The Biggest Ideas in Philosophy

In the city of Cyprus in 300 BC, there

lived a very wealthy trader called Zeno.

While on a voyage from Phoenicia to

Piraeus, his boat sank along with all of

his cargo.

Because of that single event, an event

that was entirely out of Zeno's or

anyone's control,

this very wealthy man suddenly became

poor in an instant.

Imagine you were Zeno.

How would you react to your entire

life's work getting flushed down the

drain by the sheer force of nature?

What is the proper reaction? Would you

be angry, sad? Would you feel life has

cheated you?

For most of us, these would all be

normal reactions.

But not for Zeno, the father of

Stoicism.

One small change lasts an eternity, and

one small reframing of your mindset can

cascade into larger and more impactful

changes later down the line.

The core of Stoicism is the very

definition of acceptance and

indifference.

After reading the works of Socrates and

other great philosophers, Zeno created

and taught Stoicism.

According to Zeno, although we don't

have much control over what happens to

us, we do have control of how it affects

us, [music] and we must use this control

to great effect.

Rather than crying over spilled milk, or

in this case drowned goods, Zeno focused

on maintaining his composure over the

situation, remaining calm and neutral

despite his predicament.

Today, people inadvertently view Stoics

as people who cannot be broken, people

who don't often linger to the emotional

extremes, going through things like fits

of rage or bouts of anxiety.

But the original idea behind Stoicism

was much more than that.

Rather than just a way to describe

people who are unemotional, Stoicism was

a way to view, describe, and understand

the world.

It was a way of life, and that way of

life has lasted for centuries.

Stoic philosophy can be applied to

situations today the same way it was

applied thousands of years ago, and its

benefits are just as impactful.

Stoicism allows us to process these

negative emotions from negative

experiences and turn them into the

thoughts that give us a unique

perspective of the world.

Perspective is everything and everyone

in the world has different experiences

and thus different perspectives on

things.

Since the Stoics gathered, discussed,

and taught philosophy in a public place,

their general philosophy was widely

known.

They believed that the Stoic principles

could greatly benefit anyone and

everyone and so it didn't make sense for

them to hide that knowledge behind the

four walls of a school or of the palace

courtyards.

As a result, everyone from slave to

emperor could learn and become a Stoic.

And they did.

Some of the world's most notable Stoics

include Epictetus, which translates to

acquired as he was once owned as a

slave,

Seneca, who was a well-renowned

statesman, and Marcus Aurelius, a Roman

emperor and one of the most powerful men

to have ever lived.

The early Stoics practiced what they

preached, avoiding all forms of

segregation and leading the fight

against inequality.

They even invented the word

cosmopolitan, which literally means

citizen [music] of the world.

When people hear that word now, we think

of cities like New York, Toronto, Dubai,

and London because of how diverse they

are.

This was the type of unity and

togetherness that the Stoics preached.

Even at a time when it wasn't popular,

women were allowed to freely learn about

Stoicism and become Stoics themselves.

So, why do so many people adopt Stoicism

as a way of life?

In a world full of unexpected turns of

events, our emotions can tend to get in

the way of things.

In reality, [music] we don't really get

sad because bad things happen to us. We

get sad because unexpected bad things

happen to us.

Rain is a good thing. It helps to water

our plants, provides water for

livestock, and keeps the temperature

[music] cool and humid.

But the truth is, when that dark cloud

catches you outside without an umbrella,

it's never a good experience.

So, why don't we start crying once it

starts to rain?

It's because although the situation is

bad, we've learned to expect rain. It's

something that is unavoidable. We can't

control the weather.

Although it sucks, the rain passes and

the light returns.

Stoicism teaches us that in the same

way, we should expect that everything

bad that can happen will happen.

Picture the worst outcome and be content

knowing [music] it could happen.

One of the stoic exercises is known as

voluntary discomfort, an exercise aimed

at increasing feelings of gratitude.

Sleep on the floor of your kitchen,

taking cold showers when you normally

take hot ones, eat nothing but potatoes

for a few days, things like this.

This exercise helps you to understand

that no matter how hard it gets, you'll

still survive and potentially thrive if

your mindset is right.

By being able to withstand these

uncomfortable situations, we indirectly

prepare our mental for future

misfortunes.

With the current state of the world

where advertisements [music] are

constantly being shoved down our

throats, we're made to believe that if

we don't have the next best thing, look

a certain way, or make a certain amount

of money, that we will never be happy.

This message is more [music] important

now than ever.

We enter the world not knowing much of

anything. We grow up being taught things

at home, [music] in school, and by

observing the world for ourselves.

The thing is, a lot of times, all three

of these sources of knowledge teach us

in different ways.

The question is, do we need to

internalize all of this knowledge?

If we do, we could unknowingly be

setting unrealistic expectations for our

lives, leaving us ultimately

disappointed and unsatisfied in the end.

That's no way to live. We should instead

focus on improving [music] ourselves for

ourselves.

We should do things for ourselves and

only for that reason.

Attaching [music] any external hope or

secondary attachments to the actions we

take almost always lead to

disappointment.

[music]

Most of the time, we end up trying to

fulfill that emptiness with external

things. Blowing all your money on a

fancy car, a house, or even starting a

family.

Sometimes we do all of these things for

their external value and not their

internal value. But Stoicism teaches

that if you approach life this way, you

place your happiness in the hands of

external forces.

Forces that can always fail.

Cars almost always break down. Natural

disasters wipe away entire cities. And

divorce rates climb higher and higher

each year.

But even the free things in life come at

a cost.

The cost of space, both physical and

mental.

As Seneca once wrote, "Learning to live

with less will create space in your life

for the things that truly matter to

you."

Instead, we must place our happiness on

our intrinsic value as humans and on

nothing we have or can physically

acquire.

We must choose to do our best to keep a

cool head, regardless of what life

throws at us.

Because regardless of what it is we

want, at the end of the day, we don't

have any control over the majority of

things that happen to us. But we do have

all the control over how we react to

those things.

[music]

That is the dichotomy of control, the

most important principle in Stoic

philosophy.

Stoics teach that we must learn to

separate what we control from what we

cannot control.

We need to determine our value not from

things we can't control, but from the

things we can.

[music]

Striving towards goals is a good trait,

but breaking down when those things

don't go your way is, in a Stoic's point

of view, useless.

Making YouTube videos is, well, a lot

easier than being a Roman emperor. But

it can still prove to be challenging

sometimes.

First, you must form your idea, which

takes forever. Then research that idea,

scrap it because it sucks, start over,

script the video, create the video, edit

it, make the title, thumbnail, and

everything else before you hit upload.

Everything up until the point where you

click upload is all up to you.

However, once you click that upload

button, the power shifts to the YouTube

algorithm.

Still, a lot of people judge the success

of their YouTube channel or Instagram

account based on how many views and

subscribers or followers they have.

Metrics of which, for the most part, are

beyond your control.

[music]

Stoics teach that instead, you should

judge the success of your work based on

the amount of effort you put in, and not

on the outcome of your external hopes.

Trust the process. [music]

Think about a person who has been

working hard at their job for the past 6

months.

He now feels he deserves a promotion,

and so he walks up to his boss with his

performance report. The boss says,

"Thanks." Doesn't grant him the

promotion, and he goes home thinking he

must suck at his job.

He doesn't consider that the boss might

have simply woken up angry, someone else

might have been better qualified at the

time, or maybe the company was just

losing money and couldn't afford it.

He doesn't know the reason, but he's

still upset.

If he simply placed his value on the

quality of the performance report he

turned in, kept doing what he was doing

to earn the promotion he wanted, he

could have been much happier overall.

With the right perspective, his goal

wouldn't have been diminished, but just

postponed.

It's this reframing of your mindset that

is crucial.

A true Stoic does not view their

successes based on the financial gain of

their ventures, but is comforted by the

fact that they can live a comfortable

life without all the things money can

buy.

These are the four main virtues of

Stoicism: wisdom, courage, temperance,

and justice.

Wisdom is being able to separate between

what is [music] internal and what is

external, and the ability to choose our

reaction to the things that happen to

us.

As Victor Frankl said, "Between stimulus

and response, there is a space.

And that space is our power to choose

our response."

Courage.

Two words: persist and resist.

Temperance, or moderation, is what I

just did there. Doing more with less.

Saying more with fewer words.

While Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are

fighting at the top of the Forbes list,

Stoics believe that the limit of wealth

should simply be having what is

essential and then having what is

enough.

Justice is the most important of all the

virtues. It instructs that no one should

do harm to another because we were all

born for each other, to do good to one

another and not to ourselves.

Nelson Mandela was one of the most

famous African leaders in the world.

While he was fighting against apartheid,

he got sentenced to life in prison where

he stayed for 27 years before finally

being released.

When he was released from prison, he was

elected president of South Africa and

thus many people thought he was going to

brutally punish all the people that had

anything to do with apartheid or his

imprisonment. But of course, he did not.

Throughout his time in prison, Mandela

read the works of Marcus Aurelius and

learned many of the core values of

Stoicism, all of which he practiced

throughout his life.

Instead of calling for the heads of the

wrongdoers, Nelson Mandela urged his

people to instead seek the opposite, to

relax and rebuild.

He stressed that the past was now beyond

their control and that the only thing

they could do was find a way to move

forward and build a better nation.

This is the way of the Stoic.

In modern day medicine, Stoicism is at

the core of procedures like rationally

emotive behavioral therapy and

logotherapy.

REBT helps the patients to identify

negative thought patterns that might be

causing emotional and behavioral issues.

It allows you to challenge the reasoning

behind all these negative thoughts with

logic and when you realize that many of

them are unfounded, [music] you can then

replace them with more productive and

healthier beliefs.

Logotherapy, on the other hand, is based

on the Stoic principle that humans are

driven by purpose.

Even in the darkest of situations, we

can fill our lives with meaning and

happiness by simply finding out what

that purpose is.

As many of us know though, this is

easier said than done.

It's a process much like everything

[music] else.

We have to rewire the way we think. Out

with the old, in with the new.

To fix our problems with happiness, we

must practice self-worth.

By redirecting our definition of value

to the things that we can control, we

can stop getting fixated on the things

we cannot control. And overall, we can

lead a much happier and more fulfilling

life.

Stoicism helps us steer through past and

present storms into calmer and more

peaceful waters.

And if our ship sinks and we all drown,

we can take peace in the fact that we

lived a good life, albeit not as long as

we had hoped.

Because remember,

everything has an end.

We all know how it goes.

One day we're born, one day we die.

Everything that happens in between we

know and understand, [music]

but everything that happened before and

will happen after,

we know nothing [music] about.

As a result, it's really difficult to

say what exactly the meaning or

importance [music] for us being here is.

If we can't tell how we came or where we

came from, how can we know why we're

here?

In the same vein, if we don't know where

we're going or [music] what we're going

to become,

how can we tell if any of our present

actions have any significance at all?

It is this uncertainty of both our

collective pasts and [music] futures

that has allowed the question, "What is

the meaning of life?" to plague humanity

ever since we became sentient.

We've never been able to objectively

answer this question as a species.

However, a lot of us have found comfort

in many different ideologies to at least

subdue the anxiety that it causes.

In many different [music] religions, a

deity made the entire universe, put us

all in it, and whatever we do on this

earth will be used to determine when and

how we spend eternity afterwards.

For some others, the meaning of life is

the love we share with friends, family,

and our loved ones.

Some others believe the existence of

life in itself is what makes it worth

living. [music]

But for nihilists,

life is meaningless.

All action, suffering, emotions, both

good and bad, are entirely senseless and

meaningless.

This is nihilism, the belief in nothing.

At some point in our lives, many of us

have been faced with nihilistic

thoughts.

We're hit by a strong [music] sense of

purposelessness, like our lives have no

meaning, and we have no intrinsic value.

Usually, this happens when we begin to

question our old beliefs, but also just

before we get new ones to hold on to.

It's in that phase where you're growing

out of your parents' beliefs, learning

new things, getting new experiences,

[music] and forming your own views about

the world.

And usually, all of these thoughts begin

with one simple question,

why?

A three-lettered monosyllabic word

that's capable of making anything and

everything that feels like [music] the

rock of your foundation start to become

slippery,

like quicksand dragging you into the

misery that maybe, just [music] maybe,

your whole life hasn't been what you

thought it was.

Just pause and take a moment to think

about your core values and just ask the

question,

why?

Why do you believe those things? Where

did they come from? Who did they come

from?

Keep asking, [music] and eventually,

you'll arrive at a point where there's

no longer an answer.

You'll arrive at nothing.

All the religions of the world, all of

our scientific discovery, but yet the

question why is one that we still cannot

answer.

And so, for the nihilist, it is at this

point that they come to the conclusion

that there is no why.

There is no answer. There's simply

nothing.

As Alan Watts once wrote, "Life is

nothing more than a trip from the

maternity ward to the crematorium."

It's really in the name.

The term nihilism comes from the Latin

word nihil, which translates to nothing,

and ism, which translates to ideology.

It's the ideology of nothing.

But that doesn't really help us in

understanding it completely.

Usually, people confuse nihilism for

pessimism, but they are very different

from each other.

Pessimists believe in the worst outcome.

They have a down-trending view of the

world and tend to focus on the negatives

in life, because they believe that in

the end evil will always overcome good.

And this is what makes them different.

Pessimists believe that there's good in

the world, but they just don't think

humans are capable of doing it, at least

in its entirety.

Nihilists, on the other hand, do not

believe in anything.

They don't believe that there's evil in

the world, neither do they believe that

there's good in the world.

In the mind of the nihilist, the world

simply exists, and humans created

morality, thereby creating good and

evil.

Let's take the glass cup metaphor for

instance.

Optimists say you should see the glass

as [music] half full, while pessimists

say we should see the glass as half

empty.

Nihilists, they say throw the entire cup

away, because what does it matter if

it's full or empty?

Full, empty, good, bad, it's all

irrelevant. We're all going to die

anyway.

Nihilism is also often compared to

several other philosophies, like

cynicism and apathy.

But again, they are all very different

from one another, and correctly

categorizing your thoughts in these

baskets may be harder than you think.

Cynics believe that people are always

motivated by self-interest. They don't

believe that anyone [music] can have

intrinsically good motives. They have no

faith in the human species and believe

that we're all entirely selfish, only

fighting for our own benefit.

However, the idea that humans are not

good means that in the mind of the

cynic, good exists out there somewhere,

just not in humans.

In the mind of the nihilist, nothing

exists out there.

There's no good or evil.

They don't see people as evil, neither

do they see them as good because they

don't believe either of those things

exist. They're simply traits we've

applied to things.

Apathetic people just don't care.

They believe that there's meaning to

life, but they simply don't care about

it. Nihilism, on the other hand, is the

idea that there's no grand design or

purpose, nothing to believe in, and

therefore no meaning.

This brings to mind the paradox of

nihilism.

If you believe in nothing, then that

nothing becomes something that you

believe in. But since you now believe in

something, then there is no nihilism

because nihilism is the belief that

there is nothing.

Nihilism is quite different from other

philosophical ideas because it was first

a literary invention before it ever

became philosophical.

As a result, it's not clearly defined as

many of the other philosophies that

exist. Many different people explained

it in many different ways.

But eventually, these different

definitions got categorized, forming

many different kinds of nihilism.

There's political nihilism.

Political nihilists believe that for

humanity to move forward as a species,

all political, social, and religious

order must be destroyed.

Then there's ethical nihilism. It

rejects the idea of absolute ethical or

moral values. With this type of

nihilism, good or bad is only defined by

society, and as such, it shouldn't be

followed if we as a species will ever

attain absolute individual freedom. We

can kind of just do whatever we want.

And then we have existential nihilism.

It's the understanding that life has no

value or meaning.

It's the most popular kind of nihilism,

and the one we've been talking about for

most of this video.

For nihilists, the existence of things

like the state, religious bodies, and

even communal morality is a breach on

our freedom as individuals.

If we can't do absolutely anything we

want to do, then are we truly free? Or

have we simply bound ourselves by some

kind of invisible mental chain for

reasons we can't explain?

One night I was scrolling through Reddit

and I came across the question, if you

had the chance to save your pet or a

stranger, who would you save?

An overwhelming number of people said

their pet, pretty obviously.

When one commenter was confronted, they

simply asked the question, why do you

think a human life is worth more than

that of an animal?

And no one really had an answer.

Of course, people tried to beat around

the bush, but the question why was never

answered. And that right there is the

point of the nihilist. If we can't

answer why we bind ourselves by these

rules, then why do we choose to do it?

Well, it might be because of the

existential horror and the emotional

anguish that comes with agreeing to the

fact that life is meaningless.

Think about it for a minute. If life is

truly meaningless and everything we're

doing has no value, then all the feats

of science, the wonders of technology,

things like space exploration and human

rights movements. Look at how far we've

come.

And then think about the fact that it

all might just be a waste, a blip in

time with no consequence whatsoever in

the grand scheme of things.

Knowing that all the things we

experience, the ups and downs we go

through,

that in the end,

it's all for nothing.

We aren't obligated to understand the

chaos of reality,

just to laugh at it.

Friedrich Nietzsche was a strange

philosopher because he argued both for

and against nihilism at the same time.

Arguing for, he explained that there is

no objective structure or order in our

world except for the one that we create

for ourselves.

He once said, "Every belief, every

considering something true [music] is

necessarily false because there is

simply no true world."

He believed nihilism would expose all of

humanity's beliefs and truths as nothing

but a symptom of defective Western

mythology.

As he famously said,

"God is dead."

Now, he wasn't talking about the actual

deity of the religions. He was talking

metaphorically about the power that

religious orders held at the time, and

how people were starting to chart their

own paths, find their own meaning in

life, denying what the status quo was at

the time.

But then, in the same breath, Friedrich

argued against nihilism, saying that in

the coming centuries, the advent of

nihilism would drive civilization

towards a catastrophe, a disaster

waiting to implode,

a river that has reached its end.

And if you look at the most destructive

civilizations in human history, we can

clearly see that this is true.

Long-standing cultural traditions,

beliefs, religious institutions, and

even financial systems are broken down,

and nothingness starts to creep in.

Think about it. If nothing matters and

we're all just a random combination of

transient atoms, how can we call Hitler

objectively one of the worst humans to

ever live for trying to wipe out an

entire culture?

At a fundamental level, most of us

understand that all of these things are

indeed terrible. But the danger is that

because we cannot explain why we feel

that way logically, we can never

convince another person to follow the

same path. And that is exactly what

Friedrich feared. Some people still

blame him for the Nazi era, because

although he saw all of these dangers, he

still continued preaching nihilism. He

believed that if we could work through

the breakdown of civilization that

nihilism would eventually cause, we can

then create a new course of action for

mankind.

He believed that to move forward as a

species, we must create a new morality,

one that does away with the prejudice of

what existed before. Because at the end

of the day, tearing down your old house

shouldn't make you homeless. Rather, it

should present you with an opportunity

to build a bigger and better home.

Pause and look around you for a moment.

Observe everything that's going on,

particularly on social media, and you

can see that we as a species might just

be heading for another nihilism

outbreak.

Religion no longer holds any say in what

is morally acceptable. People are

destroying long-standing beliefs and

cultural practices and are instead

charting new courses for themselves.

[music]

Anything, no matter how despicable you

think it is, now has a loyal fan base

defending why they have a right to do

whatever it is they want to do.

And in reality,

why not?

That's the question no one can answer.

Humanity will keep shifting the needle

forward ever so slightly until one day

none of us will be able to tell the

other that they're wrong because

why are they wrong?

William Shakespeare once wrote, "Life's

but a walking shadow, a poor player that

struts and frets his hour upon the stage

and then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of

sound and fury, but signifying nothing."

If life is truly meaningless and we have

no purpose for being here, our response

should be to make the best out of a bad

situation.

Instead of seeing the glass half full or

half empty, we can simply throw it out

and drink directly from the faucet until

we're satisfied.

Because at the end of the day,

life alone is reason enough for living.

Consciousness, it's our awareness, our

understanding,

[music]

our ignorance.

Our daily consciousness leaves out more

than it takes in.

And due to this, it leaves out important

things, things that would help relieve

us if we knew them.

If we had a higher awareness, a better

consciousness, we would feel better. We

would be more at peace with things. The

deep down truth of things is screened by

our consciousness. Our sensory organs

will pick things out. Our eyes can only

see certain things. Our ears can only

hear certain things.

We have to create instruments and other

tools to see things we as humans cannot

to expand our understanding and thus our

ego or consciousness.

Humans evolved and became the dominant

species on Earth by a long shot.

It's due to our innate ability to

network with each other.

If humanity was wiped out and restarted,

like loading an old save file,

communities would still form. Structures

within society are inevitable due to the

variety of brains. Some are good at

critical thinking, others are more

artistic.

However, we are all wired with some

innate features. [music] Just as humans

form societies that evolve, other

creatures do as well.

But we're different. We are customizable

characters, basically. We can kind of

mold ourselves into whatever kind of

person we want to be.

We can't know for certain that animals

or [music] any other life form on Earth

is conscious or can even function in the

same way that we do.

Let's put it this way.

I know that I have my own thoughts, and

feelings, and emotions.

But how can I know for certain that you,

[music] or anyone else does?

There's no way I can go to your head and

see things 100% from your perspective. I

can't know what you're thinking, or if

you can even think [music] in the first

place.

To truly understand the universe, to

understand and actually experience life,

you have to give yourself up. There's no

point in sustaining bliss, in being

permanently at an all-time high.

The life you're living is what you have

put yourself [music] into,

what ego you've formed. Only you don't

want to admit it. You want to believe it

happened to you.

Day-to-day, you play non-bliss in order

to be able to experience bliss.

You put yourself into bad situations.

You let in the negative experiences of

life just to feel some kind of

satisfaction when it goes the other way.

Self implies other. White implies black.

Death implies life.

You could feel your existence as

fundamental, not as an accident.

At the basic level, at the lowest level

imaginable, you are the fundamentals of

existence. The same thing that makes you

is the same thing that makes up

everything else.

If you can step back from what you

believe, if you can step back from what

your sensory organs have turned you

into,

you start to see things for what they

actually are.

Do you define yourself as a victim of

the world, or as the world?

Love is only possible due to the lack of

self.

You give up all your secrets. Walls

you've built to keep people at an arm's

distance slowly lower, one by one,

until you're a completely open book,

until all your pages have been read,

and the rest [music] of the pages are

blank, waiting to be filled with this

newfound love.

In basketball or soccer or football,

you're constantly giving the ball to

someone else. The point of the game is

to have the ball in your hand for the

least amount of time,

to constantly be passing it to someone

else, to shoot it, to get it out of your

hands.

It keeps the game going, and life is the

same way.

If you define yourself, you, as only

being what your ego is,

as the things you do voluntarily, then

you're the victim.

It's because of some higher power that

you were put here when you didn't ask

for it.

But what about the things you do

involuntarily?

Do you beat your heart, or does it just

happen to you?

You do those things, even though you

don't know how.

Words don't work here.

As Alan Watts said, "Everyone is

fundamentally the alternate reality, not

God in a traditional sense, but God in

the sense of being the self, the

deep-down basic whatever there is."

And you're all of that.

Only you're pretending you're not.

A mind that can ask, "Who am I? Why am I

here? What is the purpose of all of

this?"

tends to forget.

As I said, your consciousness tends to

leave out critical information at times.

A consciousness that can view the world

and take in sensory information tends to

forget what's behind those eyes.

A mind that hasn't gone deep enough to

find where those questions come from,

because the same place those questions

come from is the same place those

answers lie.

[music]

The brain controls everything. In order

to go to the extremes of the universe,

to places we can only dream of going,

we must first dive deep into something

that is all inside of us.

Take the Big Bang, for example. Now,

there's hundreds, thousands of theories

as to how we came into existence,

but let's go with this one.

You believe that you are strictly you.

Your human body is all that you are and

all that you have ever been. You're

simply a small speck of dust in a vast

sea of galaxies, stars, planets. You're

irrelevant.

But rolling back the clock, things get

smaller.

The universe was more compact. The atoms

that make you up are building blocks of

the universe, of the hot gas clouds that

form stars that allowed solar systems to

form, that allowed planets like Earth to

form.

If you keep rolling back this clock, you

were around at the very instant

everything came into existence.

That is you, too.

When everything was infinitesimally

small,

you were there.

But we define ourselves as being only

us, mere humans walking on a planet that

we didn't ask to get put on.

But frankly, every one of us somehow

made this happen.

We just go on and pretend we didn't.

It's because of how we define ourselves.

Are you the victim, or are you the

world?

As cringey as it may sound, everyone you

meet is just a small packet of the

universe. A present, whether they're a

pleasant one or not, that was packaged

together from billions of years of

engineering and architecture on a

universal scale.

But instead, we define ourselves as

something completely separate from it,

something not connected whatsoever,

which is a foolish view.

We tend to search for how the universe

came into being, but we're just the

universe trying to understand [music]

itself.

In order to get to that conclusion, we

have to reframe our mindset. We're not

as different as we all think.

Your name is given to you at birth. Your

ideas and personality are collected from

the world. Scraps, bits and pieces here

and [music] there cling to you like a

magnet.

So, what part of you is you?

We are all different manifestations of

consciousness,

but we are all fundamentally the same

thing.

We all may have different egos,

different personalities, but when you

step back, drop the ego,

we are all connected.

View the universe as a forest. Every one

of us is a twig, a leaf, a branch.

But together, we form life.

Our origin, our roots, are connected

together. Just as the roots of trees

form a vast network which brings these

massive forest to life, humanity's roots

all come from the same place.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

It can only be transferred from one form

of energy to another.

But many of us have this fear that it's

all going to come to an end.

And while yes, your life will end,

your energy [music] will not. It will

continue onward forever.

But our consciousness has convinced us

otherwise.

We form this thought process, [music]

almost like we've been hypnotized, to

think that we are all there is and all

there ever will be, [music] and that

it's all going to come to an end.

This leaves us unsatisfied and unhappy.

But the universe is continuous, [music]

and you are technically the universe, so

you will continue on as well.

Your death is not the end of you.

It's the death of your ego.

Many people experience the same exact

thing while living.

Ego death.

It tends to be induced through

psychedelic drugs, LSD, [music]

shrooms, the list goes on.

While working on this video, I actually

experienced [music] it myself. And

although not intentional, it provided

clarity in a way I've never before

experienced.

It's not the ego in the vernacular

[music] sense, as describing a person's

self-worth.

It's the philosophical ego. It's the

complete loss of subjective

self-identity.

Everything that you believe you are will

disappear. [music]

You're void of emotion, of connection to

anything around you, of connection to

what makes you you.

[music]

The idea of being a person doesn't make

any sense. The words I, me, and myself

have zero meaning whatsoever.

The world can only be put into two

categories, myself and not myself.

While experiencing ego death, this line

is blurred.

I am completely gone.

There's only the awareness of existence.

The lifetime accumulation of your

thoughts and emotions are put on pause.

It's as if you're on a cliff approaching

an infinite void beneath you.

Your life is continuous and exists all

the way up the mountain until you reach

the edge.

Beneath you though is the unknown.

Ego death is jumping into that void,

leaving behind everything you've ever

known.

It's as if you've stepped out of your

body into a separate [music] entity.

You start to see things for what they

actually are.

But things don't actually exist.

Things is just a noun. It's a fragment

of speech. And speech is just another

instrument we've created to try and

understand the world around us.

Our senses allow us to go about our

daily lives and traverse the world. But

they don't really offer any

explanations, so we have to make them up

ourselves.

While experiencing ego death, you

disconnect from all of that.

You have a heightened awareness. It's

truly as if you're experiencing a higher

level of consciousness that no person

can understand.

You reach this level that words can't

explain.

The instruments we made to try and

understand our place in the universe

shatter completely.

Explaining it in terms of I saw or I

felt don't seem reasonable.

Our languages are instruments created to

explain things that someone experiences.

But while undergoing ego death, there is

no someone. There is no me. So, how do

you describe it?

It's as if your slate was wiped clean.

Your character save file was corrupted.

But you're still in the game.

Because of this, ego death can be scary.

But it can also be a very enlightening

experience.

It's both constricting and freeing.

It's white and black. It's like you're

defining what life is like through

experiencing death.

We cannot be more sensitive and

welcoming to pleasure without being more

sensitive and accepting to pain.

You're flying and sinking at the same

time.

Being pulled from below and above,

in every direction

at once.

While going through it, I ended up

reaching a moment of acceptance.

Ego death, while often extremely anxiety

inducing,

offers a glimpse into a reality free of

that.

A life free of your personal flaws, your

daily thoughts, your responsibilities.

It personally feels as if time is frozen

and wherever your mind wanders is free

to judge things as they truly are.

You are the observer and the observable.

Surprisingly, the conclusion I came to

is the same conclusion I came to while

making a previous video of mine.

And it's that nothing in life really

matters.

Fear in general tends to come from us

not being able to make peace with the

chaos that is the universe.

Not being able to cope with the idea of

entropy, that everything is tending

towards disorder.

Forming an ego is disorderly in the same

way. You go further further down your

own tunnel and stray further [music]

from everyone else.

Experiencing ego death is breaking out

of that tunnel. Pulling back and

understanding that the network of these

tunnels that encompass every human on

Earth, all eventually return back to the

same place.

When I die, when my ego is completely

gone forever, when my physical body

breaks down and no longer resembles the

form it's in today,

I'll still somehow be here.

Right now, I'm an hourglass. The sand is

slowly leaking its way to the bottom.

And eventually, it'll be there.

It's the end of the line for me.

But when that day comes, the universe

will stop by, take the hourglass, flip

it over,

and whatever made me me will then become

something entirely different.

We're all just a temporary collection of

atoms, and whatever you [music] and I

subjectively believe we are won't last

forever.

But objectively,

we will.

For now,

just enjoy the ride.

In the year 165 CE, a black wave of

death rose from the east and quickly

spread across the globe faster than

anyone could have ever imagined.

They called it the Antonine Plague after

the reigning Roman emperor at the time,

Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Augustus.

Lasting throughout the time of his rule,

this plague claimed upwards of 18

million lives and nearly destroyed the

Roman Empire that entire armies could

barely scathe.

But it didn't. Under Marcus Aurelius'

rule, the empire thrived despite the

economic crises, the numerous invasions,

and the grueling pandemic.

It is precisely during times of distress

that true leaders are tested, and the

Caesar rose to the occasion every single

time.

Aurelius was a philosopher before

anything else. Regarded as the last of

the five good emperors of ancient Rome,

a term coined by Niccolo Machiavelli in

the 15th century, it was his stoic

philosophy that differentiated him from

his predecessors.

During the plague, he set his ego aside

and broke the mold surrounding himself

with talented and experienced public

servants instead of aristocrats and

nobles.

He listened to advice and empowered

those around him to make decisions. He

hired the best physicians to lead the

battle against the disease decimating

Roman populations and to give him the

opportunity to focus on the growing

economic crisis. He canceled debts, sold

imperial effects and possessions, and

confiscated capital from Rome's upper

class to keep the economy afloat.

At a time when fear infiltrated the

empire,

Marcus practiced self-control and

inspired his people to remain As if

things couldn't get any worse, late in

his reign, Marcus received news that an

old friend and former general, Avidius

Cassius, had staged a rebellion and

declared himself Caesar in an attempt to

overthrow him.

Marcus' response was unusual considering

the circumstances,

but as disciplined and stoic as he was

ever known to be.

Instead of getting angry and immediately

setting out to destroy the man that

threatened the empire, his family, and

his legacy,

Marcus waited to give the defector a

chance to come to his senses.

When he did not, Marcus demanded that

Cassius be captured, but not kill him.

In true Stoic fashion, he said

concerning the matter,

"Forgive a man who has wronged one, to

remain a friend to one who has

transgressed friendship, to continue

faithful to one who has broken faith."

The last of the five good emperors was a

student of Stoic philosophy. He was

greatly influenced by the writings of

Seneca and Epictetus, as evident from

his personal reflections [music] during

campaigning and administration.

He didn't get angry, he didn't allow his

emotions to guide his judgments, and he

didn't despise his enemy.

He acted firmly and justly, a posture

that calmed an already nervous empire in

times of extreme tensions.

Stoicism provided Marcus Aurelius with a

guideline to use when facing the stress

of life. And as the leader of the most

powerful empire in history, you know

that his stressors were plenty.

This guideline was compiled into

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius's personal

diaries.

The private thoughts of the world's most

powerful man giving advice on how to be

wise in our decisions, just in our

judgments, brave in our actions,

temperate in all of our doings. It's

practice self-control, discipline, and

modesty.

In short, Meditations is a timeless

piece of Stoic philosophy that is as

relevant today as it was in the ancient

days of Rome.

It is a guide to the key principles of

Stoicism

from the philosopher king himself. One

of the most prominent principles of

Stoicism that Marcus Aurelius

continually reiterates in this piece of

literature

revolves around the dichotomy of

control.

Despite all of his power, the Caesar of

Rome constantly reminded himself that he

couldn't control all that happened

around him.

But he could always control how he

responded to those things.

Flowing from this concept, there are

five key and profound lessons we can

learn from Marcus's Meditations that are

a testament to the practicality of

Stoicism as a philosophy. And by

understanding these lessons, we can lead

healthier and more fulfilling lives,

even millennia after Aurelius reign.

The things you think about determine the

quality of your mind. It's all in how

you perceive it.

You're in control. You can dispense with

the misperception at will, like rounding

the point. Serenity, total calm, safe

anchorage.

Before Marcus Aurelius's time, Epictetus

and Seneca both wrote vast amounts on

the power of perception.

It's no wonder then that Aurelius echoed

these thoughts as it is one of the most

essential [music] tenants of Stoicism.

Our perceptions influence all that we

experience. Your car may not start

before your important meeting, or your

boss may not give you the promotion you

think [music] you deserve.

Just like Marcus had a choice when the

plague hit, you also have a choice to

make whenever you are facing a troubling

situation.

You can choose to feel angry, scorned,

depressed, or defeated, which will

accomplish nothing.

Or you can train your perception to not

be influenced by what is outside your

control.

It's a form of self-discipline that

places the quality of your life in

[music] your hands, instead of in the

hands of other people or situations.

Marcus's entire reign rested on this

guiding principle.

As a formidable leader, he understood

the power he had and always separated

his perceptions from his emotions.

He faced invasions from Germanic tribes

and internal uprisings within his

kingdom, but he knew he could not alter

these situations to his favor.

His true power came from within, from

how he perceived these grievous

situations.

So, instead of reacting rashly, he

didn't allow these horrible negative

effects to affect him.

Instead, he seized his own mind and was

able to make just decisions that were

void of any emotional attachment, even

in the face of the most troubling

situations.

To refrain from imitation is [music] the

best revenge.

When someone despises us, the easy thing

to do is to despise them back, but what

would that accomplish?

When dealing with Cassius's rebellion,

it would have been easy for Marcus to

order his troops to seize and brutally

murder him for his insurgency.

To use him as a message to all who dare

attempt to take his crown.

Instead, he was compassionate and chose

to forgive him.

People will never meet our expectations.

So, instead of letting their behavior

evoke our emotions,

it's more prudent to resort back to what

is in our control,

which is being virtuous,

a better Stoic and a better human.

Just as nature takes every obstacle,

every impediment, and works around it,

turns it to its purposes, incorporates

it into itself.

So, too, a rational being can turn its

setback into a raw material and use it

to achieve its goal.

Before anything, the Stoics were

realists.

They understood life's challenges, but

instead of shying away from them, they

embraced them.

The truth is that struggle is an

essential part of life. It builds

character, develops resilience, and

ultimately leads to success.

Again, this principle is centered around

perception.

We can either perceive an obstacle as a

hindrance to our progress, a knockout

punch that we'll never be able to

recover from,

or a virtue,

a test of our ability to respond to

adversity.

It would be foolish to go through life

avoiding struggle and conflict. Instead,

we should welcome them as an opportunity

to strengthen our character.

The obstacle is never in the way.

The obstacle [music] is the way.

Accept the things to which fate binds

you and love the people with whom fate

brings you together,

but do so with all your heart.

Marcus Aurelius believed that the

formula for human greatness is to accept

our fate, no matter what it is.

This notion is deeply rooted in Stoic

philosophy. Whatever happens to you, you

must love it, for it is your fate.

Epictetus faced countless adversities

throughout his life, but still embraced

his destiny without complaint.

He was tortured by a master who twisted

his leg and broke it, permanently

crippling him.

Instead of spending the rest of his life

feeling remorseful for himself,

Epictetus took control of his mind

instead and said,

"Do not seek for things to happen the

way you want them to. Rather, wish that

what happens happens the way it happens.

Then you will be happy."

The true testament to being a stoic is

wanting nothing to be different, not

better or worse.

Strength of a person is in accepting

what the universe has in store for you,

not resisting it.

You could leave life right now.

Let that determine what you do and say

and think.

No one understood their destiny and

loved their fate more than Seneca.

In 59 CE, Rome was ruled by an insecure

and unjust emperor, Nero.

He was an uncaring dictator who spared

no one from his wrath, including his own

mother and sister.

After a failed attempt on his life, Nero

gathered all the suspected conspirators

and either banished or executed them.

Seneca was wrongly accused as being one

of those plotting against Nero's life,

and even though he had served as his

leading advisor,

Nero did not spare him and ordered him

to take his own life.

Instead of fighting the hand that fate

dealt him,

Seneca not only accepted his fate,

but was stoic to the final moment of his

existence.

As he famously said,

"What need is there to weep over parts

of life,

when the whole of it calls for tears?"

Seneca then cut the veins in his arms

and bled to death.

Despite being one of the most powerful

men in the world, Marcus Aurelius

reflected on the fleetness of his life.

Anyone in his position could very easily

get drunk on power,

but he reminded himself all the time of

those who have come and gone, who have

left behind nothing of the power they

ever so greedily accumulated throughout

their lives.

In Meditations, Marcus thinks of

morality as an inspiration to live his

best life and let go of trivial things.

He did not see death as morbid, but

rather as a motivator to live a life of

virtue and gratitude for the time we

have.

Marcus Aurelius led a Roman Empire that

went through both hardship and

prosperity.

He was criticized and praised and loved

and hated, but through it all,

he always reminded himself of the

teachings of Stoicism and the dichotomy

of control.

There are things in our control and

others that are not.

Which ones will you focus on?

If we can learn to emulate Marcus'

lessons by mastering our perceptions,

accepting others for who they are,

embracing the inevitable challenges as

an opportunity for growth,

loving our fate, and finally accepting

our morality,

then we can truly live a virtuous life,

just like that of the philosopher king

himself.

Waste no time arguing what a good man

should be.

Be one.

In 2012, Drake made a song titled The

Motto, but what most people remember

from it is YOLO.

YOLO tells you to live in the moment,

enjoy life you have today, and not worry

too much about tomorrow.

Because at the end of the day,

you only live once.

While Drake certainly popularized the

motto, he wasn't the first to use the

phrase, and he certainly wasn't the

first to come up with the idea of

enjoying the pleasures of today without

worrying about tomorrow.

This idea has been around since the 4th

century BC as what philosophers call

hedonism, a school of thought that was

created by Aristippus of Cyrene, a

student of Socrates.

Hedonism is the idea that the end goal

of all of our actions in life is to one,

pursue pleasure,

and two, avoid pain.

Aristippus believed that the only good

cause worth pursuing was one that will

ultimately bring you pleasure.

In today's society, we're taught that

the way to succeed is to suffer today so

you can enjoy tomorrow. To save for the

rainy day.

Once we get out of college, we're

encouraged to find a job and work hard

at a 9-5 for many years. Live modestly

and save as much as possible so we can

enjoy our retirement 50 [music] years

later.

Aristippus didn't believe in any of

that. He didn't believe in the idea of

[music] delayed gratification and he

always advocated for people to simply

get pleasure from what is present and

available.

He was completely against the idea of

suffering in the present in order to get

something that only might be pleasurable

in the future.

So, instead of telling [music] students

in college to study hard for their exams

so they can land a good job after

school, for example, Aristippus would

encourage them to fraternize, drink, and

party lavishly because these are the

pleasures that are readily available to

them.

On the one hand, you can see him as

stupid and lacking foresight.

After all, if you squander everything

you have on the pleasures of today,

you'll quickly run out of resources and

all of that pleasure will turn to pain.

From people losing everything they had

because of an addiction to people living

in poverty as a result of their own

laziness,

we've seen the results of solely

focusing on the present pleasures.

But on the other hand, there's some

wisdom to this school of thought.

Because truly, tomorrow isn't promised

to any one of us.

What's the point in working hard at a

9-5 for 50 [music] years, ignoring all

of the pleasures of the time,

only to die a few years before

retirement?

And let's say you do make it to

retirement.

The sad reality is that one in four

people will have a disability by the age

of 60. And the older you get, the

chances of that happening increase

drastically.

Knowing all of this, is it still foolish

to think that we are all better off

[music] just enjoying the pleasures that

we do have in the present?

Socrates and other philosophers at the

time certainly believed so.

A lot of philosophers hated the idea of

hedonism because saying that the end

goal of the entire human existence is

simply to pursue pleasure and avoid pain

just sounded vain.

This opposition combined with the rise

of Christianity in ancient Greece at the

time meant that this extremely rash idea

of hedonism died with Aristippus.

Many years later, Epicurus, who is

considered the father of modern day

hedonism, redefined what hedonism was.

And to do that, he had to start by

redefining a certain word.

Pleasure.

For Aristippus, pleasure was a state of

ecstasy and excitement. That amazing

feeling you have after biting into your

favorite food or after that first sip of

coffee in the morning.

And for most of us, this is how we

define pleasure.

But not Epicurus. For Epicurus, pleasure

was a state of tranquility.

Instead of encouraging people to indulge

themselves in constant gratification,

Epicurus believed that the true meaning

of pleasure was to kill the fear of both

death and God. Because only then would

you truly be able to fully enjoy what

this life has to offer.

While Aristippus simply encouraged

people to pursue pleasure, Epicurus

believed that all human beings do

everything to gain pleasure and absorb

pain.

He didn't encourage it because according

to him,

that was our natural state anyway.

To defend this point, Epicurus asks

everyone to look at how babies view the

world around them.

They don't really understand how the

world works yet, but they do understand

two things.

When something feels good and when

something feels bad.

When something feels good, the baby is

joyful and happy. When something feels

bad, the baby cries because it wants

that pain to stop and it wants to return

to said [music] pleasurable state.

I'm sure at this point you're wondering,

if we're all solely pursuing pleasure,

then what about selfless acts?

Acts that are done solely because they

are virtuous or valuable for other

people and not ourselves.

How do we describe those?

Well, [music] in hedonistic ideas, it's

simply because those things make people

feel heroic, which ends up being

processed in your brain as a pleasurable

feeling.

So, at the core, it is still pleasure

they're chasing, just not the kind we

might be thinking about.

According to hedonistic teachings, there

are two types of pleasure.

There's moving pleasure and there's

static pleasure.

Moving pleasure is when you're in the

process of satisfying a desire. When

you're hungry, you eat. When you're

thirsty, you have a drink. When you need

a time out, [music] you take a nap.

Static pleasure is the tranquility you

feel once you're done satisfying [music]

those needs.

At this point, the adrenaline has

finished coursing through your veins and

you're left with a sweet feeling of

satisfaction.

In that moment, you feel a sense of

tranquility and you keep feeling it

until it is sadly replaced by pain.

Because according to Epicurus, there is

a no in between. The absence of pain is

pleasure and vice versa.

But even with this more modest way of

explaining hedonism,

a lot of people still disagree and even

frown at the idea.

And this is because of one thing,

the idea that pleasure is the only

source of intrinsic value.

Think about it for a second.

If pleasure is the only intrinsic value,

then what do we make of things like

finding meaning in life, achieving great

things, building and maintaining

long-lasting relationships, [music]

becoming a legend in our particular

field, or even something as simple as

living religiously or upholding a set of

moral beliefs that we hold dear to our

hearts?

Hedonists might try to argue that all of

those things do [music] not hold any

value themselves and that they're only

valuable because we get pleasure from

them.

But something like upholding religious

beliefs isn't always pleasurable.

In fact, most times it restricts the

kind of pleasure you can get. But still,

it gives people a sense of fulfillment

that for them is better than the

pleasure they're forsaking.

If self-pleasure alone is the aim of

human existence,

the people who benefit from the wrong

that happens in our society will never

fight against it.

People will never fight for the common

good when it might affect them

negatively.

But yet every day we see people put

their own desires on the side to help

other people.

People get excommunicated from their

families, rejected by those they love

because they chose to speak up and fight

for what's right, even if the issues

don't affect them directly.

If we're all chasing our own pleasures,

that would never [music] happen. We'll

all be too busy enjoying our broken

society because it benefits us and not

worrying about trying to change it for

someone else.

Another huge stumbling block that

hedonists face when trying to argue

their beliefs is the worth of reality.

If pleasure is the ultimate goal, then

it shouldn't matter whether that

pleasure is real or imagined, right?

If we say that people always

intrinsically pursue things that are

pleasurable, then if there is an option

for unlimited pleasure, they should

never choose anything else, right?

To answer these questions, Robert Nozick

created [music] a thought experiment.

Giving people two options, he asked them

to choose between being plugged into a

pleasure-giving machine for the rest of

their lives and living their current

reality with the pain that exists in our

world.

People always picked this reality.

Because in the end, living a life that's

not real is pointless and meaningless.

And even with the option of the most

pleasurable thing in the world, people

would rather have pain that's real,

whatever real means.

As I've said previously, the best

memories are the ones you remember with

both pleasure

and pain.

20 years after he left his childhood

home, Abraham Lincoln came back only to

see the entire place in ruin.

As he looked at it with tears in his

eyes, he said,

"My childhood home I see again and I'm

saddened with the view.

And still as memories cloud my brain,

[music]

there's pleasure in it, too."

This beautiful mix of pleasure and pain

is something that the hedonistic view of

the world simply does not account for.

When you're graduating high school,

you're excited for adventures that await

you in college. You'll probably be

leaving home for the first time, and

you'll finally be alone, able to enjoy

what the world has to offer.

That feeling is pleasurable.

But the feeling is also painful.

You'll miss your high school friends and

the simplicity of childhood. You'll miss

your parents, your siblings, and the

community that you grew up in.

And though these painful thoughts cloud

your brain,

there will be pleasure in it, too.

Hedonism is frowned upon in modern-day

society because it opens the door for a

trap that you can easily fall into.

Pleasure is an insatiable desire. If you

get hungry and fill your belly,

it only takes a few hours, and [music]

you're looking for something else to

eat.

It's an unending pursuit. So, if that

becomes the entire [music] reason for

your existence, it can quickly become

difficult to control.

This is how most people become addicted.

It starts out as just a fleeting

pleasure, and before you know it, the

reason you're doing those things stops

being the pursuit of pleasure and starts

being an unquenchable and uncontrollable

thirst for those things. A trap that's

very difficult to come out of.

One that many people get stuck in for

the rest of their lives.

But this isn't to say that we can't

learn some things from hedonistic

principles.

Cuz as much as we might not like to

think about it, it's true that tomorrow

is not promised.

So, we might as well make the best of

today.

Things like making a conscious decision

to enjoy the little everyday pleasures

can help us lead a happier life.

If your car breaks down and you have to

walk to school,

don't be in haste. Embrace the journey.

Walk with a friend, make jokes with

them, and always leave each other on a

good note.

Craving a cup of coffee?

Head out to your favorite coffee shop

and order your favorite drink.

You've earned it.

You don't have to wait until you're

retired before you can start [music]

reaping the fruit of your labor.

Take those vacation days. The promotion

can wait a few [music] more months.

Stay on that call with your friends for

for extra hour.

Missing an hour of study probably won't

make you fail.

Because even if seeking pleasure might

not be the ultimate goal of [music]

human existence,

it's certainly a worthwhile pursuit.

In 1993, Michael Jordan led the Chicago

Bulls to victory over the Phoenix Suns

in what is widely known as his greatest

NBA finals ever.

He averaged 41 points per game, the

highest ever in NBA finals history,

cementing his place as one of the

greatest, if not the greatest of all

time.

Of course, Jordan's raw talent and

extensive training were key drivers in

his success,

but there was something else at play

here, a state of mind that those at the

top of their game seem to be able to

access.

You see it in the surfer of the 100-ft

wave, the concert violinist leading an

orchestra,

even in your co-worker whose

productivity seems superhuman.

What all of these top performers have

mastered is flow, a state where the

outside world fades away, time stops,

and you become completely immersed in

what you're doing.

Research has shown that we all have the

ability to find the flow state, but how

we do it is not as clear-cut. The idea

of deep concentration and wrapped

attention has been around for much of

modern human history.

Transcendent spiritual experiences like

flow states have been reported for

centuries in different religious texts

around the globe,

but the official flow theory was created

by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

in the 1970s.

Mihaly began surveying people about

times in their lives when they felt and

performed their best. He spoke to rock

climbers, musicians, painters, and

scientists,

curious to figure out what made them

continue to perform and create at a high

level despite the challenges.

He concluded that when respondents

enjoyed certain experiences so much,

they were willing to go to great lengths

to experience them again.

They all described a kind of current

that carried them through these

activities and experiences.

Today, there are researchers and

companies that devote their resources to

unlocking the power of flow. Steven

[snorts] Kotler, one of the leading

researchers on flow, became interested

in the topic after watching action

sports athletes like snowboarders,

skateboarders, or BMX bikers.

How did they achieve seemingly

impossible aerial tricks and

death-defying moves with such grace over

and over again?

Kotler, like Mihaly before him,

identified factors such as risk and

challenge to be key to achieving a state

of flow.

Eventually, he founded the Flow

Collective, a group which both

researches flow and trains people and

companies in the group to create a

happier, more productive world.

Challenging your mind means not getting

caught in an echo chamber where the only

opinions you hear reflect the ones you

already own.

A balanced view of the world allows you

to make well-informed decisions and

helps you pick out what's true and what

isn't. When you're in flow, your brain

shuts off all non-critical processes.

You care solely about the task at hand

and embody a mindset that is focused on

the journey, not the destination. The

game, not the medal. The climb, not the

view from the top.

You get it.

You're able to find this focus because

in a flow state, boredom and fatigue are

not a thing.

You don't get antsy or itchy. Your mind

chatter fades away and you become

completely free of distraction.

But don't mistake this for relaxation.

When you're in flow, you're not relaxed.

According to research over the past

several decades, the most important

component of finding flow is a task or

experience that meets a particular

challenge-skill balance.

Think of it this way. If you're really

good at drawing but don't find a

particular piece very challenging,

you'll probably get relaxed and

eventually bored.

Alternatively, if you're a beginner

skier and you're insisting on going down

the steepest runs,

you'll grow frustrated and angry with

yourself and the possibility for

enjoyment is pretty low.

To unlock flow, you need to find tasks

that allow you to be comfortable with

being uncomfortable.

You need to be put in situations where

your brain needs to work, but not so

much that it gets frustrated by poor

results.

Think of an activity that you enjoy or

skilled at but just find challenging

enough that it'll hold your interest.

That might be a great place to find your

flow, but finding flow isn't quite that

simple. Though much of the internet

might want you to believe it is.

There are tons of videos on how to enter

a flow state on command and even

playlist called flow state music that

promise you the deepest concentration at

the snap of a finger, but in reality,

going into the flow state requires

practice and there's no

one-size-fits-all formula.

But, there are definitely some things

you can try. You can start by creating a

ritual every time you're faced with the

task, letting your brain know that

you're about to begin.

This is one of the reason many athletes

have a pre-game ritual where they eat

the same thing and do the same thing

before every single game.

These seemingly small acts help to

condition the brain, letting it know

beforehand that it's time to get

serious.

Other things that can help trigger flow

include meditation and other mindfulness

activities, since they help to eliminate

distraction and promote focus.

Novelty or risk can also trigger the

flow state.

If you're used to working at home, try

going to a coffee shop to experience a

new environment. If you've been lifting

the same weights for months, try

something a few pounds heavier. That

added risk of failing might be just what

you need to tune out the noise and focus

on what you're doing.

Think of all the essays or assignments

you did in record time back in school

when the risk of failing was imminent.

Pattern recognition is another great way

to get into the flow state. Ask any

writer you know and they'll tell you

that there's nothing worse than staring

at a blank page.

Well, instead of doing that, you can

start your work day by editing what you

wrote yesterday.

This process will trigger the pattern

recognition in your brain, telling it

that it's time to focus.

Then, when you get to the blank page, it

becomes much easier to create since your

brain is already in the flow state.

It's also helpful to find out what your

peak creative and productivity times

are. Are you an early bird, a night owl?

Maybe you really are superhuman and you

do your best work on Wednesdays at 3:00

p.m. when the rest of the world has hit

its crash.

Once you find your time, try your best

to schedule your calendar so that you're

doing your most meaningful and

challenging work at this time.

You can also turn towards your emotions

for help.

If you've ever fallen in love, you've

experienced the tunnel-like attention

you give your partner.

To use a cliché, it's like nothing else

in the world matters.

Similarly, feelings like love, passion,

and curiosity for the task you're taking

on or the experience you're about to

embark on can help achieve a flow state.

Once the parameters are set, it's time

to turn your attention inward. Focus on

your body, your breath, and let your

concentration and creativity take over.

Now, so far we've been talking about the

flow in relation to an individual. But

ask Michael Jordan himself and he'll

tell you

there's no greatest player of all time,

only the greatest team of all time.

We see this every time we watch an

amazing game or see a talented cast of

actors navigate the story of a play.

In group flow, there is no domineering

ego or negativity. Members of the team,

cast, or group merge together as one,

and the challenge-skill balance is

important here, too.

If you put Meryl Streep in a high school

drama production, the students would

probably feel intimidated and might not

be able to stay present in the work.

Or if you see fans holding their breath

when the third-string quarterback enters

the game, it's because they're unsure

that the rookie can handle the pressure

and lead the team back into its

collective flow.

Whether you're on your own or in a

group, flow will come when you not only

concentrate, but truly love the thing

you're doing.

If you don't love music, it's very

unlikely you'll find any flow trying to

teach yourself to play the piano. But if

you're obsessed with coding and are

constantly challenging your skills,

you're probably very familiar with how

good the flow state makes you feel.

Why does it make us feel so good,

though?

Because the brain in a flow state is

getting constant hits of dopamine, the

neurotransmitter associated with our

reward system. Once the dopamine starts

releasing, it reduces fatigue and

discomfort and allows us to be immersed

in the task at hand.

While dopamine tends to be the star of

the show when it comes to studies on the

flow state, the brain locus coeruleus

norepinephrine or LCNE system has also

been researched as a key component of

the flow state.

The LCNE system is involved in

regulating how engaged we are with a

task.

If the LCNE system wants us to disengage

from a task, it can trigger boredom,

inattentiveness, stress, and

distraction, none of which are really

part of a healthy recipe for flow.

Many of us struggle to stay focused for

long periods of time on things we

dislike. If you have ADHD, this feeling

can become chronic.

In any instance of struggling to stay

engaged, our LCNE system is signaling us

to disengage from the task at hand.

Maybe because we're not receiving enough

dopamine to keep the brain interested.

But if our reward system keeps firing

and the LCNE system doesn't tell us to

disengage, we find ourselves in control,

feeling clear and having a sense of

direction.

And the benefits of being in this mental

state are endless.

One study by the Flow Collective found

that motivation and creativity

can increase 400% to 700%, while the

Department of Defense conducted a study

which found that learning spikes 200%

when you're in flow.

Now, medical researchers are starting to

use this concept to help patients with

certain medical issues.

Helping older patients experience flow

later in life has proven helpful for

cognitive optimization.

Similarly, video games and virtual

reality applications are being developed

as therapeutic training for people with

neurological diseases and people who are

rehabilitating from neurological damage.

By gamifying certain exercises and

therapies, some doctors find that

patients stay motivated to engage and

therefore heal.

Not only does flow provide us with focus

and enhanced intellectual capacity, but

it's also a positive, happy experience

where people describe feeling ecstatic.

Steven Kotler, the founder of the Flow

Collective, said that if people want to

enjoy their life, learning how to find

flow is the best pathway.

But what if we can't find that little

voice that seamlessly guides us through

a challenging task? What if flow doesn't

always feel like it's in reach?

Most of us dread doing our income tax or

answering emails, so any attempt to find

flow in these activities is probably

futile.

Yet, as with so many buzzy ideas, it can

feel like we're expected to find flow in

everything we do, or we're just wasting

valuable productivity stored elsewhere

somewhere in our brains. But,

the reality is that we can't find flow

in every task, and we shouldn't feel

like we have to. It's not just dreaded

tasks that can feel difficult to jump

into. Even the idea of an accomplished

artist or athlete constantly locking

into their flow state is a myth.

Take writing, for example. What's one

feeling we don't get when we're in a

flow state?

Bored.

If you've ever sat down to write

anything creative, you know that a large

part of writing is boredom.

The quiet, wandering mind is where we

conjure up ideas.

It's easy to go down an internet rabbit

hole of how to find your flow state. You

might even be in one right now.

As valuable as learning how to find your

flow can be, obsessing over finding it

will most likely have the opposite

impact.

Like anything else, finding flow is a

skill, and learning new skills can be

tough and frustrating to learn.

Not being able to find flow, even in a

task that meets all the parameters of

enjoyment, challenge, and timing that

we've talked about,

doesn't mean the task isn't worth doing.

If we start using flow as a precondition

to get things done, we'll most likely

get a lot less done.

If flow doesn't come, it's all on us and

all the other mechanism we've built

inside ourselves to deal with the

internal triggers like self-doubt and

external triggers like that dirty

laundry waiting to be folded, and get

the work done.

Flow is a tool we can seek out to

improve our lives. It's a mindset to

help us boost productivity, conquer

challenging tasks, and lean into our

creativity.

The promise of being able to turn off

the outside world and turn on the most

positive parts of our inner world is

alluring and something to strive for,

but

as soon as we get too fixated on

achieving these things,

we might lose what flow is really about.

Suppose there is a couple, the Joneses,

who just gave birth to a baby boy named

Sammy.

As they stand together in the hospital

gazing down at their newborn, they share

an awareness that the life ahead of

Sammy will be filled with an

indeterminable amount of both pleasure

and suffering, happiness and heartbreak,

miracle and tragedy.

Then in an instant, the harsh reality of

their baby's future hits them.

And for a fleeting second, they look

into each other's eyes and think,

"If we hadn't given birth to him in the

first place,

he wouldn't suffer anything."

Right there, they both make the decision

to give Sammy the best life they can and

to prevent him from experiencing as much

suffering as is humanly possible.

The Joneses are great parents for

thinking this.

But in the words of David Benatar,

"It is curious that while good people go

to great lengths to spare their children

from suffering,

few of them seem to notice that the one

and only guaranteed way to prevent all

the suffering of their children

is to not bring those children into

existence in the first place."

This is the philosophy of antinatalism.

It's the thought that human procreation

is unethical. The belief that any action

with suffering as its byproduct should

not be encouraged, no matter how much

pleasure will follow as well.

Although the roots of antinatalism can

be traced all the way back to ancient

Greece, the philosophy has experienced a

particular spike in popularity over the

last decade or so.

This recent resurgence can be accredited

by and large to the South African

philosopher David Benatar, who authored

what may be the most widely known

literature on the subject.

In his book Better Never to Have Been,

Benatar argues that his antinatalist

views come from a place of compassion,

stating that the only way to truly

prevent the suffering that comes with

existence

is to not exist in the first place.

And he isn't the first person to have

this thought.

The Greek tragedian Sophocles once said,

"Never to have been born is best."

Heinrich Heine, the 19th century German

poet, wrote, "Sleep is good, death is

better.

But of course,

the best thing would have been to never

have been born at all.

And the preacher in Ecclesiastes said,

"So, I have praised the dead that are

already dead more than the living that

are yet alive.

But, better than both of them is he who

has not yet been,

who has not seen the evil work that is

done under the sun."

So, as you can see,

the school of thought that nonexistence

is inherently better than existence

isn't a new one.

In recent years, though,

these ideas have given rise to the

anti-natalist belief that seeks to end

human procreation.

There are two different schools of

thought under the anti-natalistic

argument.

The first is the one David Benatar makes

when he says we should spare the unborn

from suffering that is life.

This argument centers around the harm in

which existence poses on the baby being

born.

On the other hand of the spectrum, the

misanthropic arguments for anti-natalism

that center more around the harm that

babies being born will go on to afflict

upon one another, other animals, and the

environment as a whole.

To put it into context, consider this.

The average carbon footprint for a

single person in the United States has

been estimated to be around 16 to 20

tons per year,

meaning that just fulfilling daily

necessities, such as driving, showering,

[music] eating, and using electricity,

has unimaginably damaging consequences

towards the environment we live in.

So, to anti-natalists,

the most ethical way to solve this

problem

is to prevent it from happening in the

first place.

Both anti-natalist arguments, whether

philanthropic or misanthropic, are

centered around one core problem,

suffering,

and one proposed solution,

to stop giving birth.

And you might say, "Well, what about all

the good things in life? Why would you

not want a child to experience all of

that?"

Well, anti-natalists believe that in

human life, [music]

there is an inherent imbalance or

asymmetry between pleasure and

suffering.

Let's take Sammy, for instance.

Because Sammy has been born, he would

experience pain, which is bad, and

pleasure, which is good.

However, if Sammy was never born, then

he would never experience pain, which is

good, and he also wouldn't experience

pleasure,

which is not bad.

The argument therefore is that the

presence of pain will always be

objectively more harmful than the

absence of [music] pleasure.

And so it makes sense to preserve the

absence of pleasure rather than

introduce the presence of pain.

Everyone suffers from being human,

but no one suffers from not existing in

the first place.

A second argument that the followers of

anti-natalists bring forward is the

hypothetical consent argument, which

states that no one can consent to being

born.

Consent is simply defined as the act of

giving permission for something to

happen, and according to the

anti-natalist hypothetical consent

argument, the unborn cannot give

permission to being brought into the

world, and so, as a result, the act of

procreation should be seen as

non-consensual,

and therefore unethical.

If we're focusing solely on the

information we have about pre-birth that

is scientifically provable, then the

hypothetical consent argument is pretty

difficult to argue against.

But of course, as we know, the full

extent of our pre-birth experience isn't

yet known by scientists or even anyone

for that matter.

[music]

I am a psychologist, and I know that

there are depths of the mind that have

remained untapped for most of us in our

normal business of going about our

affairs. This uncertainty opens up the

door for a wide array of

pseudo-scientists who seek to explore

the nature of our pre-birth experience

using methods which,

although can't be definitely proven by

science,

still add some thought-provoking

counter-claims that are worth

considering.

One of those pseudo-scientists is Helen

Wambach, who hypnotized 750 subjects in

the 1970s and asked them the question,

"Did you choose to be born?"

The responses she aggregated were quite

staggering.

81% of Wambach's subjects reported that

they did choose to be born, while 19%

reported that they were either unaware

of the choice or they got no clear

answer to that question.

Of course, again, research and findings

gathered from hypnosis can't be

scientifically proven.

But in the face of the seemingly

unknowable, studies like this pose at

least some perspective that should not

be disregarded entirely.

However, focusing back on the data that

we do have definitive answers to,

consider the story of Gold Mana, written

by Seana Shiffrin, which is used by

anti-natalists as an example for the

hypothetical consent argument.

Gold Mana is a wealthy man who lives on

an island and decides one day, for

reasons unknown, that he wants to donate

some of his wealth to his neighbors on

an adjacent island.

These neighbors are comfortably off, but

would still objectively benefit from his

donation.

Unfortunately, though, due to historical

tension between the governments of these

neighboring islands,

Gold Mana and his agents aren't able to

physically go to the adjacent island,

nor are they permitted [music] by law to

even communicate with the people living

there.

But still determined to donate, he

handcrafts several heavy cubes of gold,

each worth $5 million.

[music]

Then he flies his plane over the

neighboring island and drops the cubes

down to the civilians underneath.

He tries to avoid hitting people with

the cubes, knowing that it could cause

injury.

But eventually, after gifting several

people with the wealth, he hits one

person, who the story aptly names

Unlucky.

The impact of the cube breaks Unlucky's

arm, yet at the same time grants them $5

million.

Shiffrin acknowledges that, on the one

hand, with all the elements of the story

considered, Unlucky was an overall

beneficiary of Gold Mana's actions, as

the $5 million that they received is

enough to cover the cost of the a arm

and then some.

Yet on the other hand, Shiffrin argues

that an objective wrong was still

committed by Goldmana

since the harm he inflicted on the

Unlucky wasn't consensual,

despite how much the payout might have

outweighed the harm.

Unlucky was living a decent life before

Goldmana came into the picture.

His life wasn't pleasurable,

but he didn't suffer any pain, either.

After the cube dropped on his arm, he

experienced both pain and pleasure.

In light of all this, we have to ask the

question,

which then is better?

To have experienced pain and pleasure,

or not any at all?

I think to answer that,

we have to define what pain,

or in this case, suffering, is.

For millennia, philosophers have

traveled to great depths to dissect what

this experience really means, and why it

corresponds so closely with human life.

One of those philosophers was Fyodor

Dostoevsky, the infamous Russian

novelist whose work contemplates the

spiritual dimensions of human psychology

in extraordinary depth, and who invented

the genre of existentialist literature.

Dostoevsky's final book, The Brothers

Karamazov, tells the story of three

brothers, Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha,

whose opposing spiritual and worldviews

are forced into question when they're

tasked with solving their father's

murder.

The novel's most theatrical ideological

clash occurs between Ivan, the middle

son who has broken away from his

religious family [music] in pursuit of a

more Western and rationalist education,

and Alyosha, his spirited younger

brother who has chosen to remain

attached to his family's faith.

Ivan claims that due to the existence of

suffering, and more specifically the

suffering of innocent children,

to believe in the omniscience of God and

the goodness of people is a logical,

impossible, and impermissible.

He laments,

"Listen, if everyone must suffer in

order to buy eternal harmony,

pray tell me what children have got to

do with it.

It's quite incomprehensible why they

should have to suffer.

Through the character of Ivan,

Dostoevsky paints a clear picture of a

man whose compassionate intellectualism

supersedes his faith in humanity so far

to the point where he rejects the idea

of human life altogether.

Sound familiar?

Several parallels can be drawn between

Dostoevsky's Ivan and Benatar's

antinatalism.

As both believe that if suffering is so

synonymous with human life,

then nonexistence is the better

alternative. [music]

This argument Ivan poses is more broadly

referred to as the problem of evil, and

it is one of the most ancient and

compelling defenses against the belief

of God that exists in philosophical

literature to date.

The argument's possible origins have

been traced back to Epicurus, an ancient

Greek sage, who famously asked,

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not

able?

Then he isn't omnipotent. Is he able,

but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then from whence comes evil?"

The last question, whence comes evil, or

in other words,

where does evil come from, is yet

another heavily debated subject, which

is, of course,

ultimately unanswerable.

However, antinatalists would likely

argue that whatever origin or meaning

suffering may carry, matters little as

it is irrelevant in the face of

suffering's devastation.

And in this sense, I completely agree.

As searching for meaning to assign to

suffering can so easily become a

slippery slope, people in the suffering

of others.

Yet, at the same time, the practice of

assigning meaning to suffering can also

be a powerful coping mechanism, which

can transform the internal world of a

person who is tasked to live with its

heavy burdens. [music]

The answer, like most things,

possibly lies somewhere in the middle of

these two extremes, and differs from

person to person.

In a way,

both antinatalist philosophies and the

ideas of Dostoevsky's [music]

Ivan challenge us to come to terms with

the reality of human suffering.

Everyday we're faced with things in our

existence that are so factually

unanswerable to the point that they can

only be addressed through the lens of

hypotheticals or faith.

However, suffering, unlike these elusive

unanswerable existential questions, is

very much real, tangible, devastating,

overwhelming, [music]

and ever-present.

You turn on the TV and hear one bad news

story after the other.

You go online and you're reading stories

of corruption, human rights violations,

and wars all around the globe.

With humanity's suffering even more

prominent now that we have access to

world news at our fingertips, it's no

wonder then that arguments for [music]

anti-natalism are becoming more and more

compelling and seeing a rise culturally.

In the end, we're faced with one

question.

In the face of all that we know to be

concretely true about the reality of

suffering,

should you choose to believe [music]

that human life isn't worth creating

or that it would have been better if you

hadn't been born?

[music]

Or do you choose to still have faith in

that intangible sliver of hope that

there is some larger reason for your

coming to this earth in the first place,

despite the suffering that your

existence entails?

No matter which side of the fence you

stand on, I think it's important to

acknowledge questions of this nature,

questions of faith.

It's because our attitudes towards and

surrounding all that it is unanswerable

about our existence ultimately forms the

philosophical bedrock of how we view the

world and how we'll go on to act in our

[music] lives.

Although Alyosha, Ivan's faithful

younger brother, doesn't pose a very

compelling counter-argument to Ivan's

laments during their famous fight that I

mentioned earlier,

the subsequent actions he takes

throughout the rest of the novel go on

to demonstrate Dostoevsky's final

illustration of how one should conduct

themselves even in the face of suffering

and in relation to the problem of evil.

Alyosha's direction has him working on

the ground, directly with the

impoverished school children of his

community, doing the tedious work of

actually making their day-to-day lives

more enjoyable and infusing their lives

with a sense of meaning.

Alyosha becomes an active participant,

helping out in every instance of

suffering he encounters.

This is made particularly clear through

his mentorship of a young impoverished

boy whose suicide Alyosha prevents with

his compassion.

Meanwhile, Ivan spends the second half

of the story dissolving into a state of

delirium after realizing that his

intellectual arguments against human

life

led to the murder of his own father as

they gave another man the confidence to

abandon his faith and carry out an act

of evil in the world.

Dostoevsky's final message was that

ultimately the actions we take in the

face of suffering matter more than the