This is an essay that might seem harsh, it's meant to be. It's been formed from a bunch of twitter threads I made on my twitter account 2 years ago (now banned). Now being compiled as my first blog. So uh, enjoy I guess.
Dr. Huberman said in one of his podcasts that negative visualization works better than positive ones. This is my shot at it, so that I can look back as a reminder.
Five year old you: "I wanna be an astronaut."
Grown ups, while smirking: "Sure buddy"
Why do grown ups at times laugh when you tell them about your wildest dreams? Growing up, you finally know why.
Filled with great ambitions, as a clean slate - you know what you could achieve, it all falls down to taking action. Over the years, burdened by your environment through your own self - you realise that you are behind.
With the acceleration movement on twitter, I think think before tech, it should start with your own self.
With an ambitionless crowd, you become ambitionless too, now instead of chasing a higher purpose, you chase a good college, or a good job which you secretly hate.
Society rewards it with status, but you care about status too, right?
Over the years, you become mediocre: From crippling porn addiction to weed, from trying to impress people to being in fights with people (fact: they won't be there in the long term, anyway) Wait, but everything, including degeneracy is fine in moderation right? The internet doctors tell you that weed or porno is absolutely right? Or the college gossip is worth it?
You have like 2 real friends yet 5 social medias. This eventually results in an echo chamber.
By the time you realise, if you realise it at all: Years have passed, the grey matter in your brain has reduced to the number of braincells you have: zero
But you are still trapped in delusion, well those motivational songs or movies have to fit somewhere in your subconcious brain right? You still believe that you can do it, rest of the world is wrong - you are right. It will work out okay, even though your success strategy is based on your feeble actions which have no backing.
Ah, so you become the main character who is neither on the right track, nor has any achievements to back it all up. Perfect environment to develop a self pretentious echo chamber.
From wanting to make a dent in the universe, you miss out on the compound effect by indulging into distractions, degeneracy & now to a confused yet arrogant guy who thinks he can still get it.
From wanting to be an astronaut to being at a place you hate, but get away by coping up - "Life is difficult to me, and it's not too bad is it? I'm doing fine.."
Life is absolutely fair to 99% of people, considering they play the best game with the cards they have got. With the choices most people make, they "deserve" being depressed (not clinically ofc) their actions make them deserve wherever they are in life. The current scenario in your life is the total sum of your choices.
"If you keep doing what you do, you will keep getting what you get."
What now?
Someday, incase you have a realisation & have an urge to get away from the doomer life - you will go into a self improvement arc. But you will face occasional relapses. And it's okay as long as you are iterating.
Compounding is magic. Look for it everywhere. Exponential curves are everything. From wealth to relationships to skillsets - it is what keeps you sane. Or insane, your bad habits have compounded over the years to make you live in a downward spiral.
What's done is done. How you use your time is all that counts. The major if not the only thing that matters are the people you surround with. You are the average of everything you spend you time on. Everything your senses devour from the internet, to the lyrics of the song you listen to, from the type of junk food you consume or even the quality of sleep you get.
Even if you have missed the good compounding effect early on, the best time to catch the train is today - it's always waiting for you. Just have that inertia going on.
Think about second order consequences, alot. This is a good video by Sam Ovens, it's 40 minutes long & it is absolutely worth it. You'll also develop some focus after ruining it with a 4 second attention span, I guess.
Think into the future. Shape your environment. Environment is more important than what you are genetically capable of. Solve big problems, stay away from people who make you complacent, who avoid taking risks, who are basically dumb. Solve great problems.
manage your inputs -> execute relentlessly on your ideas -> save your life
Remember that death is the only constant, let that dictate what you do. You must read. You must be your best self. You can tangentially help one person make one choice that'll change their life forever.
All it requires is one choice from you, and you must hit-and-trial till you find it.
Hardwork is the best talent you can have. So develop it.