What's the Most Resilient Parasite?

“What is the most resilient parasite?
A Bacteria?
A virus?
An intestinal worm?

An idea.

Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.” - Inception

You may think the coronavirus is the most dangerous thing in the world right now.

It’s not.

Do you remember The Nature Channel?

The Nature Channel would document nature untarnished. They would show wild and scary things, like a pack of predators taking down their prey. That’s what I think about when I think about the state of our world right now.

The state of the world is like one of those episodes where a wolf pack (for example) would take down a bull moose.

The first wolf can’t take down a moose by its own. But it can slow it down.

Then, the next wolf piles on. Slowing it down and hurting it even more.

Then another, then another, then another.

Until it’s conquered.

A coronavirus can’t take us down alone. But infect humans with the ideas that masks are a sign of weakness... Create a click-hungry media environment that incentivizes hate and polarization ... Have people numbed through products like social media which exploits on our emotional brain so we can't think for ourselves and...

then another, then another, then another

Until, the pack of predators takes down its prey.

And like all “stupid” prey, we are often our own worst enemies.

But there is hope.

There is hope if you realize how dangerous, brilliant, and resilient ideas are. Let yourself feel the terrifying and beautiful possibilities of them.

"An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you."

Then take responsibility for them.

It starts with you. Infect yourself with the right ideas. Grow those ideas like seeds in your mind. Water them with your experience and analysis until they grow to be the fundamental evergreens of your life.

A better world is created through inception.

Here’s me doing my part:

This Week's Embrace Your Lazy

My Tweet Thread of the Week:

I've been thinking a lot about what I wrote about last week. We each need big brothers and sisters (or 2nd fathers and mothers) to guide us along the path of life. But I never talked about the how. How do you actually find the right coaches, programs, and courses?

Here's a thread that talks about that.

My Question of the Week:

Do you have any ideas that are original? In what ways were you incepted by society, media, upbringing, or culture?

My Fortune Cookie Thought of the Week

It's only when you're lost that you can be found

🧫This Week's Petri Dish

1.

This video is gold LOL (especially if you know what T series is).

I came across the works of Kobayashi Kiyochika. They're absolutely beautiful woodblock prints from the Meji period.  

3.

A Great video for those who feel lost in life (which is basically all of us at one point or another).

n told me his twenty-something years were like being in the middle of the ocean, like this vast, unmarked body of water. He couldn’t see land in any direction, so he didn’t know which way to go. He felt overwhelmed by the prospect that he could swim anywhere or do anything. He was equally paralyzed by the fact that he didn’t know which of the anythings would work out. Tired and hopeless at age twenty-five, he said he was treading water to stay alive."

This quote from Meg Jay’s The Defining Decade (I found it in the youtube video I listed above) seems so accurate. It’s what I’m feeling. It’s what the world seems to be feeling.

When we feel trapped, we expect something to save us

“How do people get out of the ocean?” I asked Ian, wondering if he had some sense of how he might stop treading water. “I don’t know,” he said, turning his head as he thought intently. “... I guess all you can do is hope someone comes along in a boat or something"

We wait for a boat. We wait for some person, some philosophy, some career to save us. For most of us, a boat never comes. For others, we see a piece of driftwood and convince ourselves it is the boat. Others fall prey to nihilism. Eventually none of these work. None of these are healthy.

"There is only one way and that is your way. There is only one salvation and that is your salvation.

Why are you looking for help. Do you believe help will come from outside?

What is to come will be created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare. Do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you" - Carl Jung

Here's an idea I hope you incept. It's a resilient parasite that has the ability to change the world. And it's extremely simple.

The idea: "You have to save yourself."

As your big brother, I will be there to guide you

But save you. I can only help you after you take responsibility. I can only help you after you help yourself.

In our lives we must take responsibility for things we believe, for the ideas we consume, for the actions we take. We cannot blame others, say "why me", or wait for a life changing moment that never comes. We must shape our own destiny.

I understand why we struggle to take responsibility. It's summed up in this Samuel Johnson quote:

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

Being human is a terrible responsibility to bear.  

But we can't rid the pain of being man anymore. We must accept it. Shake its hand. Befriend it. Use it.

It's time. Take ownership of your life.

Build your own boat.