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3MM: Not Caring, Left Wing & Reading
3 MINUTE MONDAYHi friend, My live tour starts this Thursday in NYC. 5 shows are already sold out - NYC, Austin, Boston, Denver & Chicago all have very limited space left. Last chance for tickets at http://chriswilliamson.live/ I recently came across a blog post from Sam Altman about how to not care what other people think. It's definitely worth reading. “A founder recently asked me how to stop caring what other people think. I didn’t have an answer, and after reflecting on it more, I think it's the wrong question.
Almost everyone cares what someone thinks (though caring what everyone thinks is definitely a mistake), and it's probably important.
Caring too much makes you a sheep.
But you need to be at least a little in tune with others to do something useful for them.
It seems like there are two degrees of freedom: you can choose the people whose opinions you care about (and on what subjects), and you can choose the timescale you care about them on.
Most people figure out the former but the latter doesn’t seem to get much attention.
The most impressive people I know care a lot about what people think, even people whose opinions they really shouldn’t value (a surprising numbers of them do something like keeping a folder of screenshots of tweets from haters).
But what makes them unusual is that they generally care about other people’s opinions on a very long time horizon—as long as the history books get it right, they take some pride in letting the newspapers get it wrong.
You should trade being short-term low-status for being long-term high-status, which most people seem unwilling to do.
A common way this happens is by eventually being right about an important but deeply non-consensus bet.
But there are lots of other ways–the key observation is that as long as you are right, being misunderstood by most people is a strength not a weakness.
You and a small group of rebels get the space to solve an important problem that might otherwise not get solved.” — Sam Altman
MODERN WISDOMI do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent. This week’s upcoming episodes: Monday. Thursday. Saturday. THINGS I'VE LEARNED1. The University of Arkansas found that political ideology predicts how people judge male leaders based on physical strength:
Researchers suggest this reflects evolved stereotypes: strength signals dominance, hierarchy, and enforcement — values conservatives admire but egalitarian authoritarians reject. 2. 73% of Boomer males: "No matter what psychological challenges I face, I will not let them define me." 72% of Gen Z females: "Mental illness is an important part of my identity." — The Presidential Election Survey 2024 3. “One in 5 American adults is illiterate. 54% of adults read below a sixth-grade level. And the numbers are getting worse. Relatedly, it is alarming how bad so many college-educated adults are at reading.” — Rob Henderson LIFE HACKLMNT Lemonade Salt is back in stock. This stuff is phenomenal and was sold out for ages. They had a $1.6M truckload of it stolen recently (no joke). But it’s available now, so go get it. I keep harping on about LMNT because it really works - try it and feel the difference that proper, tasty hydration makes. They also offer an unlimited duration money-back guarantee - so you can buy it 100% risk-free. Try LMNT Risk-Free with a free sample pack. https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Big love, Try my productivity drink Neutonic. PS |
3 Minute Monday
Podcaster with 1bn+ plays. I write about the most important lessons from the best thinkers on the planet. 300,000+ people read my free newsletter. Press subscribe to join.
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, Vulnerability is hard. Fully feeling your feelings gets in the way of life. They slow you down, make you doubt, open you up to mockery and cause you pain. Embracing your emotions sounds great in principle but feels frail in practise. That being said, I want to try and prove to you that embracing vulnerability is true strength. “Vulnerability is speaking your truth, even when it’s scary.” — Joe Hudson Who is truly the braver person… the one who lets themselves feel,...
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, My North America live tour starts this month! New York City, Austin, Boston, Denver, Salt Lake City & Chicago have very limited space left. Get your tickets now at http://chriswilliamson.live/ Anyway, I finally put a name to an idea I've been thinking about for months, I really hope you enjoy this one... We love blaming our parents, it’s practically a rite of passage in modern psychology. But there’s a double standard buried in the trend: we attribute what’s broken...
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, I spent the last 9 days at a retreat. By far the most intense thing I’ve ever done. Think of it like Navy SEAL Bootcamp for emotions. It’s way too soon for me to explain what I learned, but here’s an idea that came to me when reflecting on my experience… The Anorexic Hermit Crab. There’s a kind of hermit crab that dies if it doesn’t find a bigger shell. Its soft, vulnerable body grows slowly over time, until the shell that once protected it becomes a claustrophobic...