My daughter brought her new boyfriend to Sunday dinner last month.
He’s 24, works at a COMMERCIAL TIRE SHOP, and has grease permanently stained into his cuticles.
He didn’t say much, just ate three servings of my pot roast and nodded a lot.
After they left, I told my wife I wished my daughter would date someone with a bit more ambition.
Someone who didn't look like they just crawled out from under a semi-truck.
Two weeks later, my alternator died on the shoulder of Route 9 during a torrential downpour.
I called AAA, but the wait time was two hours.
My daughter must have seen my text in the family group chat because twenty minutes later, her boyfriend's beat-up Chevy truck pulled up behind me.
He didn't have a raincoat.
He just got straight to work in the pouring rain, leaning over my engine bay while semi-trucks flew past at 70 miles per hour, spraying us with dirty highway water.
It took him forty-five minutes of wrestling with a rusted bolt to get the spare part in.
When he finished, he was soaked to the bone and shivering.
I pulled out my wallet and tried to hand him two hundred dollars.
He looked at the cash, then looked at me, and gently pushed my hand away.
He said,
"Sir, you don't pay family.
Just make sure your daughter gets home safe tonight."
I sat in my dry, warm car on the drive home feeling incredibly small.
I had judged his worth by the dirt under his fingernails,
completely missing the size of his heart.
THE ELITES WON'T TELL YOU THIS—but the science is clear.
The University of Nebraska just proved raising MORE COWS & eating MORE BEEF saves the planet.
Cows are carbon negative—they produce more oxygen than the methane & carbon they emit.
Someone who founded PayPal, built a car company and sends rockets into space becoming a trillionaire isn’t weird. Public servants making $174k becoming millionaires is.
Change my mind.
The most frightening person i ever witnessed was a man who only wanted one thing. everybody around him had a hundred plans, a hundred projects they were going to start next month, and he had one, just one. and he never talked about it much, and that was the part that unnerved you, because when someone talks a lot about what they want, you can relax. talking is letting the pressure out, so it's harmless. but he was airtight.
Everything in him was moving toward one point, in silence. within a few years he was in a place no one else could reach, and everybody who had watched him stood there scattered and confused, with their mouths full of plans that never solidified into anything. i learned from watching him that the mouth is a leak. every time you say what you are going to do, you lose a piece of the will that would have done it
Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada spoke about the contradictions of human nature:
“Some people dream of having a swimming pool at home, while those who have one hardly ever use it. Those who have lost a loved one feel a profound sense of loss, while others often complain about their living relatives. Those without a partner long for one, while those who have one often don't appreciate it. The hungry would give anything for a meal, while the satiated complain about the taste of their food. Those without a car dream of owning one, while those who have a car are always looking for a better one.”
The key to happiness is gratitude: truly seeing and appreciating what we already have, and understanding that somewhere, someone would give anything for what we take for granted.
The vaccine dosage was obviously too high and done too many times.
I had the original Wuhan virus before there was any vaccine and it was much like any other cold/flu. Bad, but not terrible.
But my second vaccine shot almost sent me to the hospital. Felt like I was dying.
Worst thing one can do right now is turn into a doomer. This content gets so much engagement.
Become a delusional optimist.
Don’t focus on the potential crypto downside → focus on the massive upside the next cycle will bring.
Bitcoin is still going to one million.
Don’t focus on AI destroying the economy or taking your job. Focus on the opportunity it brings.
Doomers will blind themselves and miss the opportunity and reversal.
Life’s beautiful.