics as much as you enjoy getting a good sweat in, welcome home.

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I too was here, I too felt it all, I too made something. From the first handprints in caves, to the sculptures in the Vatican, to a masterpiece of a movie, this is one of the meanings of art.

2. Read science fiction.

My morning routine recently: pound a strong Nespresso coffee and read a novel, more or less immediately after waking up. It gets me so dialed. I’ve long been someone who reads before bed, but doing it first thing in the morning is great because my mind is operating at a much higher level. I'll fly through 40 pages without even realizing it was that much. This is perfect for sci-fi books in particular, considering you have to absorb so much information quickly to know what’s going on in the story. Rapidly processing so much info is a skill that translates to other areas of life, which is one reason why reading someone like Arthur C. Clarke is so valuable. It’s also fascinating how sci-fi stories are sometimes a catalyst for innovation in the real world. Writers aren’t limited by gaps in our knowledge of physics, or a lack of hardware and software. The only limit is how much they can imagine. So when humanity starts turning sci-fi inspiration into real stuff—as we are starting to with AI, space travel, and more—it’s just so cool to see.

3. Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes.

“Language is largely made to show-off, gossip, confuse people, delude them, charm them, seduce them, scare them, and exploit them. And, as a side effect, convey information.”

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You were rich, and you made me feel rich. Spiritually and economically. Getting back to the U.S. and spending $39 on a mid breakfast from Dunks at JFK was a bit sad. I couldn’t help but think of how fantastic of a meal that amount of money was getting me and Jade in Cusco and Lima.

This is a love letter, so I have to start with your ace, Machu Picchu. How can I not? I don’t care how famous it is. I don’t care how many people have already been there and drawn the same conclusions. That doesn’t take away how incredible of an experience it was being up there.

I’ll never forget when we first got a glimpse of your strange city as a bus took us up the mountain. It was almost as if something was wrong, seeing them on top of these massive, beautiful peaks. Walking so close to the clouds was an absolutely wild feeling.

The rough roads and altitude, along with sleep deprivation from travel, had me feeling nauseous and exhausted on the way there, but the level of awe I felt once our tour began snapped me out of it.

It also made me feel grateful to be a human. There is something deeply inspiring about the fact that humans were capable of building such things so long ago. I’m not surprised that the Spanish never even found this place during their rule. It’s not exactly an easy place to get to, even today.

From Cusco, Jade and I rode in a van to Ollantaytambo, which included some scary moments. There were rocky roads that wrapped around mountains, and there was no railing separating our van from a hundred foot plus drop. From Ollantaytambo, we took a train to Aguascalientes. This part was almost two hours long.1 Every mountain we saw through the panoramic windows on the train was the craziest mountain I’ve ever seen. Once we got to Aguascalientes—Machu Picchu Pueblo—we took a bus to the world wonder itself, which included more scary drives on rocky roads high up with no railings.

As great as Lima was, the whole experience of Machu Picchu and coca tea and Quechua and the mountains and Incan legacy was something else. Cusco was the most radically different place I’ve been so far in my life. I’ve never felt something so foreign.

The Miraflores part of Lima was fun, but in a super different way. It could be any modern international city. We also met some of Jade’s extended family there, which was wholesome.

And your food, my goodness. It was as delicious as every Peruvian person promised me it would be. The ceviche, the soup, the alfajores, all of it was a chef’s kiss.

But I’m not going to act like you’re perfect. The fact you’ve had 9 presidents in 10 years is not exactly a sign of a stable country. The food was great, but often, your service was shockingly bad. And outside of your airport in Lima there were surely the poorest places I’ve ever seen in my life. I suppose it means nothing for me to say how hard it was to even look at the half-finished buildings, trashed sidewalks, and poverty-stricken neighborhoods, because living there is what is actually hard. The cherry on top of the challenges was the number of stray dogs there were roaming around Cusco. They seemed so damn sad.

But the experience of your mysterious and fascinating history, your proud and kind people, and your incredible natural beauty was overwhelmingly positive. As Jade and I kept saying to each other as we clinked a wine glass or a coffee cup—la vida es bella. It’s even more beautiful when you’re enjoying Andean soup at a restaurant right next to a stunning river and mountains, and there is a live indigenous band playing music, and you and the love of your life are an hour away from seeing one of the wonders of the world.

¡Viva Peru!

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Way back in the 2010s, there were few songs that would get guys more aggressively fired up than Dreams and Nightmares by Meek Mill(y). If you were about to play in a football or basketball or whatever game and it didn’t give you chills—or make you want to go smash the other team and their stupid faces—I don’t know what to tell you.

I’ve been thinking about a particular line from that song recently. The part that goes, “I used to pray for times like this.” Everything going on in my life—from the increasingly lucrative opportunities in tech, to being close to finishing a book and more—is exactly what I’ve prayed for.

But I’ve felt overwhelmed juggling everything in the past few months. I’ve also traveled a bunch, and was beaten down with the flu at one point, and was stuck in a walking boot too. The combination of all of this has had me at times feeling more exhausted than I’ve ever felt in my life. I hate it. I hate even saying it and it scares me because I’ve always been an extremely high energy person. I also hate it because I don’t even have kids! And every part of my soul want to have kids, and undoubtedly that requires even more energy, heroic amounts of it, from what I’ve heard.

One aspect of the recent exhaustion is that I recently got a promotion at work and I know I have to be a new level of locked in. It’s my first time in a closing role, and it is going to require much more effort and time.

I also think I will never not struggle with this constant question of whether it is “better” to be a jack of all trades versus locking in on fewer things. Perhaps in vain, I always strive to do more because the renaissance man ideal inspires me so much. It’s very hard to not be interested in doing different things. I can’t help it.

What I realized is something I already knew, but needed to be reminded of: the idea of trade-offs.

Would I rather not be overwhelmed with great pursuits? Would I rather be bored? With no purpose? Yes, I want to still know how to enjoy leisure. Yes, I want to listen to Socrates’ warning to beware the bareness of a busy life.

But at the same time, I love this stuff.

And even if it’s hard to get that writing session in when my brain is cooked from a day of corporate meetings, looking back at a period and not being content with how much I wrote is harder. It’s hard to read books with challenging ideas, but dealing with the gross feeling of doomscrolling and fracturing my attention is harder.

It’s helpful to remember all the times you hoped and wished and prayed for what you now have. And cherish it. Consider how much you would want what you now have, reader, if you didn’t have it.

That’s what I’m doing. And listening to Meek Mill, on my way to the gym.

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Being the same person in every room is something many people idealize. I respect it in the sense that, yes, your values and character ought to be consistent. But from a language perspective, it is extremely misguided. Yet you see people doing this all the time, often to the point of cringe. It’s the opposite of natural to speak the same way with everyone. Why would you want to talk the same way with your grandparents as you do with your significant other? Or with your friends from college the same way as you do with your coworkers? That makes no sense. The natural thing to do is code switch. This term is also used for switching entire languages, but I’m talking more about how I’ll switch from Corporatespeak to speaking how people from my hometown in Massachusetts speak, with zero friction. Context, context. The key in doing this is to not try too hard while doing it, or, on the other hand, be too serious about it. Or else it becomes corny.

2. I’m asking you to catch more Z’s.

Sleep is a fundamental contributor to not just your health, but also your effectiveness in the world. I always like to say that if you wanted it bad enough, you would sleep more. It’s obvious why. The more recovered and refreshed you are, the better you’ll perform, because sleep deprivation produces absurdly negative effects on the brain and body. It tanks your mood and cognitive function, and even makes you more likely to catch a cold, among other worse risks. I understand many people struggle to fall asleep, and I feel for them. In any case, everyone would be better off having more higher quality snoozes.

3. Will Durant, The Lessons of History.

“The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”

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Socrates was right that the wisest man is the one who knows that he knows nothing. But it cannot be denied that noticeable changes to the effectiveness of your mind happen when you make a habit of writing. In other words, as Chuckie Sullivan from the movie Good Will Hunting would say, you become wicked smaht. This is manifested primarily through positive behavior changes. The more you write, the more your mind opens, and the more critically you think. You end up making better decisions, planning more long-term, and developing more fluent and articulate ways of speaking. I love the way Ted Chiang describes it in his short story collection Exhalation:

“…writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it. And words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking. When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at your thoughts in a way you couldn’t if you were just talking, and having seen them, you could improve them, make them stronger and more elaborate.”

2. Most English speakers are non-native.

Although English has the highest total number of speakers in the world—at around 1.5 billion—Chinese and Spanish have more native speakers, at around 1.3 billion and 486 million, respectively. English has 380 million native speakers by comparison. The fact that there are more non-native than native speakers never ceases to amaze me. English enjoys this unique status as an international bridge language in many different contexts. I wonder how its role will continue to evolve.

3. Roman playwright Terence, 163 B.C.

“I am a human being, and thus nothing human is alien to me.”

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I’m writing from Lima, Peru. My girlfriend and I settled into an Airbnb here yesterday after enjoying Cusco and Machu Picchu, both totally surreal places. I’ll never forget when we first got a glimpse of the strange city as a bus took us up the mountain. The structures looked so out of place. It was almost as if something was wrong, seeing them on top of these massive, beautiful peaks. Walking so close to the clouds was an absolutely wild feeling. The rough roads and altitude, along with sleep deprivation from travel, had me feeling nauseous and exhausted on the way there, but the level of awe I felt once our tour began snapped me out of it, and also made me feel grateful to be a human. It’s inspiring knowing that your species was capable of building such things so long ago.

2. The stories of conquistadores in Peru are insane.

In the late 1520s, the Incan leader Huayna Capac died. The empire that stretched from Southern Colombia, through and Ecuador and Peru, and into much of Chile and parts of Argentina, was without a king. His two sons both wanted the throne, and a destructive civil war began. Atahualpa ended up winning against his brother, but soon after he did, he received reports of around 170 foreign men approaching a place called Cajamarca. This Spanish force was led by Francisco Pizarro, who invited the new Incan king to meet in the main plaza of the town. A friar approached Atahualpa, and demanded he submit to Christianity and Spanish power. When Atahualpa refused, and dismissed the book he’d been given, Spanish forces hidden in the buildings surrounding the plaza opened fire, rapidly killing thousands of gunless Incan soldiers. Pizarro himself captured Atahualpa. The desperate Incan then told the Spanish he would fill an entire room with gold in exchange for his freedom. Over the course of months, gold from across the empire was brought to the Spanish. Enriched, they then killed Atahualpa instead of freeing him, and marched on Cusco—alongside other native forces opposed to Incan rule—and took over the city. A couple years after, Pizarro established Lima as the new capital and center of Spanish administrative rule.

3. The Tower of Babel is dizzying.

It’s clear how proud the people in Cusco are of Quechua, the largest indigenous language family in the Americas.1 It’s unsurprising how important it is to them, because it’s a clear link to their Incan heritage. The language actually predates the Incas, who used it as a standard form of communication. A few days ago, some people taught Jade and I some phrases, but I’ve already forgotten them. It’s a radically different sounding language than any I’ve ever heard in person.

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1. Dedicating myself to reading and writing

My brother and I still laugh at the motto of our elementary school, which said something like, “we read, we write, we learn.” But we’re laughing in admiration, because it is a damn good motto. That is how you learn.

And assuming you want to learn as much as you’re capable of, one without the other is not enough.

We all know that the idea of a writer who never reads doesn’t even make sense, like someone deciding to go live in Japan for the rest of their life but having no interest in learning Japanese. But I’d argue that a reader who never writes is in equally bizarre territory.

There is a deeper level of learning and understanding you’re missing out on by never writing. You don’t need to sit down and compose The Brothers Karamazov part two—although I hope you do—to enjoy the positive effects of writing. A basic journal is enough to enjoy the benefits.

When I first started using one, I quickly realized it was something I would keep doing for the rest of my life. There are endless practical benefits to doing it. The value of it is summed up well in a hilarious video I once saw of Jordan Peterson, in which, regarding the question of the importance of writing, he responds, “Well do you want to be competent and dangerous, or vague and useless?” So that is one way to put it.

Or, put more mildly, the author Ray Bradbury says to “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens.” I can confirm that what happens is deeply meaningful. “Most of my friends who are put on that diet,” Bradbury continues, “have very pleasant careers.” The only thing I would add—and I’m sure Bradbury would agree—is that it is not only a recipe for a pleasant career, but a more enriched experience of life.

2. Getting addicted to weightlifting

My lord and savior during the pandemic was a garage. But it was no ordinary garage, it was a garage with a gritty gym inside of it, known by its rats as “Get Rights.”

During an era where almost everything was shut down, Get Rights—the garage in the backyard of my parents home—was always there for me and my friends. It also doubled as a casino during that period, but that’s a story for another time.

It’s weird that doing certain movements with heavy pieces of metal can bring you such peace. Yet it does. I’m glad I’ve devoted so much time to it that it has become a positive addiction.

It’s also strange that you can look forward to putting your body through such hell in this way. But when you’re in the shower after a workout feeling like a goddamn champion, or laughing with your buddy in between sets, it starts to make sense.

3. Not drinking that much

I recently went skiing in Vermont with my friend. Around noon, we stopped at a lodge on the middle of the mountain and each had two beers. Getting on the skis afterward and soaking up the views while shredding some black trails was incredible. Vibes were up.

But more than anything, moments like this strengthen my conviction that limiting alcohol in a disciplined way is a wise life decision. This isn’t two beers just ‘cause, out of habit. It’s two beers because I’m on a snowy mountain with my friend, soaking up spectacular views and breathing incredibly fresh air. Special events can warrant celebration in this way.

But I still believe that entirely eliminating it for periods is extremely helpful. After graduating from college, I didn’t consume any alcohol at all for a year and a half. In that time, I got a tech sales job, wrote way more, deepened my Spanish fluency, read extremely challenging books, and moved to Austin, which has proved to be an amazing place to live in so many ways. I credit being completely sober during this era as a big driver behind being able to do all that.

When alcohol is not a big part of your lifestyle in general, your energy and focus reserves soar. With this newfound wealth, you find yourself doing different types of things. Creating something, making progress in a skill, or having a eureka moment while reading a book. You just simply have more energy.

These are examples of what the ancient philosopher Seneca called the greater and surer pleasures: the pleasures of mind and spirit. Drinking alcohol is like buying a ticket to go watch a basketball game, where the greater and surer pleasures are like playing in a game and hitting a clutch shot at the end. The former is a good time, sure, but the latter is more rewarding.

I’m going to Peru with my girlfriend tomorrow, and I’m definitely going to enjoy some wine and cocktails during the trip. But I still prefer the greater and surer pleasures the vast majority of the time.

4. Learning a different language

Some people are confused by my obsession with speaking Spanish. Which is understandable, because I’m also confused by it sometimes. But what’s clear to me is that when I start having a conversation in the language, I slip into a flow state that feels like the first sip of coffee in the morning.

Having another language in my mind is now a part of me that I never want to lose. I want to give my future kids the gift of bilingualism. More selfishly, it’s just so much fun, speaking in a different tongue! When you do, it feels like you have a James Bond type of aura.

The lessons I’ve learned through language learning are valuable ones that I apply to other pursuits. For example, the process has helped me grasp the concept of the infinite game, and it has made me more of a Popperian in everything. It’s made me realize there is no end to learning and knowledge creation, and there never can be. No matter how many conversations I have in Spanish or how many New York Times articles I read in Spanish, there could still be errors to correct in my language skill.12

Another reason I love learning Spanish is how much it improved my ability in my mother tongue. As the writer Geoffrey Willans once said, “you can never understand one language until you know at least two.” And while that is a rather dramatic statement, there is some truth in it. The habit of considering the best way to say something, and always asking what things mean, naturally led to me speaking more fluently and writing more clearly in good ol’ English.

5. Becoming an explorer

Cynics who may have seen one too many people on Instagram reels talking about how much spring break in Cancún opened their mind will roll their eyes, but there are valid reasons why travel changes people so much, often for the better.

First off, there is the simple fact that your brain is mapping new territory. For anyone who’s ever played Minecraft, it’s like when new chunks are loading into a world. That’s not nothing. There is something going on there. That’s a special kind of novelty that sparks new perspectives and ways of thinking.

Then there is the cultural aspect. I’ll never forget this idea I read once that said something like the following: when you shed the assumptions and pressures and expectations imposed by your own culture, it’s as if all that is left are the things you actually care about, the things that genuinely interest you, as opposed to things you may do just to impress people or because you feel like you have to.

I first got a taste of this dynamic when I studied abroad in Spain during college, which is when I started this blog. “If you want to know the truth of who you are,” said the author Patrick Rothfuss, “walk until not a person knows your name.” There is a lifetime of wisdom in that line.

Let me end by saying this: as a rule, good decisions optimize for the long-term, while bad decisions optimize for the short-term. Good decisions are ones you tell your family about with pride; bad decisions are ones you tell your friends about with a smile.

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“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.”

2. Make mistakes of ambition.

It’s better to be in over your head than to not be challenged at all. One guarantees growth, the other stagnation.

3. Competition as a necessity.

It sounds odd to say, but something I miss so much in sports is genuinely disliking the people you’re playing against. I still play basketball all the time in Austin, but it’s all great people, and while the games are competitive, they are friendly. As they should be. I wouldn’t want it any other way for private runs. I just miss stepping on the court, looking at the other team, and having the ancient tribal part of my mind rage. A man needs enemies, or at least a men’s league.

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Never hesitate to double down on your biggest strengths.

2. It’s everyone’s duty to study World War II.

However much you account for World War II being a time of unique evil and lack of respect for human life, it still manages to surprise you and be even more disturbing than you realized the more you learn about it. Maybe it’s just that I’m 25 now, and the horror hits harder because I think about it deeper? I’ve been watching documentaries recently, and reading The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by William Shier, and this era continues to be more shocking and sad by the day.

3. A passage you feel in your bones.

“…What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary-property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life-don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn’t last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.”

—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

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I realize that people of our era are too primitive to even imagine the scientific and technological wonders you enjoy.1 I will tell you, though, what I hope for, and what I’m curious about. I bet this will be amusing to you, in the same way that if I were reading something like this written in the 1526, I would laugh my head off. Just remember that I’m doing my best with the information I have, and like everyone else I can’t predict the future growth of knowledge.

Naturally, I’m wondering what your biology is like. What have you evolved into? How have you used technology to change you? How long is your life span, or should I say your health span? Are we still human in that case? When does it become like the paradox of the Ship of Theseus?

How about language? It’s funny, I’ve found great joy and put serious effort into learning another one, which must be obsolete for you. I’m already in awe thinking at what you will have accomplished on this front. Whether it is real-time translation due to glasses, or a brain chip, or an ear piece, or whether a new universal language altogether has been invented and somehow caught on. Or does it involve somehow being able to read each other’s thoughts? Of course it could be something else, something I have not imagined. Regardless, let me congratulate you in advance.

I’m uncertain about how you will deal with people’s religious tendencies. Are people still divided up into different narrow sects? Are there still people claiming the ultimate truth about the universe based on books full of unlikely claims written thousands of years ago in dead languages? Have we figured out how to create new groups and ways of thinking without them becoming destructive cults? Or are we still only able to think freely as lone individuals, like The Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog painting? Are societies able to avoid descending into a Soviet Union-style hellscape if they don’t have some transcendent religion? Are the less fortunate people able to find meaning without myths? Are there even unfortunate people?

I bet there are still millions of unfortunate people if you are still creating war machines, fighting battles of territorial expansion, and sending the young and the poor to kill each other because the old rich and the rich have different ideologies. It’s more likely that you’re using machines to do all that. And it’s scary to think that you must have weapons ten times stronger than our most powerful ones, which already have the ability to destroy the planet. I’m realizing that there is not much of a point in writing this paragraph, because if you have not figured this out, there will be no one to read this.

If you have avoided another world war and are actually reading this, I’m assuming there are not still people so blind and so low in intelligence that they cannot see that we are all human, right? Or is that actually still a thing, racism, dehumanization, bigotry?

Also, what do you use for currency? Did crypto really become something valuable? Are capitalism and socialism even useful concepts anymore? Or is there such abundance that those terms became meaningless? How good has AI got? Were we too worried or not worried enough about it, we humans living through the initial LLM boom? Do people still go to school? What is university like if so? How much more have you learned about our past? What have the archeologists dug up? What have bold explorers found in the ocean? And have you established space colonies as backups for human consciousness? If yes, did people create their own nation states there?

I think what I’m really asking is how much of our tribal, hunter-gatherer programming have you overcome? Are we still chained by millions of years of evolution that made many of our base instincts so ruthless?

More than anything, I’m curious if you’ve made any progress on life’s biggest questions. Have you understood the question of God, or a higher power of some sort any more? Have you made indisputable contact with aliens, or are skeptics still reasonable in doubting we’ll ever do so? Have you figured out why there is something that it is like to be human? Or is subjective experience still as puzzling to you as it is to us? Can you tell someone the meaning of it all, or are you just as much like Sisyphus as we are?

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You know what peace is when you realize you’re not separate from anything.

2. Self-help only helps to a certain point.

If you never graduate from reading self-help to reading great literature and philosophy, that is a tragedy. Put down the book about habits for now—as good as it may be—and go read some gut-wrenching Dostoevsky, some inspiring Arthur C. Clarke, or some moving Albert Camus. Think less about optimization, calendar blocks, and productivity hacks, and more about the nature of truth, art, and what it means to be human.

3. The paradox of desire.

“It is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with Gods or the gods.”

—John Steinbeck, The Pearl

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A joke I love is that when Americans hear the word “culture,” they think of some combination of foreign language, spicy food, and colorful clothes. Of course those can be aspects of a culture, but what does the word actually mean, more broadly? In The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch defines it as a “set of ideas that cause their holders to behave alike in some ways.” An open-minded person from Boston who is a fan of the Enlightenment and a dogmatic Muslim from Syria hold different sets of ideas, and therefore they behave very differently.

With this definition in mind, let’s look at two cultures within America I’ve been thinking about because I find them particularly unsettling, for many reasons. At the highest level, they are disturbing because they are incompatible with the growth of knowledge and civilization. At the simplest level, they are just plain stupid. The two cultures I’m referencing can be summed up as men who tend to hate women in general, and women who tend to hate men in general. Popular terms for these two cultures are Radical Feminists and Incels.

To break it down, let me define each culture a bit more. What are the sets of ideas that cause these holders to behave alike in some ways?

Radical Feminism argues that the patriarchy is the main structure organizing society, and ending women’s oppression requires taking it apart, not just achieving equality. Meanwhile, “Incels” (short for “involuntary celibates”) are online groups of guys who have been unsuccessful in developing romantic and sexual relationships, and respond to this with intense resentment and hostility toward women in general.

The root issue with the Radical Feminists is that they view all differences between men and women as culturally imposed, rather than biologically influenced. Not all differences mean there is discrimination at play, and recognizing that there are biological sex differences between men and women doesn’t contradict equality. It’s simply observation. Consider the demographics of certain professions. Nursing and teaching are female dominated, while engineering is male dominated, and young boys and girls consistently prefer different types of toys. None of this necessarily means there is sexism or excessive imposing of behavior going on, although there undoubtedly could be in certain cases. More often than not, these differences reflect natural preferences.

On the other hand, the root issue with Incels is illogical bitterness. There is a great speech by the legendary football coach Nick Saban where he talks about the importance of nothing. “You get up every day…you’re entitled to nothing,” he says. What does a woman owe a man she doesn’t know, who begins to pursue her? Nothing. If he displays he has no charisma, no wealth, and no love to offer her, what basis does he have to be bitter about her rejecting him? Zero. Yet this is what Incels do. Instead of focusing on how to improve themselves by becoming more physically fit, having good hygiene, cultivating style, working on being articulate, building confidence, and carving out a respectable career path, they just condemn women in general. It’s childish, and it doesn’t make sense.

It’s hard to comprehend how lost you must be to denounce the entire opposite sex as a whole. Yet that is essentially what these types are doing. Obviously they are not clear-headed enough to consider how deep a source of meaning and happiness a loving relationship is. Or the more obvious fact that no one could even exist had a male and female not come together in the first place. I pity many of these people in the sense that there is no way, deep down, that they are not miserable.

Both of these ideologies are built on victimhood and resentment, and therefore are bound to fail. As Will Durant said in The Lessons of History, “the family is the nucleus of civilization.” People who reject family formation and the opposite sex think they are making some sort of heroic social and political statement, when really they are just removing themselves from the future. Biology and demographics don’t care about the men complaining on Reddit or the women lecturing in gender studies class. Groups that stop making families stop existing.

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