Brad Stulberg

So part of the Twitter is not only the limitations on characters, which they've now blown up, but it's just how the whole algorithm works, which is like it rewards velocity, it rewards rage.

So if you put yourself in a very reactive environment, you're going to be a more reactive person.

If you read Middlemarch, you're going to be a more responsive person.

It's a long, slow book.

Um, so I mean, Neil Postman was obviously ahead of his time with the medium is the message, uh, in, in, uh, Marshall McLuhan was medium is the message.

Neil Postman was amusing ourselves to death.

Marshall McLuhan ahead of his time.

Um, and, and I think though the same thing can happen with, with the goals.

So back to that mountain metaphor that we both love, if you're going to spend 99.999% of your time and energy on the side of the mountain, you got to pick the right mountains to climb.

And if you climb the right mountains, whether or not you reach the top, but you,

want to reach the top like all hell, but whether or not you do, the effect it's going to have on your character and on your being in the world is really positive and meaningful.

And that, to me, at the end of the day, is what the pursuit of excellence is all about.

And it's also very democratic.

So an excellent result...

might mean getting to the top of the mountain.

Like by no standard am I excellent at a deadlift.

Like I've never won a national championship.

However, I can still pursue excellence and get all the rewards of that pursuit even though I'm never gonna be world class or national class.

And I think that that's just, that to me is such an antidote to this alienation.

It's like giving a damn, giving something your all, doing it with intention and care, striving for the result, but then also realizing that it's gonna fill your life with texture and shape you as a person.