In order to transcend your programming, you have to become aware of it. And the choice that you have when it comes to happiness in life is between becoming aware of your mental afflictions or the discomfort of becoming ruled by them.

If you think that social media at the moment is bad, wait until almost all of it is not only driven to you by algorithms that know exactly what to give you but it's written by algorithms that know exactly what to say. Within the next 10 years, over 90% of content that's produced on the Internet won't be even made by humans.

For the first time in history, 50.1% of women are childless at 30. And a report from Reuters says that 45% of prime working age women between 22 and 45 will be single and childless by 2040.

Stop worrying so much about other people liking you. Most people don't even like themselves.

Relationships where the woman out-earns the man are 50% more likely to end in divorce. Relationships where the woman contributes more than 80% of household income are twice as likely to end in divorce. Relationships where the man is not the primary breadwinner—he is 50% more likely to need to use erectile dysfunction medication.

There is a substantial body of research showing strong association between smartphone addiction, shrinkage of the brain's gray matter, and digital dementia ... Many habitual TikTokers can already be found complaining on websites like Reddit about their loss of mental ability, a phenomenon that's come to be known as TikTok brain.

Most of the people that you admire aren't superheroes; they're normal humans that have sacrificed pretty much everything in their life to be good at one thing.

Attaining something worthwhile is often going to be difficult, but just because it's difficult doesn't mean that it's worthwhile.

During the period of time where I've achieved a greater success than I've ever had, there's been things that I've been missing, and it's reminded me, I think it's recentered me, on what it is that I want, which is not just success and growth at any cost; it's to enjoy the process.

I don't have a 5-year plan ... I don't know where I want to be in 5 years. It's like the ultimate proof that you don't rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your habits, and my habits are that I work pretty hard and I pay attention to stuff.

Many people don't have an opinion until they're asked for it, at which point they cobble together a viewpoint from whim and half-remembered hearsay before deciding that this two-minute old makeshift opinion will be their new hill to die on.

If you can't state what information would cause you to change your mind about a particular topic, then you do not have a rational view; you have a religious ideology belief.

Most people, most of the time, don't have any idea what they're doing. Adulthood is like being pushed down a set of steps at the age of 18 and just trying to control yourself and stop yourself from falling all the way until you die.

There's so many complaints about the modern world being sterile and transactional and people are just mailing it in, whether it's in music or in architecture, or in art or in movies and doing the bare minimum to get by ... I want a body of work that I look back on and think, that was beautiful, that was amazing, that was impressive; we really pushed the limits.

The number of men reporting no sex in the last year has tripled from 8% to 28% from 2008 to 2018. This is men between the ages of 18 and 30.

Women have been outperforming men in both education and employment for quite a while now. So, 2 women for every 1 man will complete a 4-year US college degree by 2030. Women, on average, between the ages of 21 and 29, earn £1,111 more than men do. So, you can see a potential issue here—you have an ever-increasing cohort of high-performing women that are educated and employed competing for an ever-decreasing cohort of ultra high performing men.

[Jocko Willink] says 'You can't fake bravery as an emotion. You can fake being angry or upset or whatever, but if you fake bravery when you're terrified, that's bravery. Doing the thing in spite of being terrified is what bravery is.

This is a theory that I've come up, with which is the male sedation hypothesis. So, it's my belief that men have been sedated out of this status-seeking and reproductive behavior through porn and video games.

[Jocko Willink] said, 'That's why I prefer discipline to motivation. Motivation is fleeting. It comes and goes. Discipline is always there. You don't need to want to go to the gym or meditate or walk your dog or have a difficult conversation with your partner. You simply need to do the thing.'

So, you need to choose, let's say, between a relationship and a new job ... Either decision is going to cause regret, and given the fact that regrets are unavoidable—because they're features, not bugs—which regret do you want?

We're not afraid of failing; we're afraid of what other people will say about us if we fail.

You complain about not being grateful, and you give yourself no time for gratitude. And I don't mean a daily journal, which becomes a chore, I mean dwelling at the end of a successful experience for 60 seconds.

Don't be ashamed of your effort. Midwits hate earnestness and sincere conviction because they can't stand being reminded of the thing they're capable of but resist: actually trying.

If you're going to have a committed period of focused work on a small number of projects, which you should always be doing, if you're going to do that, you need to decide in advance what you're going to suck at.

You don't become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are. Out-work your self-doubt.

Look at the car he's driving. Look at the watch he's wearing. Look at the girl he's with. That's unattainable to many people, so it seems like it's valuable. But then you attained it, and then you realized, oh, this is not valuable; this is just difficult to get. And there's a difference; there's a big difference. What's valuable is something that fulfills you intellectually emotionally, spiritually and lovingly.

Naval Ravikant says no one can beat you at being you. The absolute best that you can hope for if you're playing a role is to be the second best in the world at being someone else.

It's one thing to get what you want, but it's another thing to want what's worth getting. That's from Shane Parish.

The danger of not spending time working out what you want to want can cause you, no matter how hard you work, to move in the wrong direction.

If we don't cut to the core and program are wants, then our best-case scenario is to be a rich, famous, or successful slave.

In short, your default factory settings are shit. Don't follow them.

We've been offered, like, obscene amounts of money—like really, really high amounts of money—to bring guests on the show ... I've never taken money. If I want to bring someone on the show, it's only because I'm interested in speaking to them. I will never ever charged guests.

I think a lot of my life is driven by fear. A lot of it is uncertainty and vigilance and fear. It's a fear that things are not going to go well, that they're going to fall apart, they're going to mess up, or that somebody's mad at me. And that definitely does curtail my ability to be ambitious.

How do I feel about the 2024 election? It is a fucking car crash.

We would care far less about what other people thought of us if we realized how rarely they did.

I would struggle to think of a time when worrying more lead to better results.

And because worrying is so common in every pursuit that you attempt, your successes are seen as proof that worrying is a performance-enhancer and your failures are seen as proof that you should have worried all along.

After a while, I don't think that the fear is aiding your performance ... Maybe the fear was needed in the beginning... But now you've reached escape velocity and you're drifting in space, so why are you holding the controls just as tightly as you were when you're on the launch pad instead of actually enjoying the view?

A life should be lived by design, not default. It's one thing to get what you want, but it's another thing to want what's worth getting.

I did 500 days without caffeine a couple of years ago, which was significantly harder than 1000 days without alcohol.

Talking about the thing and doing the thing vie for the same resources. Allocate your energy appropriately.

Losing weight doesn't necessarily mean that you're in shape. There's a lot more to having a good-looking body than just not being fat. But it's a big fucking first step.

Guys who are in relationships and use porn are less likely to have sex with their partner ... If you're single, it's going to promote you to go out and actually get laid less.

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the mental discomfort of becoming aware of your afflictions or the discomfort of becoming ruled by them.

Think about the fucking rise of stoicism, man. Stoicism is modern secular religion for people that don't want to have to believe in a higher power. Yoga is exactly the same thing.

It's unbelievably difficult to compete with somebody that's having fun, and nobody can beat you at being you, either.

Now my favorite way to consume caffeine... is to try and do it every other day ... But honestly, my best use case is just one day on, one day off.

It's not about brainwashing or indoctrination. The goal of propaganda is to control what you think other people think.