I always appreciate these posts, as somewhat of a nihilist they make me feel a bit more optimistic.
I’ve been reading your blog since high school, and am 34 now.
I’ve traveled a ton in life, 40 countries. It’s been unconventional. It’s been adventurous. It’s been fun. I’ve been living and working in Hanoi for two years now on a tourist visa.
But I also feel like I’m constantly on thin ice. Not much savings, (none). Always had too much of a love for drinking and occasional drugging.
I’m from Minneapolis and for the past five years the situation there has been depressing. And I feel like if I go back there I’m going be fucked. Just a broke waiter or something. I have to harness my unique experiences and somehow market myself better and find some entrepreneurial lane, but I seriously struggle with focus and drive. Idk, just had to comment here.
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Jeffrey
Another long time reader here - probably 18 years now and I’ve gone back and read everything from the beginning (in a weekend).
One night I was struggling to make progress on some projects - it was the drive not the skill or energy. I asked Claude to read your blog and coach me like you would. (BTW, is that creepy to think of from your perspective?).
What’s amazing is Claude gave almost the exact same advice about incremental progress as you just wrote to Eli.
Thanks for commenting, Eli. That's a crazy long time to be reading my blog... it's sometimes hard for me to fathom that people have read it that long. I appreciate it, especially since the blog has gone through so many weird phases along the way.
Some random advice: don't drink or do drugs for a year. Just try it, it's nothing permanent. If you can't do that, you have an actual problem. If you can do it, you'll know whether it's helping or hurting you. Either way, a new perspective should be useful.
To work on focus + drive, pick an incremental goal (income +10%, 1 new friend, rough draft of some project online, etc) and work on it for one hour every day. In that hour your phone is off and all you can do is work on it or stare at the wall. No other activities no matter what. Staring at the wall is 100% ok.
If you choose to take the advice and stick to it, send me an email in a year.