American Society is Becoming Defined By the Average

If you watch society closely you can see a cancer growing. As the years go on more and more public figures are getting taken through the mud. Now people are actively searching for figures to dismantle. On one hand, people don’t want to have their trust taken advantage of so it is best to know whom they’re dealing with. However, The more likely option is that the greatness of public figures hurts our egos because they have achieved what we have not or cannot. Their discipline and commitment to a goal puts us to shame. So when they have trouble in their lives we take that instance to destroy them so the average individual can feel better about their own lack of discipline and commitment to a goal.

You can always tell what is really important to a person by where they spend their money. It is the same for society. As a society boatloads of money are going to news outlets having an exclusive that brings massive shame to a person. So we can assume it is massively important that these people get taken through the mud. As detailed above there are two possible options for why we want this so much. The second one is much more likely. We revel in seeing a person dragged through the mud because it means that they must not have been that great in the first place. We like to see people brought back down to our level. However, this is a toxic belief for many reasons.

First, and most importantly, it encourages apathy. This apathy will create generations who no longer want to produce above the mean production. Under the mental framework society is working towards overproduction means ostricization. If a person can produce in the 95^th percentile they are now in a place where they could become vilified. After all, we have seen it happen to countless other individuals. How long will it take for people to pair success with public shaming? Pavlov would probably say, not long. This quest for apathy, and to produce at the mean will devolve society further. If nobody wants to produce at a higher level who will lead us into a bright future? Only those who love to lead and produce so much that the public shaming does not cause them more pain than the pleasure they derive from their work. Those individuals are exceedingly rare and even those individuals will disappear. They will find somewhere they are valued. The people left will be those who are too scared to work above the mean even though the apathy will send them to their doom. You eat what you kill and if a society doesn’t solve it’s problems in a timely and quick manner nobody in that society will eat. The departing of the driven will leave society in a squabbling heap, which can only produce again after it has been turned to ashes and those who can produce rise up.

(reasons 2 and 3 are forthcoming)

Brain Plasticity and Discipline 1.1

The fact that brain plasticity drops dramatically around the 25 year mark has many interesting implications, especially for young people. It means that they have until 25 to ingrain the best habits into themselves. In American culture the young are often told that now is their time to party and have fun because “work life is unfulfilling and not very fun.” Cultural blurbs along these lines are echoed in terms like ‘YOLO.” There isn’t much pressure for the young to discipline themselves or create good habits because they “have plenty of time for that later.” Yes, people under 25 tend to be immature, which lends itself to having bad priorities. However, there is an incredible amount of opportunity if a young person can learn the right skill set early while re-enforcing the skills throughout their young life.

The target demographic for this article is those from 15-25. You are young and the habits you have now are being deeply ingrained in you. Instead of going out to party ingrain a productive habit into yourself. Learn skills like discipline, self-starting, speed reading and consistent self-education. These traits will keep your mind nimble and prepared for change. You have an incredible gift that our culture inspires you to not use effectively. Let’s look at myself as an example.

I am 23. This means I have two years to teach myself as many important skills and  discipline as possible. There are so many behaviors and habits that I want to ingrain into my being that I’m going to have to press for all I want. I want to learn good habits and I have little time to do so until it becomes much harder. Now, I could wait to learn these habits until they are necessary, and party it up while in college. Instead I have elected to ingrain habits in myself that will help me for life. I have developed a love for reading and a thirst for knowledge that can not be parched. Most importantly I have put myself in situations that are outside of my comfort zone on a consistent basis.

Having the ability to put yourself outside of your comfort zone is a hugely important skill. That is where you learn. Outside of your comfort zone you learn more than you could ever read. Now, over the last year I’ve figuratively fallen flat on my face outside of my comfort zone. It hurts, a lot, but I learned a ton and I am better for it. Even though I have not learned to step out as consistently as I would like, the times I have stepped out have taught me a lot. This skill is difficult for anyone to acquire because stepping out of the comfort zone requires a large amount of personal control. However, this is a skill that all successful people have. I will acquire this skill this year because I know to achieve the level of success I want I must be able to step out of my comfort zone.

So young readers, join me in an attempt to better prepare ourselves for our future. The disciplined live like others will not. So one day they can live like others can not.

Brain Plasticity and Discipline

Scientist say that brain plasticity dramatically drops around the 25 year mark. That science matches up with the old wives tale: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” It is funnily ironic when science backs up old wives tales. This drop in plasticity means that patterns of behavior and discipline are much harder to learn after 25; and progressively harder from there on out. I think many older people would agree with the assertion that it is harder for them to change themselves, and their habits, as they get older.

When we are young our brain is very malleable and it becomes less and less so as we age. This makes us more rigid in a dynamic world where we must always be ready and able to change. When we are young our habits become ingrained in us; often from our parents and peers. This ingraining is easy to change while you are young because your brain is malleable and learning. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to change bad habits as you get older.

We often label those who are stuck in a dead end, doing nothing, as lazy and undisciplined, but perhaps it is deeper than that. We can now see that these older folks simply have more to overcome. The neural pathways are very deeply set by years of lazy behavior. To overcome these pathways and write new ones it takes a much greater amount of discipline. Discipline, which they never developed in the first place. So, it becomes clear that lazy habits beget more lazy habits while discipline begets more discipline. This holds true because our neural pathways make it so. A person who disciplines themselves re-enforces a neural pathway making it easier to do so the next time. The person who is lazy re-enforces the neural pathway that encourages laziness, making it harder to be disciplined next time. This theory can help us explicate the motivational saying: “The only thing standing between you and your goals is the bullshit excuse you keep telling yourself.” These bullshit excuses come from the re-enforced, lazy, neural pathways that are fighting change. So do not listen to these voices. They do not know best. Those bad neural pathways were made by the past you and the current you knows better.

From this science and old wives tale we can see that it is important to change your bad habits now. Why? Because it will be harder to change every second you wait. Every second you wait your brain is re-enforcing those bad habit neural pathways. As they get re-enforced they become more deeply embedded and harder to change. Let’s say that a person wants to begin a healthy lifestyle. Every second they spend waiting to start saying, “I’ll start tomorrow,” or, “do I actually need to do this?” their neural pathways becomes more deeply embedded in laziness. This re-enforcing of the neural pathways makes it harder for them to change. So, change now! Just change yourself already! If you do not do it now you are only making it harder for yourself. Screw New Years Resolutions! You do not need them because you change now! You change now because you know that it will be easier to change now than later.

GO CHANGE YOURSELF NOW!!!!!

A Potential Reason Divorce is So High 2 (Continued)

The last article ran long please read A Potential Reason Divorce is so High 2 before reading the continuation.

Having established what the attractive traits of men and women are it is now possible to accurately asses whether the free market has been able to adequately form a replacement for the traits of men and women.

Like the defining traits section women will be addressed first. As mentioned earlier, porn acts a substitute for sex from women. Men all over the world now have access to a bank of young, fertile women with which to have proto-sex. This provides men with a very cheap product that can replace women. Many men even think that porn is a better experience than real rex. So, the most valuable trait women have is being replaced. With the advent of sex toys and the oncoming “sex-bots” the monopoly women have had on sex for all of history is about to end. However, they will still have a monopoly on real sex and always will. Next, let’s look at women’s ability to make a home. This service has been exported to a variety of cheap laborers. From nannies, to interior designers, to housemaids and to the incredible variety of machines man has made, like ovens and clothes washers, have almost completely eliminated any work women have to do in the creation of a home. Once again, the free market has provided men with an alternative to women. Lastly, there is the pleasant feminine demeanor. While the pleasant feminine demeanor is not being replicated it is definitely being destroyed by the free market. By encouraging women to work they operate in the workplace where they are subject to the competition that men are meant to face and win. While women may be able to win this competition it also leaves them relatively unfeminine, and undoubtably without that alluring feminine attitude we all love.

Men are also getting replaced by the free market. Unlike women the nebulous quality of the traits that make us attractive make it tougher for the free market to replace. Remember, what makes a man attractive is his ability to support a woman during pregnancy and child rearing. So, instead of the free market undermining the traits we can see many things that undermine this directly. The ability of women to work hurts men on two fronts. One, it allows women to support them and their child by themselves. Two, it decreases wages for all men because women double the size of the labor market. So, the result of these two is a double sided pressure on mens ability to support. They can no longer collect the wages they used too and they can not outstrip a woman’s wages by a significant amount that will offer her value. Women’s ability to work is, single-handedly, the biggest detractor from the attractiveness of men. Another thing we see taking attractiveness away from men is the willingness of the government to support women in times of trouble. This support structure hurts man’s ability to support a woman because she has an adequate substitution to put in his place.

Both men and women have had much of their attractiveness substituted for by the function of the free market. What was attractive in a masculine man, the ability to support a woman, has been solved by a labor opportunities and a support structure for women. What was attractive to a male, a body and feminine demeanor, has been eroded by the cheap substitutes of housemaids and porn. As a result each individual in either gender is much less attractive because our attractive traits is replaced by the free market. This causes a detrimental effect on marriage. As much as we hate to admit it part of the reason people stay together is because they need one another. Females should need and want their man. Only if it is really bad should she want to leave him. It’s the same for males. A man should want and need the femininity his girlfriend provides. Only if her traits become atrociously bad do should he end it. As shown in the prior paragraphs that problem has been solved by the free market. If a man breaks up with his girlfriend he can resort to porn for sex and she can turn to work for support. Men and women truly do not need one another anymore. This lack of need allows people to move freely in and out of relationships. No longer do men have to worry about a lack of sex in a divorce and no longer does a woman have to worry if she can support herself.

Ultimately what lies at the core of this argument is that we have become lazy in our relationships. Just because a woman can be replaced by a nanny to raise the children does not mean that she should. It is feminine to raise the child and that femininity will allow the man who should be supporting you to step up his masculinity. It is the same for men. Just because women can support themselves does not mean that a male should check out and not work on creating a world in which he can support. This show of masculinity will inspire the woman to be feminine. In this world where the very core of gender is being replaced I encourage all my readers to maintain their own sexuality, women maintain your femininity to the best of your ability, and men, maintain your masculinity.

A Potential Reason Divorce is so High 2

In the first two installations of this series I explicated a possible reason for a high divorce rate and paired it with a possible consequence. In this article I will explicate a second possible reason for a high divorce rate. This one has to do with the, supposedly, great things that the world of extreme capitalism has brought to our society.

In today’s society the free market encourages people to create products that fill another person’s need. Every man needs what women offer and ever woman needs what men offer. Therefor, we can suppose that half the world wants masculine traits that can be consumed cheaper and separate from an actual man and the other half the world wants feminine traits that can be consumed cheaper and separate from an actual woman. With a market of half the world, producers are heavily incentivezed to create a product that can replace what the sexes offer one another at a cheaper price than the person, of either gender, currently can. So, for example, porn offers men a cheap and easy alternative to sex with a woman. This replaces what is attractive about a women’s sex. To accurately tell whether this holds true or not the attractive traits of both sexes must first be defined.

Let’s start with women. For women most of the traits that go into their attractiveness are physical. As males we are interested in the health of a women to carry our children. Prior to the time of doctors reports men developed instincts to tell whether a woman was attractive or not, and attractive is synonymous with ability to carry and give birth. Traits like perky breasts, smooth and healthy skin, a symmetrical face and attractive hips all indicated health for child bearing. The second most important trait women have is a pleasant attitude and, thirdly, ability to create/maintain a home. Those last two traits have a large amount of overlap. The attractive traits for males are much more nebulous and difficult to pin down because they are behavioral and not physical.

To establish why a man’s body does not play a great role in the attraction of females we must first establish what makes a man attractive. Looking at evolutionary biology it becomes very apparent what attracts a woman to a man: ability to support a woman through pregnancy and child rearing. Now even saying that implies that a woman is measuring a ridiculous amount of traits in a man to determine if he is attractive; just as it takes a million congruent traits to best raise a child. So a woman must measure to accurately tell whether it is worth letting a man inseminate her just as a man must measure if it a woman worth inseminating. So traits like responsibility, charm and confidence are highly valued as they represent the ability if a man to produce, not just today, but in any future he is presented with as well. So, now it can be established that a man’s body does not help him succeed in the world we currently live in. However, a man’s body did play a big role in the ability to care thousands of years ago. An impressive male figure would imply a better ability to fight off wild creatures or other males, or in other words protect her during pregnancy and child rearing. This is why it is still a natural instinct in women today to find physical men attractive but not the whole package.

Creating Options

“A man without options becomes necessitous and this leads to a lack of confidence and a scarcity mentality. Necessitous men are never free.” – Rollo Tomassi

As I continue to read, study and live I continuously re-learn the immense power that comes from the creation of options. The greater amount of viable, exercisable options a person is able to create the more power they have. Lets go through some examples:

1. A girl I know got accepted at two colleges and both colleges offer her scholarship money. She realized she now had two viable options for her future. Instead of merely choosing one or the other she decided to play them against one another. She incited a bidding war between the two schools for her. Even if she knew which school she intended to go to from the very beginning she has nothing to lose from putting the schools in a bidding war. By creating viable options she created real power. She ended up accepting 3 times the amount she was originally offered.

2. A man worked at a normal desk job. Instead of allowing that job to be his sole source of income he created 2 side jobs that provided him with $10,000 a year respectively. Now that he had created an extra $20,000 per year he became less dependent on his original job. That independence is power. The company now had less control over him because he no longer depended on that company for his income, his survival. This is why companies hate it when their employees go moonlighting. The employee’s creation of options takes away the power the company has over him. The man has taken power for himself by the creation of options.

3. A male arrives on campus with the goal of getting many women. Instead of choosing to just go for one at a time he goes for many at once. Many say no to his advances but many also accept his advances. Now he is no longer dependent on one single woman to fulfill his needs. With many women caring for him at once no one woman has much power over him. At a certain point our young male decides to get a girl friend. Even when he does he maintains his relationships with other women so even his girlfriend doesn’t have power over his actions.

4. Don’t forget about the most important place to have options: financially. By paying off your debt you give yourself the power to live lives you never could while indebted. You can’t pick up and go around the world when you’re in debt. Debt ties you down and restricts your options. Savings does the opposite. The more capital you have the more options you have. Mark Cuban has much more capital than I do so he can afford to take on a wider range of investments (options) that I cannot. The options that he derives from his savings of capital give him power.

The creation of options puts you in the drivers seat in every facet of life. The sooner we learn to be creating options in every part, and at every time, of our lives the better off we will be. By creating options in our life we stop one individual thing from having too much power over us. It takes power away from the ‘fate’s that be’ and puts it in your own hands. When you have multiple options one event can not ruin what you have created. Say the working man above lost his job. He’s ends up alright because he still has 2 other jobs where he is making $10,000 a year with opportunity to grow. He can at the very least support himself. The college male looses one woman; he’s ok, he has many more. Don’t let yourself start to run low in options. If you only have one source of income at the very least begin investing in dividend stocks. By creating options in every facet of our life we take the power we need to live the life we want.

Confidence, freedom and power are derived from viable options and the ability to exercise them. – Rollo Tomassi

Dousing Yourself in Reality

Constantly, we as human beings are “medicating” our existence with various substances that change our state of mind. Escapism has become the norm in today’s society. At work people escape to fantasy football and online shopping. When they arrive home they escape into the world of Scandal or The Walking Dead. Then they go to sleep, wake up and drink coffee so they can operate like their mentally alive in a setting where they really are not. Then, if they are lucky enough to go home on a weekend night, they consume alcohol which has the potential to alter their state of mind so completely they don’t even have to exist in their current state anymore. All this escapism implies that people think something is wrong with reality. Well… what could possibly be wrong with reality? Maybe the fact that reality is hard, but, maybe more accurately, it is that reality does not have immediate reward in the now.

The common issue listed with all the items listed above is instant gratification. Let’s look at the definition of the Instant Gratification: The term “Instant Gratification” is often used to label the satisfactions gained by more impulsive behaviors: choosing now over tomorrow. What is bold is the most important part of this definition. By choosing to instant gratification we choose the now over tomorrow. By choosing now over tomorrow we take our potential future and we subjugate it to our childish whims in the now. Let’s take finances for example. Compound interest is magical and the sooner, and more, you start saving the more you will have in the future. By delaying gratification, and spending in the now, you give yourself greater spending power in the future. If you just can’t stay away from that new car you can barely afford you have subjugated your future to a childish whim. Another example would be almost anything in front of a television. Video games provide that feeling of accomplishment. However, when you stand up, you have accomplished nothing real. You have chosen to spend your precious time playing video games in an imaginary world instead of achieving something in reality. Like the finance your time matures on a compound basis. If you invest in yourself by putting in hard time when you are young you will reap the rewards when you are old. Success breeds success. It takes a lot of discipline to subjugate yourself to a study or career that will gratify you in 10 years when a video game can gratify you within the 30 seconds of turning on the system. So I encourage my readers to douse themselves in reality.

Don’t let yourself be sucked into the drugs, entertainment, internet surfing, excessive spending lifestyles. Ensure you have a lifestyle that keeps these distractions on the side. Every time you feel the urge to binge watch a season of How I Met Your Mother instead choose to do something in reality. Yes, it is incredibly difficult, to force yourself to be disciplined even when you don’t want to. However, the choice is a simple one, whenever you want to escape reality push yourself deeper into it. Instead of playing another hour of video games or watching a t.v. show choose to go out and try a new restaurant, get a job, get a car. Every step into reality, even the tiniest one like taking a walk, is better than a medicating away from reality. After a while you will get used to pushing yourself out your door to achieve something real. At first it is hard but it will get easier and have faith that the returns will come. So, readers, jump deep into reality with me and learn to swim in the deep end. Together we will reap the rewards years from now while our peers still languish in the world of gratification their weakness has created for them.