31 Things To Say Today

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1. The fundamental currency of existence is attention. Attention is prior to and binds space, time, matter, and energy.

2. Many women will try to hit on you as a way to get power over you. They will try this because they are able to pull this maneuver on a lot of other men, who are weak and chomping at the bit to give away their power. You are allowed to flirt back without feeling attracted to them. It can even feel good! Some will get very mad when they find out you had no intention of ravishing them at the end of this whole game, and they will feel cheated in some way. This is not your problem. The ultimate telos of life is not catering to feminine desires.

3. Related to the above, there are a lot of people, both men and women, who will spend a lot of time and effort trying to convince you that a core part of the definition of being a man is necessarily being sexually attracted to women (or else, not being sexually attracted to men). They are wrong. When you demonstrate to them otherwise, they will often try even harder in myriad ways to prove you wrong. They are still wrong.

4. Masculinity involves exercising mastery over tremendous levels of healthy aggression and healthy libido. Further mastery leads to further joy.

5. One of the best experiences in the world is having access to a small group of dynamic, cultured, intelligent men with whom you can work hard and play hard consistently. There are important aspects of self-esteem, clarity, and confidence that arise from this networked arrangement, which even a boyfriend cannot provide. Thus, it is essential to prioritize its cultivation as much as romantic and sexual fulfillment.

6. Extroversion is awesome.

7. There are usually 3 to 5 basic technical skills that underlie any given human domain, and success in that domain, without outsourcing your agency, involves developing each of them to approximately the 80th percentile of quality. Social skills are a subset of technical skills.

8. There is no interdependence without individuation. There is no individuation without interdependence.

9. It is worthwhile to figure out how to be friends with all sorts of animals.

10. It is worthwhile to figure out how to be friends with all sorts of plants.

11. In order to become truly devout, you must skillfully – and I emphasize skillfully – break apart religion and put it back together. Not as a rebellion, but as a μετάνοια/metanoia. When you do this, you will face many obstacles from ‘religious people’ who don’t want to face the fact that they are following doctrine or dogma, neither of which gets you closer to God after a certain developmental stage. Some of those ‘people’ are actually ‘models for operating in the world’ that you’ve internalized from authority figures who no longer exist.

12. Dharma/धर्म means many things, and as of right now, my most comprehensive understanding of dharma is that it is an instruction set to center Being in center-lessness.

13. If you’re going to give me advice, and you want to guarantee that I actually listen to it, then your life has to look like what I would want it to look like for myself in that arena and other, related sub-arenas that are adjacent to it.

14. Almost nobody can make a substantive, believable claim about ethics or morality without first demonstrating their well-developed, well-integrated relationship to power and pleasure. Making such claims, however, as a way to test their relationship to power and pleasure is required as part of the maturation process.

15. Dark chocolate is awesome.

16. Parents, if they love you a lot, are trying their best to raise you. Doing their best involves fucking up a lot, sometimes in egregious ways. They should be held to account for that. Doing their best involves also coming through for you in ways impossible to imagine. They should be credited for that. You may become the sole person who is responsible for delivering those facts.

17. There are probably some elements of inherent goodness that are contained within the creation and dissemination of propaganda. I have not yet fully figured out what those elements are.

18. A lot of virtues are referred to in ordinary discussions as if they were states. Objects sitting on a table. They are not as such. They are fruits. Fruits must be grown in a procedure that is mostly unrelated to the fruit itself. Lying about how delicious or decrepit a fruit tastes will make you go insane quickly. This is especially true of commitment, discipline, forgiveness, and compassion.

19. Courage is the ability and the choice to be full-hearted during every moment. Another way of saying this is that courage is the willingness to be fully heartbroken second-by-second and still remain whole (i.e., not collapsing or becoming controlling).

20. One of the worst experiences in the world occurs when a person in front of you doesn’t recognize the subtle ways in which you are completely open and vulnerable as a gift of intimacy offered to them.

21. The way to dissolve grief is to feel fully through what is shattered, in all of its dimensional particularities, until only exhaust is left. There are many paths to take in this endeavor. There are astonishingly few that are clean.

22. The purest form of violence is that which is upright and uncompromising in its aim to produce territory for the gentle, loving holding of reverence.

23. Eating meat that is raised, slaughtered, and prepared with care is awesome.

24. Art is centrally the magic of breaking taboos through erotic expression, with uninhibited cleverness and passion. When created well, art rests in beauty and begets silence at the periphery.

25. Chemical stimulants and psychedelics are awesome.

26. Grace is what completes physics. That includes meta-physics.

27. Any individual (or group) who engages in mass politics, but who is not physically healthy, is most likely attempting to commit ideological activism that excuses their weakness and subsidizes their attachment to their illness.

28. The above statement applies even more to mass philosophy and mass theology, with some notable exceptions.

29. Spending extended periods in nature, exposed to elements, is one of the best ways for the conditions that produce genius to emerge. Emergence amplifies both pain and peace, bliss and torment.

30. Ownership of a smattering of silly possessions – a garish outfit, a provocative poster, a vintage toy, a kooky souvenir, an ugly birthday gift – is an indicator of good character.

31. Shagun/शगुन is a Sanskrit word meaning “auspicious” or “good omen”. One way that Hindus practice Shagun is by giving monetary gifts that contain an extra denomination (e.g., $11, $51, $101, etc). Whereas a “0” represents an end or finality, the “1” signifies a new beginning and continuity, as well as a seed for new growth and evolution. I believe that’s what this upcoming year holds for me.