Stationary ideas, DYNAMIC ideas
With a good nights sleep ,,, anything is possible!
VIA NEGATIVA NOISE.
The philosophy of testosterone
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1 foot in Asia, one foot out?
–> always have a foot in Asia,,, somewhere?
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If you really knew your lululemon leggings cost only $5… would you still buy them!?
Why are Americans so good at making and building brands?
Sell the dream, sell the fantasy!
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The death of anonymity
Asymmetry
Can Americans follow Chinese TikTok?
RE-usable car
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So I realize when it comes to cars… Ultimately, it seems that my personal interests are towards japanese cars.
For example, I was born in 1988, and I watched all the fast and the furious movies, and actually… Ever since I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, manual –> the general idea that I had was  it was better to have a turbo charged in line for car rather than one of these stupid gas guzzling V8 engines, and also… My aesthetic belief was also, that automatic cars were for losers. For example, we would call it “auto-tragic”, when we saw a cool sports car and upon closer inspection, discovering that it was not a manual or a stick shift, but once again, automatic.
So what is interesting is that when you’re an underdog, when you’re a kid, and you don’t have much money, and you’re trying to assert your dominance on the planet or whatever, you try to get a leg up whenever. For example, watching these people add epic turbo chargers to their Sentra SER’s, And getting like quarter mile times like sub 10 seconds? Insane.
Because ultimately back in the day… Horror times was what mattered the most. Nobody really talked about 0 to 60 speed, or the like. And the reason why it was so great is that it is so optimistic, the general idea is that with just a little bit of ingenuity, creativity, you could just transform an ordinary car into something extraordinary?
And also once again, I suppose the appeal of a manual car is that at least it takes some skill to use. Everyone kinda knows that if you have an automatic car, that is already fast, it takes literally no skill, any 500 pound loser could just stomp his foot all the way to the pedal, and go really fast.
So I suppose the more important question is why does it even matter? Why does it matter to go really really fast?
First, I think you could drive a car, there is a feeling of power or a surge of power when you drive. For example, the first time I went pedal to metal on a Tesla car, OMG, it was so effing fast. Pretty exhilarating.
Or I remember when I was 22, and I test drove a Subaru STI because I was curious, and the salesman encouraged me to go pedal to the metal, and I floored it, I actually had a small heart attack it was so fast. I then realized that it was actually too fast for me, and I didn’t like it. 
So then I suppose the tricky thing is once you have a kid, everything changes in a good way. You start to realize that all these stupid things that you did in your 20s and your teens and maybe even your early 30s, before you have a kid, Was a bit frivolous and unnecessary.
For example, just think about all the time you waste on clothes, cars, wasting money on alcohol going out etc. Certainly there are good things that money can buy like meat beef, lamb and red meat, and other benefits like purchasing a car,  buying yourself weightlifting equipment, or paying for a gym membership whatever. These things do have benefit.
So my primary question and concern is which investments are actually worth it, in which investments are not?
First on a day-to-day basis, one thing that I think is totally worth it is peace and quiet. Via negativa noise. 
For example I’ve realized that I am insanely sensitive to noise and street noise especially when it comes to sleeping. Maybe this was a survival mechanism in the past… Hearing even a small sound at night, would wake me up, therefore it might’ve kept me alive in the past? But now, I found that if I just get a really really rock saw at night of sleep, like a bedrock, I can achieve anything do anything, attempt anything, become anything?
And also random things I’ve discovered is that like for example, the nights where I eat insanely well, lamb belly, bone marrow etc., bone marrow broth, I sleep like a God Why this is important is that I think the importance of sleep is like 1000 trillion X underrated. In fact all the money you spend should you used on optimizing your sleep situation, whether it be your pillow, sheets, blackout curtains or whatever. The reason why it is so important is that once again, sleep is the fruit of life. There are all of these ridiculous things that people do in the military and in school like sleep deprivation and sleep deprivation training but wouldn’t the most intelligent strategy be towards the exact opposite?
For example, with children and babies, I think the number one advice I could give to any parent or new parent is as quickly as humanly possible at around five months, sleep train your kid. This means like literally giving them a butt load of milk before sleeping, use the expensive pampers diapers, and just let them cry it out.
I remember the early days, at around six months or seven months, when we started to sleep train him, he was able to master it and only about one and a half to two days?
It is not virtuous to be sleep deprived or feel pain.
If anything, the wisdom of Asian people, even the ancient Greeks… I think actually in the past you would have the nanny take care of the kid in the middle of the night, even breast-feeding?
Like even Hector in the Iliad, when he is tending to his son and his wife, there’s like at least three or four nannies around all the time.
And this is actually a great thing about Asia Southeast Asia Cambodia etc., if you’re like middle class or affluent or upper class whatever it’s almost expected that you have a nanny. To NOT have a nanny is almost bizarre?
Then comes interesting question, are there any virtues of not having a nanny? I don’t think so. I think having a nanny is all upside, no downside, especially if you’re in Asia or south east Asia. And you could afford it.
I think the only downside might be like the strange American feeling of guilt? For example, in America once again we are taught this strange virtue that like doing everything yourself by yourself no help from anyone else’s virtuous? I don’t call that virtuous I called that foolish.
And I think actually… The reason why maybe fewer people are having kids in the states is precisely because of this huge weight in baggage. I think if you’re a woman, it feels infeasible, because once again…… That you have to shoulder the entire weight yourself, is actually quite debilitating? But if you know that you could just hire an army of nannies, who literally do everything like take care of your kid or your baby, take them to school pick them up drop them off, clean them up change their diapers, go grocery shopping for you or whatever… Anything feels possible?
This is one French word that I insanely love: insouciance.
The general idea is like not worrying or not really caring, and also… being more chill and relaxed about things.
For example, it’s almost like the French laissez faire concept. 
For example, another thing I’ve found out about child reading and parenting… Why do you care how other people raise their kids? 
For example, I think one vice of Americans is that we love to feel indignant about things. But why?
For example, we get indignant that people are on their phones while they let their kids run around and whatever, or we feel indignant that parents are feeding their kids crap. But once again why do we care about the kids of other families?
If you thought about it in a perverse way, one way you could actually think about it… Assuming that you see everyone else’s competition, you would actually delight in the fact that other people are raising their kids so poorly, because assuming that you have your own child, that means your child will become supreme.
So for example whenever I see too many other parents on their phones on social media or whatever, that is often a signal for me to put away my iPhone or iPad, even if I am doing some sort of fake “virtuous“ thing, because once again… I just don’t want my child to become stupid. 
But taking it a step further, a better way to think about it is it’s fine. It’s not really a big deal, there’s like 100 billion people on the planet at the world will be fine.
So if you read the Tao Te Ching, the gold standard manual for Taoism, the general idea is that we humans to think that we somehow control the planet and control the world, that somehow we could harm it or benefit it, is seen as quite arrogant in a bad way. This would probably rub an environmentalist the wrong way because once again, the strange cult of environmentalism is that somehow, we are like the Jesus Messiah figure in the planet needs our saving?  Even funny enough, I’m a Boy Scout Eagle Scout, kind of like I should be the most environmentally conservative person of all time out there, and almost with like military discipline, I was taught the virtues of being trustworthy loyal helpful courteous kind obedient cheerful thrifty brave clean and reverent,– I know how to do all the things!
But there’s also a certain point in which one has to just exercise and practice common sense, thinking for oneself etc.
I think there’s almost too much fake virtue signaling, maybe wouldn’t it be more virtuous to be doing something opposite: vice signaling? 
The only people I perhaps trust are the people who do vice signaling, people who joke about how degenerate they are, and how bad they are, how unproductive and how concerning they are. The reason why this might seem to be a better idea is that if you take that line, Then, what that then means is do you know how to take a jab at yourself or joke about yourself, perhaps there is a deeper wisdom here.
The gay science.
In life I think we have to become more gay jolly jovial etc. I think one of the fake notions of virtuosity is that somehow, to become more virtuous you have to become more dark and morose, more emo etc.? But it is my personal thought that the ultimate virtuous man is like a child: a man child. Something that has been used for too long in a denigrating way, should be used as a positive one.
For example, taking a line from Kanye, I tried to joke about this all the time, that I’m a 37-year-old man, but in heart I’m really a seven-year-old kid, stuck in a 37-year-old body. But the upside is I have money!
The clarity is that in America, the general idea is that once again, childishness is a bad thing, childishness is a vice.
And also even more annoying in the states, structurally, people are anti-kids pro dogs. Which I find the most degenerate thing of all. Animals are slaves. Has no one ever said this strongly: that even pets, “emotional service animals”, are essentially emotional slaves.
And also, don’t you realize that it is called pet ownership? We don’t use the word “human ownership” anymore. If somehow your dog wanted freedom, and told you to give self freedom, would you do it? Probably not because “you know what is best for your dog”.
And it’s fine, I think the virtue of dogs and pets and cats or dogs or whatever was I think it actually helped a lot of people stay saying during Covid. A lot of people who are emotionally and physically isolated, and also a big thing that I think which is wonderful about having a child or a life partner is physical touch. To be able to snuggle your kid might be one of the world’s most joyful things of all time. But thinking about all these lonely single millennial people, man and woman, pretty sad.
And also, I think the virtue of a dog is that they love to walk! As a consequence, I bet you that dog owners have better mental health simply because they have better physical health because they walk around a lot more than the average not dog owner?
But then again the ultimate is having a child. One thing that I love about being back in Asia is that having a kid is almost expected, not in a bad negative way, but in a joyful life promoting way! 
For example, another sign of DeGeneres in America: it is considered bad manners to ask somebody, whether they have kids or not, but in Asia it’s like the first or second thing you ask somebody who is over the age of like 18. Or 21 certainly 25.
Which makes me wonder… Why is that considered bad manners in America?
Like it’s not improper for you to ask somebody if they have a pet or a dog or not, why not kids?
I think my personal sociological reasoning or read on it is that in America, we prize ourselves on individualism, individual means you. So to have some sort of satellite entity, a.k.a. a kid is seen as positively detrimental to your individuality?
Put several things: first, the point of life isn’t individuality, I think this is simply a synthetic measure which is instituted to promote consumerism. But once you figure out that your beloved Lululemon leggings are made for only like five dollars in China, or that you’re $32,000 Birkin bag is Produced for only $1000, or that your beloved $300 Nike shoes are made for like 10 bucks in a factory, or even that your $250,000 Porsche car only costs $70,000 to produce, even you $250,000 Lamborghini, maybe only $80,000 to produce?
Once you realize that, then you realize that all this notion of individualism is worse than superficial. It is foolish.
