The #1 secret to massive energy levels and how to have more of it Not enough talk about this

We often don't think of doing things like this, because we learned we don't *deserve* those things until we're perfect enough, or have been punished enough. On some level, we're still waiting for someone else to give them to us.

I wonder if this logic is actually backwards, though - like, the reason anyone desperately pursues such "positive" outcomes is that they're ALREADY avoiding the negative. (OfC, it's still true that accepting the negative becomes a positive in that case.)

The only choice we have about the past and present is whether to see them as they are, or pretend they're something else. Some may say, "But your choices led you here!" But those choices too, are in the past, and so your only choice about them is whether to see them as they are.

The core “squeeze” of growing up is “when are you actually gonna do it” getting compressed onto you In early 20’s you have luxury of “yeah this will be so great & i’ll be so amazing”. But you don’t ACTUALLY have to do anything, because you’ve alloted yourself x amount of “space”

Many people deeply underestimate just how much of their personality is not themselves but rather behaviors conditioned into them by their upbringing. If you are miserable i can almost guarantee it is because a large chunk of your behaviors and beliefs are not natural to you but

i am convinced that screen use suppresses memory. whenever i abstain and find myself on a long walk, memories from long ago appear out of thin air, important moments that contain valuable information and emotions that i have forgotten, but must remember in order to move

"As Winnicott observed, fear of breakdown is rarely a fear of a future catastrophe; it is instead the displaced anxiety of a breakdown already suffered but unacknowledged.” —Eric Reinhart

Yes, but people who argue for "affordable housing" hate this, because it benefits the less affluent without *hurting* any of the more affluent. Forcing developers to do "affordable" units is a ritual humiliation of the rich, not altruism or alms for the poor.

I've been thinking about how people say "just start" like it's a motivation problem when it's usually a safety problem. Your body won't let you start something it perceives as dangerous. And for a lot of us, being seen, being judged, being wrong - those register as dangerous.

I usually find (w/myself and clients) that we were explicitly *taught* not to feel good: adults often stamp out childrens' happiness or excitement as being disruptive, disrespectful, non-serious, inappropriate, unrealistic, childish, etc. So we learn to do the same to ourselves!

If you can figure out how to configure your default state to be slightly amused rather than slightly annoyed you pretty much enter God Mode

The real job of self-doubt is emotional protection. It slows your ambition so you won’t have to feel shame, anger, disappointment, or exposure. Once you are able to welcome those feelings, doubt completely loses its power.

Playing around with NotebookLM's new slides and infographics today - here's a neat one it made from some of my notes that I've not turned into a workshop yet:

gabe Can't wait for someone to be hailed as a genius for saying "y'know, this prompt engineering stuff is pretty great, but what this place needs is a set of formal semantics so that we can establish invariants and reason about behavior and state"

It's okay to aim for perfection, as long as you'll also accept results that are "excellent" or "whatever I did in the time I had". (Because one of those will always be the thing you actually get.)

Your feelings *aren't* valid. Your needs are. Your wants are. But your feelings are just *strategies* for getting those needs and wants met. Some learned, some evolved. And they either work or they don't. And the ones that don't work, can be changed.

Confidence, courage, unhesitating action, and persistence are all fundamentally aggressive in this way, too. Usually I work with people who have trouble channeling it at anything except *themselves*, though, and need to learn to have more but point it at their tasks & obstacles.