Ben Affleck shares how he overcame his alcohol addiction. Says it is not “overpriced rehabs”.
“I hate to say it but the cure for addiction and the only cure I’ve seen is not these overpriced rehabs or these fraudulent fixes that are sold to people”
“The cure for addiction is suffering”
“You suffer enough and then something inside you goes ‘I’m done’”
Before you get motivated about that $120k to $240k career, understand that he gave you a revenue number of $1M.
Secondly, he has PhD and 12 years in oil and gas.
Don’t do motivation without context
I earned $120K a year working for Shell in 2012.
Ten years and multiple promotions later, in 2022, that figure has doubled to $240K a year.
In 2023, I stumbled on an internal, confidential, document that showed the salaries of my superiors.
I saw that even if I were promoted multiple times again, the best I could hope for in another 10 years was another doubling to around $480K a year.
This may sound crazy saying it out loud but that wasn’t cutting it for me.
I simply didn’t want the next 10 years to be a repeat of the last 10.
I wanted geometric progression, not an arithmetic one.
On my 40th birthday, in 2023, I was asked to make a wish as a blew the candles on my birthday cake.
“Get the hell out of Shell,” I quietly whispered. Months later, I was out.
In 2024, my businesses grossed $500K; in 2025, they did $1M - geometric progression.
It required me to be delusional about my abilities, to bank on the faithfulness of God and to trust that inner voice that always nag at me that I could be more, I could do more and I could have more.
When someone is really chosen by God you'll know it by the way they go through hell, lose people, lose possessions, face unbelievable storms and somehow come back stronger, resilient, full of joy and laughter even! That kind of strength isn't natural. It's supernatural. Divine.
One thing I can’t stop thinking about is that if you took the leading AI models (ChatGPT 5.6, Claude Fable) today, and showed its capabilities to someone back in 2019, they would legitimately believe you were doing magic
In 2026, we have become so used to these capabilities that we take it for granted. The human brain has incredible capability for adaptation, and it happens for both the good and the bad
We adapt very well to harsh circumstances, but we also adapt just as quickly to technological progress. For our brains to be satisfied, the progress treadmill must keep running on forever
The board of directors decided they wanted a physical tour of our data center this morning.
They wanted to see where their $10M annual infrastructure investment was going.
This was a massive logistical problem for me.
Server Room A isn't a data center.
Server Room A is my personal sanctuary.
I have a $4K espresso machine, a memory foam mattress topper, and a 75-inch OLED television in there.
I spend 6 hours a day in Server Room A playing Runescape while my 2008 automation scripts run the company.
I had exactly 20 minutes to rebrand a luxury bachelor pad into a mission-critical tech hub.
When the executives walked in, the room was completely dark except for the glow of the OLED screen.
The screen was displaying a looping 4K screensaver of the Matrix code.
The chairman asked why there was a mattress on the floor next to the main server rack.
I told him sometimes I have to sleep in there while pulling 48-hour shifts.
The CFO pointed to the stainless steel espresso machine sitting on my desk.
She asked why we had a commercial coffee maker plugged into a dedicated server circuit.
I didn't break eye contact.
I told her it was a state-of-the-art thermal liquid cooling intake system called La Marzocco.
I said it utilizes high-pressure steam to regulate the ambient temperature of our localized edge nodes.
I pressed a button and the machine dispensed a perfect double espresso shot.
I told them it was extracting toxic condensation from the mainframe.
I drank the shot right in front of them to demonstrate my commitment to environmental sustainability.
The CEO literally gasped.
He told the board I was putting my own body on the line to keep the servers running.
They ended the tour early because they felt they were interrupting highly sensitive technical operations.
I locked the door behind them, switched the Matrix code back to my PlayStation input.
Executive oversight is an illusion.
If you dim the lights and use the word kinetic, you can get away with anything.
This line from Atomic Habits isn't ready to leave my head:
"It doesn't make sense to continue wanting something if you're not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don't want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process is to guarantee disappointment."