7 months already?

It’s been 7 months for the newsletter already! To celebrate this hyper-consistent flow of information and ideas, today we’ll do a wrap-up of the entire journey, post by post!

Post 1: Mathematics is life: The first post ever, imported from a long-forgotten blog, talked about the importance and utility of mathematics for mental agility and intellectual power, namely, how getting better at purely abstract mathematical reasoning will make you better at thinking, in every regard.

Post 2: The improvement mentality: an exploration of the mindset behind constant self-improvement, and the never-ending approach to one’s best self, and the fulfilment brought by that process.

Post 3: The sooner you suck at something, the sooner you’ll cease to suck: an explanation of why it is that beginning to improve as soon as possible is the best way to make sure you master your interests more quickly. You have to be awful at anything before you can be great, to put it simply.

Post 4: Flow along: here I talked about how it is that life teaches its lessons, and why going through pain is not a sign of being in the wrong place, but in the right place, since it means you are about to learn the exact lesson you need to get through it.

Post 5: How do we actually construct a practical thought framework for life?: in this issue it was outlined how to actually craft your own thought system to take up the challenges of life, and how to achieve this through the combination of your favourite philosophical and practical disciplines.

Post 6: “Why?”: a micro-post on the importance of having a reason to live, an answer to the question “why?”.

Post 7: “Use darkness as fuel!”: the way to turn negativity into positivity and motivation was discussed, as well as the importance of being able to do so and not let momentary downs turn into a downwards spiral.

Post 8: Critique to the system: an outline of how the world works and why it is that we are programmed and conditioned against our will, to serve a machine which we are merely a cog in.

Post 9: Be a hedonist: hedonism, the quest to maximize pleasure, can actually be extremely useful, if the pleasure to be maximized is that which is obtained by meaningful quests and the overcoming of challenge. Basically, what I termed “positive hedonism”.

Post 10: Critique to the system part II: similar to the previous critique to the system, but this time focusing more strongly on the role played by the educational system and its fatal flaws.

Post 11: The teenager’s manual: an outline of the aspects to focus on on your teenage years and how to turn laziness into productivity through the leverage of free time during this era.

Post 12: Mediocre grades = great: a theory about why it is that the people who got mediocre, but passing, grades in school are the smartest and most likely to be productive, innovative, and successful.

Post 13: We’re all competitive (it’s not a choice): here I explained why competition is innate in all of us, and not feeling so is an indicator that you’re not good at anything worth competing for.

Post 14: The gym’s manual: I sketched my workout routine back then.

Post 15: My current daily routine: the health-optimized daily routine I used back then (and still practically use today), it being designed to maximize physical and mental performance, my circadian rhythm, sleep, and mood.

Post 16: Life as a walk, not a sprint: life is to be seen more like a long, never-ending walk, than a sprint. Focusing on the long term and sustainability proves more important than focusing on the short term and speed.

Post 17: No mistake? No apology: I delved into why you should never apologize if you’re not truly sorry, and never regret that which you believed was right to be done.

Post 18: Science is dead: why fundamental physics has stagnated for the past 40 years and how it’s impacted the development of the modern world and the outlook for the future.

Post 19: Doesn’t life go by too quick?: the causes and consequences of why time “flies” were explored. It seems this is not entirely negative if it flies due to your being submerged in a passionate quest for achievement!

Post 20: Journaling manual: the system I used, and still use, to journal efficiently and not turn it into a chore.

Post 21: Some thoughts on AI: why artificial intelligence may not be anywhere near human-level performance and consciousness, based on the possibility that the human mind may not be computational (not the result of a mere information-processing system).

Post 22: On science as the fuel of the world: leaps in fundamental science are the engine for the economy, and the only possible source of sudden changes in the human condition. A review of the industrial revolution, the atomic era, the information age.

Post 23: Dieting made easy: how you should regulate eating precision, that is, measurement and tracking, during the different stages of your lifting journey. Eating loosely (but not excessively) in the beginning to fuel the process, getting precise in the mid-stages to continue the development more formally, and then relaxing again when you become an expert.

Post 24: Alone but not lonely: how being solitary does not translate into sadness, and the possibility of a solo-quest gaining meaning through its positive impact on our loved ones.

Post 25: Not fitting in is a privilege: the benefits of being outside-the-norm, and how feeling excluded can actually grant an outsider’s perspective useful for developing a strong, critical, independent mind.

Post 26: Gym musts and dont’s: self-explanatory.

Post 27: Education, the future and the past: given a review of my previous critiques, I provided a possible alternative and how the changes are to take place, are bound to do so, based on the development of the digital economy and the fragmentation of businesses into single people units.

Post 28: Life is training, training for life: the journey of life seen as self-improvement, and a training process to face its challenges, based on what I consider the three pillars: physicality, mentality, and intellectuality.

Post 29: How I implement the three pillars of life: my personal approach to master the quest mentioned in the previous post, describing my training, mental sharpening, and productive and intellectual endeavours.

Post 30: Sleep guide and daily details: how to master sleep, possibly the most important variable for health and longevity, and an exploration of certain subtle details and procedures used to ensure its optimality.

Post 31: Bulking, cutting, and staying lean: how to leverage cycles of caloric deficits and surpluses during the year to maximize muscle gain, minimize fat loss, and never be out of shape.

Post 32: The less you lift the better: why I switched to a 3x a week training routine, given the necessity for a more thorough recovery program, and the principles of high-intensity training, namely, short, intense, and infrequent stimulation for muscle growth.

Post 33: 3 early life-lessons and their application: three pieces of advice I’ve come up with based on my successes and mistakes: “take your own advice”, “if you can’t afford the downside, don’t do it”, and “take advice from above, ignore critiques form below”.

Post 34: The muscle-building principles: an exploration of the scientific and logic bases of muscle growth, in terms of stimulation and overcompensation. An approach to accomplish this successfully given the premises introduced.

Post 35: Physical training = mental training: the automatic social and intellectual benefits of mastering your own body and physicality, and the necessity of a physical improvement for the proper functionality of the mind.

Post 36: Introducing: strength endurance: the key variable to be maximized and incremented for hypertrophy, strength endurance, is equal to the total work you can do (force x reps), while keeping your force close to your one rep max. I also introduced the staircase method for progressive overload, optimal to increase your strength endurance.

Post 38: The myths of gym-bro dieting: An exploration of common dieting myths amongst bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts. Why overeating is more common than most would think, why you don’t need as much protein as you believe, and why carbs and fats are your allies, not your enemies.

Post 39: Back growth guide: An exploration of the best approach I’ve found thus far for growing my (and your) back, based on anatomy, practicality, and the theory of weight training.

Many months and many posts, and how many more yet to come? Only time will tell.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for more every Sunday, and make sure to share and subscribe!