Beware of the story you tell yourself. The story we tell ourselves is the most powerful one in the world. Eventually, we start believing it, even when it’s not true. While a positive story by itself won’t guarantee a good outcome, a negative one will certainly prevent it from happening. “If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.” — Horace Mann, h/t @shaneparrish

Another danger of working for yourself. “In a permissionless environment where you can really embrace the freedom of being able to work whenever you want, wherever you want. For most people what that is going to turn into is working all the time, wherever you are. And you don’t have someone to stop you, other than yourself. It’s much more problematic than you might expect. It’s a real risk.” — @tferriss

In 2020, Mike Adams committed suicide after being canceled and losing his job as a professor. Adams was never dishonest. All he did was say things like "rioters are thugs" and "women's studies aren't essential". Even in death, the media ran awful headlines like this.

The death of Jason Arday is tragic, and makes me so angry. Even the most casual observer could see he was a vulnerable fantasist. A number of people at a number of academic institutions have serious questions to answer. They put him into positions he was clearly not qualified for so they could have a black wunderkind to show off, they pushed him into the spotlight for their own benefit. His exposure was inevitable, a case of when, not if. His whole world fell apart.

Wives ARE status symbols. I’m sorry that so many of you can’t handle that truth, but it’s just the way it is. Men with wives are automatically seen as more trustworthy and stable. Men with hot, well cared for wives are automatically seen as more affluent and powerful. A wife is the most powerful status symbol there is because anyone can make payments. But you succeed in making a woman thrive? You provide what she needs not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too? And it shows because she loves you back and is willing to express that physically? You’ve won. A wife is an outward representation, she reflects what few other things can, her husband’s character.

Having a negative view of masculinity damage boys’ & men’s mental health. “Research assessing the views of over 4000 men found that thinking masculinity is bad for your behaviour is linked to having worse mental wellbeing. Around 85% of respondents thought the term ‘toxic masculinity’ is insulting, and probably harmful to boys. Although the direction of causation isn’t definite (do negative views about masculinity damage mental wellbeing, or does low mental wellbeing causes men to view masculinity negatively) it is clear that negative views of masculinity are linked to wellbeing to a significant degree. On the other hand, having a positive view of masculinity is linked to better mental wellbeing. This fits with other evidence – typically overlooked in the media and elsewhere – that masculinity can be beneficial to mental health. Indeed this news is no surprise to the average person in the street, many of whom recognise the value of masculinity much more people in academia, the media and government. There are rare exceptions, but the majority of information about masculinity we are exposed to is unreasonably negative, so you can be forgiven for thinking that men are the oppressors of women rather than the protectors of women. Interestingly, this study found that better mental wellbeing was associated with believing masculinity makes men protective of women. And worse mental wellbeing was associated with believing masculinity makes men feel violent towards women. One of the implications of the study was that “if we want men to have good mental health, a useful strategy might be to help them to appreciate the ways in which their masculinity can have a positive impact on their behaviour and the people around them”. So the message to schools, the media, governments and NGOs is: there is more to be gained by being positive, so it’s time to stop being so negative about men and masculinity.” — @MalePsychology

At some point liberal women need to decide: are they oppressed by men because men have all the wealth and opportunity, or are there no good men because men are failures who don't make enough money.

5 questions to ask yourself if you’re unsure about your relationship. If someone told you you’re a lot like your partner, would this be a compliment to you? Are you truly fulfilled or just less lonely? Are you able to be unapologetically yourself or do you feel the need to show up differently to please your partner? Are you in love with who your partner is right now as a whole, or are you only in love with their good side, their potential, or the idea of them? Would you want your future/imagined child to date someone like your partner? — h/t Reddit

What will the future actually look like? @friedberg and I sat down to discuss. 0:00 Why we fear the future 0:39 The fertilizer crisis solved 2:01 Life is getting better 4:04 East vs. West mindset 6:20 AI centralizes power differently 7:08 Technology always diffuses outward 9:30 CAR-T therapy case study 11:31 Token costs falling 1000x 12:25 The moon explained 13:50 Everyone owning a robot 16:11 Which jobs AI hits first 17:47 Who buys the robots? 19:20 TikTok proves latent entrepreneurship 21:30 Moon as staging ground 23:54 The 9km rail gun 25:46 Self-replicating robots on Mars 27:06 Fusion energy explained 29:04 How the sun works 32:13 AI cracking plasma stability 37:20 Who owns the moon? 44:33 How far is age reversal? 48:38 Yamanaka factors discovered 54:11 Longevity escape velocity 56:15 Careers in a 120-year life 1:00:07 Transhumanism and brain interfaces 1:05:05 Embryo selection and CRISPR 1:10:53 Making X-Men: transgenic humans 1:26:30 David's seed company explained 1:36:25 California's collapse 1:40:47 Unfunded pension crisis 1:41:08 The billionaire tax threat 1:42:59 Origin of the income tax 1:46:17 Wealth tax kills property rights 1:52:29 Why people vote socialist 1:54:43 Government vs. free market prices 2:02:38 The food stamp explosion 2:05:23 AOC as 2028 frontrunner 2:07:02 Tomorrowland's optimism shift Includes paid partnerships.