Propaganda I’m not falling for

And neither should you.

1/ Retirement

I’ve heard too many stories of people slaving away their lives, reaching 65, retiring with grand plans, and dying before they start. Sounds like a risky strategy to me. It was Naval who said, “Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow.” You don’t need your house paid off, seven figures invested, and two years of cash lying around to do that.

2/ Staying informed

I’ll never understand how news organisations have managed to convince people that being drip-fed the news 24/7 is somehow virtuous and intellectual. Most stories don’t require daily updates, never mind hourly. In fact, I think you could check the news once per month and be as informed as the most degenerate news addict.

3/ “Life is short”

In 49 AD, Seneca said, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” Talk about a truth nuke. Some people could live for a thousand years and still complain that life is short. That’s because a “good life” has never been determined by its quantity.

4/ Adults

As a kid, I thought teenagers had it all together. And then I became one. As a teenager, I thought twentysomethings had it all together. And then I became one. As a twentysomething, I thought adults had it all together. And then I became one. As an adult, I realised nobody has it all together. It’s idiots all the way up.

5/ The hustle

The hustle assumes that the quality of your output is directly correlated to the quantity of your input. Not only is this false, but it’s misleading. Often, the more you hustle, the worse your work becomes. It’s those who can step away, prioritise sleep, look after themselves, go for a long walk, and pursue other interests who are more likely to produce great work.

6/ Money buys happiness

I’m not going to sit here, typing on my MacBook in my air-conditioned studio, and glamourise poverty. That’d be foolish of me. But I’m also not going to sit here, typing on my MacBook in my air-conditioned studio, and worship wealth. Naval framed it best: “Money won’t solve all your problems, but it will solve all your money problems.” There are a lot of problems that money does solve, but there are many it doesn’t. And it’s dangerous to think it will.

7/ Fake learning

There’s an epidemic of fake learning. Duolingo, TikTok, YouTube. It’s all entertainment cleverly disguised as education to make you feel less guilty about spending hours doing it. Real learning is hard. It’s uncomfortable. If it feels like “fun”, I assume I’m probably not learning anything.

8/ Planning

As a kid, the phrase “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” was seared into my psyche until it became as instinctive as breathing. As an adult, I think it’s complete bullshit. Unless I’m about to do something that poses a significant threat to life (which is very rare), planning is just well-branded procrastination. I’m always better off doing the thing.

9/ The corporate ladder

The greatest psyop in history is companies convincing an entire generation that spending their prime years climbing some meaningless corporate ladder in a bullshit email job is more important than starting a family and living life. I’m not saying work doesn’t matter. Bills need paying. I’m saying don’t get brainwashed into thinking it’s something it’s not, and forget why you’re doing it in the first place.

10/ Being realistic

“Stay in your lane.” “Know your place.” “Be realistic.” Screw all of that. As far as I’m aware, we only get one shot at this, so what’s the point of playing it safe? You’ve probably heard of the myth of Icarus: the father and son who try to escape an island using homemade wings? Yeah, well, I’d rather be Icarus than someone who’s never left the ground.

11/ The past

Most people are slaves to their past. Their careers determined by what classes they picked as a teenager. Their opinions determined by what their naive self once said. Their self-image determined by an offhand comment someone made decades ago. The reality is, you don’t owe the past anything. At any point, you can reinvent yourself.

12/ Dooming

According to most, we’re doomed. Climate change will collapse civilisation. AGI will enslave us all. And nuclear war will wipe out humanity. That’s not to say these aren’t genuine risks, but the idea that these outcomes are inevitable is stupid. We can invent the future. And we will. As long as we don’t succumb to pessimism.

13/ Talent

I know too many talented failures and untalented successes to believe it. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. I’m saying where you start doesn’t determine where you finish. And if anything, talent often breeds an intolerable air of complacency which gets you absolutely nowhere.

14/ Legacy

Nobody wants to be forgotten. That’s why some are hellbent on getting their name listed in the history books, etched above a library door, or immortalised on a Wikipedia page. But prioritising legacy is a trivial pursuit. You’re only delaying the inevitable. In a few generations’ time, your name will be said for the last time. Don’t waste your life fighting it.

15/ Self-pity

Today, the act of ruminating on your own suffering is celebrated. You get attention, sympathy, validation. Enough for some to build their entire identity around it. But self-pity is flawed. All it does is give you permission to get comfortable in your suffering instead of trying to solve it. Another excuse to avoid responsibility and outsource your agency.

16/ LinkedIn

LinkedIn might be the most insufferable place on the internet. A social media platform framed as a “professional community” to help you justify doomscrolling at work. Some might claim they need it to do their job, but I’m yet to figure out how reading corporate slop all day is helping anyone do that.

17/ Instagram

The collective damage Instagram has done to society is frightening. Measuring your ordinary against someone else’s highlights is only going to breed comparison that’ll leave you feeling envious, insecure, or inadequate. And this was before it became a TikTok clone that’ll destroy your attention span in the process.

18/ Social norms

Everyone is always going on about how sad everyone is, how lonely everyone is, how unhealthy everyone is, yet everyone is still desperate to be like everyone else. Explain that one to me?

19/ IQ

I know too many happy simpletons and unhappy intellects for IQ to be the omniscient measure it’s made out to be. Maybe this is just low-IQ cope. I wouldn’t know; I’ve never taken an IQ test. My strategy has always been to focus on traits like self-awareness, courage, resilience. Things I can actually control, and things that are in far shorter supply than intelligence.

20/ Finding your passion

It’s hard to avoid the “find your passion” trope in today’s guru-riddled world. Pitched as the silver bullet to cure all your misery, it’s certainly enticing. But I disagree with a foundational part of it: This utopian end-state isn’t out there waiting for you to stumble on it. It’s not something you find. Passion is something you build. It’s the reward for dedicating yourself to a craft and getting good at it. That’s the only way you’ll “find” your passion.

21/ Luck

Most people think luck is an uncontrollable phenomenon. The force that makes things happen through random chance rather than deliberate effort. Not true. Luck is just randomness that goes your way. Two variables you can control. If you increase your exposure to randomness by putting yourself out there, and make it go your way by being irrationally resilient, I guarantee your luck will mysteriously increase.

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