– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

you only have to ask a stupid question

once you ask a stupid question and if

you're in a crowd and you ask a stupid

question 80% of the people in the crowd

have the same question they're just too

cowardly to ask but you ask and then

someone actually tells you you never

have to ask that question again you're

no longer

stupid what stupid thing am I doing that

I could quit

doing that I would quit doing cuz those

aren't the same thing right cuz you know

there stupid things that you're doing

that you're just not going to quit doing

cuz you like them but there might be

something on the edge there where you

could stop that if you want to know

something about yourself sit on your bed

one night and say to yourself you got to

mean this like you got to be desperate

this is no game this my life is not

everything I want it to be and perhaps

it's not everything that I need it to be

and by need I mean my life is so

unbearable that the suffering that's

attended upon that is make me nihilistic

cynical bitter resentful driving the BR

City to see evil everywhere except

within my own Heart Like These are

problems man and you ask yourself you

sit on the bed and say okay man I'm

ready to learn

something what's one thing I'm doing

wrong that I know I'm doing wrong that I

could fix that I would fix it's like you

meditate on that you'll get an answer

and it won't be one you want but it'll

be the necessary one

you know and it it's often something

that will point you to small things like

that works you start making those micro

improvements like real micro

improvements real on the ground actual

micro improvements to things you know

that are wrong you'll improve

unbelievably

rapidly the the great people I know are

brutally truthful to themselves and

other people and they have insanely

adventurous lives get rid of everything

you say that you only say to impress

other people and just see if you can say

what you believe to be true that's an

adventure that's the thing about the

truth you know well you got to ask

yourself if you're not speaking the

truth who is it that's talking if you're

saying something that you do not believe

to be true it's not you talking it's

something else it might be the part of

you that wants to manipulate the other

person into delivering what you think

you want from them well what is that

Spirit of manipulation that you've

allowed to possess you it's not you

let's say you decide to live your whole

life in that instrumental manner you're

going to craft your words like the

student who says well I'm going to write

what the professor wants to hear so I

get the grade it's like well you just

turn yourself into that well who is it

that's doing that manipulating it's not

you cuz those aren't your words so even

if you get the grade it's not you that

got the great it's the false you it's

the manipulative you so you do that your

whole life you don't have your life and

then you think well God that was a

miserable life I manipulated everybody

they were so damn stupid they were

sucked in by it they're all contemptible

everyone does it you know which they

don't by the way and so that's a pathway

to bitterness partly because if you're a

manipulator and you use your language

falsely you don't live your own life you

live the life of whatever possesses you

when you think it's you manipulating and

so you live the life of the spirit of

manipulation there there's a book it's

there's a book called about face it's

it's about a guy that was in the Korean

War and then new was in the Vietnam War

and his name is Colonel David

hackworth when I was on deployment I

would read open up that book anywhere

and I would read two pages or three

pages before I'd go to bed if I was in

my bed that night and and there was so

many lessons that correlated to what I

was actually going through and a real

obvious example was when you read you

can learn and you don't have to you

don't have to go through the School of

Hard Knocks you don't have to get

punched in the face repeatedly with

things that turn out to be situations

that other people have absolutely gone

through the the the the the level of

capability increases so much by seeing

something one single time well if I see

something one time I I'm I'm infinitely

better than if I'd never seen it before

it's like those you those little puzzles

they give you a little puzzle some kind

of a mind Bender right the mindbenders

only work on you one time the riddle

only works on you one time then you go I

I know the answer to that

that's the answer you you never get

fooled by that again so just knowing

just seeing it one time you're

infinitely better so when you read

enough you're capturing all these

lessons of course you want to put the

book on you want to become that person

that can rattle you up man especially if

the person is thinking all sorts of

things that you've never thought I mean

I love reading for that reason I could

pick my peers too which I really loved

it's like well you know I have have

these people around me but then there's

these people who who've lived before me

and in different places and I can set

them up on my shelf I can enter into

their world and I can benefit from

everything they've thought and saturate

myself with that person it's and it's

very disruptive especially if the person

that you're reading has a mind that's

more powerful and more well-developed

than your own it was very disruptive but

unbelievably useful unbelievably useful

to try on other people like that and you

get the benefit of their entire life

distilled into their into their book you

know it it it's 30 years of work I I

read this one book called The neuros

pychology of anxiety which is a it's a

great scientific work it's very hard

book I think it has 1800 references

something like that and this guy Jeffrey

gray he actually read all those

references and he understood them and so

it took me six months to read the book

but I got an entire education out of it

I got to experienceing 6 months what it

took him 30 years to learn like what a

gift that is it's it's it's

unbelievable what were you reading when

you were in University was it was it

fiction novels was it non-fiction what

what were you what were you focusing on

as trit as this may sound it was

actually the the most impact was from

Shakespeare the most impact on on

multiple levels and I'll tell you the

primary level and when I've covered

Shakespeare on my podcast I explain this

to people people think well you know I

didn't really understand I read it I

understand it if you think you're going

to just pick up Shakespeare open it up

and read it and understand it you're not

going to because it's barely written in

English it's barely written in English

it's almost another language so what you

have to do is you have to start to

interpret it and so what I realized with

with Shakespeare is number one the

weight of the words that these words

were so pregnant with meaning that you

had to pull those words and parse those

words and pull those words apart to see

all the depth that each individual word

had and then the way that they're put

together and what was great about this

was by the time I was back cuz then I

went right back into the SEAL Teams and

somebody would hand me a Rules of

Engagement document that was written by

some lawyer in Washington DC and I'd

pull it out and say wait a second this

word I don't know what this word means

let's pull this word out let's see what

this let's see what this actual

definition of this particular word is

and how that changes my viewpoint of the

Rules of Engagement and how can I

translate that for my troops so that

they actually know what to do so that

part uh for me was from a reading

perspective starting to read Shakespeare

and and saying oh okay you're not going

to understand this and if you don't

understand something that's okay you

pull out the Oxford English Dictionary

and you look it up and then you not just

find out what the meaning of the word is

but what's the root word and where does

it come from and what kind of depth and

what kind of yeah and that's really

that's that's unbelievable useful too

virtually every word is like that

because a word is an ancient artifact

it's like it's it's it's like an it's

like an animal in some sense it has an

evolutionary history and it transforms

across time and each word kind of it

carries The Echoes of its past with it

too because each word um attracts other

words in a particular unique way so it

kind of lives in a word ecosystem as

well and the ecosystem contain

information about the history of that

word and you think well why is that

important it's like well hey guess what

you think in words you talk in words you

have all these archaic entities these

words these living entities that you use

it's like the more you know about them

the more you know about you the more you

know about other people and the better

you are at formulating and communicating

your ideas there's nothing there's

nothing lost in that kind of

Investigation nothing there's nothing

but gain there your ambition if you have

any sense is actually to become

competent do you want want to be

competent and dangerous or do you want

to be vague and useless it is definitely

the case that there is no more

exceptional form of the capacity to be

dangerous than to be articulate and so

it's a moral Endeavor in some real sense

right to become articulate is to become

the master of your own tongue every

Advantage comes with a disadvantage so

if you're extroverted you're social and

you're positive but you're impulsive and

you can tilt towards Hedonism and you

can't stand being alone no matter where

you land in the temperamental landscape

you're going to have your Associated

faults and temptations you got a goal

and you'll see that as you progress

towards the goal there'll be obstacles

that emerge and some of them you don't

want to confront it's why it's useful to

order your room chaotic room makes you

anxious why too many Pathways man people

don't really repress the things they

don't want to face they just fail to

unpack them you want a horizon of ever

expanding possibility we're built to

walk uphill and when you reach the

Pinnacle of the Hill you want to stop

and appreciate appreciate the vision but

the next thing you want is a higher Hill

in the distance beware of unintended

consequences it's like oh no this thing

will just do what I want it to do and

nothing else it's like no turns out that

not only is what we want from each other

the real thing but that's also the

adventure of your life and so if you

aren't truthful and that means

unfortunately especially at the

beginning when you start to be truthful

it means deeply coming to terms with

your inadequacies in humility so it's

very painful with without that you don't

have the adventure of your life you have

the role that you've acquiesced to and

that'll take all the meaning out of your

life it's good for you to go take your

place in the world have some ambition

have a vision have a goal have a

strategy try to be a good person not

because it's your duty precisely because

that's the proper way to live you sit on

the bed and say okay man I'm ready to

learn something what's one thing I'm

doing wrong that I know I'm doing wrong

that I could fix you meditate on that

you'll get an answer you grow in

proportion to the weight you take on

voluntarily and it's also true that we

have no idea what the upper limit to

that

is it's from the uphill climb that we

derive our value and I mean this

technically so almost all the positive

emotion we feel especially the emotion

that fills us with enthusiasm and that's

experienced in relationship to a goal

and so in some sense you want a goal

that you can never attain so you can

always move closer to the goal that

recedes as you move towards it you think

well that's frustrating it's like sfus

pushing the rock uphill but it's not

because as you pursue that goal you put

yourself together and your life does get

better and richer and more abundant

that's why the highest levels of virtue

and goal are in some sense Transcendent

you want them to be above everything

you're doing so you can continually move

towards something that's more Sublime

and better that's what you are you're

you're here to live not to not to sleep

and the problem with the vision of my

Ties on the beach is that well first of

all that's a vision of of drug induced

unconsciousness second it's only going

to work for about a week third you're

going to be a laughing stalk in a month

and depressed and aimless and and

goalless it's no that's not it's it's

you want a horizon of ever expanding

possibility and so it does happen to

people is they because they've Stak

their soul on the attainment of an

instrumental goal and it it can be a

pretty high order goal but then you

think now I'm there now what well the

answer can't be well I'm going to live

in the lp of luxury and never have to

leave a f what do you want to be a giant

infant with a gold with a gold bottle

you never have to do anything but lay in

your back and suck it's like you see the

problem with that as a conceptualization

it's no you want to be like an active

Warrior moving uphill with your sword in

hand and that's that's Dynamic that's

exciting people are afraid of the truth

because often if you reveal it it causes

conflict in the moment telling the truth

is definitely an adventure seeking for

sure but also telling another way of

going about it is to just say what you

think and see what happens that's an

adventure CU you don't know what the

outcome is going to be so look there's

this old idea that it's necessary to

have faith in the truth and so here's

here's a way of thinking about that

someone asks you a question and you

might think well here's the outcome I

want and so here's how I'm going to

answer that question so that's one way

of approaching it but another way of

approach approaching it is you ask me a

question I'm going to think about the

answer and I'm just going to tell you

what I think and it doesn't matter what

the outcome is because I'm willing to

see what the outcome will be predicated

on the idea that there isn't a better

outcome than the one that truth produces

even if it's harsh and terrible in the

in the short term and sometimes it is

it's like there isn't a better way of

doing it now you might say well how do

you know that and the answer is well I

don't know that that's why it's an

Article of Faith cuz I believe and and I

believe this deep the being that you

produce as a consequence of telling the

truth is good by definition even though

it's harsh and and often uncomfortable

because you get in trouble one of the

things that I've really learned recently

or learned to articulate better is that

there's a very tight relationship

between aspiration and responsibility

the first question might be do you need

to Aspire to something and answer is

well yes because you have to do

something you can't if you just sit

there you'll die you can't just sit

there you have to go act out in

okay so act towards what well that's

whatever your aspiration is you have to

have an aim okay well what should the

aim be well it should be something worth

doing let's say why do something that

you don't feel is worth doing what do

you think's worth doing well if you

watch other people and you judge when

they're doing something worthwhile you

usually judge them positively if you see

that they're taking responsibility at

least for themselves but you want to be

completely useless so other people have

to take care of you that's pretty

pathetic and maybe you could get your

act together so you're taking care of

yourself and your family and maybe you

could even do better than that and take

care of yourself and your family and

your community well good for you that's

that's responsibility and that's an aim

well here's one of the things that's

cool about that is that your life

doesn't have meaning without aspiration

or an aim okay so you need a hierarchy

of values there's got to be something at

the top it's got to be something

important if you don't have that your

life doesn't have any meaning so if you

criticize the hierarchy or even the

ideas of idea of hierarchy you destroy

the idea of aspiration

and then people have nothing well that's

not helpful people are built for a

struggle and they're built for a weight

and you want to take on a heavy burden

voluntarily see if you can put yourself

together see what you can do out in the

world while you're waiting to die it's

an all-in game it better be

worthwhile if you gaze into the abyss

long enough you see the light not the

darkness I'm betting my life on it bring

it on the adventure along the Route man

and I would say where's that adventure

to be

found you don't want someone else's fate

man your Fate's enough and your

adventure is enough it's plenty it's

more than you can ever fully realize and

so that's also part of the reason that

we all believe that the individual has

some intrinsic dignity it's don't be so

sure that your position in your room is

so damn trivial might be your attitude

towards it that's trivial and if you're

in Dire Straits and dire circumstances

just look at how much opportunity you

have to make things better well maybe

the same thing's true of life right you

bind yourself to it and the tighter you

bind yourself to it the more you find

out what it is and that's like a radical

Embrace we're built to walk uphill and

when you reach the Pinnicle of the Hill

you want to stop and appreciate the

vision but the next thing you want is a

higher Hill in the distance because it's

from the uphill climb that we derive our

value almost all the positive emotion we

feel especially the emotion that FS us

with enthusiasm that's experienced in

relationship to a goal and so in some

sense you want a goal that you can never

attain there's nothing that makes you

more formidable than verbal competence

than being able to articulate be able to

think to Marshal your arguments right

aim yourself in One Direction and you

might say well I've gone halfway down

this path and I found out it's wrong

well how do you distinguish that from

just giving up well that's a really hard

question right it's it's a moral hazard

but then the Absol is yeah but you have

to play one of them you have to learn to

play one of them you have to become an

expert at at least one of them and then

that's not a relative proposition and I

I believe that's true so you want to

commit to something and then when you

commit to something you require yourself

to bring all of your desperate

components moving in a single Direction

United in a single Direction so it's a

unifying it's a unifying

act you said that a harmless man is not

a good man A Good Man is a very

dangerous man who has that under

voluntary control how should people

become more

dangerous oh becoming more articulate is

definitely I would

say that's the

primary array of

weapons I mean physical prowess is

something and and it's not nothing that

physical confidence that comes along

with that as well

but the same thing replicated at the

level of the ability to communicate and

to think

that's way broader field of of battle

and

opportunity in a world with seemingly

infinite options it can be challenging

to decide on the best course of action

for one's life Peterson suggests that a

useful approach is to focus on what

bothers you or what you find most

challenging these discomforts or

challenges can be an indication of where

one should focus their time and energy

by leaning into what is difficult ult or

uncomfortable individuals can discover

their strengths and find direction in

their

lives be honest with yourself about your

interests abilities and limitations and

pursue the path that aligns most closely

with your values and passions there's a

lot of things you could be bothered by

like a million things man but some

things grip you they bug you and they

might make you resentful and bitter cuz

they bug you so much like they're your

things man they've got you so then I

look for a question that I would like

the answer to I would really like the

answer to it so I don't assume I already

have the answer cuz I would actually

really like to have the answer so if I

could get a better

answer great and so that's the first

thing and that's like a prayer it's like

okay here's a mystery I would like to

delve into it further well so that's

humility it's like here's a mystery

which means I don't know I would like to

delve into it further which means I

don't know enough

already and then then comes the

Revelation it's like well what's a

revelation well if you ask yourself a

question it's a real question do you get

an answer or not the answer is well yeah

thoughts start to appear in your head so

from somewhere that's right from

somewhere where do they come from do you

have a sense depends on what you're

aiming at it depends it depends on your

intent so imagine that your intent is to

make things

better then maybe they come from the

place that's designed to make things

better maybe your intent is to make

things worse then they come from

[Music]

Hell let's say you want to become who

you could be in the fullest sense so

let's say you're someone who's going to

solve some serious problems okay the

first thing you have to do is admit to

the seriousness of the problems that's

no no

joke and so the first thing is just the

terror of the problem itself and that's

enough to paralyze you right and that's

the Hydra that's the Gorgon with the

head of snakes it'll paralyze you and

and turn you to Stone that's the

Basilisk in the Harry Potter series you

look at it and turns you to Stone and

lurks underneath everything right and

it's malevolence and tragedy and and so

and so there's that and then the next is

well you're going to take responsibility

for that you're really going to do that

are you that's a hell of a load man and

so it's daunting to even consider that

and then there's the discipline and

responsibility that that necessitates

which is also daunting it's like oh my

God the problem's that serious I'm

really going to have to get my act

together in order to not contribute to

it much less solve it and so the problem

is terrible and then the the solution is

daunting

but but the upside of that is is

like well there isn't anything better to

have than a problem that's worth solving

like that's really worth

solving right and so the more of that

you take on the more you have a reason

to get out of bed in the morning no

matter what think I'm getting up I'm

trudging forward doesn't matter what I'm

suffering from I've got things that need

to be done they're necessary and that

gives you that sense of purpose that is

the antidote to

bitterness okay well let's say you want

your life to be meaningful it's like

okay then what you do matters it

actually

matters

so that's an interesting thing well so

let's say you go over your past with a

fine tooth comb and you decide you're

going to take responsibility for

everything that you did that was wrong

and everything that you failed to do

that you could have done that was right

it's like does that change the world

it's like depends on how thoroughly you

do it you might say it changes the world

like nothing else possibly can and I

think that that's actually right you

have to allow yourself a certain

latitude for error that's a useful thing

to know too one of the things I tell

people when they're trying to develop a

vision for their life or an

implementable plan is um make a bad plan

make the best one you can but don't get

obsessive about it it's like make a plan

implement it you'll figure out when you

implement it why it's stupid exactly and

then you can fix it a little

bit compare yourself to who you were

yesterday and not to who someone else is

today the same basic idea right is that

you have to get your markers for Success

right because otherwise you can end up

in the situation you described which is

that like there's always people out

there who are doing far better than you

on pretty much anything you want to

imagine and if all you're doing is

seeing yourself in their reflected light

let's say then it's going to be pretty

damn dismal but it's not a good

comparison because you shouldn't just

compare well first of all there's danger

in just comparing yourself to others

period because they're not you and God

only knows what struggles they had to

undertake to get to where they were or

what burdens they're currently carrying

that you're not aware of you just don't

know any of that but you can certainly

contrast yourself with yourself and

that's a lot better it is the only way

well it's also the only way of really of

really measuring anything approximating

proper Improvement you can actually tell

when you're a little better than you

were yesterday right so and and you can

actually do that that's another thing

that's so interesting about it is that

you can actually make yourself a little

better in some way pretty

much well I don't know if it's at every

moment but you can certainly do it every

day it's funny I mean you know obviously

if you have a problem and you think

about it but you can think of a solution

and it's not obvious how you do that you

know I mean it's not like you know how

you're manipulating your neurons or

something it it it it happens of its own

accord in some sense like you can

participate with in it I guess and you

can interfere with it and it seems to

take a certain amount of willpower but

it still all happens mysteriously behind

the

scenes one of the things that I've been

so so you know there's lots of different

ways to interpret the world and you can

maybe even make a case that there's an

endless number of ways to interpret the

world and the problem with that is that

it kind of disorients you in terms of

what you should be doing but just

because there's a very large number of

ways to interpret the world doesn't mean

there's a very large number of

productive meaningful and sustainable

ways to interpret the world and one of

the things you do have to do is figure

out how you conduct yourself today so

that you don't upset the apple card in a

week or a month or a

year and so you know what what you do in

some sense psychologically is you admit

to yourself that your current frame of

reference is faulty and then you start

opening the door to a different kind of

thinking which is more creative thinking

it's more lateral thinking saying well

I'm wrong but that's not necessarily a

problem because I could be right if I

thought some other way well you know

that's great often it works yeah there's

there's almost No Lack there's almost no

end to the utility of trying to figure

out which ways that you're wrong cuz

there's lots of them and every time you

discover one then you don't have to be

quite so wrong anymore that's a really

good deal

yeah what's your time worth you're a

university student well it's certainly

worth minimum wage cuz obviously but

it's worth way more than that because if

you spend a productive hour when you're

20 then you gain the benefits of that

hour for the rest of your life so

there's the compounding effect of time

spent when you're young so I say well

let's assume your time's worth 50 bucks

an hour which I think is an

underestimate but whatever let's call it

50 we can call it 25 we'll call it 50

that's $2,000 a week you're wasting it's

$100,000 a year it's like how much

better would your life be if you weren't

wasting $100,000 a year the DiVinci Code

everyone liked that it sold a

lot and you know it was full of little

Mysteries and was full of hints that

there was more to the world than you

think and which is definitely true and

that you know there was a way of getting

access to that knowledge and that it

would really be worthwhile and people

like that they like that idea and the

reason for that is cuz it's actually

it's

true learn to

write I'm I'm dead serious like I'm dead

serious about that um because writing is

formalized thinking and so the way you

write

is first of all you need a

problem cuz why write if you don't have

a problem so this is good advice if

you're just writing an essay by the way

for your classes it's like pick a bloody

problem that you want to write about cuz

otherwise it's false right from the

start it's up to you to engage with the

material until you find something that

grips you that you desire to investigate

okay so you need a

problem well the next thing you need to

do is well you need to have something to

say about the problem well so reading

reading is really good for that read as

much as you can get your your hands on

that addresses the problem okay so now

now you now you know a bunch of things

or at least provisionally know them you

at least have access to them well now

you start you start sorting through it

it's like okay well maybe I need to

summarize what I've learned and then I

need to iron out the contradictions

between what I've learned and I need to

elegantly formulate that and and I need

to get my word choice right and my

phrase choice right and my sentence

choice right and I need to organize the

sentences into proper paragraphs and the

paragraphs into proper sequence so that

I have a coherent argument and at the

same time what you're doing is is your

your your you're um you're integrating

your own personality at the highest and

most abstract level of organization and

you're sharpening your tools and you're

putting yourself straight because you're

learning to think you learn to do that

by writing many many years you hone your

words they're they're the most powerful

thing about you bar are none if you're

an effective writer and speaker and

Communicator you you have all the

authority and confidence that there is

and so you're at University maybe you're

taking Humanities degree well that

what's the humanities degree for it's to

teach you how to think you learn to

think by writing now there's more to

read to speak and all of that but the

best thing you can do is read and write

every day couple of hours every day

write about things you find important

and see if you can see if you can

discover what you believe to be true and

that'll build you a foundation and it's

unbelievably practical like if you look

at people who are phenomenally

successful across life there's various

reasons but one of them is is that

they're unbelievably good at

articulating what they what they're

aiming at and strategizing and

negotiating and and and and enticing

people with a vision forward it's like

get your words together man that's that

makes you Unstoppable and that that's

really that's the core of the humanity

that idea get your words together make

yourself an articulate creature and then

you're you're deadly in the best

possible way so and take that seriously

the best thing you can do is teach

people to write cuz there's no

difference between that and thinking and

one of the things that just blows me

away about universities is that no one

ever tells students why they should

write something it's like well you have

to do this assignment well why are you

writing well you need the grade it's

like no you need to learn to

think because thinking makes you act

effectively in the world thinking makes

you win the battles you Undertake and

those could be battles for good things

if you can think and speak and write you

are absolutely deadly nothing can get in

your way so that's why you learn to

write it's

like and I can't believe that people

aren't just told that it's it's it's

like it's the most powerful weapon you

can possibly provide someone with and I

I mean I know lots of people who've been

staggeringly successful and watched them

throughout my life I mean those people

you don't want to have an argument with

them they'll just slash you into pieces

and not in a malevolent way it's like if

you're going to make your point and

they're going to make their point you

better have your points organized

because otherwise you are going to look

like and be an absolute idiot you are

not going to get

anywhere the truth of the matter is is

that you have a lot of potential as a

child but none of that is capable of

manifesting itself as Freedom before you

become

disciplined and discipline is a matter

of the imposition of order and the order

is necessary especially for people who

are hopeless and

nihilistic and what does it mean well it

doesn't mean gez I hate getting up at 8:

in the morning to get ready for work

that's just means that you're not very

disciplined you know or or maybe that it

might might mean something deeper but

I'd start with lack of discipline before

you know rearranging your whole life

because you might say well I hate

getting up at 8:00 in the morning no

matter what I'm doing and then it's not

your job I don't mean don't do difficult

things I

mean watch yourself and if you see that

you're doing things that make you hate

yourself then

consider the cost of

continuing you know if something's

valuable you'll make sacrifices to

attain it that that discovery of

sacrifice I think that's what separates

human it's one of the primary factors

separating human beings from

animals because we discovered that we

could let go of something we value in

the present and we would gain something

we value even more in the future lay a

disciplinary structure on yourself get

the chaos in in in check and then you

can move towards a state that's Freer

cuz it's discipline first like look if

you're going to become a concert pianist

there's going to be several thousand

hours of extraordinarily disciplined

practice that's the imposition of order

on your potential let's say but what

comes out of that is a much grander

freedom and so virtually every freedom

that you have in life that's true

freedom is purchased at the price of

discipline but it's not some casual

self-help Doctrine it's that if you

don't organize yourself properly you'll

pay for it and in a big way and so will

the people around

you and I would say start where you can

start you know if if something announces

itself to you as in need of repair that

you could repair then hey fix it you fix

a hundred things like that your life

will be a lot different now I often tell

people too fix the things you repeat

every day cuz people tend to think of

those as trivial you get up you brush

your teeth you you have your breakfast

you know you have your routines that you

go through every day well those probably

constitute 50% of your life and people

think well they're mundane and I don't

need to pay attention to them it's like

no no that's exactly wrong the things

you do every day those are the most

important things you do hands

down well there isn't anything better to

have than a problem that's worth solving

like that's really worth

solving right and so the more of that

you take on the more you have a reason

to get out of bed in the morning no

matter what think I'm getting up I'm

trudging forward doesn't matter what I'm

suffering from I've got things that need

to be done they're necessary and that

gives you that sense of purpose that is

the antidote to bitterness

so yeah there's lots of reasons to you

know cuz I thought for a long time

imagine that imagine you have choice in

front of you cuz you do so here's the

choice your life life is either

meaningful or meaningless okay so let's

go through the meaningless part first

because you think well of course I don't

want it to be meaningless it's like yeah

just hold on a second nothing you do

matters and so impulsive pleasure is the

order of the day no responsibility

that's you can do whatever you want it's

like Pleasure Island in pinio right or

it's it's like Neverland in in in in

Peter Pan you're still a kid you can

play all the time impulsive pleasure and

and no

responsibility that's the reward for

meaninglessness well but then the other

side is okay well let's say you want

your life to be meaningful it's like

okay then what you do matters it

actually matters right make a mistake

hurts you hurts your family hurts the

world in a deeper way than you think and

you have to be awake to that and then

you have to take it on yourself so if

you're at a particular stage right now

and that stage would involve a

particular world view and the behaviors

that go along with that so the

perceptions and behaviors but it's not

enough because you haven't mastered the

whole world and you're making mistakes

all the time and then there's other

neurological mechanisms that so maybe

that's a more left hemisphere phenomena

the instantiation of that identity um

then there's right hemisphere mechanisms

that are tracking your errors and sort

of and keeping track of them and the

errors are in indication that your

theory is incomplete so it ACC the

errors accumulate and the information

around the errors accumulate and another

identity starts to become formulated and

it it solves all the problems you're

previous identity did but also some

additional ones when you have an AA

moment like that it's the manifestation

of that next identity that's that's

making itself known it's you know

because it's being built from the bottom

up it isn't explicit yet then you'll

encounter an explicit statement you you

you mentioned a couple there and they

map on to that and that's the Ahab it's

like oh yes oh yes that's what ties

together these things that I've been

wrestling with in the back of my mind

right someone made it

explicit and that's what well that's one

of the great things about language that

can also help fill in the gaps too

because you then you know you you can

start to make arguments based on that

observation that I have that's that's

that that's the

[Music]

manifestation what is the consequence

the long-term consequence of acting so

many people especially because of the

world I live in in Instagram and social

media we we kind of build out these

personas and then we most follow the

implicit instructions that come with

those personas well that's the problem

right there is that I think Pinocchio is

brilliant work of art if you're a puppet

and an actor and Pinocchio is both at

times in that movie both a puppet and an

actor so why an actor like why is there

why is there something wrong with being

an actor well the first question is well

who sets your

role and then the second question is

who's pulling your strings so you've put

on this front that is there to make you

popular and sexy and desirable and to

mask from yourself your own inadequacies

but that's a role well who wrote it and

for what

purpose and you know maybe you're acting

out a tragedy may maybe you're acting

out narcissist you don't know because

you've put that you've put that on

yourself in an attempt in some ways to

deliver to people what they want or more

accurately to look as though you're

delivering to people what they want and

it's not nothing to do that right

because at least you're attempting in

some sense to adapt to the social World

someone who's really infantile and

dependent someone who's never left home

part of their problem is that they

haven't crafted a

Persona so you don't want to denigrate

it entirely but it's no substitute for

the real thing and it turns out that not

only is what we want from each other the

real thing but that's also the adventure

of your life and so if you aren't

truthful and that means unfortunately

especially at the beginning when you

start to be truthful it means deeply

coming to terms with your inadequacies

in humility so it's very painful without

that you don't have the adventure of

your life you have the role that has

been that

you've acquiesced to and that'll take

all the meaning out of your life right

imagine that the world was constituted

so that the true adventure of your life

emerged as a consequence of Truth in

speed in action cuz that would be

reflective of the real you so it would

be you living and then imagine that the

adventure that would occur if you

dwelled in the truth would be so

overwhelming that it would justify all

the suffering I've really contended with

this idea of struggle and Chaos in my

life and the role it plays and once upon

a time I thought I was trying to rid my

life of chaos and struggle I thought

that's why I was trying to get rich and

get the Ferrari and the blonde I thought

that would create a life um free of Free

of struggle but then I looked at some

studies and I S heard about this thing

called gold medal depression when

Olympians come back from the Olympics

and they've lost orientation and I and I

tried to understand the role that

struggle would would would have to play

for me to be a fulfilled human being for

the rest of my life we're built to walk

up hill and when you reach the Pinnacle

of the Hill you want to stop and

appreciate the vision but the next thing

you want is a higher Hill in the

distance because it's the uphill climb

that it's it's from the up up hill climb

that we derive our value and I mean this

technically so almost all the positive

emotion we feel especially the emotion

that fills us with enthusiasm that's

experienced in relationship to a goal

and so in some sense you want a goal

that you can never

attain right so you can always move

closer to the goal that recedes as you

move towards it you think well that's

frustrating it's like szipus pushing the

rock uphill but it's not because as you

pursue that goal you put yourself

together and your life does get better

and richer and more abundant that's why

the highest levels of virtue and goal

are in some sense Transcendent you want

them to be above everything you're doing

so you can continually move towards

something that's more Sublime and better

that's what you are you're you're here

to live not to not to

[Music]

sleep

[Music]

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
stupid /ˈstupɪd/ B1	adjective - having or showing a lack of good sense or judgment.
crowd /kraʊd/ A2	noun - a large number of people gathered together.
cowardly /ˈkaʊərdli/ B2	adjective - lacking courage.
quit /kwɪt/ A2	verb - to stop doing something.
nihilistic /naɪhɪˈlɪstɪk/ C1	adjective - believing that life is meaningless.
cynical /ˈsɪnɪkəl/ B2	adjective - believing that people are motivated purely by self-interest.
bitter /ˈbɪtər/ B1	adjective - feeling or showing resentment.
resentful /rɪˈzentfəl/ B2	adjective - feeling or expressing bitterness or indignation at having been treated unfairly.
truthful /ˈtruːθfəl/ B1	adjective - telling or expressing the truth.
manipulate /məˈnɪpjuleɪt/ B2	verb - to control or influence (a person or situation) cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulously.
instrumental /ˌɪnstrʊˈmentəl/ C1	adjective - serving a useful purpose; acting as a means to an end.
possess /pəˈzes/ B1	verb - to have as property.
competent /ˈkɒmpɪtənt/ B2	adjective - having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.
dangerous /ˈdeɪndʒərəs/ B1	adjective - able or likely to cause harm or injury.
adventurous /ədˈventʃərəs/ B2	adjective - willing to take risks or try out new methods, ideas, or experiences.
articulate /ˈɑːrtɪkjuleɪt/ C1	adjective - able to express oneself fluently and coherently.

Key Grammar Structures

• you only have to ask a stupid question once

  ➔ Modal verbs (have to) expressing obligation, use of 'only' for emphasis.

  ➔ The phrase emphasizes that asking a foolish question is only necessary **once** to receive an answer. 'Have to' indicates a necessity.

• you sit on the bed and say to yourself you got to mean this

  ➔ Informal imperative ('got to' as 'have to'), reflexive pronoun ('yourself').

  ➔ This line uses a colloquial way of expressing strong obligation ('got to') and emphasizes the need for genuine intention when speaking **to yourself**.

• perhaps it's not everything that I need it to be

  ➔ Use of 'perhaps' to express uncertainty, subjunctive mood ('need it to be').

  ➔ The sentence expresses doubt about whether the speaker's life fulfills their **needs**, using the subjunctive to indicate a hypothetical situation.

• you'll get an answer and it won't be one you want

  ➔ Future simple ('will get'), negative construction ('won't be').

  ➔ This sentence predicts a future outcome – receiving an answer – but also warns that the answer will be **unpleasant** or undesirable.