MBTI – My Mental Model

Intelligence Vs. Compassion

I’ve done a lot of thinking on these two ideas over the last year or so. The western world seems rather divided right now.. democrats vs. republicans.. liberals vs. conservatives.. blue vs. red.. left vs. right. When you consider how much these individuals agree on, the division seems rather silly. Yet it persists. I have no doubt that the existing political system and those within it perpetuate this division for their own gain, but there’s something more to it than that. They didn’t create that division, they’re just the ones exploiting it. There’s something that exists beneath that.. something biological.

I wrote an entry a while back on thought vs. emotion. Introspectively, I could tell that they were two different cognitive processes within my brain. It led me to suspect that they had different roles within the human experience. I understood that you couldn’t use emotion to do things like solve math problems or learn languages. I also understood that happiness wasn’t a logical thought. Seemed rather likely that the thoughtful part of the brain would pursue happiness while the emotional part of the brain allowed you to enjoy it.

Ironically, a few months later, a friend gave me a book for my birthday that discussed this topic. The book, A General Thoery of Love, was written by a small team of MDs and PhDs in clinical psychology. To my surprise, the authors were big fans of poetry, love, their families, and all the other soft stuff you might not associate with a scientific mind. I must say it was done quite well and taught me a great deal about how the mind works.

One of my biggest takeaways was how obvious evolution was in determining the fundamental structure of the human brain. The base of our brain is referred to as the reptilian brain and controls things like your vitals and balance. This also represents our most base instincts.. things relating to survival like the 4 Fs: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and… reproduction. What the reptile brain seems to lack though is any sense of compassion. I was rather surprised to find out that reptiles are known to eat their young. Apparently the part of the brain that tells us to be kind to our kin didn’t come until afterwards.

After the reptile brain came the limbic brain. It’s likely that this evolution occurred during the early evolution of mammals. The theory is that when life made the jump from laying eggs to carrying their young, the brain needed to adapt appropriately. Mammals were taking a different approach to survival, one which required them to care for their young until they were capable of fending for themselves. They needed a way to communicate. They needed to develop a language. Enter the limbic brain, the emotional center of the human brain today. The limbic brain was one of facial expressions, touch, sound, and all these other little nuances that allowed mammals to instinctively understand how one another felt. Not a language in the classic sense, but very much a language nonetheless.

The most recent evolution of the brain is the neocortex. It would be convenient to say that that the neocortex is unique to humans but it isn’t. It’s present in great apes, dolphins, elephants, and most other mammals. What seems to makes humans different is how much of brain’s mass is dedicated to the neocortex and the size of our brain relative to the size of our bodies. As one might guess, this is the part of the brain is responsible for what we typically consider to be human intelligence: logic, abstract thought, imagination, and consciousness.

Effectively, through millions upon millions of years of evolution, our brain has equipped itself for survival, compassion, and intelligence. In that order. And yet the vast majority of the human brain is dedicated to its most recent addition: intelligence. That evolution has happened rather quickly considering how long it took for the other parts of the brain to develop. Nature rarely does anything by mistake.

I’m grateful for having learned all this because it’s given me a rather useful insight into the difference between thought and emotion. It’s also shown me how little the general public seems to understand or appreciate how the brain works. How often will someone talk about how they feel towards something when they’re actually thinking about it? How often will someone claim to be using their feelings to navigate something abstract? How often are we asked how we feel when we should be asked what we think? I suspect there’s something worth observing here.

As someone who prioritizes thoughtfulness, logic, and truth, I’m probably more easily frustrated by this dynamic than others. As a result, I’ve been thinking about it a fair bit and have noticed something worth sharing. Throughout the course of recorded history, I’ve noticed a shift from emotional to intelligent. I’m unsure if it’s a result of an ongoing biological evolution in the brain, or a gradual appreciation for what intelligence allows us to do. Realistically, it’s probably both. If I were to guess, natural selection favors intelligence.

Religion might be the easiest example here. Religion has existed in some shape or form for about as long as human civilization. Our brains are programmed to identify patterns, and once we do, we can’t help but use our imaginations to assign meaning to them. As soon as we were able to recognize the significance of things like the sun and stars, we couldn’t help but try to tie them into one grand narrative. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why religion is such a complex topic.. perhaps in some way, it serves as a chronology of intelligence vs. compassion.

There was a point where religion was about community and worship.. this general idea that if you were kind and compassionate to each other, your god would be kind and compassionate to you. Over time, intelligence allowed us to realize that if we were kind and compassionate to each other, that was probably all we needed. In that time, god went from an individual who was supposed to be loved or feared, to something much more abstract. Since then, religion has become less about worship and more about philosophical teachings relating to morality. Unfortunately for these religions, they often attributed their teachings to the word of god rather than what they most likely were: a reflection of how humanity understood morality at that point in history. As a result, we were put in a position where humanity’s collective understanding of morality was evolving and god’s wasn’t. How could that be. Something wasn’t right.

As the centuries went by, the intellectual crowd kept coming up with better and better reasons to stray from religion. The politics, the corruption, the lack of evidence, the logical fallacies, the tribalism… it just looked like a big pile of nope. Even the renaiisance experienced a big shift from religion to the sciences. And now, in the 21st century, religion looks to be as irrelevant as ever. The world’s brightest minds are notoriously non-religious. The vast majority of people STEM careers are non-religious. The vast majority of business and industry leaders are non-religious. The vast majority of recognized philosophers are non-religious. The only leaders that I can think of who tend to be religious are political leaders. As their actions tend to show, it’s a function of votes and job security more than loyalty to the cause.

The better we get at using the intelligent part of our brain, the better we get at discerning the difference between real and not real. As we get better at discerning between real and not real, truth and reality become increasingly important to us. As truth and reality become increasing important to us, the fictions of religion becomes much less attractive. While I think this movement away from religion is justified if not an essential part of our evolution, we should be mindful not to throw away the baby with the bath water. Religion was among the first establishments to champion the ideas of kindness, community, and morality. Those ideas are worth bringing with us to where ever we go next.

When I think about where we are now and where we go next, I can’t help but think that computers are rather central to the conversation. When I think about how computers were designed from the beginning, I can’t help but think that they were designed as an extension of our neocortex. Computers are logical by nature. If a program has a line of code which contains a logical fallacy, it creates an error. And while our computers inch towards levels of artificial intelligence that rival our own, there’s an obvious absence of emotion or survival instincts. This idea that one of humanity’s most significant creations is an extension of one of our most significant evolutionary advantages…. doesn’t strike me as a coincidence.

I’ve been thinking about writing a book for a couple year now. It’s working title is the Vulcan Republic. The idea is a mash-up between Plato’s Republic and the Vulcan philosophies from Star Trek. One takes place in the past, using logic in search of how one would create a Utopian society. The other takes place in the future where a species just like humanity embraced logic and created that utopia. Considering the path that we’ve taken over the course of our evolution, is this so unlikely? Is it so far fetched that intelligence is our guiding star?

MBTI helped me understand how strong the division is between thinkers and feelers. I know this all too well as the feelers tend to get upset with me for thinking too much and feeling too little. But then I ask them why I should feel more and think less, and they don’t have a reason. They just feel that way. As it turns out, the part of the brain that knows why things happen is the thinking part. And unfortunately for me, there are statistically more feelers than thinkers. But I suspect this is changing. I suspect that every generation, on average, has been more thoughtful than their parents’ generation. I expect that computers will help kids to learn and embrace logic faster that previous generations. I expect that the kids growing up today will respond to the highly emotional conversations around current events by learning to be more thoughtful and sensible in the way they discuss ideas with one another.

That’s a future that excites me. But it doesn’t excite everyone. The more emotional crowd aren’t always the biggest fan of computers, logic, or intelligence. I’m often faced with situations where they consider these things to be threatening. They’ll use words like empty, cold, or robotic. They seem to assume that intelligence and compassion are binary, that it’s one or the other. To that point, I think they’re wrong. I think that we could all be reminded of a simple truth: The most intelligent decision someone can make is a compassionate decision, and the most compassionate decision someone can make is an intelligent decision.

Intelligence and compassion tend to operate like a map and compass. Intelligence is a tool that helps you read the terrain and understand the most effective way to move from point A to point B. Compassion is like a compass which might not tell you much about where you are or how to get to where you want to go, but it’ll always give you a sense of direction. Too often, people will lead with unintelligent compassion, resulting in good intentions but progress in the wrong direction. Watching the social justice warriors embolden the conservative crowd reminded me of this. But at the same time, there are those who lead with intelligence and a lack of compassion which lead to productive actions which are counter-productive to humanity’s collective goals. You don’t have to look much further than Thanos or any bond villain to see how that plays out. I suspect that for real progress, we need to embrace both, and understand that when we are at our best, they are one and the same.

Nature rarely does anything by mistake… Survive. Be compassionate. Be intelligent.

PSI Basic & My Experience

A couple months ago, I was hanging out with a good friend.. We shall call him Steve. Much like myself, Steve has spent the last 10 years realizing that our universe is much bigger than the neighborhood we grew up in. While our paths have been different at times, we still have a great deal in common. I’d say that he probably knows me, my journey, and my direction better than anyone.

Part of Steve branching out and exploring his new universe was reading more, expanding his interests, and trying out some self-help courses. He mentioned that he had gone to one and that it was a little weird but that he did learn a few things. Not long after, he was headed to the states for a follow up course or something to that effect. Maybe it was a Tony Robbins thing?

I had seen Tony Robbins on YouTube, and while I understood and appreciated the things he would say, I didn’t find them very motivational. Same could be said for the other ‘motivational’ speakers I’ve watched. I actually found their material rather repetitive and somewhat hollow. There was lots of talk about waking up at 4:45 am or loading up your desktop with pictures of things you wanted to accomplish, but very little mention of how to actually navigate the obstacles I was actually facing.

I think part of it is that I’m already motivated. When people are asked to describe me, ‘driven’ is usually in the top 3. Another element is an appreciation that not all strategies work well for all people or in all situations. I know plenty of people who have no business waking up at 4:45 am and are remarkably productive well into the evening. And perhaps the biggest for me, is recognizing their BS sales tactics. The one that sticks out for me is ‘look at my garage full of exotic cars, if you want to be like me, pay for my motivational BS’.

While I think those reasons should be enough for most people to be wary, I think there’s another level to it for me. Not long ago, I realized that I’ve made a career out of making things harder than they needed to be. If something was easy, there was a good chance that I would find a way to make it more difficult. I was constantly looking to challenge myself and push my boundaries. It led to a lot of mistakes and those mistakes often had rather significant consequences. But I learned. I didn’t learn to make fewer mistakes or to fear the consequences of my actions. I learned the value of making mistakes, the lessons which were afforded by them, and how to roll with whatever consequences presented themselves. As someone who embraces making mistakes but is fixated on not repeating them, you’re afforded the opportunity to learn a great deal.

So a couple months ago, Steve and I are hanging out at my place and he’s telling me about this self-help seminar that he did and he does a real soft-sell, asking if I’d be into it. I do my best to keep an open mind, but ultimately reply with a soft-decline. I tell him that most of what they’re teaching, I’ve already learned (the hard way), and that I’m not the type to be motivated by someone bouncing around on stage telling me about my untapped potential. He suggests that it helped him with a few things and that he thinks it would be a very interesting experience for me to go through. I say anything can be interesting with the right perspective, whether it’s worth my time and money is a different conversation. So I ask him what the course material is. He tells me that he’s not supposed to share it. What? Apparently, knowing the course material ahead of time tampers with the ‘experience’. I suggest that this is probably a better fit for some of his other friends. He tells me that it’s difficult to talk about this kinda stuff with his other friends. He tells me it’s a money-back guarantee. Hmm… I still decline. Then he reluctantly shares with me that part of his ‘success’ in this program is being able to communicate its value with others… and get them to sign up. I went from being surprised that he let them do that to him, to unsurprised that this was one of their tactics, to disappointed that he went along with it. But I could tell that it was important to him. A money-back guarantee you say? He says that if nothing else, he’s very curious to see what happens when you put someone like me in an environment like that. I agree.

A few weeks later, I go to a dinner-pitch hosted by Steve with a presenter from the weekend seminar. The presenter is a mortgage-broker by trade, and says that within the first 10 seconds of his introduction (I wonder how much business he sources from this). He goes on to introduce the organization that he’s a part of: PSI Seminars. He touches on a few basics like the value of living outside your comfort zone, or the mind-state of a jaded adult vs. an innocent child. He then moves on to talk about how much he benefited from the program, mentioning that his income doubled and that he has a much better relationship with his family now. He then brings up others who have gone through the process and they say the same thing. Then they deliver the sales pitch, referring to the cost of the seminar as ‘tuition’ and providing a discount to anyone who signs up that night. He all but confirmed that I was walking into exactly what I thought I was walking into, but I had made a commitment to a friend and that was more important to me.

A few more weeks go by and it’s time to go the PSI: Basic, a Friday, Saturday, Sunday seminar, each day running 10am-8pm.

Day 1

On day one, we go through our registration and all 70 of us pile into a smaller banquet room at a mid-sized hotel in the burbs. The music is terrible.. like crappy, upbeat country kinda terrible. The man who takes the stage is a 50 something white guy in a boxy suit. Right away, he establishes a rapport with the audience by poking fun at his suit and talking about how half the people in the room still aren’t sure how they were talked into this. He shares that he was super skeptical when he went through the ‘basic’ 17 years ago. He pokes fun at the lack of participation from the crowd at first, but once he gets people laughing, the crowd seems to relax. Trust +1.

Then we break into groups headed by a ‘micro-leader’, someone who has done the program previously and wants to be further involved. In our micro-groups of 5, we’re told to go around in a circle and tell each other about the accomplishment(s) we’re proudest of. Then the rest of the group is asked to provide first impressions of that person. I ended up with a list of qualities which I aspire to.. things like honesty, integrity, intelligence, and work ethic. Others end up with similar positive lists. I’m a little disappointed as I’d much rather have constructive feedback. Validation +1.

We’re told a story about Jim Carrey, how he came from humble beginnings, and about the $15,000,000 check he wrote to himself. Apparently this was a turning point for him because every time he reached into his wallet, he saw that check and this motivated him to be able to cash it one day – the law of attraction. I’m someone who recognizes the law of attraction as a small part of a larger effort in achieving something. I’m not a fan of those who suggest that it’s the only thing standing between you and all your goals. Positivity +1

That afternoon, we do an exercise where we divide everyone into 4 groups, based on how you identify around dominance and formality. It’s basically a limited introduction into personality science, helping people understanding that different personalities behave and interact differently. As someone who’s been familiar with MBTI for over 10 years and is already reading Carl Jung’s works.. it was a bit light for me. Trust +1

Later that afternoon, he tells us about the innocence of children. How they don’t carry the prejudice, hurt, or other emotional baggage that tends to hold adults back. He talks about undoing ‘programs’ that we’ve built within our minds. I often see my thoughts as algorithms, and use the basic premise of re-coding to adjust my behavior. I would’ve liked to explore that at a deeper level but this was just a brief introduction. Trust + 1.

That evening, we were taught about the victim mentality. That when life gives you lemons, you can either take responsibility for those lemons and make lemonade, or you can bitch and complain about how you got lemons and hope that you get something better next time. As critical as I’ve been, it’s an important lesson these days. At the end of the day, there’s a lot to be learned and gained by taking responsibility for things, regardless of how they came about. I think this was intelligently communicated. Already a lesson which is near and dear to my heart, I still appreciate them teaching it here. Trust +1.

Leaving at 8pm, you become very aware that your only break for food was a lunch at 2pm.

Day 2

We start the day off with sharing things that we learned the day before. A few people get up and say something to the effect of ‘I was skeptical when I arrived yesterday, but then the exercise that we did about ______ really stuck with me’. Good for them. Then this middle-aged Chinese lady with a thick accent stands up and proceeds to deliver quite the speech. You could tell that she had come from a place of hurt and frustration in how she was talking and she went on to talk about how the Jim Carrey story had motivated her to go get that money she felt she deserved. But it wasn’t the $15 million, she wanted $200 million! Then she referenced the analogy of the child, saying that she was also inspired by how when children want things, they want them *now*. She talked about how she wanted to make a movie, but that everyone around her implored her to at least start with a book. She was fired up. She wanted that $200 million and she wanted to make a movie and there was nothing that was going to stop her. She also managed to say that this is why she admired Trump, because he dreamed big and he was bold. It seemed that her takeaways from the day before were a sense of entitlement and a lack of patience. But the fact that she was passionate, speaking her truth, and overcoming a language barrier earned her a big round of applause from the crowd. I was hoping the facilitator would curb some of that behavior, but instead, he chose to ride the wave of applause and said “Someone get her a job at PSI!” Really?

The next exercise was about having a better relationship with your parents. We were told to close our eyes and take some deep breaths. Then this Disney-esque motivational music comes on and the facilitator begins to read a script. We’re told to imagine our parents in a few scenarios which are designed to create empathy. The lesson is that our parents did the best that they could, regardless of how well or poorly they did. The room was sobbing. I had a great relationship with my dad, and said everything that I wanted to him before he died. My mom and I had a more estranged relationship up until a couple years ago, but we’re in a good place for a variety of reasons, including understanding that she did the best she could. I managed to avoid any tears until I was told to imagine my parents together, smiling, and happy for me. My parents broke up when I was a young teenager. They were sleeping in different rooms well before that. Imagining my parents together was a brief moment of happiness, but reflecting on it now, it seems rather hollow. Trust +2.

That afternoon, we went through another eyes-closed exercise. This required you to visualize walking through a forest, into a compound, digging a hole… finding a chest.. and zzzzzzz. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I quickly figured out that the exercise was about the importance of keeping your word. As someone who is big on keeping his word, and surrounded by people to struggle to keep theirs, I appreciated this lesson. Trust +1.

The last exercise of the day was a game. We were divided into two groups, given a quick set of rules, and then our group was sent off to another room for the game to begin. I recognized it pretty quickly as an exercise in game theory so I asked the facilitator if he still wanted me to participate. He said ‘sure, go for it’. I asked my group if they wanted some insight, which they did, so I proceeded to give them a quick overview on what game theory was, how it applied to this game, and how it connected to everything we were talking about. People were on board pretty quick, and both groups managed to achieve the best possible outcome for 8 of the 10 frames we supposed to play. Then two people at the back of our group with name tags spoke abruptly and said, “the game is over, don’t talk and go back to the other room.” Everyone was confused as to who these guys were and why the game had ended short of its conclusion. Lots of questions were being asked, but no answers so we herded ourselves back to the other room. On the way over, an older lady asked why I thought the game had ended early. I joked and said maybe they realized we figured out the winning strategy and cut it short. The guys from the back of the room were right behind us and rather loudly said, “I said be quiet and go to the room.” My immediate reaction was to laugh it off, apologize, and proceed to the room. Once we were back, we were told about how game theory worked and how it connects to life in general. Someone asked why we weren’t given the opportunity to complete the game and we were reminded that we were only given 30 minutes to play. The person asking the question said that we weren’t given a clock, and we had been asked to keep our watches and cellphones out of sight. The facilitator snapped back pretty quick about being a victim and not taking responsibility. He said that the game wasn’t over yet though and we would continue tomorrow. For a lot of people, Trust +1.

On my way home, I was increasingly annoyed with the way that guy had tried to reprimand me for talking. Being able to explain game theory to the group, helping them navigate the temptations to preemptively screw over the other team, and helping us arrive at a perfect score was the highlight of my day. Especially because the people in the room really appreciated it. But we were cut short of a perfect game, followed by these two randoms barking at me like prison guards. We were told that the game was still going… maybe this was part of the game?

Day 3

We begin day 3 with another sharing session. To little surprise, the Chinese lady from the day before is looking to share again. This time she opens up about some of her failures. She talks about borrowing money to invest just before the 2008 financial collapse. She lost that money, and borrowed more through her credit cards hoping that the market was coming back. It wasn’t, she lost that money too. Then her boyfriend left her. Her parents called her out for poor decision making, but ultimately bailed her out to the tune of $150,000. She went on to say how when she was at her lowest, she asked god what he had planned for her. Apparently god spoke to her, saying keep your head up, I have big things in-store for you and you just have to make it through this rough patch. She went on to talk a lot about god, and how he loves all of us, and that his love is the only love we need. I think it went on for about 20 minutes. Again, to a large round of applause and more positive reinforcement from the facilitator.

I can’t remember if it was the second or the third day, but the facilitator broke protocol and told us about his background and his path into PSI. He was a minister at a church in California. A pretty large church by the sounds of it as he worked with the largest youth group in the city. As he tells it, he married the wrong woman. When he looked towards a divorce, his church wasn’t having it. It sounded like he had to choose between leaving his church and staying in an unhealthy marriage, and he choose to leave his church. Good on him. Trust +1.

As we were getting into our micro-groups for the morning, my micro-leader asked what had happened the day before. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. Apparently, he was told that I was starting trouble during the game theory exercise. I had almost forgotten about it at that point. I never expected those guys to escalate it, let alone to describe the situation as me being disruptive. That was annoying.

For our micro-group exercise, we were asked to identify our goals, our supports, and our obstacles. Basically, 3 people who represented your obstacles would stand in front of you and yell at you while 1 person who represented your support would stand behind you and yell supportive things at you. My obstacles seemed to want to avoid eye contact with me… not very intimidating. Everyone else found that they were able to tune into the positives while tuning out the negatives. Trust +1.

During one of our breaks, the older lady from the other day came up to me and started apologizing for the behavior of the guys from the day before. I told her that while I appreciated her apology, it was not accepted because she had nothing to apologize for. She may have been the one to ask me the question, but I was the one who chose to answer. And frankly, just because someone tells me not to speak doesn’t mean I’ve agreed to it. She offered to tell PSI about what had happened and was furious when she found out that they had already reported it and had cast me as the trouble maker. I calmed her down, told her the guy was probably just having a bad day, and everything was gravy.

Back in the seminar room, we were told that the game from yesterday was over. The facilitator fielded several questions and helped people better understand the point of the game. Once all the questions were over, I put my hand up. I said that some staff — “volunteers”, okay, some volunteers were rather rude to me yesterday after the game and I wanted to know if that was a part of the game. The facilitator said, “well they were trying to get you to stop talking.” To which I replied, “you’re right, and some ways are more rude than others.” I told him that I just wanted to know whether it was a part of the game, or if someone was just having a bad day, in which case I could resolve it myself. The facilitator said it wasn’t part of the game, and that he assumed there would probably be a conversation to be had after this. I thanked him and we proceeded.

I think after this was the ‘I love myself’ exercise. We were partnered up again, told to sit directly across from someone with our eyes closed, and to tell them what love means to us, and how we want to be loved. Again, the room broke into tears. I may have started with love is familiarity over time, but did my best to articulate what I understood love to be and the ways in which I wanted to be loved. It’s something I had already given a fair bit of thought to having just read The General Theory of Love, a book about the brain chemistry behind emotions. But again, it seemed like a big breakthrough for a lot of the people in the room. Trust + 1, Validation + 1.

I wish I could remember the exact sequence of events, but I can’t at this point. What comes next might not be an exact timeline, but I think the conclusions will remain the same.

What likely came next was this lesson that seemed half way between you can’t solve problems with the thinking that you used to create them, and there are different ways of closing the distance between where you are and where you want to be. Both very important lessons, but I don’t think they were effectively taught as what followed was an awkward soul train dance-party. Basically, everyone had to line up on one side of the room and make it to the other side of the room among music and clapping. The rule was you couldn’t do it the way someone previously had. Most people chose to make it across with bad dance moves, some with uninspired shimmies, and a few (mostly the staff and volunteers) with way more sparkle than the situation called for. But when everyone is clapping and cheering for you.. Validation +1.

While I’ve listed most of the core curriculum here, it was 30 hours of seminar work so there’s a lot that I’m leaving out. Perhaps the most significant of which are the ‘feel good’ moments. There was a lot of clapping. A lot of positive reinforcement for just showing up. A lot of ‘believe in yourself and the world is yours’. moments At one point, the facilitator actually said the only difference between you and MLK is that MLK believed in himself. I wanted to throw something at him. Just because most people who are successful are also confident, doesn’t mean that confidence leads to success. In reality, it’s often success that leads to confidence. To earn that success, you have to put the hours in.

Throughout the weekend, trust was being established between the audience and the facilitator. Peppered in were all these moments of ‘I am strong, confident, and deserve to be loved’. There were back rubs, and hugs, and lots of crying. During various interactions, people were trying to articulate what they thought about something, and the facilitator would say ‘forget what you think, tell me how you feel’. The room was being molded into this tribe which was exchanging critical thought for feeling good. Not just feeling good about themselves, but also feeling good about where they were, who they were with, what they were learning, and especially about the person leading the seminar. Hmm…

During the late afternoon of day 3, we were introduced to ‘The Ranch’. We were told that this was the PSI Basic, and that after this comes a visit to the ranch which was a 7 day seminar somewhere in eastern California. We were told how this seminar was only scratching the surface of your potential and that to really spread your wings and fly, you would need to attend this next seminar. Then some of the volunteers were asked to step up and tell us about what the ranch had helped them accomplish. Of the 5, 4 said that they doubled their income. 3 said that they then found the love of their lives. There was definitely a theme here. Including a 30 minute sales pitch for the next seminar during this session wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t the end of the world. But then things took a hard right.

There wasn’t just the ranch, there was also another leadership seminar after the ranch, which together would cost about $12,000. “but if you sign up in the next 20 minutes, we’ll knock that price down to $8950. Now I know some of you are thinking that’s a lot of money but the best thing you can do is just go for it. If you sign up for it now, you’ll find the money.”

As I was watching this unfold, and looking at the people around me wide-eyed and nodding their heads, I became frustrated. These people were in such an emotional, trusting, and positive state of mind, that they weren’t thinking rationally. Anyone who truly understands money knows that you don’t make financial decisions when in a highly emotional state. These people were being taken advantage of. Do I stay quiet? Do I let this happen? One of the core lessons of game theory is that you do what you know is right, regardless of how others might react. Fuck it. I’m saying something. I reminded the facilitator that his first piece of advice to us on day 1 was to appreciate that some of the things happening this weekend would take time to digest and not to rush into anything. I said that since this was a rather significant financial decision for a lot of the people here today, wouldn’t it make sense to think it over? Bless his heart, he paused, and said that’s a good point.

The room was rather tense, so the mortgage-broker from the dinner-pitch stepped up from the back of the room and started by saying they get that question all the time. The facilitator casually interjected that it was the first time he had heard that question in 17 years of teaching it. The mortgage-broker then proceeded to string many words together in an attempt to justify what was happening. He then asked me if that made sense, I was going to reply no, but the facilitator did it for me.

During that 20 minute break, I saw a few people going to the back of the room to sign up but really had no idea if what I had said made an impact. A few people did approach me and thank me for what I did though. What I really appreciated was that the facilitator came up to me and said, “I had to think about it, but I have an answer.” He went on to tell me that his advice at the beginning was about dating or soliciting business from people at the seminar, not about spending money. I asked him why the same principles didn’t apply. He said something to the effect of the momentum people have going into that pitch is the best opportunity for them to appreciate what they could get out of it. I asked how that was different from any other pressure-sales tactic. I criticized him for helping people arrive at a highly emotional state of mind, reluctant to think critically about the money they were spending or the value they were receiving, and then giving them 20 minutes to spend more than what the average family saves in a year. He was stuck, and said that this was how the company approached their business. I told him that I thought he was a good person, and sensed a very genuine desire in him to help people become better versions of themselves. He said whether it was this or the church, there were always going to be things that he disagreed with. I pressed and asked that if he knew this is how PSI approached their business, why was he working here? He laughed it off and said, “you’re not that good.” Maybe not, but I would bet good money that he won’t get that conversation out of his head any time soon. I hope so.. he deserves better.

The next activity was learning about the workshop of the mind. I think it’s largely an exercise in visualizing, not dissimilar to Sherlock’s mind-palace. We were told to think of someone with an illness and then share the gender, age, and name of the individual with our partner. The partner was then asked to visualize what was wrong with them and come up with some creative solutions on how to heal them. Both my partner and I proceeded to get ‘most’ things right about who the other person had in mind. We were told that this was like wifi, that our bodies just had to tune into the telepathic signals being sent back and forth. I was told about a 57 year old named Stanley. So I analyzed the person in front of me, ended up with some assumptions on the type of person she would likely choose, and then proceeded to identify someone with salt and pepper hair, with glasses, who wore a collared shirt, pants with a belt, nice shoes but not too nice. For ailments, I suggested lower back pain, a past knee injury, and that his liver could probably be in better shape. Right on all counts. But how many other 57 year old males did I just describe? Mentalism will teach you just how much information is communicated non-verbally. I think that to assume we can’t tap into these ‘frequencies’ of information would be premature. To say that this exercise is a real-life example of how human intuition borders on telepathy, would be overly ambitious. Unfortunately, I think that this exercise best demonstrates why astrology is still so popular.

Towards the end of the night, we were told about our graduation ceremony the following week. This ceremony would see each of us graduate and receive a certificate for completing the course, and we were encouraged to invite as many people as we could. We were told stories of how people renting 3 minivans just to bring all the people they had invited. Then we were told that after the graduation ceremony, there would be a short presentation on the value of PSI: Basic, and that if any of your friends or family wanted to sign up, there would be people waiting at the back of the room. Yuck.

The last exercise for the night was where we were all grouped together by who had invited us to the seminar. We were told to close our eyes and imagine how much that person cared about us, and what it took for them to help get us here. I immediately started thinking that they were bringing in the people who had invited us for a big final reveal, but I knew Steve was in Mexico for the week. With my eyes closed, I was tempted to flash a middle finger to let him know that I knew he was there (probably). I opened my eyes and there he was, fresh off his return flight. After being asked to stare into each other’s eyes for a couple minutes, we hugged it out and called it a day.

Earlier that day, we were asked to write a letter to the person who had invited us. It won’t be word for word, but I’ll give you the gist. Steve knows me better than just about anyone. He’s one of my few friends who knows about this blog and actually reads it. He’s the one who sees me write about loneliness and makes a point of hanging out. He’s also the one I use to hold me accountable to my goals, and the friend I bounce ideas off when those ideas are way out there. If someone’s going to tell my story some day, they won’t be able to tell that story without writing extensively about him. He’s my brother in the truest sense of the word and I appreciate why he wanted me to take this seminar. It wasn’t the pressure that PSI was putting on him, or him being swindled into the cult of self-help, or the fact that he thought I needed the help. He just wanted to see me continue to grow.. and that’s why we’re bros.

He also told me that he was talking to the mortgage-broker guy when he came in and that he was rather flustered about me speaking up during the sales pitch. Apparently he called me a ‘little shit’ and wanted to take me aside and talk to me one-on-one. Steve proceeded to tell him that this was a terrible idea and that I would talk circles around him. I love Steve. Not just because he put buddy in his place, but more so because he reminded him to stay within the spirit of what was being taught at PSI. Yoda’s voice is echoing in my head, “Remember your teachings young padewan.”

Day 3+1

After it’s all said and done, our micro-group leaders reach out to us on whatsapp and start a group chat around accomplishing goals for the month. I get a message shortly after saying that I had been uninvited from our graduation ceremony later that week because I had asked for my money back. I found that a bit surprising as the PSI paperwork says that you must attend graduation in order to receive your refund. Part of me was happy that I didn’t have to waste more time on PSI sales pitches, but another part of me was a little annoyed that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to support those who did receive value from the experience.

Day 3 + 8

I think that if anyone asks for a refund, it’s the responsibility of their micro-leader to approach them about why. My micro-leader reached out to me and asked if we could grab coffee and chat. We did, it was super amicable, and not much was accomplished. I tried to impress upon him the importance of integrity when aligning yourself with organizations like this but I don’t think he was in the right state of mind to hear it. Nice kid, but I think he’ll need to figure this out for himself. We had brief conversation around what I had learned. I told him that the biggest take away for me, was having a deeper understanding of how and why religion appeals to people. The similarities between how PSI approached personal growth and how churches approached spirituality were remarkable. I’ll save that for the next one.

An ENTJ Love Story

I did my first MBTI questionnaire about 12 years ago. I was in my early 20s and thought personality tests were a bit flaky but humored the 70 question quiz and arrived at the letters: ENTJ. I started reading the overview and I remember thinking holy shit, this is real. It told me several things I already knew about myself which seemed to verify its accuracy, but then it told me a bunch of things I didn’t yet understand about myself, which was enlightening. Then I saw the suggested careers and got a solid ego boost. ‘The Executive’, destined for roles like CEO, Judge, University Professor… clearly I had hit the jackpot. I became a proud ENTJ, telling everyone about the test and recommending they take it. Little did I know, ENTJs don’t always experience emotions like others. I wasn’t prepared for the world of hurt that I would bring to the girls I dated.

At 28, I tried to lock down one of the greatest women I had ever met, beautiful inside and out. It made so much sense for so many reasons. It wasn’t messy. It was a happy ending waiting to happen. It was a disaster. She grew up in a military family that moved around a lot and that meant that family was everything to her. I grew up in a broken home with a father who worked a lot and a mother who avoided the kids. My biggest priority was my career, so I could be in a position to give my family a good life, and have the time to spend with them. I wasn’t willing to compromise on building the foundation I wanted to bring a family into, she wasn’t willing to compromise on waiting that long. I thought that I was thinking logically while she was thinking emotionally. I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t understand me, she probably felt the same. We broke up after a year. She was engaged 3 months later and was married a few months ago. I haven’t spoken to her since we broke up but I genuinely wish her the best.

Then came tinder. I’ll be happy to say that if you are willing to put the effort in, you can find quality people on tinder. I went on some dates, met some cool people, and even dated one for a few months.

Then I met her.

For today, let’s call her Max. She was 5’2″, 110lbs, black hair, and had the most amazing eyes I had ever seen. With all the brain cells I’ve lost over the years (combat sports), I still remember that moment so clearly. A mutual friend had invited me to a start-up’s open house so I came by for some light networking. I was on their southwest patio talking to the founders of app that lets you pay for parking at city meters when she was introduced. I suck at names. I consider them one of the least important pieces of information to observe when meeting someone. I’ve never once forgot hers. We stood on the patio chatting for a while and I’m sure I looked ridiculous staring so intently into the eyes of someone I had just met. Fuck it.

I’m sure one of us was trying to play it cool and broke things off to hang out with other people, but eventually we ended up on one of the couches chatting about finance of all things – turns out she was a CA. She understands money too? Jackpot. I got her email, and sent something over soon after. I’m not very good at hitting on girls, for most of my life I waited for them to hit on me… but Max had me feeling bold. I don’t remember what I said, but it worked and we had a lunch date.

We grabbed lunch at a spot just around the corner from her work that she had wanted to try. They had fancy chicken – and it was really good. We talked about all kinds of things, and of course, the conversation could barely keep up with the things we had in common. By the end of that first date, I knew something was different… way different. She was a kind of special I had never known, and I was excited. I wasn’t alone on this as Max later told me that when she went back to the office, she told her best friend that she just met her future husband.

On the next date, she told me she had just gotten out of a relationship that she still hadn’t entirely gotten out of. I wasn’t bothered and said I’d give her time and space. She told me that she had struggled with some addiction issues in that relationship. I told her about mine. She told me that she had cheated on almost every boyfriend she had. I told her that maybe she had yet to find someone worth being loyal to.

It didn’t take her long to move on from her ex (kinda), but she told me that she had a tendency to jump from one relationship to the next and really wanted to see what it was like to be single and date, but she was torn because of what was happening between us. I wasn’t bothered in the least, I told her to hit up tinder and see where it takes her. She did, she went on a few dates with a few nice guys, and would then go home, call me, and tell me all about them. I didn’t mind, because I knew that we had already fallen for each other and that this was just her process of making sure. We used to joke and say ‘let’s be real… who else but me?’

After a couple weeks of hanging out 24/7, we were walking into a Canadian Tire, and I don’t remember what she did but I just looked at her and said, I….. lesbian you. I know what I meant, but this soon? Illogical. I made a game of it and probably said ‘I lesbian you’ a half dozen times over the next week. Not long after, we were in bed one night, and she looked at me with those incredible eyes and told me that she loved me. I was so in love with her – and this time I didn’t try to hide it.

We made attempts at taking it slow, but it wasn’t working. She was perfect for me in all these ways that I hadn’t even realized were important. At one point, we looked at MBTI compatibility and even there, we were a prefect match. We committed to not moving in together before her lease was up which gave us about 9 months. We didn’t make it.

I was neck deep in a career that was tearing me apart from the inside. I was a rookie Investment Advisor for a top bank, building a book of wealthy clients. . Part of what she admired about me was that I was able to conduct myself as a professional at the highest levels, but deep down, was still just a kid from the hood. It wasn’t quite a dual personality, but it was close. There was the me which tried to abide by banking culture, and the real me. I had decided that the real me had to step aside and let banker me establish himself in the industry. Real me always kept one hand on the wheel, but banker me started calling more and more shots for the sake of job security.

The real me understood her, loved her, and appreciated her. Banker me did too, but banker me also wanted her to be a little more banker-y and a less like herself. One of her best qualities was her fearless honesty. But fearless honesty can make for awkward first impressions and awkward first impressions can sour client relationships and spook prospective clients. I tried to tell her this by asking her to focus on things she had in common with the people she was meeting. She resisted, saying that when she used to work at a major accounting firm, she was constantly having to behave like someone she wasn’t, and that she had gotten to a place in her life where she finally was able to be herself and felt good about it. I told her that’s what I wanted for her too, but that I didn’t have that luxury and if I was going to continue along this career path, she either had to find a way to make it work, or I’d have to leave her at home. Considering that my career forced me to be ‘on’ all the time, in hindsight, that was a ridiculous thing to ask of her.

We never completely resolved that issue, but we compromised to a point where… I’m tempted to say it was good, but it wouldn’t be true. I imposed my logic, she conceded. I feel sick to my stomach right now just writing that. I’m so sorry. My eyes are literally watering up right now, what kind of ENTJ am I? She made that concession for me and my career and I will never impose that on anyone ever again. What makes it worse is that she didn’t concede because I was smart or right, she conceded because she was beyond motivated to make this relationship work. She would often tell me that this was the first relationship where she wanted to put in work, and do the things we needed to do. She inspired me. She was the best.

Then came what actually broke us apart. She had spent her entire life living in the same city. It was a world class city, but she was dying to get out. I couldn’t leave. My career was tied to my client base which was almost entirely local. She would say ‘what if it was for the opportunity of a lifetime?’ I would tell her that’s what I already had here. She would toss out the idea of long distance. I told her years of long distance after a few months of dating probably wasn’t the recipe for a healthy relationship. She wanted to go as much as she wanted to bring me with her. Her company started tossing out the idea of moving her to their SF headquarters. After talking about it, we decided that we’d delay any moves until we had been together for a year and make the decision then.

It didn’t matter. She would ask about doing an MBA in Toronto. Then about a tech job in California. How cool it would be to live in a place like NY for a couple years. My response was always the same, if you really want to go, I think you should go, but I can’t come with you, and there won’t be a long distance relationship. She would persist, but she always decided to stay – until she didn’t. She brought it up so many times that I didn’t have any other answers to give her – until I told her she should go and that the relationship was over. She handled herself with class, even when she came back a few days later to get her things. When she did, she looked at me asking, “is this it?” The ENTJ was back, I told her it was and went back in the house.

Shortly after an ex started texting me. We did the deed. She was the one I had dated just before Max and was still a little hung up on me. We didn’t use protection. I should’ve. She told me that I was the last person she slept with, and I trusted her. Then Max starting texting me We hung out a few times and yes, even some stellar sex for good measure. We were in a good place. We knew that we each had things to work on and were eager to work on them so that we could find our way back to each other as better people. Eventually she told me that it was a bad idea, that breaking up with the goal of getting back together wasn’t really breaking up, and I agreed. Didn’t change the fact that I was still hoping we’d have another chance down the road.

Then came the dagger. I was helping my sister move to LA when I got a text from Max. It read something to the effect of my ex just texted me letting me know that he tested positive for something and I’m really sorry but I needed to let you know. I said sorry to hear it, but I got tested after we broke up and I’m all good. That’s not what she meant. What she was trying to tell me is that right after we broke up, she had unprotected sex with her ex, and then unprotected sex with me. That dagger cut deeper than anything I had experienced and almost every part of me that cared about her shut off almost immediately. I deleted and blocked her number. Then she whatsapp’d me so I blocked and deleted her there too. Then FB messenger – block/delete. I don’t think it was until she emailed me that I gave her any kind of response. And I wasn’t looking to talk about it, I was looking to make her face the reality of what she had done, make her feel shitty about it, and then disconnect.

The part of this story that I left out until now is the nature of the relationship she had with her ex. It was a slow breakup. She still cared a great deal about him. He was still in love with her. They bought a dog together. I’m not sure if it was familiarity or attachment, but she kept going back. For the first month or so, she would be over at his place about once a week. She never hid it from me. The first time I piped up was when she came to my place from his loaded up on ketamine. I didn’t need to be jealous to see an unhealthy dynamic. She responded well.

As the months went on, she would still talk about her ex from time to time, and I really didn’t mind it. What I did mind was the lingering attachment, paired with drugs and a history of cheating. Not long before we broke up, he called her while we were driving home and kept her on the phone until about 2am. Most of that conversation was in my bed. I could hear him asking her why they weren’t getting back together and the mixed signals she was sending him. I heard her tell him that she was happy with me, and that she wasn’t trying to send mixed signals.

Years ago, I dated someone who had cheated on all of her exes and waded fearlessly into that as well. I learned in that relationship that you’ll never know whether or not they’re cheating so trust that they aren’t until you have a real reason to think that they are. Max was testing my limits of what I considered to be a real reason. When she told me that she went straight back to him after we had broken up, in my mind, it was like I was the one who had come between her and the person she actually wanted to be with. Dagger.

After I blocked and deleted her out of my phone, she emailed me pleading to have a conversation. I told her that having unprotected sex with someone else, and then having unprotected sex with me was a huge issue. That because of her carelessness, my health is now at risk. I probably gave her shit for going back to her ex too, but I don’t remember the details. What I remember most is being hurt, wanting her to feel hurt, and knowing that the best thing I could do was create space between us.

My only communication with with her after that was when I tried to redeem my birthday and Christmas gift cards that she had given me the past December. It was two tickets to bungee jumping and two for skydiving, something she was excited to do together. By the time I looked to use them, they had already been used. Apparently she still had the originals. Ironically, I had also gotten her a skydiving jump for Christmas, so my revenge was sending her an email letting her know that I wasn’t going to use hers, and I hope she has a chance to enjoy it. She said she probably wouldn’t as she was moving to San Francisco. That’s the last I heard from her. That was about a year and a half ago.

So why blog this? Why now? ENTJs don’t deal in heartbreak let alone dwell in it. Maybe I’m no longer a classic ENTJ.

Remember when I said that my career was tearing me apart inside? The real me never took his hand off the wheel. Management kept putting me in situations where I was expected to put the bank’s interests ahead of my clients’ interests. They thought that dangling a 7 figure income in front of me would be enough to compromise my integrity. It wasn’t. In those environments, the nail which sticks out is the one that gets hammered. They started moving me towards the door, so I used my trump card. I reached out to a senior advisor who spent most of his career in management with the bank I was with. He had been asking me to join his team for a few years but I kept declining as he was in a small town about 5 hours away and I was invested heavily in the area I was in. I knew that if I asked for advice, he’d give me the job. So I did. And he did.

The move surprised a lot of people. I think most people would’ve assumed I wouldn’t leave the city that I had such deep roots in. What they didn’t know is that when my father passed away, he left a few hundred thousand dollars to the kids – in a hold co that I was exclusively in charge of. Barely enough for a down payment on a house these days, but I knew that I could put that money to work and turn it into a meaningful part of my dad’s legacy. The only direction he ever gave me with it was that if one of the kids had a business venture worth investing in, this could be for that.

The role that I had at the bank had a base salary in the first year, but then went to pure commission. The first few years were notoriously lean because the role was mostly wining and dining, and it was all out of pocket. Being in one of the world’s most expensive cities didn’t help. Most would fail out of the program for financial reasons and the bank would retain their clients all the same. In year one, I ran close to a break even. In year 2, my income was cut in half and I started drawing from the hold co to keep my head above water. In year 3, I drew less, but still some. By year 4, I passed break even and was quickly moving towards 6 figures. The last paycheck before the move cleared my credit card and line of credit. Replacing the money I had borrowed from the hold co was next. Protecting my father’s legacy was more important than where I worked, where I lived, and especially more important than any impact this would all have on me.

So I moved to that small town to work under one of the top advisory teams in the whole firm. Things went sideways quickly. I got along well with the branch, the team, the clients, and the lead advisor, but again, I didn’t get along well with management. The branch manager was trying to play politics; I didn’t buy in. He expected loyalty, but my loyalty was always to my clients and the team. He figured that out pretty quick. I was fired 2 months after arriving, against the wishes of the team, and for reasons which would never survive the most basic of HR investigations.

I left the office that day with just as much drive as I came in with. I am an unstoppable force of nature and this will not compromise my momentum. It was Monday and I told myself I’d have a new job lined up by Friday. And then I went straight to the dispensary and bought a pile of weed for the first time since I had got there. Alone, in a small house, in a small town, disconnected from the outside world and no longer being defined by my career, I had an opportunity to figure out what really happened. Blaming the bank for being shady was a cop out. I needed to understand what I did, what I could’ve done, and why I didn’t do it. Success rarely comes easily for me, but this was the first time in my life that I had dedicated myself to something completely, and had failed.

I used to play a lot of texas hold’em. I think it should be a standard part of any school curriculum because it’s an excellent teacher of probability and the nature of cirmstance. The best hand you can be dealt can still lose to the worst hand in the deck, if the circumstances aren’t in your favor. For most people, that’s the nature of luck. For me, it showed how important it was to create or find the best circumstances for my success.

The bank was a massive bureaucratic entity which marketed themselves to the public as advice, but operated internally like cut throat sales. Middle management didn’t have the balls to tell upper management that their sales targets were so unrealistic that most people who were achieving them were doing them in a way which was continuing to degrade the trust that the public had in the banks. I’m a leader and a problem solver that looks to challenge the status quo to make the world a better place for everyone. They wanted a soldier who would ignore the problems, stay within the lines, and make management look good. I didn’t realize how much of myself I was giving up to be there.

Shit. Is this what Max felt when she left her big accounting firm? She would tell me how much happier she was, how she was finally being herself and how liberating it was. And I was telling her to go backwards. Not only that, when I was imposing my logic, I would remind her that I was 3 years older and therefore likely more experienced in these kinds of things. I grew up fighting for everything that I had. I learned to convince people that I was right even when I knew I was wrong. Maybe old habits die hard. I’m such an ass.

After I got fired, I broke my arm pretty bad. 7mm separation, 6 screws, 2 plates, detached wrist, ligament damaged, and nerve damage. I refused opiates. I smoke more weed. Interesting things happen when a logical mind disconnects from the outside world. There’s no noise, no distractions, just the universe as it exists. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about the world around me. I learned a lot about my/our place in the universe.

I may not be pocket aces, but I know I’m a hand worth playing. There are no guarantees in life. The proverbial bus is always just around the corner, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it my god damn all put everything I have into this universe and make it a better place for those who are ready to be happy.

There are 3 events in my life that stand out as moments of intense personal growth. The first was grade 12 when I went from minimal effort and average grades to maximum effort and the grades that I needed to get into top universities. That’s where I learned the value of work ethic. The second was when my dad passed away and I learned about mortality and what it means to be responsible for others. The third was being fired from a career where I gave it my all, and it still wasn’t enough. That’s where I learned that for me to be successful in that environment, I would’ve had to fundamentally change who I was – or for me to be successful, I had to find an environment that encouraged my best. To find that environment, I first had to understand who I was and what I had to offer. During that search, I started to realize that I was weirder than I thought I was. I spent most of my life trying to fit in, trying to fit the mold the people around me told me I should fit. I did it well. It wasn’t me. I’m so much more.

When I started tapping into my inner weirdness – what made me different – I found genius. This had nothing to do smarts, but everything to do with finding what made me different from everyone else. What made me different from everyone else was the source of what I could do better than everyone else. My niche. My element. My gift. It didn’t apply to just me, it literally applied to everyone. What would the world look like if we were all given the opportunity to be in our element? It was an unrealistic concept in the past, but on the verge of mass automation, it’s now a future worth considering. Then it occurred to me that happiness may be a function of maximum utility. If you get to spend your time doing what you were built to do, there’s an alignment there which I don’t think can be undervalued.

I went off the deep end didn’t I? I smoked way too much weed this year. These concepts are so far detached from mainstream reality that they can’t be real. So why do I see the universe more clearly than I ever have? Why does everything make so much sense now? I’ve gone off the deep end…

I’m moving into the unknown, and I have no interest in coming back. I know how logical my mind is. I know how critical I am of my own thoughts and the information I’m presented. I know how open minded I am to new information. I’m tempted to say I’m delusional. Maybe I am. But I don’t think I am. I’m too analytical for that, too pragmatic. Too honest with myself.

So what do you do when you think you’ve cracked the code to human happiness, and recognize the systems in place across the world that discourage the vast majority of us from coming anywhere near? What happens when you see the fundamental flaws in these systems and can’t help but can’t help but have an intense motivation to fix them? What happens when you become fixated on changing the world for the better, but realize how hard the establishment will fight to maintain the status quo. You solve for x.

But I’m scared.

I’m never scared. Never. When I was in my early 20s, I got jumped. There were a few of them.. they had a knife and someone was getting a gun. They wanted access to my family to make sure that I wouldn’t go to the police. They told me if I didn’t give them up, they’d have to kill me. I respectfully told them that if they’re making me choose between my life and my family’s safety, I choose my family every time. There isn’t much left to be scared of when you’ve made peace with death. For the longest time, I thought I would be invincible until I wasn’t. Nothing could hurt me. Fear wasn’t unwelcome, it was barely a distant memory.

I’m not scared of pain or loss, I’m scared of being alone. I’m scared that I’m right about what I see and what I know. I’m scared that if I follow this path, others won’t be ready to come with. I’m scared this is a path I’ll have to travel alone and eventually I’ll lose the opportunity to connect – and I’ll be lost and alone.

If what I know is real, it will catch on. Maybe in my lifetime, maybe not. But even if it does, I’m not looking for fans. I’d rather have people appreciate my work than know who I am, but neither would fill this void. I don’t want to walk this path alone. I will because I owe it to myself and to the world to give everything that I have, but I don’t want to walk that path alone.

Every person I’ve ever been with, fell for the person I was projecting, not for who I was. Except Max. She saw exactly who I was right away, and she fell madly in love with that person. She used to call me her benevolent robot king. I was barely the king of my basement suite. It didn’t matter. She found me well before I found myself.

When I think about going off the deep end – into the unknown – and talking about things like revolution.. there’s only one person I can see putting up with me. Only one person who would be brave enough to make that jump. Only one person who effortlessly understands the depths of who I am. The only person with whom I’ve ever experienced unconditional love. It’s Max.

When she and I dated, I was struggling. I was struggling with my career. I was struggling with who I was. I even struggled with my weight after I tore my hamstring. She got the worst of me… and she loved me anyways. I refuse to put her though that again.

I started thinking about Max more and more over the last few months. It was only recently that I realized why. There’s now this swell of motivation to be better. I stopped smoking weed. I cleaned up my diet. I’m back to training and in best shape I’ve been in a long time. I’m writing more than I ever have. I’m getting dialed in. And none of this is for Max, but I’d be lying to myself if I said it wasn’t partly because of her.

I’m too pragmatic, too logical to hope that she’s sitting around waiting for me to call. She’s the kinda girl who’s only single if she wants to be. And even if she was, she lives in SF. I’m not doing any of this so she’ll take me back, I’m doing all of this because I want to be the caliber of person who’s capable of being with her.

If I’m going to be that person, I need to put in work. Not just on the physical, but on the emotional too. I need to be more than an ENTJ. This story has been an exercise in flushing this all out. That part about me being scared? I didn’t know that before writing it here. There are a lot of things I didn’t know before writing them here. I did know I needed to write this though.

In a few weeks, when I feel like I have clarity of mind, I’m going to make a YouTube video and send her the link. It’s going to be an apology. I want her to know that I’m sorry for trying to change her into someone I knew she wasn’t. I want her to know that I’m sorry for cutting her out of my life because the truth is I didn’t give a shit about possibly testing positive for an STI. I was hurt because I had found someone who I knew was so special to me, and I was afraid that I wasn’t nearly as special to her. I want her to know that I’m sorry I couldn’t give her my best, and that I’ll always appreciate that she found a way to love me so unconditionally when I was at my worst. I’ll tell her that while I’m not doing this for her, or to get back together, she deserves the satisfaction of knowing that she’s the one who inspired this.

And I guess we’ll see what happens.