Phyllis Wagner

@Leo Gura I don't think actualized is really that offensive or radical. What is offensive to the mainstream is stuff like blatant racism. Some of the young people that are doing your life purpose course right now will probably end up well known and I think they will give you props in a decade or two. Celebs have definitely endorsed more controversial stuff like Scientology. There are also tons of stage green celebrities who are into spirituality. I think it will happen sooner or later and then the forum will get swarmed by some of their fans. You can't deny you appeal to the mainstream at least a bit by the way you speak, the style of your videos etc. Some dude just casually rambling into a webcam would not get to 1 million subscribers after all. But hey, I totally get the mainstream bias and I tend to agree with you, most of that stuff is definitely whack.

@BipolarGrowth Thank you! very interesting! @Leo Gura In a general sense I agree. However, Power of Now was published in 1997 and was relatively obscure, just because Oprah pushed it later didn't decrease the value of what was written. Also consider C.w.G. was a book that saw mainstream success. I can actually see actualized.org being endorsed by some celebrity in the future, it wouldn't make the content itself any worse, wouldn't it? I think it's only a matter of time before that happens.

I mean, I think he understands this. But everyone has got to start somewhere, most people are not ready to just go full-on monk mode. This is pure speculation but spiritual awakening might be a process that takes lifetimes. This inner desire to get serious and wanting to know - I totally get it - but maybe this can also be seen as part of the "right genetics", because to be honest - most people just don't have that drive.

Well I disagree, I am following actualized.org for 5+ years and I still get mind-blowing insights from time to time when I read his books that just didn't compute with my previous understanding. if he is truly enlightened or not - I don't care honestly. I think he is underrated here because his popularity somewhat cheapens his teachings. Granted, It's formulated in very accessible language, but I think that is also the appeal of actualized.org.

But western medicine still got you a diagnosis after trying all the woo woo stuff, right?

@LfcCharlie4 I mean I had a straight up immature capitalist mindset at your age. I never started a business but if I had it would be all about the money. People say you become more conservative as you get older, funnily enough for me it was the reverse.

@LfcCharlie4 You are right I am very left leaning. I am not on twitter or in any of these bubbles, though. A lot of communist theory just makes sense to me to be honest. I am not for the Marxist revolution part, communist policies must come slowly through democracy by progressing through the spiral-stages.

I work in a male-only field, I don't have many female friends - that was my situation before covid. Basically minimal chances to meet anyone. Now I am stuck in my home for over a year now and I barely can meet my normal friends. I don't see myself meeting anyone outside of online dating at this point. So I got on Tinder and I must have remade my account around 15 times now, and always get the same result: zero matches. I take advice from friends about the profile, I looked up tutorial on how to take and edit good pictures of yourself. I often take 100 pictures just to select one, invest money to test my photos out on photofeeler. I overhaul my profile for the 10th time and always get let down. I really am motivated to optimize my results but at some point it is getting ridiculous. It doesn't surprise me at all if people get body dysmorphia from this kind of stuff. I am normally not a narcissistic person at all, but if you can't get around online dating you have to adapt to it or you won't see result - at least that's how I think, that this is the practical reality of it. I don't enjoy this at all, I think Tinder as a concept is awful and shallow. I really hate that this is what you have to deal with nowadays. If I am honest I think there should be some government regulation around these kind of apps, if this is how the majority of people date nowadays you simply can't give that kind of power to corporations that are self biased and can't have your best interests in mind.

@Consept I agree in that case of tourism areas it is not unethical. Funny that you mention student accommodations, couldn't help but think of this. Apparently these things are priced extremely high for what you get but in some places they are the only affordable options for students. I mean you could argue things like this are helpful for the average person (otherwise they couldn't live there at all) but would you consider this ethical?Something seriously wrong with that if you ask me. Just something to think about, I know that's not what you had in mind

@Snader I have some money in the IShares MSCI Social Responsibility Index ETF and plan on adding more to it in the future. It's basically the stable MSCI World Index but with companies replaced that don't meet certain criteria, like Nestle or Gambling/Weapon stuff.

@Consept Buying property just to rent it out via AirBnB is not ethical, people are starting to do it instead of classical renting because it earns them more money. 1. That property will stay empty more than if rented out. 2. it once again reduces living space for regular people - jacking up the prices. @datamonster I mean most landlords are probably not assholes, but most will charge you as high as possible because they already have bought other property on a loan that they have to pay back, their goal is to multiply their investments. The core of the problem is that base needs like shelter need to be much more regulated and not left to the free market. Everybody needs at least one affordable place to live, everything that goes beyond that can be handled by the free market. I see the value in actually building the houses, but what about people just buying up houses to flip them or to get the highest possible passive income stream out of them? What exactly is the value to society that is provided there?

Yeah but you live in that house, nothing unethical about that even if it is a Villa. What is unethical is rich people buying up multiple apartments that stay empty purely as an investment/speculation object. Or buying up multiple apartments and jacking up the rent prices so whoever lives there has to basically give you all their money. People always have to live somewhere so they gonna pay. The whole real estate situation grinds my gears like nothing else, no regular working guy has a realistic chance of owning a reasonable place to live anymore. If I were at the top I would enforce a policy that forbids anyone to own more than 2 real estate objects, one of which must be where you live. If you already own more the government will force-buy it from you and rent it out for affordable prices. @Yarco That is a great idea. Or renting out real estate to businesses in general. I just don't like fucking with peoples personal homes . Stable and Ethical ETFs are also fine with me.

No one ever thought of creatively combining these two popular concepts.

Really good blog post video! I have a question about it. If you go read a Book with the mindset that is talked about - isn't this 100% self biased? For example I was reading the book about intelligent design evolution on the book list. There the christian author was making the point that without the belief in a god people would start behaving immoral, making teaching about evolution dangerous to society or something. So if I am a fundamental christian I might read that and think "yeah this is the good stuff, we need christianity for society to work" and then when he talks about parts of evolution that align with Darwinism and I go "oh this is where the author is wrong, the earth is obviously not older than 10.000 years". It could also be totally reverse, I could also judge both points as good and both as bad. These biases also determine which future books I select and which information I am going to seek out. This problem is basically unsolvable right?

I agree there is no point microdosing it. Me and friends played around with 20x extract as a teenager, we all got high but no one was really blasted into outer space, so you could say these were intermediate doses. Wasn't really a bad experience for any of us, I remember it a bit like temporary amnesia, you don't know who you are or what you are doing here but you don't care either so its not frightening. At first the effect is kinda novel but it gets old fast.

Or by holding a statement in your mind and seeing if your finger muscles give resistance or not, right? We all know that is the only valid method in existence to distinguish truth vs falsehood.

Sure it would make that part easier, but I am grateful for what I got. I could look way worse, also I am healthy. I feel bad for really short and weird looking guys, but I look fine. Just because society is screwed up I don't feel the need to look like a male model.

I am in the best shape of my life. My face is fine, I'm content with my looks. But I don't look like a male model (nor do I want to) but the reality is that that is what is it takes to get results in online dating.

I think the whole leeching thing is a very unhealthy way to look at it. It is just a way for people to connect initially, both parties will then have to make time for a date. It's mutual investment. How is an average guy wanting to meet average women leeching? You just can't expect every guy to go through a huge self transformation journey and become a super social millionaire to get his basic needs met and call him a leech if he can't do it. That's just not how you structure a healthy society. This stuff needs heavy regulation on the grounds alone that it is their business model to make people doubt themselves and contributing to mental health problems across society. It is the equivalent to putting poison into food to make a profit, but instead the poison is put into the minds of people.

Fair enough. I am actually microdosing right now which got me into improve-mode. It got me out of complaining and evaluating my options for improving that part of my life. Going to OD and incrementally improving my profile was just the logical step given the circumstances with the virus.

@Leo Gura Imagine this future. in a decade or two capitalism is at an all-time-high. Narcissism is high and social skills are getting worse in the young generation. It is not socially acceptable to approach people in public anymore. The match group buys out every emerging online dating platform and merges it into Tinder - this is now the "traditional" way of meeting partners, and the government endorses it. What would your advice for young people look like in a hypothetical future like this?

I absolutely do not try to "leech" sex from hot girls. I don't even swipe girls that look like the Instagram-famous-type. I just swipe average women. 30+ and with kids is no problem for me either.

@Karmadhi agree 100% regulation is needed. Usually Leo is all for goverment regulating the free market, but on this issue he is libertarian. I guess we should ensure the top 1% gets all the dates and hope their wealth trickles down.

@Hello from Russia I am at sitting at home for over a year now, just trying to make the best of it and do anything I can about my dating situation. There is no approaching anyone. Everything is in Lockdown and will be for at least half a year more. I figured for girls it is the same so everyone is on Tinder now, and I think this will shift the power to Tinder even more after the pandemic. Here in Europe approaching in real life was always more looked down upon, and I noticed a trend in the last decade where this is more and more considered a social faux pass. Tinder is basically the future of dating, either you maximize your game or you are left in the dust.

@Leo Gura I invested countless hours already trying to optimize my photos, I could basically work as a professional photo editor by now. I am sure 99% of guys don't put in that effort, yet I see the same results. So if it's not that, what exactly constitutes putting in work in online dating? Writing a script that runs 20 accounts at once? Hacking into Tinders database? The problem here really is not my lack of work, but it is my face, let's be real here. I see friends pulling in dates weekly with lazy selfies and zero effort.