HOW TO THRIVE

Something that I am actually very personally curious about, in which I do really care for, is figuring out how that we could maximally thrive.

What does it mean to thrive? For us to have the maximum peak health and motivation, the maximum strength, the maximum uplifted mood, and energy, and the best gratitude towards life. And hopefully channel this great healthiness for your artistic, philosophical, and personal ends.

Some quick thoughts:

1. Sleep is godlike

Even the gods sleep, as we witness in the Iliad by Homer. One of the worst modern trends, perhaps since industrialization, it’s a slave mentality that sleep is for the weak, and sleep is bad because it prevents us from working more and laboring more. It has become the strange badge of honor by bragging about how little you sleep, ever since college.

Before I got addicted to coffee, believe it or not, I made it all through college without drinking a single drop. In fact, I did not start drinking coffee or espresso until after college, when I first went backpacking with Cindy through Paris, where I had my first (what I considered overpriced) espresso (“that’s it?? For 2 euros!!”)

My first realization is that in college, optimizing for sleep was wise. The worst mistake I made was my first quarter as a freshman, trying to pull an all nighter before my calculus midterm, and drinking some sort of energy drink to prevent myself from sleeping, in order to study more throughout the night, before the day of my big test. But, it was one of the worst physiological pains I felt, where maybe I had two hours of very troubled sleep. When I did finally show up to my 8 AM test, my brain did not function correctly. I could not add and subtract without the aid of a calculator.

This was my very first lesson in college, that pulling all nighters was actually huge anti-counterproductive. Needless to say, I bombed and failed the test.

Even one of my mistakes being a new parent was trying to force myself to be productive, even though I was massively sleep deprived. Also, trying to force myself to exercise and workout even when I was massively sleep deprived. I’ve actually discovered that as a new parent, the best skill to pick up is napping. To always sleep a nap when the baby naps, and to prioritize your sleep above everything else. To care less about productivity is wise.

Therefore, assuming that you’re single, or do not yet have a baby, I’ve discovered that in the long run, prioritizing sleep over productivity is the best course of action. Why? Funny enough sleeping more and better will actually make you more productive in the long run.

2. No longer working for a foreign entity

I can speak for myself. In order for maximum human thriving, I actually deem it necessary to no longer work or labor for some sort of foreign entity, boss, company, or Board of Directors. Even if you’re the CEO and make $1 billion a year, but as long as you still have to show up to the office, or report to a board, you’re still not free.

For example, we all love Elon Musk, but, he is still not 100% free. Why? Because Tesla is a publicly traded company, and he is the CEO, that means that he is still beholden to shareholders, and the Board of Directors. Once you IPO, you lose your freedom.

3. What is the Silicon Valley dream?

Upon much thought and reflection, this is what I’ve discovered: startup thinking is actually really bad. Why? If you even use the term “startup”, it implies this very Procrustean bed approach to things, in which you follow Silicon Valley dogma, and the ultimate goal is to IPO for $1 billion. Whether people like to admit it or not, it seems that everyone wants to create $1 billion unicorn, sell it off, and then use the money to retire forever, and for them to pursue their personal solo individual pursuits.

Besides studying the life of Elon Musk, and reading Peter Thiel “zero to one” book (which I love, because I consider it more of a philosophy entrepreneurship book), it seems that all this other Silicon Valley ideology that I’ve personally read, is bad. why? If you really do want to innovate, you cannot study the success of others who have come before you, and then think that by emulating their habits or approach, you will also succeed.

The best is actually to think first principles and start carte blanche, and just follow your own gut. Let us consider that Elon Musk or Steve Jobs has never been part of a start up incubator, and also has not probably read many business books, nor went to business school. And if I even think about it, all of my friends who studied business economics in college, none of them became successful entrepreneurs. They all became boring consultants. My real entrepreneur friends (Todd Hata), either dropped out of college, and have failed at least 10 business attempts, and were not able to successfully work a 9-to-5 job.

Even when looking at my very successful silicon Valley friends, who have either successfully sold off their companies for millions of dollars, what is it that they next seek? It seems that they all prefer living more nomadic lifestyle, they sell their house and their possessions in their car, and they start traveling the world, leapfrogging from place to place, and just focusing on their photography. Some of them strive to build their legitimacy as photographers, and some of them are perfectly content to just pursue their own personal interest, without the concern of others.

4. Impact

It seems that regardless of what field you are in, everyone wants to make an impact. And it seems, the deeper and the greater the impact we can make, the better.

Steve Jobs called this putting a dent in the universe. It is a good idea. That what we strive towards is making an impact, changing things, moving things around, creating new things, reconfiguring old things, innovating, etc.

Above all, we do not like the static, and we like to be active. And the best way to be active is by actively creating, and doing.

Therefore it seems that the last component is striving to maximize your impact. Figuring out how you can best leverage your strengths, your position, and your resources to maximize your impact.

Think Archimedes