Jordan Peterson says being articulate is the most dangerous thing you can become.
Here's how he learned to do it, word by word:
1. Being articulate is the single most powerful way to become dangerous. Peterson means dangerous in the best sense: capable, formidable, someone to be reckoned with. The word itself is the clue. A joint that's articulated can do things because it's differentiated, not one solid vague mass. Someone graceful is articulated. Speech is articulation of the mind, and the person who can do it well is a force.
2. Your real options are stark: competent and dangerous, or vague and useless. Peterson refuses the middle ground. Do you want to be able to think, plan, and compel, or do you want to say "um" and "like" and stumble and be unable to formulate a vision? Choosing inarticulacy is choosing awkwardness over grace, and he calls that beyond foolish.
3. It matters no matter what you do. He uses a plumber as the example, deliberately. An articulate plumber can negotiate with clients, make the case for his employees, advertise his services, introduce his coworkers, and think through his own problems. He's firing on all cylinders. The skill isn't for some narrow class of knowledge workers. It's leverage in any job there is.
4. Even the toughest people credit their words, not their strength. Peterson points to Jocko Willink, a former special operations soldier who is, in his words, about four feet wide and one tough son of a gun. And Jocko will tell you directly that his success as a warrior depended on being articulate. He could listen to his men, explain the situation to his superiors, argue for the right people to be promoted, and plan strategically enough not to lose battles. All of it downstream of communication.
5. The way you become articulate is by paying attention to what you say. That sounds too simple, so he gives an image. Imagine crossing a swamp where a hidden path of stones lies just under the murky water. You feel for the next stone with your foot, find what's solid, step, and repeat. That is exactly what you do with words. You feel your way one word at a time.
6. Test each word by whether it makes you stronger or weaker. As you speak, you can actually feel it: is this word putting me together and making me intact, or is it tearing me apart and making me weak? Peterson says you can learn to sense this. The right word solidifies you. The wrong one leaves a faint trace of shame or vulnerability, and you can learn to notice that signal and correct toward the words that hold.
7. When he started, only about 5% of what he said passed that test. He noticed 40 years ago that much of what he said actually made him feel weak, and he didn't know why. The other 95% was instrumental: language used to win the argument, to appear smart, to get his way. Only a small fraction was him genuinely feeling for the true word. The skill was built by slowly growing that percentage.
8. Cut the fillers and take the time to craft what you say. The concrete practice: stop the humming and hawing, stop leaning on "like" and "you know," and give yourself permission to take the time necessary to choose your words carefully. A pause while you find the right word beats a fast sentence full of filler. Silence isn't the enemy. Vagueness is.
9. Practice saying only what you believe to be true. This is the core discipline. Read great writers, write about the problems that genuinely obsess you, and in conversation, say the things you actually believe rather than the things that are merely useful. Peterson frames becoming articulate as a moral endeavor, because aligning what you say with what's true is what makes a person come across as genuine and trustworthy, and that combination can't easily be faked.
10. Learn the prayerful pause. When someone hands you a question or a hard proposition, don't fire back with what you already "know." Instead ask yourself, genuinely, what do I actually think about that? It has to be a real question, the kind you'd ask a stranger, posed as if you might not already know your own mind. Wait, and the answer will make itself known, because that is how thought actually works.
11. That pause is also what makes you interesting. The moment you stop performing and start genuinely inquiring, you become interesting to the person you're talking to. If they do it back, they become interesting too. Two people doing this have a real conversation, and a real conversation is how both of them grow. It's not a trick for sounding smart. It's the actual pathway to growth.
12. This is why Joe Rogan works, and it's the whole lesson. Peterson's read on Rogan: he's not trying to get anything from his guests, not chasing fame or money, so there's no instrumental use of language in how he talks. He just asks the honest questions he actually has, including the "stupid" ones that turn out to be the questions everyone listening shares. Abandon instrumentality, speak only what you believe true, and Peterson says the path in front of you becomes a golden one.
No be say we get anything against Nigerian Pastors o but when you see Person wey God call, you go just know.
When you see church wey na family, you go just know ❤��👏
This is what the church should represent and not the ones that stay taking even from the little you have.
Not the ones that own schools their members can’t even attend.
GOD IS TRULY GREAT‼️
Ibrahim Traoré Confirms Western Bioweapon Concerns
Western intelligence activities in Africa are a threat to the continent's sovereignty and it's time more African leaders called it out.
Burkina Faso's President, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has exposed an attempt by Western intelligence agencies to introduce biological weapons into his country, showing a pattern of foreign interference that can no longer be overlooked.
From the illegal 1996 Pfizer drug trial in Kano to concerns over US-funded biological research laboratories in countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, Africa has too often been treated as a testing ground rather than an equal partner.
The larger issue is sovereignty. Why do foreign governments continue to involve themselves in African affairs?
A step by step explanation on how Western governments destroy African leaders who are competent. He gives the recent BBC hit piece on Ibrahim Traoré, led by a fellow African (Sudanese journalist).