Exploring ideas

[Optimized Life]

Philosophies of rewards, reward timing, and Dwayne Johnson's Widsom. 

Dwayne johnson's pizza/ice cream day 

• Why daily micro junk is pointless (worst of both worlds) 
• Why MASSIVE Junk days are worth it, necessary, and there simply is no point having any other type of reward. 
• The inability of humans to mode - switch
• The danger of habit formation 
• The motivational visionary power of MASSIVE OBESITY Junk Day for losing weight/getting ripped ect.. 
• Best of both worlds - Build delayed gratification, and get to REALLY enjoy that junk day. 
• "1 chocoalte" per day is for losers. 
• Alex hormozi is a fucking loser. 

Junk Food is calorie DENSE, Nutritionally empty 

It's the inverse of chicken, which is low calories, high protein.

But Junk food is often Calorie Dense, but not satisfaction dense. 

There is satisfaction, I love junk food. But to love it, I need to eat a fuck ton of it, with zero restraint, for as long as I want, until I am sick. 

This is how it should be treated. 

You dont eat it for a month, or a week. Then you eat it until you're sick. 

Not literally sick. 

I just mean > Massive Pizza with huge amount of sauces & cheese, hot, creamy, cheesey dough, Massive amount of ice cream and 1/2 box of Lindor chocolate, maybe a video game binge for 4 hours or something too, i dunno, get a blow job high on something?

Otherwise what's the fucking point? 

I had 1 chocolate today as a "reward" for my restraint this week. 

It had 200 calories. 

A small chocolate. 

I felt absolutely nothing, it was too short, no satisfaction. 

Whereas dairy/meat products can have 200 calories and taste decent and have like 30+ grams of protien in it 

So you go all the way. You dont half ass your rewards. 

Edited December 15, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

If any wants the clearest, most comical example of Engineered marketing deception (driven by both profit and deep insecurity) 

Then it's realizing what went into the Liver Kings Social media photos & videos 

When I first noticed him years ago, and knew nothing about fitness, steroids, camera tricks, optical illusions ect.

I assumed he was 5"11, this is a 5'11+, ultra wide framed, 250-270 pound monster! 

And the funny thing is, he's not merely short, he's actually narrow framed too 

He's not big and short like Joe Rogan 

He's genuinely small naturally. He has narrow clavicle width, short arms. 

So his bodies actually like a dense 200 pound steroid brick. 

Almost everything that went into his posts were precision engineered to make him 

1. Look taller

2. Look as big, imposing and jacked as humanly possibly 

• Specific high volume pumps before EVERY photo/video 
• Short shorts for longer legs 
• Angled up camera - longer torso 
• Taking $20K worth of steroids monthly 
• Constant posing
• The hat 

I don't even hate the guy tbh, not here to hate him. 

He just literally is the master manipulator of holistically engineered optical illusion marketing.  

That's some fucking dedication man. 

Another thing, is it's WILD what steroids can do to a guy with average or worse genetics. 

Derek MPMP is like this .. when I saw him years ago I just assumed he was a tank. 

Turns out he actually has average at best muscle growth genetics and average frame/width. 

Not hating on the guy, I think he has some cool videos, just saying it's wild what steroids can do. 

Edited December 15, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-dealing-with-fear-part-1

Wow. 

How much did I fucking take this for granted 5 years 

When I am impressed with leos video, its never the entire video, it's often micro segments that just hit perfectly, timeless micro segments, perfectly worded paragraphed sentences with deep human awareness and wisdom, but not "self help 101 script heard it 1000* before", more like, deep and never heard it before, but Soo obvious now I listen to it back like "ohh yeah"

P.s, i am stressed, tired, drained. 

I have more to say, my brain is dead 

i will continue 

• The best micro segment qoutes > "everyone swimming in fear constantly ect.."
• How I intuitively realized what leo meant (Airport scanning this year) 
• Wild how 99% of people society never realize this even by like 50 ..
• Epistemology & stages of awareness? > I am at the first or second stage now (higher than 95% of normies, but functionally not useful or benefical yet to my life) - I am aware that I am fearful, especially after rewarching this video, but still mostly functionally powerless against it 7/10 times, but i'm also aware now that I can become functionally fearless, and that is powerful. 

Hmm idea extension 

Perpetual micro daily fears = Persistent background stress = Accelerated aging & physical decay? 

So if you become persistently holistically fearless - you age slower? 

Can becoming fearless even make you more physically attractive? (as in literally in the face not just aura) ?

Edited December 16, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

Quote

Kind of like how lifting over time builds denser muscle maturity (not just bulk), accept it deepens and carves your understanding of the depth of societies problems and how fucked society is

Starting to feel like this really applies to anything. 

Not sure what the best way to describe it is. 

"Carved depth of understanding". 

You could just say don't overcomplicate it, it's merely  "deep knowledge" or "expertise" but normally that's perceived as technical mastery of 1 domain 

For example : Overcompensation

On the surface, it's just 5"6 narrow framed liver king taking $20K steroids

But, as you here more and more examples and patterns, u realize there's distinct forms of overcompensation. 

For example, Mark Walberg's adult personality 

Ultra chaotic teen in jail, trauma,  > Adult recovery arc, realises he needs discipline, fixes his life & succeeds > But then spends his entire adult life living in extreme discipline, security and containment mode, and never ever reintegrates his authentic personality, builds boring, predictable, security businesses like golf, fassion, fitness brand, becomes life long family man & business Mongol who goes to bed at 7:30PM every day. Chronic facial tension and serious aura. 

I'm not against "compensation" when its either useful or authentic. I just mean restrictive overcomensation. 

A short-average guy working out is actually a smart idea, bodybuilders are literally percieved as 2-3 inches taller to most women because the mass adds a height illusion/assumption. Also a 6"5 guy has his height to offer, he can workout and its a bonus but he already stands out visually, so 6"0 & below guys need another way to stand out, whether its hair, body, style ect.. obviously confidence/massive approaching is the main one anyway. But even that is "compensation". if you truly didn't need compensation, you would just be some king or celebrity and act like a retard and 10/10s just come and blow your dick. Everytihng is technically compensation which isn't bad. 

Edited December 17, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

This is 1 of the most interesting "Indirect self help", or "Not self help" videos from leo i've found in a while. 

BUT only 5-10% of the video or less. I skipped most of it. 

I value my time and energy. 

95% of it isn't relevant to me, but the 5% is still gold, its always like this with Leos weird complex videos. 

Have to be open minded enough to search for gold though 

What he reminded me of : That real intelligence is not IQ, that "uneducated" people shouldn't be under-estimated, that intuition is far more important than formal logic, that massive life experience, pattern recognition, intution, observation, introspection, self awareness, observing others, creativity, experimentation, open mindedness, exploration, counter-intuitiveness, emotional intelligence are far more relevant and superior to formal knowledge, reading books, academia, and blindly copying others formal steps and advice.  

This doesnt mean that logic and education/quantification, rule guidance aren't important, they still are, but they're just the basics, and extremely limited on their own. 

Very interesting to explore the nuance of intelligence, Leo is basically the jeff bezos of meta-cognition 

 

... He also reminded me of the power of just sort of, letting lose & being instinctive, in your body, not trying to be smart, not trying to constantly be strategic or overthink, going with your intuition, jumping into things. NTPs often simply get lost in their mind .. many never make it out. Its often not good for game, for women, for making money ect.. because logical thinking is only a small subset and often just the jump start of a progressive succesful sequence of steps, 8/10 of those steps are more instinctive, in the moment. 

You dont strategize how to become good at tango dance, you just grab your balls and turn up to class, grab a woman hand and start, embrace being a beginner, and you get good over time, more you think the slower you learn 

Edited December 19, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

On 12/11/2025 at 1:13 PM, Optimized Life said:

Envy is a stubborn bitch.

Quote

Consciously redirect your thoughts whenever envy arises by focusing on what you do have rather than what you lack, as this builds a more positive outlook and reinforces self-worth.

Another effective strategy is to celebrate the successes of others, both openly and privately, by offering genuine congratulations or internal affirmations like "good for them". This practice helps rewire your mindset to find joy in others' achievements instead of feeling threatened by them

I'm going to repeat this one, because it's priceless. 

The amount of internal suffering that's caused by envy, would be insanely impossible to actually quantify, but a sobering number.

People only look at gross statistics like murder rates. 

Obviously its simply impossible to quantify this but 

Most people only concern themselves with the obvious.

because life is somewhat chaotic and never completely fair, so the mind jumps to "if only i was born into his situation ect.." 

envy sucks, it just doesnt feel very nice. And people are terrible at noticing psychological pain, and taking it seriously, unless it's severe and hospitalizing 

Edited December 26, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

27.12.25

OBSESSION, PERSISTNCE, DREAM, NO EVNY, NO LOOKING BACK, WORK ETHIC, PASSION, ENERGY, POWER, SPIRITUAL POWER, BECOMING A KING, NO FAP, WORK 17 HOURS A DAY, FUCK BITCHES 2026 

INFINTE 

LIMITELESS 

GOD 

How does no one intuitvely grasp the POWER of language. 

I feel like It took me a solid, 25-26 years to do it.. and thats fucking embarassing. 

Yet most people never arrive. 

Thats why i became interested in affirmations, even in a meta sense. 

It was the concept of "power words" that really did it for me, and somewhat owen cooks marketing material, but really it was a random soup of inputs 

And its ironic but its hard for me to truly articulate what I mean here, this sense of the power of language, its not something you can quanitfy or easily describe, its like feeling based. 

Obviously actually being good at using words can be more technical .. but the technicality of language use can only be a force multiplier, especially spoken language, theres tonality and all that but most of that comes from within, tonality mostly reflects the state and depth within. 

[Optimized Life]

Quote

Another effective strategy is to celebrate the successes of others, both openly and privately, by offering genuine congratulations or internal affirmations like "good for them".

This is 1 of those super counter-intuitive mind techniques that feels off and painful at first. 

And it cannot only work in theory 

You have to actually DO IT precisely when you feel clear and strong envy for someone else, and precisely when you are specifically going through a rough time, and that guy, is surpassing you now, that's exactly when you do it. Exactly when you're broke but you see that guy achieve the thing you dreamed of, but do not have, because you fucked up, or you got unlucky, or you got used, or whatever, but he has it, you do not. In that precise moment you genuinely say to yourself "good for him, I'm proud of him, im happy for him" and you genuinely try to feel it, you genuinely try to feel that emotion, you refuse to give in to weakness. It's counterintuitve but I tried this and it worked, it took like 5-20 seconds for my body to switch, I went from envying someone, to genuinely feeling happy for them, within 20 seconds.  

[Optimized Life]

Why study modern pharmacology, neuroscience, bio-chemistry ect..? 

I want to shame Andrew Huberman for making science look boring 

Becuase it's not boring 

We live in a modern world 

For years I bought into the "just workout, be happy, use your brain bro" blahblah 

"natural vs unnatural", "natural vs processed"

1. There is no rigid boundary between natural and unnatural (also natural does not automatically = healthy)
2. A lot of drugs simply are just tools .. dosage, timing, context and they can become useful. 
3. But nuance, this is why you have to actually study it. 
4. For example, an idiot has no nuanced knowledge and awareness of distinctions, so he just "takes a sleeping pill" .. benzo, excellent, valerian excellent, "gaba = relaxed" great. 
5. Nuanced knowledge is knowing that melatonin is much safer than valerian, but also a distinct and specific mechanism, specific to resetting circadian rhythm, just another tool 
6. Its closed minded to think drugs = unhealthy, or the idea of "there is no free lunch"
7. ... Maybe there normally simply "is no free lunch" .. but perhaps modern pharmacology will change such that new drugs become released that give you a "free lunch", maybe there will be steroids that are actually healthy for you.. how the fuck would you know? the universe is infinite. 
8. Also drugs are not inherently bad because it depends on your goal... What if your goal is not longevity? what if your goal is maximum short term benefit, thats not inherently unswise, depends. If i was on a zombie apocalypse, and i had a month to live, I would certainly take a ton drugs and enjoy them 

Now I do not know 99% of what there is to know about pharmacology, bio-chemistry, neuro-science. 

This is not about looking like a smart ass or being some debatorcel dork 

This is about open mindedness and a meta shift 

I had a phase (and i've seen guys on here, guys in general get too deeply locked into this phase) 

of "Be natural, keep things simple bro" 

But this orientation is very sutbly locked into fear, fear of danger, fear of the unknown, and a longing for safety 

Now this isn't to neglect the other side 

"Anything goes just experiment" mindsset does screw a lof ot peopl e

there are hyper logical, otherwise very intelligent guys, who are now hooked on a ton of steroids, "natty +" drugs, dopamine this, serotonin that, gaba this, sleep that ect.. modulating their pharmocology daily, addicted to control, thinking they can just modulate hormones up and down daily to balance and counteract each other like they're playing bio-chemical DJ .. and thinking there is always a free lunch no matter what. 

But also .. What's the problem with the naturalist/simplist bro? 

The problem is he misses out on the potential (both current & upcoming) magic of modern life

Naturalist bro goes bold when he coud've not gone bold because minoxodil is a "drug", and he confused his actual deep seeded fear of danger and harm subsconicsouly coarsing his body influencing his thought patterns & restrictve non action with a crisp and decisive intellectual grasp of the DHT mechanism. 

Naturalist bro doesn't take creatine because it costs $20 a month and he's a cheap bastard, and also because "you dont need creatine", ITS NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU FUCKING "NEEED", ITS ABOUT GOIJG BEYOND THAT, AND EXPERIMENTING 

Edited December 29, 2025 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

50-80% of everything everyone says is either wrong, biased or inflated.

I've said how "once you master the gym it transfers to everything and everything changes, you get discipline everywhere, you get rich eventually"

Honestly I dont know 

Gym bros are often like the athletic version of broke rockstars, chaotic, obsessive, high energy, not bad, but is it really "disicpline"

It's often just 

Elite genetics + net calories + heavy training 

Can be mentally ill, can have addicitons, can have depression, can have relationship issues, and look like a greek god. 

There simply is no correlation, being in a certain net calorie is based on many variables and you might just not like to eat that much

Many gym bros do get addicted to steroids and neuro-chemical manipulation this and that 

yeah ..

No one has themselves together, and that's okay 

I do gym because I love it, but i admit that it doesnt necessarily make me more put together in anyway meaningful way

[Optimized Life]

Mythology, subconscious mind, Jungian archetypes, reprogramming subconscious mind, music, positive brainwashing, affirmations, installing belief softwares, intentional belief statements.  ect.., psychological penetration analogous to penetrating the skin, need a sharp and deep knife that cuts straight through, what is that version, is it psychedelics? or is there a natural method?

Edited January 5 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

Tributes to Leos best works : 

I have intermittently focused on complaining about or disagreeing with leo, it was a mistake ..

Everyone knows Leo's biased because everyone's fucking biased. 

But not enough people fathom how good & practically profound a tiny % of his videos actually are 

For me it's likely 3-5 videos max

But of those 2-5 videos, i may have watched them 20 times, then years later, still only truly realsiing how profound it is. 

For example, how fear works. 

I feel like the only person in history who had a true inutitive grasp on the human trickery and pervasiveness of fear was possibly Shakespeare ... and he still had to convolute it into plays and scenes and all this, Leo finally just condensed all that into a direct and logically structured monolouge. 

It's actually weird that virtually no one in history did this before leo, very strange. 

If you think about it, it's way less complicated than many things in life people teach, discovered ect.. yet like 10,000 more important and universally relevant. 

How fear works : The Graceful milf vs the decaying sad woman 

"I'm so old ah" - Stress leads her to drink and smoke in combination with the anxiety and sense of hopelessness - all ages her body and skin faster - confirming her belief 

Graceful milf stays alive, sensual and flirtatious, goes to the gym, gets sunlight, walks, stays in shape, laughs lives in the present moment, doesn't drink much because she has nothing to escape from

The graceful milf is extremely rare. 

Obviously fear isn't gender or age specific, but I used this example because its obvious that aging is socially recognized and scrutinized much faster in women (and fertility drops faster also), it is not common to see a graceful milf ... who lives in the present moment, focuses on what she can control, and does not live in the heads of societies social perception, or merely isn't trapped and enmeshed within the fear coarsing through her body 24/7, creating her though loops and feeding back into her habits and body in a daily strange loop incarceration.

P.S : Not meaning to sound condescending, I am of no way cured of this or yet commenting from a higher level, it is much easier said than done, I still fear everything, I still haven't conquered it it can feel like it just never fucking ends.. but I commit to the process of it, I wasn't genetically blessed with being fearless, but I commit to it, it doesnt come easy

How fear works > Introspection : True creative synergy 

You cannot reliably plan against conquering fear, you can in a sense because of decisive exposure therapy ... but also you cant, becuase you just get lost in your head anyway. Only introspection is noticing the tension in your body, cutting the though loop, breathing deep and slow, regrounding to the present, then action becomes much more frictionless.

Peter Ralston & Martial Arts : Transcendent level skill

Very intersting to learn that PR developed transcendent level martial arts. 

The reality is that virtually almost no human alive could beat PR in an actual 1to1 combat, without gloves rules a cage or referee to rely on, because he literally transcended athleticism. u cant off balance him because theres nothing to off-balance, you cant get him first because he sees your direction before your muscles even contract, no one understands MA like him because he sought to understand it from its first principles. Other MA masters have tried to roll with him and qouted that "it was impossible .. it was like fighting a ghost, you couldn't even touch him, there was nothing to touch, nothing to damage". 

I'm not passionate about martial arts but wnat to see how I can become like him in my own interests, dating, seduction, charisma, writing, public speaking, using language, and other complex skills and interests I have.

Well ... fuck it, let me just try start right now, fuck just saying what sounds cool, i'll try verbalize my intuition and willing to fail at it. Not here to look smart, or validate some intellectual identity, just laying out my dumb ass thoughts on paper. 

So ... 1st principles. 

Looking at the first principles. 

i mean what are the 1st princpiples of the 1st principles? 

Like what comes before everything? 

Humans are basically intelligent animals 

We breathe, we see, we hear, we feel, we sleep, we fear, we brace, we tense 

We use are voice/throat/chest

we are tribal, base thoughts daily of what others think, of betraying the tribe, of fitting in, not fitting in 

We are drawn to the path of least resistance, we tend to accomodate to whatever environment we are surrounded by 

... See how this is fucking difficult

Am i waisting my time here? 

I admit genetic differences exist, I'm not claiming i can just randomly think and then become peter ralston at writing or business because i laid how humans have fucking thoats and are tribal, at least im trying lol.

I dunno I will continue this another day and see if it takes me anywhere or I'm just being a useless moron and should go work my boring job and STFU, not here to attach to some polymath identity, just into the creativity thing

Edited January 6 by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

It's a myth that the only the CORE way to make money is hard work. 

IMO 

If momentum = mass x velocity

Velocity = Hard Work 

but Mass = Balls 

And Dawg = Balls*Hard Work.

...

Momentum = Balls*Hard Work 

Dawg > Momentum 

Dawg = Balls*hard Work*Pain 

 

Edited Friday at 01:10 PM by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

On 09/01/2026 at 1:02 PM, Optimized Life said:

It's a myth that the only the CORE way to make money is hard work. 

IMO 

If momentum = mass x velocity

Velocity = Hard Work 

but Mass = Balls 

And Dawg = Balls*Hard Work.

...

Momentum = Balls*Hard Work 

Dawg > Momentum 

Dawg = Balls*hard Work*Pain 

Might sound like bro science 

But have to understand where this is reasoning is coming from. 

Balls*Hard work > Hard work 

Hard work (alone) = janitor at wall mart (or typically any corporate office job) (can hide, obey & avoid discomfort, exposure, and testing yourself) 

But HARD WORK * BALLS (domain or context options are innumerable) - but the warrior psychology is universal. 

It doesnt guarantee success immediately (can also be more high variance since balls can correlate with recklessness, can have high bools without wisdom, can get screwed over but the point of high variance games is the attitude that, that unless you go for an awesome goal, nothing in life is worth it, so the high risk downsidejustifies the high upside, because just being a 4-6/10 relaibly isn't worth it

... Balls*Hard work = Being willing to expose yourself, look stupid, fail in public, whatever, test your identity, go against inertia, discomfort, change your envrionment, even change your identity 

But : BALLS*HARDWORK*PAIN = DAWG 

^ Now Pain = GASOLINE 

Pain = Jump starts the vehicle, 

Pain = Turbo boost that without it, the vehicle cannot move, because its stuck in mud, it lacks fuel. 

Without pain, you're just too comfortable, even if you have the personality type that is capable of balls, of dealing with risk, of exposing yourself, it's repressed, its unactivated, becase youre in comfort, its blocked, and humans (regardless of personality) are by default, wired to simply survive and in the most comfortable, efficicent, energy preserving way. 

*Not just survive physically and financially like that, but our identities, our habits

Have to live life in constant rebirth, every day and every week. 

Edited Sunday at 10:11 AM by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

Owen cook course - section on motivation HSM

"Impulsive motivation" issue 

Impulsive motivation - only wanting something TODAY ect.. 

Stepping beyond that, wanting and deciding to get something in > 1 week, 3 week, 12 week. 36 weeks .. ect.. then commiting to that thing by getting the exact money (or other factors) needed to have/experience it by X date.

"NJ" Motivation 

Strategic motivational projection upon wakeup (in all categories or "quadrants" if it can be dvidided into 4)

E.g adding wood to fire of money desire 

Start with base status or image based stuff 

e.g 

"I want to buy porcelain veneers for every tooth in 12 weeks" 

^ Turkey costs = X $ total 

keep doing with diffeernt categories of desire and spendig 

Now we have a tangible specific imoney to earn 

Same thing with rent 

live where

how muych it cost

Total yearly rent cost? 

Well i want X 

Need X amount 

+ x tired connected to image of place i want live 

Then have these numners clear & on simple sheets category 

Post as reminders to view every day 

Work ethic improves with clear numerical and money targets that seem both reachable and real but also significant and connected to something real (not just a value proxy)

Edited yesterday at 10:53 AM by Optimized Life

[Optimized Life]

PETER FUCKING RALSTONNNNNNNN 

FUCK ! ! !!hjDSJKGFKJGDF

[Optimized Life]

On 11/01/2026 at 10:03 AM, Optimized Life said:

Might sound like bro science 

But have to understand where this is reasoning is coming from. 

Weak Frame. 

Peter Ralston 

Marketing / Persuasion / Business / Sales / Influence 

> 1st Principles, base human psychology, frame, conviction, language, tone, justifying/seeking approval, signals of doubt, self - consciousness, intellectual ego, identity fragility, base emotions, fear, comfort, lust, desire, scarcity, impatience, status symbols, positioning, persuasion ect... 

The reasoning is fine as it adds nuance, but the self deprecating, questioning intro is not. 

I coudl've just said "Heres my reasoning for some nuance" 

RULE = ALWAYS Just State stuff with conviction, nothing more, no justification

1. "I am going to do X thing" = Good
2. "I am going to do X thing ... WHY NOT?" = Bad, = There is some doubt and insecurity in what im saying, i am conscious of push back or judgement, so rather than just stating my intention, I feel a need to fill the void and compensate with a rhetorical doubting question in an antagonistic tone. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Optimized Life