🦉 Things I learned from people I strongly disagree with 🦉

I strongly disagree with Ryan Holiday's politics, Russell Brand's fearmongering style of media, and Rory Sutherland's absurd take on Capitalism.

Despite my disagreements, I still appreciate them for what they stand for. I allow them to challenge my thinking because I don’t believe I am right either. In doing so, I have learned a lot from these individuals.

Here are a few ideas I learned from them this week that are worth sharing.

---

Ryan Holiday

I devour Ryan's writing because he is a master assimilator of wisdom. So, I have two interconnected ideas I learned from his writings this week.

George Raveling's morning routine - “George, you’ve got two choices today. You can be happy or very happy. Which will it be?”

And Voltaire's daily affirmation -  The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.

Often, my mood is determined by how much I was able to accomplish that day and did things go my way or not. Instead, what if I could choose to be grateful and stay in a positive mood irrespective of the external circumstances?

This is tied to the idea we discussed in last week’s post that pain is simply the signal that we are alive. If stress and pain are part of normal life, then they shouldn’t be the trigger for a foul mood. Or at least, I can choose not to stay negative after something goes wrong and let it ruin my whole day.

You have the same choice, a choice to not let your happiness and mood be dependent on the outcomes you expect. Life rarely goes as planned. So, if your mood is dependent on external forces, your plan is flawed from the start. Instead, there is more power in choosing to be positive and let life unfold as it may.

Easier said than done of course.

That’s why this idea is an arbitrage or a competitive advantage. A lot of people won’t even try to implement it. But, if you did and you are successful 50% of the time, you are already miles ahead.

---

Russell Brand

Humans are made for worship. If it’s not something bigger than you, a version of the Divine, then you will worship the earthly in the form of money, fame, and other desires.

I believe is God. But, even if you don’t, this still applies.

Because the core idea is to realize that you are hard-wired to worship 'something'. So, choose wisely what that is.

Think about what you focus on obsessively. Is it money, a new car, a boat, a bigger home, more or different sexual partners, more power, more fame, or more followers? You will quickly realize what you ‘worship’. But, don’t stop there.

Try to uncover your hidden motivations and insecurities. If you notice that you worship money then dig deeper. Why is that? Is that because you want to ensure that your family is always taken care of or is it driven by a meaningless competition to have more money than your college buddies?

We all worship something. The difference is made by choosing intentionally.

Worship something worthy of being worshiped.

---

Rory Sutherland

We don’t value things; we value their meaning. What they are is determined by the laws of physics, but what they mean is determined by the laws of psychology.

So much of your life is run by emotion yet how much time do you spend unpacking your emotional reasonings behind your decisions?

I spent thousands of dollars collecting watches. This wasn’t about utility. Because a $20 Casio F91W-1 (which is a timeless classic mind you) is enough to meet my timekeeping needs. Or you could argue that I don’t need a watch anyway because I have a phone that can tell the time, keep the alarms, and send me notifications.

Yet, here I was, spending thousands of dollars and countless hours researching the latest Patek Philippe on YouTube. Why? Because it wasn’t about utility. It was about the feeling each watch I owned or wanted to own gave me. The feeling of 'I am somebody'. The feeling of 'I am doing OK in life."

It all changed once I understood that I wasn’t a true watch collector. I was simply trying to make up for my insecurities through watches.

After realizing this, I narrowed down my watch collection to only 2 watches.

1 - Casio W-217H, my daily beater watch.

2 - Rolex DayJust for fancy occasions.

And what's more, even though choosing Casio for my daily driver may seem like a practical decision, it wasn’t. It was also driven by an emotion.

My dad, when he worked in Dubai would bring me back Casio watches. They are an anchor, a reminder of the good times. Therefore, this $20 watch has more value to me than my Rolex.

Dig into your emotional drive behind each decision. The more you uncover, the more you will understand what really ticks you or turns you on. This will ensure you don’t spend life chasing some ideal that wasn’t even yours.

---

Hope this was useful.

Take care and get after it by implementing these ideas because change will only come from action.

Much Love,

PM