Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Leo Gura]

6 minutes ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

If you would took out this sort of characters from this Forum you would probably almost be talking alone here.

We have a wide range of views here and I don't like to control anyone's views.

If there are views you dislike, that's diversity, that's democracy. Community naturally comes with weird views that you will dislike.

Edited 11 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Rafael Thundercat]

16 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

We have a wide range of views here and I don't like to control anyone's views.

If there are views you dislike, that's diversity, that's democracy. Community naturally comes with weird views that you will dislike.

Good , I will remember this when you get all bitchy when some guys start getting to much here. You even alresdy call my attention for small things. I have the rigth to get pissed out dealing with these sneaky snakes here dont I?

[Leo Gura]

29 minutes ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

I have the rigth to get pissed

Keep it civil, without personal attacks.

If you argue your views rationally and respectfully, then there is no problem.

When you communicate from a pissy place, you undermine your own points.

Edited 10 hours ago by Leo Gura

[gengar]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Dude, you love to take things I say and twist them into way more than it is.

It is like you are hunting for things to be disgruntled about.

Maybe you are on the nose with that. I will reflect.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Leo Gura  I think due to your status as a teacher, followers get mixed up when it comes to values driven judgements.

Quote

Not to be a jerk, but for all of his fancy talk, you can play all of Jonathan Blow’s games, which took him a life time to create, and you will get less enrichment than just contemplating one of my videos.

The above statement, if received from the context of 'teacher' (or leader), appears as a values driven statement dressed up as a universal judgement.

Just my observation - either it is users unable to discern when you make a personal values post vs universal truth, or an inability to separate art from artist. IE the work, from the Leo.

But this is why we have a forum and access to you - so we can harass you for further understanding!  

The trouble arises, and where users err, is coming at your posts with loaded judgements or without open questioning in good faith.

 

[Leo Gura]

My point was simply that video games are not a good medium for depth.

That doesn't make video games any less artistic or great. Games are just a poor medium for enriching your mind. In the same way that Playboy is a poor medium for enriching your mind. Imagine if Playboy tried to make itself high-brow literature. That would be silly. I feel like Jonathan Blow is doing that with video games and I don't find it effective.

Obviously that's just my opinion. You don't have to agree with me.

But hey, you are welcome to run the experiment. Play one of Blow's games, watch one of my videos, and compare which one enriches your mind more. This isn't exactly a matter of faith.

@Natasha Tori Maru I am unusually blunt and this turns people off because they aren't used to such a thing.

Edited 10 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Leo Gura you never have to justify or qualify a values based discernment in my opinion. Ever. It's really cool that you do, though! 

It's just people. They do not have the requisite openness to approach anything in good faith, and they cannot help but push their judgement and unconscious bias onto everything around them. I don't know how you deal with it. But I don't have to tell you ! Bias is your domain ☺️

The bluntness is all good for me at least, I prefer it. Probably conditioning from working construction. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[Terell Kirby]

35 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

I am unusually blunt and this turns people off because they aren't used to such a thing.

Appeasement isn’t your thing, I get it. But yes, unusual in that most of us can’t afford a lifestyle that allows us to not appease or placate to others without serious consequences to our well being. When we engage with your style of communication, it can be difficult to integrate because it shines a light on how inauthentic we are and how we live on bullshit narratives.

It’s like a mirror, either we self reflect or lash out- but it all comes from deep insecurities and avoidance of harsh truths about the ways in which we live.

You could appease us more, but you choose not to. Whether that’s good or bad- I don’t know. But in twisted way, it can work in that it forces us to reckon with unappealing aspects of personality, to ultimately realize it’s irrelevant to when it comes to our own truth seeking journey.

Edited 9 hours ago by Terell Kirby

[Natasha Tori Maru]

2 minutes ago, Terell Kirby said:

You could appease us more, but you choose not to. Whether that’s good or bad- I don’t know. 

Leo does appease his audience and followers. 

He has 60k + posts ON THE FORUM ALONE. That is a lot of explaining, couching and elaboration. Whenever something isn't clear, Leo elaborates. 

I probably look like I am white-knighting here, but shit me, it's just facts 🫪🫪🫪

[Terell Kirby]

16 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Leo does appease his audience and followers. 

Leo and the act of appeasing don’t mix at all. That’s like Oil and water

16 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

He has 60k + posts ON THE FORUM ALONE. That is a lot of explaining, couching and elaboration.

Sure he explains things, but he doesn’t indulge in fantasies of his audience for their approval.

Not that he should, but that’s clearly distinct from simply explaining a stance on an existential topic.

Edited 9 hours ago by Terell Kirby

[Leo Gura]

I want to be open to changing my mind. If I am wrong, point it out. I do change my mind about many things. And if I am too harsh I try to be softer in the future.

Edited 9 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Terell Kirby]

8 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

I want to be open to changing my mind. If I am wrong, point it out. I do change my mind about many things. And if I am too harsh I try to be softer in the future.

This is what we love about you- thanks 

Edited 9 hours ago by Terell Kirby

[Natasha Tori Maru]

1 hour ago, Terell Kirby said:

Leo and the act of appeasing don’t mix at all. That’s like Oil and water

Explaining is a form of appeasement.

In this case, this is what elaboration from Leo serves.

Capitulation is different. There is no capitulation from Leo unless there is some sound reasoning and truth involved.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[Natasha Tori Maru]

1 hour ago, Terell Kirby said:

Sure he explains things, but he doesn’t indulge in fantasies of his audience for their approval.

Not that he should, but that’s clearly distinct from simply explaining a stance on an existential topic.

That is not my argument.

[Rafael Thundercat]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Keep it civil, without personal attacks.

If you argue your views rationally and respectfully, then there is no problem.

When you communicate from a pissy place, you undermine your own points.

May this to be a standart to many here, the question is : You will need keep reminding cause bad habits die hard.

[ZenSwift]

On 26/03/2026 at 6:28 PM, Leo Gura said:

After a decade of this work, I am showered with spontaneous insights 24/7. Anything could trigger it, from a random thought to a video or a forum comment someone made. Then I write down the insight in my phone. As I think about it, I usually get additional insights. I have lists of hundreds of these insights, which I later select and write out for publishing.

Sometimes I contemplate ideas for longer, but often I don't even need to.

If I am in a flow state I could have a dozen unrelated insights within 20 minutes.

I'll get insights the most when I'm in deep emotional states. Like sadness, anger, fear, etc. Especially anything related to suffering. 

And I'll often allow insights to come in without judging the source. I'd like to believe I get more insights triggered than most people I know. 

I'll often get loads of Insights if I'm actually reading a lot and feeding my mind loads of grist for the mill. Easier said than done. 

Edited 2 hours ago by ZenSwift

[bazera]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/two-sleeps

When I was practicing lucid dreaming, I was waking up after 4-5 hours of sleep and staying awake for some time, and that small window was very insightful, I was in a contemplative mood, more than usual, if I didn't disturb myself with artificial lights, also I was awoken from REM sleep and dream recalling was much better and I imagine if I lived that way, that 1 hour window in the middle could be used in resourceful ways because it's like you're in slightly different state.

So yeah, two sleeps make sense.

[ZenSwift]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/two-sleeps

On your comments about sensemaking being made relative to your worldview bias and not the other person's.

(I would like to believe I've internalized this attitude of trying to see the other person's perspective, no matter how painful that is, to the point where this is a meta sensemaking perspective that I hold to help me understand people's perspectives more.) Reading your post, I realize that I often forget that people not only don't look for understanding outside their current worldview, but instinctively reinforce their bias and their perspective because that's what feels good. And of course this is an unconscious process upon which they aren't aware of the structure of their minds in this way; just listening to their emotions, reinforcing their ego identities. It's to the point where I stop trying to explain myself to be understood. I stop fighting entirely, and exit the game of trying to be understood at all. I recently pulled back from my longest standing friendship for this exact reason. (15+ years). I was simply flummoxed by the absence of construct awareness, emotional awareness, and the absence of the paradigm of putting the relationship first over "being right". 

I'm no longer understood, and I can see all the ways that he interpreted situations through his own biases exclusively. The self deception is so deep, I don't want to go through the time and effort to get him to open his mind to how he's wrong. That's like trying to tell someone the truth to someone who doesn't value truth first and foremost. That's insanity. Why waste the effort of helping them to reinterpret each event where I was hurt, where their needs were put first over the relationship? I give up. Looking after my own sensemaking is already enough of a burden to carry, let alone looking after another's sensemaking. Why waste that energy towards someone who isn't curious about understanding their selfishness? Rupture, rupture, rupture, rupture, no repair. So, I'll stay silent. Silence out of self defence, not weakness. Silence, because there is no emotional safety. When people have already made up their minds, argument often becomes useless, explaining yourself becomes useless, you're labelled a devil, and that's that. 

 

Another note on that post is: I have noticed I will try to explain and clarify ideas and insights by talking to AI. AI LLMs, of course, don't think, and are just a model of predicting words based on a data set and some rules. Incapable of original thought, the LLM will try to match what I am trying to convey through the pattern of my words, never grasping the core of my insight itself. This problem of translation between 2 humans on its own is deeply problematic issues of translation. This is the essence of understanding communication. 

 

This problem of paradigm translation can be more dangerous with AI. I'll find myself trying to describe an insight from my paradigm to a blind box that has no paradigm, just a ruleset and loads of data. Sometimes I find myself explaining to ChatGPT again and again and again as it offers more and more perspectives and challenges to what I have to say. As I reflect, I recognize I've been talked of of patterns of thought in ways one wouldn't anticipate, like being talked out of a unique insight that is completely your own. I am noticing more and more that I have to just take my authority on what I'm saying and what I know to mean by what I'm saying based in my perspective in my paradigm. Literally taking my authority back from the AI LLM. This exercise walks a razor thin Edge on self-deception, as you ultamately cannot rely on other to verify your insights. Sometimes I'll make the mistake of conforming to what CHATGPT says. Sometimes I'll ask ChatGPT to clarify an insight, but I'll lose some of the essence of the insight in that clarification because I offloaded the contemplation to a machine. And even writing insights down into English language distorts that truth a bit on its own. 

 

https://www.actualized.org/insights/being-done-with-everyone

I relate to parts of this video here. I think as you become more conscious, as you become more meta, more construct aware in your sensemaking, you start to let go of anyone understanding, more and more. You save your breath, because you don't want to work that uphill battle. (makes me reflect on the symbolism of Christ's silence during his prosecutions)

Perhaps that's a part of the motivation to be a teacher myself. Instead of explaining things 100 times, I just write it down once. But that's a different context entirely. For most social situations though, just owning the truth of where someone is at appears to be very energy efficient, rather than trying to change them and update their paradigm. 

 

Obviously, my mind is still heavily asleep under the Conformity of all of what I've been programed with, I'm probably at like 2% of my potential right now in terms of really stepping outside of my POV, but it beats so many people that often exhibit a 0.00001% capacity to step outside of their perspective. 

 

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-554

This post here motivates me to study cult psychology to understand conformity and group think in the broader scope of culture. Of course! How could I not see that before? Studying cults isn't as of a niche application as I initially estimated. 

[bazera]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/being-done-with-everyone

I relate to this so much, but also, this can be used as an excuse to avoid socializing out of fear, when you feel the need to build that skill, but it's scary.

Also, that's harder to do when it comes to intimate relationships. What if you are in a long term relationship or a marriage with kids and you realize that now you need to lay it all down and isolate yourself and that it's not avoidance, disfunction or something to fix, it's just wnat you truly want at that time.

Social matrix tells us that all this is avoidance and disfunction, and it can surely be that, until it's not.

[Leo Gura]

@ZenSwift You are doing good work. Happy to see it. Keep it up.