Read time: 7 minutes

Get Some Help

Stop. Don't move.
Hammer time.

What is the most challenging obstacle in your life right now?
Put it in to one sentence.
Say it out loud.
Say it. Now.

Ok, nevermind.
Don’t do that.
Stop talking to yourself. That’s weird. Quiet.
Stop.

For real, what problem do you have?
What is the most daunting challenge you’re facing?

That problem?
Take it and type it in to Google right now.
Right now. Verbatim.
Go read for the next 15 minutes.
Go.

Ok, welcome back (liar).

Now leave again.
Type that same question and put ‘Reddit’ at the end.
“How to raise kids…Reddit”
“How to have better relationships…Reddit”
“How to live happier…Reddit”

Reddit is real people arguing about real ideas. You hear both sides. You get to pick and choose what you like.

Now read for another 15 minutes.

Go do the same thing on YouTube.
Now on Spotify.
Now on Chat GPT.
If you’re real brave you could even read a book (jk those aren’t real)
Point is…

SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

Financial stress.
Relationship issues.
Health concerns.
Loneliness.
Work-Life Balance.

SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

Relationship turmoil. Life advice. Regrets from 100 year-olds.

Dude, why are we reinventing the wheel?

Find a podcast.
Read a book.
Watch a video.
Take a MasterClass and contact your network.

SOMEONE ELSE HAS LITERALLY SOLVED THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

None of our problems are new.
None of them.

We think all are problems are so unique and different and that nobody else would understand.

Maybe nobody in our immediate circle would understand, but there’s a shitload of humans on this planet. There’s a pretty good chance someone else has also struggled with making ‘the best banana bread ever’.

(Side Note: Just make sure the person who’s giving advice is living the life you want)

We have a mysterious box containing the entire body of documented human knowlege at our finger tips and instead use it to watch laughing-baby videos. Any problem you have in your life… any of them… have solutions.

We just have to go find them.

To not search is simply being lazy.

Google It, Nerd

Sophomore year of college I took a coding class with a professor whom would learn the material the day before he taught us. This dude had no clue what was doing beyond that day’s exact materials.

I did not understood who qualified him and who allowed him to instruct 20-year old adults.

I did not understand who hired him and who let this guy walk through the doors. He did not care at alllll.

How was this the guy paving the path for the future of our country? Unbelievable.

I would ask a question and he’d tell me to look it up myself. Dude, isn’t that your whole job? Aren’t you supposed to help out? I have a question and your entire job is to answer it.

It was infuriating.

“Hey sir do you understand differential Calculus”
“Google It”
“But sir, we don’t even know where to begin”
“Did you Google It”
“Well no, that’s a multi-dimensional topic with rules and so many complexities, a video wouldn’t help much”
“That’s tough, Google It”
Asshole
“What?”
“Oh nothing just scratching an itch”

Google it?? This is your J.O.B.

Google. Google. Google.

And somehow this guy taught me more than nearly any other teacher.

He taught us to think.

He made our existence so painful that we had to figure it out on our own. ‘Sink or swim and I’m throwing you in the deep end.”

This guy was a good teacher because he forced you to figure it out on your own. Life doesn’t teach you how to live it. You’ve got to figure it out on your own. That’s what he helped us internalize.

The birdy has to fly away from the nest sometime and if it can teach itself to fly it’ll teach itself to do anything.

Independence is a far more valuable skill than anything you can teach in an academic sphere.
The answers aren’t as valuable as the search.

He wasn’t lazy, he was teaching us to learn to learn.

Yes, Sensei

It feels like those wizards we know just create solutions out of thin air.

I work with this 40 year old southern dude and his name might as well be Gandalf. This guy is a walking Google Search, he knows something about everything. “Oh you have a problem?” Solved

He insists he’s just a ‘dumb kid from Alabama’ when I inquire as to whether he’s got special powers or not.

The secret?
This dude spends hours just learning about random stuff.
“I’m just curious, I need to know, so I go figure it out”

He’s not doing anything different. He really is just a dumb kid from Alabama that wants to freaking learn. So he does. He finds the solution.

He searches. He researches. Then he re-researches.

The answers already exist. We just have to go find them.

Response-ability

One of the greatest skills you can have is the ability to learn. The info already exists, the hard part is parsing through what’s relevant.

Nobody else is responsible for giving you the information you want. They don’t know what you want. They don’t know what you need. They don’t your problems and all your fears…that’s your responsibility.

Quit reinventing the wheel. It already exists.

Parting Presidential Wisdom

I took a MasterClass a few years ago about US History. Doris Goodwin pointed something out that I immediately saved to my memory banks:

Franklin Roosevelt studied Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore studied Lincoln. Lincoln studied Washington. Washington studied history, lectures, books, and newspapers… extensively.

The best study the best.
To become, you have to learn from the best.
The best, right now, is entirely public knowledge. The entirety of human collective consciousness at our fingertips.

You get to study, at will, from the absolute best of any discipline of your choosing. What ever you want to be the best at, the knowledge is readily available, you just have to go get it.

The greatest minds in global history have been put up against the world’s most difficult problems. Many have already been solved.

Some still haven’t, but to wonder how to ‘ask a boss for a raise’ should never be a relevant problem.

Entire civilizations have been created and destroyed, we’ve travelled to outer space, created the nuclear missile and somehow we can’t figure out how to not burn the french toast.

Read a damn book.

And google that shit.










Some goodie quotes:

“If you haven’t read 100s of books you are functionally illiterate and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you”

• Former Sec Def Jim Mattis – Call Sign Chaos
  
  
  

“To the OGs, I’m thankin’ you now
Was watchin’ you when you was pavin’ the ground
I copied your cadence, I mirrored your style
I studied the greats, I’m the greatest right now”

• J Cole – Middle Child