The world is harsh and competitive; only the most skilled and talented can rise to the top.
Those who excel in their fields deserve to be recognized and rewarded for their achievements, while those who are mediocre and lazy should be cast aside and denied any influence.
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Being good is not a passive state of being but an active one.
You are not good simply because you cannot harm but because you choose to use your power for noble purposes.
Self-discipline is essential for anyone who wants to achieve anything worthwhile.
If you lack discipline, you should stop everything else and focus on developing it.
The human mind is a closed system, resistant to any input that contradicts its established beliefs.
Few can overcome this mental inertia and open themselves to the diversity of reality.
Genetics are crucial.
A low IQ person cannot flourish in a complex field such as engineering, finance, computer science, or medicine, regardless of schooling or training.
You either win or lose when it comes to IQ.
The average person is only concerned with outcomes.
If someone asks you how your results were achieved, proceed with caution; they either want to sabotage you or use your process as a blueprint for their own purposes.
Be wary of people who offer you freebies.
Accepting generosity places you in debt to the giver, and you'll feel obligated to repay them somehow.
People who help others out of the goodness of their hearts are rare. People who help in exchange for a favour are the norm.
Try to always remain as calm as possible.
Those who get offended easily tend to be easier to manipulate.
Under the influence of emotions, rationality is thrown out the window.
Respect comes from power, not honesty.
Those who hold the reins of power can bend the truth to their will and shape the world as they see fit.
Honesty has no chance against strength and cunning.
Power > Status
But most people see status and mistake it for power.
The musicians, athletes and actors parading around on television have no real power; they have status.
Being a skilled negotiator is an invaluable skill.
The world is full of conflicting interests and finite resources; if you do not have adequate negotiating skills, your interests will go unmet and you will receive nothing.
Lesson:
Do not be quick to judge others based on your feelings.
You may feel hurt by what they say or do, but that does not mean they are malicious or incorrect.
Your emotions are not a reliable guide to the truth.
Also, if you cannot handle humour, avoid comedy clubs.
Cultures are not all the same.
Some cultures are better than others.
Cultural relativism is nonsense; there are objective ways to assess culture.
A culture promoting parents to beat their children is objectively worse than one encouraging less severe punishments.
The world doesn't care if you're:
Tired,
Sick,
Depressed.
It only cares about results, which is all that matters in the end, the output you produce, not your intellect, strength, or how special you believe you are.
Freedom of speech and anonymity feed off each other.
There is no freedom of speech without anonymity; those who seemingly say as they please using their real identities are either ridiculously stupid or simply not expressing their true opinions.
You should always keep your tricks private, just like a magician.
When people figure out how you did the trick, it loses its awe-inspiring quality, and so will you.
Males are polygamous by nature; men find most women attractive, whereas women find a select few males attractive.
Typically, the attraction between genders is Pareto distributed; most women find 80% of men unappealing, while the remaining 20% is considered attractive.
Anyone who makes you wait for anything does not value you.
Making someone wait for something is a power move used to demonstrate superiority over the person being forced to wait.
People with higher degrees of intelligence develop their own belief systems, combining a variety of sources to build a philosophy that is unique to them.
Whilst most people accept current ideologies blindly, leaving them vulnerable to manipulation.
Women have the luxury of indulging themselves completely in the emotion of love at any point in their lives.
Once you, as a man, indulge yourself in love too early in life, you are practically done for.
Every powerful man requires a scapegoat, a man to perform the dirty work on his behalf while he keeps his hands clean.
When the dirty deeds are inevitably exposed, he can easily separate himself from them.
The justice system exists to exonerate you from taking revenge.
Vengeance is often an endless cycle: I cut off your hand, you come back and take two legs. Ad infinitum.
Oxytocin is dangerous because it inflates a person's good attributes while entirely diminishing their unfavourable qualities.
As a result, a person in love is more inclined to make poor judgements.
Most people mistake charm for virtue; the charming man is mistaken for the virtuous man.
Proceed with extreme caution if you find a man increasingly charming.
When it comes to results, your ego and feelings are irrelevant.
Use a plan if it will bring you the outcomes you want but will harm your ego and feelings.
At the end of the day, outcomes are everything.
Eventually, you get tired of losing and actively devote your mind, body, and spirit to the pursuit of greatness.
I pity you if you never get to this point.
Women, in general, seek consensus.
If one woman in a group likes you, the others will as well.
If one woman in a group disapproves of you, you can bet the others do as well.
To women, only the top 20% of men are visible; the remaining 80% are invisible and irrelevant.
Feminism’s cry for equality works on this very same skewed perception.
Money can buy you influence.
Every year, the ultra-wealthy spend millions of dollars lobbying for policy changes that benefit them.
The wealthy contribute millions to politicians to help them score policy changes favourable to the wealthy if elected.
The relationship will thrive if your interests are comparable.
Maintaining or beginning one will be difficult when your interests diverge.
This holds true for all types of relationships.
You must be ruthless in your choice of associates.
Do not associate with people who add little to no value to your life.
If you know people of this sort, cut them off immediately.
The exception is if the individual is utterly loyal to you.
A man should prioritize finding a passion or hobby to pursue, before considering marriage.
His wife should be his second love, so as to not overwhelm her with excessive adoration.
Determine who has the most influence and power in your family.
This could be due to their financial or social standing.
Make every effort to maintain good relations with them.
Intelligent people can be extremely hazardous when they are incorrect.
They can construct complex and persuasive justifications.
Few can see through and dismantle their faulty logic, while the vast majority will blindly follow.
Having options gives you confidence.
Having options also provides you with leverage.
Leverage can be used to get the best possible offer.
This applies to everything; without options, you are powerless.
Growth can be unpleasant and rarely feels good, but it is required for success.
You will never reach your full potential if you constantly try to avoid discomfort.
Logic and cunning are the two most potent psychological weapons individuals can hold.
Logic ensures that you make rational decisions, and cunning ensures that you always get your way.
Both must be cultivated.
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
― Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune
Social media algorithms are meant to keep you on the platform for as long as possible.
To do this, they provide you news and updates that elicit emotional responses from you to keep you hooked.
Be wary of information found on social media.
If you happen to be dealing with a powerful individual.
It is preferable to be compensated in favor rather than cash.
If you are powerless, their favor is far more valuable to you than their money.
The average person equates leadership with freedom.
Leadership doesn't give you freedom; it gives you responsibility.
Responsibility entails obligation and accountability to those to whom you are accountable; this is not freedom.
When your mind is captured by ideological thinking.
You think less in practical terms and become a walking NPC, shilling out the tenets of the ideology to which you adhere.
If you regularly perform things you regret afterward, it indicates that you don't fully comprehend what motivates your actions.
Most people are like this; they never take the time to examine themselves and as a result, behave impulsively.