Stop Looking for the Next Insight

[Alexanderr]

This is the "Decryption Key" theory of wisdom, or whatever you want to call it

See, advice is like an encrypted file. You've heard "time is your most valuable asset" a thousand times. At 18, with infinite runway ahead, you can read those words perfectly fine; but you don't have the private key to decrypt them. The meaning is locked. You nod along intellectually, but nothing changes.

Then you waste five years on the wrong relationship or dead end job. One morning you wake up and realize those years are gone. Forever. Click. The key generates. That same phrase you've heard a thousand times suddenly isn't a sentence anymore; its a panic attack, a revelation exploding in your skull

This is why young intellectuals hate clichés and old masters love them.

The intellectual dismisses "this too shall pass" or "comparison is the thief of joy" as boring bumper sticker wisdom. They want the 45 minute video essay finding Marxist undertones in Shrek because it feels new.

The master knows cliches are compressed truth. To the reading brain, they're platitudes. To the swimming brain (the one that's actually lived it) they're blood-written survival instructions

Genuine insight is almost never new. It's something your grandmother told you at 12, but you were too "smart" (too inexperienced) to hear it.

Reading a book of wisdom before you have the experience to match it? You're not really reading. You're recognizing letter shapes.

Its like studying a car repair manual when you don't own a car: just abstract nonsense. But when your engine dies on the highway, you grab that manual and the exact same words suddenly look like scripture. The words didn't change. You did.

The "insight economy"; self-help (this place included), video essays, guru Twitter; sells a lie: that the right combination of words will unlock you. It won't.

The words are useless until you have the scar tissue to catch them.

You dont need new advice. You need more friction.

Stop looking for the next insight. You've already heard what you need to hear. You just havent lived enough yet for it to land.

 

[cash.org]

high iq thread

 

[Alexanderr]

I acknowledge that even applies to this very same post you just read. Most of you will nod, but only those who've got the right experience will actually understand it. Idk, maybe 5 years from now the light bulb moment will hit.

 

[Alexanderr]

high iq thread

No way you read this shit in 30 secs bro

 

[hax]

high iq thread

you did not fucking read that sub 1 minute

 

[aids]

So, don't pause living to try and understand; live, and by living, you will understand?

 

[cash.org]

you did not fucking read that sub 1 minute

im locked

 

[Alexanderr]

So, don't pause living to try and understand; live, and by living, you will understand?

Beautifully said dawg.

 

[Insomnia]

Surprisingly enough, the advice people need is usually the most basic one. Like you said in the thread, people know what they need to do, yet they choose to procrastinate and try to gather as much advice as they can from the internet, that won’t even be used in real life scenarios.

Your knowledge is equal to 0 if you don’t use it. This reminds me of the thread you made explaining how over preparation is actually a form of procrastination.

 

[Finnishmogger]

high iq thread

Nigga just wanted the first reply

 

[Hyakkimaru]

This is the "Decryption Key" theory of wisdom, or whatever you want to call it

See, advice is like an encrypted file. You've heard "time is your most valuable asset" a thousand times. At 18, with infinite runway ahead, you can read those words perfectly fine; but you don't have the private key to decrypt them. The meaning is locked. You nod along intellectually, but nothing changes.

Then you waste five years on the wrong relationship or dead end job. One morning you wake up and realize those years are gone. Forever. Click. The key generates. That same phrase you've heard a thousand times suddenly isn't a sentence anymore; its a panic attack, a revelation exploding in your skull

This is why young intellectuals hate clichés and old masters love them.

The intellectual dismisses "this too shall pass" or "comparison is the thief of joy" as boring bumper sticker wisdom. They want the 45 minute video essay finding Marxist undertones in Shrek because it feels new.

The master knows cliches are compressed truth. To the reading brain, they're platitudes. To the swimming brain (the one that's actually lived it) they're blood-written survival instructions

Genuine insight is almost never new. It's something your grandmother told you at 12, but you were too "smart" (too inexperienced) to hear it.

Reading a book of wisdom before you have the experience to match it? You're not really reading. You're recognizing letter shapes.

Its like studying a car repair manual when you don't own a car: just abstract nonsense. But when your engine dies on the highway, you grab that manual and the exact same words suddenly look like scripture. The words didn't change. You did.

The "insight economy"; self-help (this place included), video essays, guru Twitter; sells a lie: that the right combination of words will unlock you. It won't.

The words are useless until you have the scar tissue to catch them.

You dont need new advice. You need more friction.

Stop looking for the next insight. You've already heard what you need to hear. You just havent lived enough yet for it to land.

DR, i thought about that a lot recently, i always though 1 year was a long time but now it feels like it passes almost in a second

 

[m0ss26]

well put to say the least

 

[Alexanderr]

Surprisingly enough, the advice people need is usually the most basic one.

That's pretty much what spurred me to write this thread. Almost all of the most useful advice I've heard was incredibly simple, in retrospect. I realized that life changing advice is cheap to hear but hard to grasp. We live in an information age where insight is the target, but information is just the proxy. Goodhart's law: when the measure becomes the target, it ceases to be a good measure. We collect information like our brains are storage devices, as though acquiring knowledge simply means more facts in your head; as opposed to lived experience that lets those facts actually land.

 

[Insomnia]

That's pretty much what spurred me to write this thread. Almost all of the most useful advice I've heard was incredibly simple, in retrospect. I realized that life changing advice is cheap to hear but hard to grasp. We live in an information age where insight is the target, but information is just the proxy. Goodhart's law: when the measure becomes the target, it ceases to be a good measure. We collect information like our brains are storage devices, as though acquiring knowledge simply means more facts in your head; as opposed to lived experience that lets those facts actually land.

Similar to how you said in the thread, most people will see this, nod, get a wave of dopamine and a moment of motivation, and then will move on with their lives.

We also live in an age where we get overwhelmed with advice/motivation from social media, which, renders the actually important stuff useless. Similar to how The words of someone who barely talks will be more valuable than the words of someone who cannot stop talking.
What about you though? Have you had any success using your knowledge?

 

[ybuyhgui]

Your threads are my favorite

 

[Alexanderr]

So, don't pause living to try and understand; live, and by living, you will understand?

Let me get back to this because it really is a great comment. You basically captured in one sentence what Russell was alluding to in this quote (one of my favorites). He's not merely talking about writers, but he uses them as example.

“To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of his efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile.”

― Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

The "disease" Krutch diagnoses is excessive intellectualism; thinking and analyzing so much that you become paralyzed and disconnected from direct experience.

Russell's prescription is brutal but practical: stop thinking, go live. Become a pirate, a laborer, whatever. Do something physical that forces you out of your head. Only after years of actual living will intellectual work stop feeling futile, because it'll finally be grounded in real experience instead of abstract navel gazing.

Same disease we've been discussing; the gap between information and action, Reading Brain vs Swimming Brain. Russell just called it differently a century ago

 

[noahwillascend]

This is the "Decryption Key" theory of wisdom, or whatever you want to call it

See, advice is like an encrypted file. You've heard "time is your most valuable asset" a thousand times. At 18, with infinite runway ahead, you can read those words perfectly fine; but you don't have the private key to decrypt them. The meaning is locked. You nod along intellectually, but nothing changes.

Then you waste five years on the wrong relationship or dead end job. One morning you wake up and realize those years are gone. Forever. Click. The key generates. That same phrase you've heard a thousand times suddenly isn't a sentence anymore; its a panic attack, a revelation exploding in your skull

This is why young intellectuals hate clichés and old masters love them.

The intellectual dismisses "this too shall pass" or "comparison is the thief of joy" as boring bumper sticker wisdom. They want the 45 minute video essay finding Marxist undertones in Shrek because it feels new.

The master knows cliches are compressed truth. To the reading brain, they're platitudes. To the swimming brain (the one that's actually lived it) they're blood-written survival instructions

Genuine insight is almost never new. It's something your grandmother told you at 12, but you were too "smart" (too inexperienced) to hear it.

Reading a book of wisdom before you have the experience to match it? You're not really reading. You're recognizing letter shapes.

Its like studying a car repair manual when you don't own a car: just abstract nonsense. But when your engine dies on the highway, you grab that manual and the exact same words suddenly look like scripture. The words didn't change. You did.

The "insight economy"; self-help (this place included), video essays, guru Twitter; sells a lie: that the right combination of words will unlock you. It won't.

The words are useless until you have the scar tissue to catch them.

You dont need new advice. You need more friction.

Stop looking for the next insight. You've already heard what you need to hear. You just havent lived enough yet for it to land.

ChatGPT generated but it's true

 

[Alexanderr]

What about you though? Have you had any success using your knowledge?

Great question. You know, I was thinking about this earlier today watching some video.

I've posted many of these threads, I can enunciate the points just fine, I can debate them, I can construct and deconstruct them- yet I regularly fail to adhere to my own rules. Makes me feel like an imposter, at times. Why is this?

I call it the "Coach on the Couch" Paradox.

An unsettling truth about the entire advice industry, from forum posters to respected thinkers:

The skill of articulating a solution is completely independent from the skill of executing it.

Getting back to the Read vs. Swimming brain...

The Reading/Speaking Brain: This part handles logic, language, and abstraction. It can look at a problem, analyze the variables, and construct a perfect, logical sentence: "To lose weight, you must be in a caloric deficit and exercise"
The Swimming/Doing Brain: This part handles impulse control, dopamine regulation, and muscle memory. It is the part of me that has to actually say no to the pizza.

You can have a genius-level Speaking Brain and a toddler-level Doing Brain.

This is why I can give great advice on forums but fail to follow it. My logic was sound (map was correct), but my executive function ( ability to walk) was lagging. I wasn't necessarily lying; I was just a guy with a great map who couldn't hike.

This is very important to remember whenever you read my threads, or watch anyone who seems to have it all figured out.

I've had success, yes, mostly when I simply don't give myself the time to negotiate with myself, and just do it. Cold approaching storefronts to land a job, striking up conversations with girls, etc.

It's like a baby grabbing a toy to play with, they don't contemplate before whether they're in the right state of mind, or have enough time- no. The thought itself is their hand grabbing the damned toy.

You can always negotiate yourself out of doing something, so don't do it, just do the thing.

 

[Diᴏgenes]

could you check pms please?

 

[Alexanderr]

ChatGPT generated but it's true

Is it? This is something I've been thinking about for months. Even gave a presentation on it (kinda?) during some hot take night at a local philosophy club:

With that said, I'll gladly use AI to condense my stream-of-consciousness documents because I know anything over a 3-min-read here is too long for most users to read, realistically. But even that would be with a lot of personal input/tweaking.

 

[Alexanderr]

Great question. You know, I was thinking about this earlier today watching some video.

I've posted many of these threads, I can enunciate the points just fine, I can debate them, I can construct and deconstruct them- yet I regularly fail to adhere to my own rules. Makes me feel like an imposter, at times. Why is this?

I call it the "Coach on the Couch" Paradox.

An unsettling truth about the entire advice industry, from forum posters to respected thinkers:

The skill of articulating a solution is completely independent from the skill of executing it.

Getting back to the Read vs. Swimming brain...

The Reading/Speaking Brain: This part handles logic, language, and abstraction. It can look at a problem, analyze the variables, and construct a perfect, logical sentence: "To lose weight, you must be in a caloric deficit and exercise"
The Swimming/Doing Brain: This part handles impulse control, dopamine regulation, and muscle memory. It is the part of me that has to actually say no to the pizza.

You can have a genius-level Speaking Brain and a toddler-level Doing Brain.

This is why I can give great advice on forums but fail to follow it. My logic was sound (map was correct), but my executive function ( ability to walk) was lagging. I wasn't necessarily lying; I was just a guy with a great map who couldn't hike.

This is very important to remember whenever you read my threads, or watch anyone who seems to have it all figured out.

I've had success, yes, mostly when I simply don't give myself the time to negotiate with myself, and just do it. Cold approaching storefronts to land a job, striking up conversations with girls, etc.

It's like a baby grabbing a toy to play with, they don't contemplate before whether they're in the right state of mind, or have enough time- no. The thought itself is their hand grabbing the damned toy.

You can always negotiate yourself out of doing something, so don't do it, just do the thing.

In my ADHD I forgot to say how it was actually related to the video I was watching.

In short: just struck me how given this is the case, the productivity guys on YT making videos about their 'monk mode routines' or 'how to read a 100 books' probably struggle to do the stuff they preach. The reality is that their real skills lie in their video editing and scriptwriting, not the thing they're actually talking about.

So, us viewers watching them think: "Wow, this person is a master of life." Meanwhile once the camera cuts, they are likely scrolling TikTok and eating takeout just like everyone else.

This is a far healthier stance to adopt, along with being more realistic. It's too easy to think the next guy has it better than you. They don't, we're all just some dumb apes winging it.

 

[aids]

ChatGPT generated but it's true

Is it? This is something I've been thinking about for months. Even gave a presentation on it (kinda?) during some hot take night at a local philosophy club:

With that said, I'll gladly use AI to condense my stream-of-consciousness documents because I know anything over a 3-min-read here is too long for most users to read, realistically. But even that would be with a lot of personal input/tweaking.

The linguistics definitely are similar but you can tell it’s not AI because of how well written you are in your other replies. It’s not like this extract is an exception to your natural writing style.
Take it as a compliment IMO.

 

[TechnoBoss]

Stop looking for the next insight. You've already heard what you need to hear. You just havent lived enough yet for it to land.

Very legit. Giving advice to people is meaningless for the most part.

 

[Insomnia]

I call it the "Coach on the Couch" Paradox.

i see this paradox pretty often and people usually refer to it as ,,coaches don’t play”. I’ve seen people who don’t really practice what they preach, yet the information is still very much correct. It’s like someone who doesn’t go to the gym giving you advice. You shouldn’t really trust him since he can’t do what he preaches, but you do nonetheless since he’s giving you good advice.

This is why I can give great advice on forums but fail to follow it. My logic was sound (map was correct), but my executive function ( ability to walk) was lagging. I wasn't necessarily lying; I was just a guy with a great map who couldn't hike.

I’m the same boat as you. I’ve made a few threads giving really good advice, yet i don’t follow it to its fullest extent. Although, I’m pretty sure (and hopeful) that with time i will be able to follow my own advice.

I've had success, yes, mostly when I simply don't give myself the time to negotiate with myself, and just do it.

You can always negotiate yourself out of doing something, so don't do it, just do the thing.

This is what’s holding most people back IMO. You set your alarm to 5Am to go for a run, but when you wake up your first thought is ,,no way in hell am I doing that”. You can do that thing physically, but you’re too hesitant about it. It’s like jumping head first into the pool. You can do it, but you’re scared the water will be cold. Thats why being spontaneous and not thinking about certain things is key.

I can go in circles for hours on end giving different examples, explaining why writing this is hypocritical etc.

Either way it was nice talking with you & knowing there are people who share the same thoughts as me. See you around

 

[Alexanderr]

Very legit. Giving advice to people is meaningless for the most part.

Pretty much. I shake my head when I see people asking for advice on questions they already know the answer to.

If you have the same problems you had 5 years ago and you've asked this question hundreds of times in different forms, a differently worded answer isn't gonna help when the previous hundred didn't.

I'm no better. I still catch myself asking questions when I already know what I need to do. I think we all do.

In some previous thread I had some quote which captures it nicely: You cannot think your way out of a problem you've behaved your way into. It's nice on the ears but hard to grasp.

I'm not sure what's worse, being blind to the problem or seeing it clearly and still feeling powerless to stop it.

 

[zemult]

Very well said

Never get stuck in analysis paralysis

 

[Hunter]

Real brah

 

[miah]

You dont need new advice. You need more friction.

Thanks for very insightful thread. What does more friction mean though?

 

[The Fool]

what even worse is trying to to gain additional insight from your past

specifically trauma while you still have agency

 

[Foreverbrad]

“Comparison is the thief of joy” isn’t actionable. It’s not my own comparisons that make my life a joyless ruin, it’s those applied by others.

Good post though. I’ve not found any new insight in a while, it stopped with the red pill: looks, money and status are all that matter and every interaction is a transaction.

Black pill says that these things are predetermined but it’s not really an actionable insight except if you choose to give up because of it.

I don’t need new advice or more friction. I’m on the final stage of life where it’s just a money grind and then you die. It all reduces to money. Status is a product of money and looks are a product of surgery, therefore money.

 

[rotation]

interesting read

'life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.' - soren kierkegaard

 

[lightswinning]

There is this beautiful quote from True detective S1 by Rust Cohle, who was by the way, one the first mainstream 'pessimist'/ 'realist' type character spitting out straight up Schopenhauerian anti natalist , fatalist ( dialogues based on the writings of Thomas Ligotti to be exact) pessimist ramblings on mainstream HBO for everyone to watch. The quote was,
"You know people who give me advice, I reckon they're talking to themselves". Perfectly encapsulates this thread and the whole motivational gurus/ self improvement sphere.
Also the classic from Fight Club,
"Self improvement is masturbation , now self destruction ( i interpret it as 'destroying' your past self and taking real action instead of mentally masturbating over how your gonna change your life etc, most people know exactly what they need to do, its not rocket science).
The fact i filled this up with quotes is ironical in itself given the point of this thread but then again we are all , for the most part, retarded apes with sentience and a hell of a lot of superiority complex, end of the day, all animals are tied to their biology, the exact same way we 'evolved' and invented poetry, romance, love, 'personality', chivalry etc just for the female to still instinctively follow the age old sexual selection which is deeply encoded in their DNA through millions of years of primal evolution. Its always been the same honestly, dumb animals who think theyre somehow 'better' or 'smarter' than their biology , goes for all and everyone, with regards to any aspect of life.