Propaganda I'm done falling for

Bet you're still falling for at least one.

1/ Getting rich.

Modern society loves to hate the rich. We blame them for all our problems. I’m not falling for this sh*t anymore. If you create value in this world, you should have the right to earn big from it and there should be no limits on that. I saw a quote that said “Getting richer is the most philanthropic thing you can do.” They’re right. You can’t be charitable or help others if you’re homeless and don’t have money for food. Get rich then use the money to create more value in the world and help others.

2/ Consuming more information.

This is no longer smart. The world is drowning in information. It’s a form of procrastination. The smartest thing you can do is use the information you already have to go implement and execute. That’s where the real learning happens. Strategies sound great on paper until you realize the world doesn’t operate according to a plan, and when you go and execute, everything tends to go wrong. Wealthy people are obsessed with execution.

3/ Black and white opinions.

I’m done with people who think like this. People who think there’s a line in the sand for every big argument or debate. There isn’t. Wise people understand there is no black and white answer to any problem. There is nuance to everything. And what people call facts are often brainwashing. The government may have said it to be so, but that doesn’t make it true. Politicians are pathological liars, so if your worldview is shaped by news and mainstream media alone, you’re cooked. The best answer is “it’s complicated.”

4/ Seeing everything as a risk.

There is no guaranteed path in life. The only guarantee is death. It’s easy to point out why everything won’t work. That approach is low IQ. Everything is a risk when you’re a coward. Everything can actually work out if you’re willing to bend the world to make it work. The better approach is to take calculated risks. Do some due diligence then trust your research. Even better, expect some bets to fail. Take a series of smaller bets if you really want to de-risk. Just don’t live life taking zero risks.

5/ Having kids

I got smashed on social media for saying one of the best decisions I’ve made was to have two daughters. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to have kids. But for me, it’s been life-changing. And I’m not going to apologize for it. Having children doesn’t make you insensitive or a misogynist. We need kids, or humanity goes extinct.

6/ Celebrities

I’m done worrying about what celebrities are up to. Most of them couldn’t give a damn about the rest of us and just have a raging mental illness, narcissistic personality traits, and a huge ego. Better to follow inspiring leaders instead.

7/ Scrolling

TikTok bred a new pandem!c: endlessly scrolling short-form videos. I’m done. The unpredictable nature of scrolling videos recommended to me by a robot algorithm is creepy. No more. Better to read books or be present in the real world.

8/ Following the rules and fitting in

Most grown adults still live like children. They follow the rules and try to fit in just like they did in pre-school. But to be successful as an adult you need to do the opposite. You need to break the rules, reinterpret them, and rewrite them. Otherwise, you get told what to do for 40 years while earning a peanut salary. Always tread your own path instead of following the sheep off a cliff.

9/ Worshipping intelligence

It used to be s*xy and cool. Not anymore. Highly intelligent people in the modern world just overthink everything, overplan, and overanalyze. And that only leads to extreme procrastination and even entitlement. Replace intelligence with courage and you’ll get much further in life.

10/ Permission

We now live in the permissionless economy. You can learn a new skill in a month without a college degree. You can create a portfolio of real work rather than memorising information in return for a certificate. All the barriers are gone. AI can give you answers to hard problems for free if you prompt it right. Better to just write your own damn permission slip and use social media to get discovered.

11/ Mental health

Stress and anxiety have caused havoc. Everyone now labels them as a mental health disorder or they blame it on being neurodivergent. Tim Ferriss finally spoke out in his newsletter by referencing “Stop Pathologizing Ordinary Life” by Clay Routledge (The New York Times). I’m not falling for this crap anymore. Negative situations in life are normal and if you label them as a disorder and take pills, you’re being lied to. Avoiding stress guarantees you fail in life. Avoiding anxious situations increases your anxiety. The solution is to do hard things and stop letting yourself off the hook with labels.

12/ Corporate ladder

More people will be forced to quit the corporate ladder. Mass layoffs are making the average job more like a temporary project than a 40 year career. Instead, people will become entrepreneurs because the incentives are better aligned. This is how it was in olden times. That means millions of people will need to learn how to sell and market their businesses. And that’s going to change how everyone thinks and uses social media. Don’t get left behind.

13/ Time

You’re not crazy. Time is compressing. Time does feel as if it is speeding up and that’s normal. The role of technology is to compress time. The time gap between a problem and a solution keeps shrinking. This changes how you experience time.

Technology also means you can hit buy on Amazon and get a delivery an hour later. Or send a proposal and get a yes within a few hours. Or set up an eCommerce store and make your first sale a few hours later. It’s not all good though. A good life is where time feels like it’s going slowly. That means we must find ways to slow time down by being more present, practicing mindfulness, being in nature, walking, and spending time away from phones.

14/ Hard work

People are becoming allergic to hard work and it’s ruining lives. They’re being told they deserve a lot of self-care after doing a few hours of work at an email job and sipping free cappuccinos. Hard work doesn’t make you wealthy. But every wealthy person has done insane amounts of hard work. There’s no escaping it. The solution: choose work that doesn't feel like work. That's how you win.

15/ Free

There’s a delusion that giving people free stuff helps them. I had an aunty that got a free house. It was more like a hut. But it was just good enough that she didn’t want to give it up because it was free. So she made decisions to protect her small win. Decades later she was trapped in that house because it was too good to give up, but not bad enough to seek a better home. What often holds us back isn’t what we don’t have, it’s what we do have. It creates comfort that forces us to protect what we have instead of risk it to get to the next level of life. Free stuff destroys lives.

16/ Rich kids

Spoiling kids ruins them. If you pay for all their needs and always come in to save the day, you train them to believe there’s a backstop. They’ll avoid failure and rejection which will ultimately steal their resourcefulness and ability to make their own wealth. It’s my #1 fear with my two daughters. The normal path is you struggle, you work hard, you eventually win, then you create wealth. This shapes your character. Rich kids don’t have this reward function. So they don’t have the right motivation and often become bums. Kids must never be excessively spoiled or they’ll be stuck as children forever.

17/ Phones

If you want to find out where all your free time goes, just look at the screen time app on your phone. I’m done with wasting my time looking at a phone all day. It makes me feel like I’m living in a virtual reality where I have no control. Get away from your phone to experience freedom.

18/ Being busy

Busyness is an illusion. We all have the same 24 hours. Saying you're busy implies the other person isn't — and that you're special. The reality is being busy is like saying you poo’d your pants and need a diaper. The better approach is to have priorities. An ask of your time is either a priority or it’s not. Respond accordingly. Tell the truth: “This isn’t a priority for me.”

19/ Normality

Society wants you to be normal. It secretly means you’re a compliant little citizen who pays their taxes and doesn’t sh*t where they sleep. Brilliant people are often asked to become normal so they can fit in. But that robs them of the quirks and personality traits that make them extraordinary. We must not lose our weirdness.

20/ Hope

Hoping things will work out is people’s default. But it’s a lie. When you rely on hope you outsource the control of your life to this mythical, invisible force. That’s a terrible move. You can just mess around and figure things out yourself. You don’t need to wait or rely on the universe to make your dreams come true. You’re the differentiator.

21/ Job interviews

They’re a conversation between two liars. You lie about your achievements and how much you influenced team outcomes. The employer lies about the bonus potential, great company culture, perfect boss you’ll be working for, and the imaginary career progression. Better to self-promote and let opportunities come to you than engage in this BS process.

22/ Assets

Acquiring assets has changed. My boomer parents tell me to acquire property, physical goods, classic cars, etc. You can add factories and machinery to that list too. These are no longer the assets they once were. Digital assets now have a lot more leverage. Personal brand, email list/followers, intellectual property, data, SaaS, and Claude bots are simple to create, much more scalable, have lower barriers to entry, and work 24/7. Acquire these and you’ll experience leverage AND wealth.

23/ Gurus

They tell us how to live. They remove all the nuance. They’re polarizing. They take a lot of selfies. They have huge egos. They flash luxury. I’m not falling for these mofos anymore. Most of them have zero value to add. They’re just actors living in some TikTok movie pretending to be someone they’re not while monetizing their attention in the sleaziest ways possible. You don’t need another guru. Trust yourself.

24/ Doing hard things

We’ve pivoted too hard toward being lazy and thinking we deserve passive income. It’s exhausting. Refusing to do hard things just makes you chase easy sh*t that doesn’t work. The more you choose easy the more your brain fears doing basic hard things that are necessary for you to experience freedom and abundance. Reject easy at all costs. It’s a scam.

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