3 MINUTE MONDAY

Hi friend,

See me at my London Live Show Thursday 28th November at the Eventim Apollo - General Tickets still available! https://chriswilliamson.live/london​

Australia Live Shows - Brisbane 6th, Melbourne 8th & Sydney 9th November - General Tickets still available! https://chriswilliamson.live/australia​

I went to a retreat in California last year.

During it I met a business owner whose YouTube content I used to watch a long time ago.

When I asked him why he stopped making videos he said:

I think about this all the time.

And I’ve come to realise that there’s two sides to “fake it until you make it”.

One is positing an ideal or better version of yourself which you are motivated to live up to due to the need for social consistency.

But this stake in the ground acts as much like a tether as it does a finish line.

If you commit yourself to some worldview or life philosophy, what happens if you stop agreeing with it?

Sure you might want to change, but everyone around you has grown accustomed to the previous version of you.

Whether it’s lifestyle changes like your dietary approach or training methodology.

Worldview changes like religious belief or political affiliation.

Or personality changes like commitments to personal growth, going sober or changing friend groups.

Social consistency bias is a double edged sword.

A while ago, some of the leading influencers in the ex-Paleo Diet movement, then the Carnivore Diet movement started to add fruit into their food.

The aptly called Meat & Fruit Diet caused uproar.

Not because of evidence that the diet is based on, but because its new proponents had ardently stated a different belief in the past and the change caused people around them to feel uncomfortable.

This is the danger.

The social incentives align for you to not change in public, even if you grow out of your beliefs in private.

Stupid people see someone changing their mind as an indication of unsophistication because they don’t understand that updating your worldview when you grow is a sign of intelligence not fickleness.

And that an unwavering commitment to a narrow worldview is not cleverness, but a substitute for it.

Which unfortunately means that changing your mind in public often results in you being attacked by large numbers of mostly stupid people.

And the more public you are about it, the harder it is to reverse.

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MODERN WISDOM

I do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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This week’s upcoming episodes:

Monday.
Robert Greene - one of the most legendary historians and writers on human nature joins me to go through some of my favourite lessons from him on seduction, confidence, happiness, masculinity, Machiavelli and more.

Thursday.
Oliver Burkeman - my favourite writer over the last year. Imagine if Sam Harris and Alain de Botton had a British son who wrote about productivity and time management. Outstanding chat.

Saturday.
Dr Jamil Zaki - the psychology of cynicism and how to overcome it. Why is cynicism so pervasive in the modern world? Are cynical people smarter or dumber? What does cynicism do to your health?

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THINGS I'VE LEARNED

1.
​Hitler was anti-IQ.

The Nazis implemented a kind of intelligence testing during World War 2.

Soon after, they decided they hated it as Jews continually outperformed in these tests.

They then stopped testing for intelligence, denied its validity and started studying and measuring other traits that they felt the German people would fare better in.

So the next time someone calls you a Nazi for bringing up IQ, remind them that it’s actually a literal Hitlerian policy to oppose intelligence testing.

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2.
​Unintelligent women can remember faces way better than intelligent men.

“For face recognition memory tasks, women with IQs in the 60-80 IQs outperform men with IQs in the 121-140 range.

When it comes to memorising people's faces, women are, on average, far superior to men.” — Rob Henderson

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3.
​Output is all that matters.

“Value doesn't come from the effort you put in.

I'm sorry.

It doesn't.

It doesn't come from struggle, or your sweat, or your tears.

It doesn't come from your experiences.

It doesn't come from how many hours you worked at it or how many years you took to learn to do it.

Those things may help you to put a price tag on what you need to compensate you - but that's not the same thing at all.

You can dig holes and fill them in again all day long, but all that effort isn't going to result in anything valuable.

It comes purely and only from the demand anyone else has for it, which is often just something very subjective and irrational which you have no control over.

Someone dying in a desert values that bottle of water far more than the Mona Lisa.” — Shannon Sands

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LIFE HACK

Crocs and socks for flying in.

Hate me all you want but this is what peak comfort looks like.

Seamlessly go from shoed to deshoed without everyone being disgusted at you taking your trainers off.

Sports Mode in case you need to sprint to make a gate.

Enjoy elite travelling.
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Big love,
Chris x

Try my productivity drink Neutonic.
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PS
Get some more sleep.