Add War

For the past days, I have been going through the Berkshire Hathaway meetings from 1994 and onwards, taking notes. But I came across something shocking—my focus is so bad. I'm sitting there watching, and if 20 seconds aren't as interesting as the others, I just open Twitter on the side, miss the interesting part, and have to loop back, only to do the same thing again. It's really shocking. It's even more ironic that something like that is happening while I'm listening to Charlie Munger, who was probably one of the most focused people and could often sit there for hours devouring books while his grandchildren played around him.

Now, some of you have probably seen the trend of "rawdogging a flight," which basically means not using any entertainment of any sort while flying on an airplane. And even I have been told that that would be a crazy thing to do. Doing nothing for a couple of hours has become something weird, but it was common for every generation before us or before the internet. Some people just dismiss the fact that this is kind of crazy and get defensive of it, calling rawdogging stupid.

We live in a world where you can now sit in a room with your phone for hours and just entertain yourself. Pre-phone/internet, something like this was only accessible to really rich people, like kings who had jesters or went rabbit hunting.

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” - Blaise Pascal

Do you really still feel anything, or are you just going numb?

I feel like most people are just getting numb (myself included). You get your next Spotify song directly without doing anything. Your next YouTube video won't be recommended by a friend but rather the next one that just pops up. Instead of getting rejected by someone on the street, you just use a dating app to have zero rejection. There's no "I have a boyfriend" or nervously opening your phone with a heartbeat to give them your number. No risk of embarrassment at all. You want to avoid getting into a conversation with someone? Just put in your AirPods. Want to talk to someone? Just open your phone and talk to someone. You’re in an uncomfortable position? Just take out your phone (we’ve all done that, and it's crazy to think about how you're just fleeing to your phone to swipe from left to right to ease your mind). All of these points also involve the constant multitasking everyone is doing. I think everybody who is multitasking will pay a huge price. It will just rob you of the depth you can achieve in anything you are doing, and that includes listening to music while doing anything.

You can find diversion just by sitting on your couch instead of going out. Why should you then? In the past, you had to.

In the past, if you wanted to numb yourself, rich people could get a jester or a pianist, but the average person had the only best option, which was to use alcohol to numb themselves. Today it's Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube (and many more).

The internet is the new alcohol, and guess what? It only gets worse from here.

I think a lot of people have this problem with music (some more, some less), myself included. And often, people say, "You probably can't deal with your own thoughts, and that's why you need to listen to music all the time," and the response then is, "That's not true; of course I can deal with my own thoughts," or "I just enjoy music," or "I couldn't live without music." But I'd argue it's not the thoughts you can't deal with; it's the emotions you can't deal with when you're not listening to music. Think about it again.

Try to get fewer inputs. Don’t use Instagram that much, don’t listen to 10 podcasts—enjoy silence and form your own opinions. All content will change you. Don’t be one of the people who think they are "learning" online but are actually just numbing themselves.

“If you survey enough people, all of the advice will cancel to zero.” - Naval Ravikant

I'm going to make a prediction (and I normally never do that) that being able to do the complete opposite of what I said above will give you a big edge in the future, probably one of the biggest in the next century. So don’t be numb; just raw dog life.

Now, let's get to the title: what can we do to reduce the numbness? Let’s just add some war.

In his blog, Tim Denning wrote:

Success is on the edge and always needs to be fought for, and wanting life to be calm is a huge error.

I have tried implementing stuff that Zach Pogrob called “enjoyable torture” in my life, and it's great. If you don’t constantly live on the edge, you will just be a spectator. But I have to say it is hard to maintain. Feeling alive will cure part of the numbness. Take action.

“Chaos gives you clarity, in a way peace never could”

You need to close the gap between idea and action. Ninety-nine percent of people spend their whole lives dreaming and diverting things. When you use the "go to war" mindset, this will change. I will further try to implement it and will keep you updated.

Thanks,

Finn

(this were more of my thoughts than a real post)