Johan

Finite being, infinite questions.

[Johan @liebert_2026]

why jordan peterson believes "how do i find the love of my life" is a stupid question

"I got asked that three times in a row and I didn't have a good answer. And then I thought, why don't I have a good answer? I thought, oh, I know why, 'cause that's a stupid question."

"It's putting the cart before the horse. Here's the right question. How do I make myself into the perfect date?"
"If I offered everything I could to a partner, who would I be? You work on that."

"Okay. What do they want? Clean. That's not a bad start. Reasonably good physical shape. So healthy, productive, generous, honest, willing to delay gratification."

"The harder you work on offering other people what they need and want, the more people will line up to play with you."

"Then you think, well, if I do that, people will just take advantage of me. And that's why you're supposed to be as soft as a dove and as wise as a serpent."

"I know you're full of snakes. I know it. Maybe I know it more than you do, but we'll play anyways."

"Even though the person you're dealing with is full of snakes, if you offer your hand in trust and it's real, you will evoke the best in them."

"Even under those circumstances, if you step carefully enough, maybe you can avoid the ax. That's a good thing to know if you ever meet someone truly dangerous."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

ft. @McConaughey @ChrisWillx

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Matthew McConaughey on the price of being someone you admire.

"You don't know what the texture of that person's mind's like when they go to bed at night. They might not have spoken to their father in 5 years. They might never feel peace. They might hate themselves. Might not be able to get an erection. You want that. You really want that. But you want the outside success."

"The price that people pay to be somebody that you admire is one of the most fascinating questions I think."

"So many people have the renter's mentality. Relationships, businesses, transactional, you flip it, get it, flip it. They never give the house a chance to actually maybe become a home."

"Have you ever hired someone that you were like probably just need you for a few months? I have only hired people that I was like I'm hoping this is going to be a lifer."

"You become their CEO and they fire you and hammer you. See it in politics and they drag you through the mud and like dude that's just how it is. It's just business. It's just politics. I'm like hang on a minute."

"You do what's expedient or successful. You betray a lot of people, a lot of ideals, including yourself. That doesn't sound like very much fun to me."

"Where have I sacrificed my own character to get ahead so then to be perceived as? And I know I've done it many times."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Jeff Bezos told his parents there was a 70% chance they'd lose everything. They invested anyway.

"I told them that I thought there was a 70% chance that they would lose their whole investment, which was a few hundred thousand dollars... and they did it anyway. My dad's first question was, what's the internet?"

"When we launched that store in July of 1995 we were shocked at the customer response. In the first 30 days we had orders from all 50 states and 45 different countries and we were woefully unprepared from an operational point of view to handle that kind of volume."

"We were packing on our hands and knees on a hard concrete floor, and I had this brainstorm. I said to the person next to me, this packing is killing my knees... you know what we need? We need knee pads. And this person looked at me like I was the stupidest person they'd ever seen, and said, what we need is packing tables. I thought that was the smartest idea I had ever heard."

"That early stage of Amazon, where we were so unprepared, is probably one of the luckiest things that ever happened to us, because it formed a culture of customer service in every single person in the company. That is our goal... to be earth's most customer-centric company."

"Startup companies need early planetary alignment, because there are so many things that can go wrong."

"It's very important for entrepreneurs to be realistic. If you believe on that first day that there's a 70% chance the whole thing will fail, that relieves the pressure of self-doubt."

"As a company gets bigger it starts to become more stable... it needs a lot less luck, and instead it needs the hard work. And at that point there's a little bit more pressure, because then if you fail, you have nobody to blame but yourself."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Ft @ChrisWillx @McConaughey

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Matthew McConaughey on why studying the people you admire is keeping you stuck.

"Everybody who's achieved something great was some sort of outlaw. Some sort of hustler. Out of balance, out of whack, dark times."

"Model the rise not the result. Because the result is where they're at now. Do not ask Warren Buffett about how long he spends reading the newspaper. That guy was a hustler."

"What did you do when you were at the stage that I am at? Not what do you do now? I want to get to where you are. That means I don't do what you do now. I do what you did to get there."

"We do overpraise balance a bit. I think a better pursuit is try and find the rhyme in the imbalance."

"What's better? Take eight big risk in life, sin once, but get seven. Or take a hundred risks and achieve eight of them. My hunch is there's a God saying go for the hundred and get eight rather than eight and get seven."

"If you're not taking enough risk to sin or miss the mark, which is what sin means, to fail, then what are you doing, man?"

"If you fail you chop your leg off and announce that the desire for legs is misguided and must be subdued. By not trying to play the game there is no risk of failure."

"If failure comes along, it doesn't hurt as much. But it also means that success is less likely. And if success comes along, you know that you didn't really earn it."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Ft @JeffBezos

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Jeff Bezos told his parents there was a 70% chance they'd lose everything. They invested anyway.

"I told them that I thought there was a 70% chance that they would lose their whole investment, which was a few hundred thousand dollars... and they did it anyway. My dad's first question was, what's the internet?"

"When we launched that store in July of 1995 we were shocked at the customer response. In the first 30 days we had orders from all 50 states and 45 different countries and we were woefully unprepared from an operational point of view to handle that kind of volume."

"We were packing on our hands and knees on a hard concrete floor, and I had this brainstorm. I said to the person next to me, this packing is killing my knees... you know what we need? We need knee pads. And this person looked at me like I was the stupidest person they'd ever seen, and said, what we need is packing tables. I thought that was the smartest idea I had ever heard."

"That early stage of Amazon, where we were so unprepared, is probably one of the luckiest things that ever happened to us, because it formed a culture of customer service in every single person in the company. That is our goal... to be earth's most customer-centric company."

"Startup companies need early planetary alignment, because there are so many things that can go wrong."

"It's very important for entrepreneurs to be realistic. If you believe on that first day that there's a 70% chance the whole thing will fail, that relieves the pressure of self-doubt."

"As a company gets bigger it starts to become more stable... it needs a lot less luck, and instead it needs the hard work. And at that point there's a little bit more pressure, because then if you fail, you have nobody to blame but yourself."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

why jordan peterson believes "how do i find the love of my life" is a stupid question

"I got asked that three times in a row and I didn't have a good answer. And then I thought, why don't I have a good answer? I thought, oh, I know why, 'cause that's a stupid question."

"It's putting the cart before the horse. Here's the right question. How do I make myself into the perfect date?"
"If I offered everything I could to a partner, who would I be? You work on that."

"Okay. What do they want? Clean. That's not a bad start. Reasonably good physical shape. So healthy, productive, generous, honest, willing to delay gratification."

"The harder you work on offering other people what they need and want, the more people will line up to play with you."

"Then you think, well, if I do that, people will just take advantage of me. And that's why you're supposed to be as soft as a dove and as wise as a serpent."

"I know you're full of snakes. I know it. Maybe I know it more than you do, but we'll play anyways."

"Even though the person you're dealing with is full of snakes, if you offer your hand in trust and it's real, you will evoke the best in them."

"Even under those circumstances, if you step carefully enough, maybe you can avoid the ax. That's a good thing to know if you ever meet someone truly dangerous."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

jordan peterson explains why you'll never find happiness by chasing it

"people say they want to be happy. that's not true."

"they're actually more concerned about avoiding the catastrophic negative than living in a world of hedonistic delight."

"when do you experience the positive emotion that's associated with happiness? not when you've attained a goal, but when you're pursuing one."

"no goal, no positive emotion."

"no goal not only means no positive emotion. it also means confusion. and confusion means anxiety and dread."

"a life without a goal is confusing and hopeless."

"you're afraid of making a change? fine. how afraid are you of not making a change?"

"you're stuck where you are, but it's 10 years from now. you're 10 years older, 10 years more bitter, 10 years more cynical. maybe by that time your marriage has collapsed, because who the hell wants to live with you?"

"if you can't get out of that situation now, what the hell makes you think you're going to get out of it in 10 years?"

"it's really useful to know what your own particular brand of hell might be."

"then you have your negative emotion working for you and your positive emotion working for you. and that's a great gradient."

"cocaine is such a powerful drug because it makes you feel like you're doing something worthwhile. that's the system it hyperactivates."

"it's the fact that the goal beckons to you that makes you say: i want to do that."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

ft. @jordanbpeterson @lexfridman

[Johan @liebert_2026]

why jordan peterson believes "how do i find the love of my life" is a stupid question

"I got asked that three times in a row and I didn't have a good answer. And then I thought, why don't I have a good answer? I thought, oh, I know why, 'cause that's a stupid question."

"It's putting the cart before the horse. Here's the right question. How do I make myself into the perfect date?"
"If I offered everything I could to a partner, who would I be? You work on that."

"Okay. What do they want? Clean. That's not a bad start. Reasonably good physical shape. So healthy, productive, generous, honest, willing to delay gratification."

"The harder you work on offering other people what they need and want, the more people will line up to play with you."

"Then you think, well, if I do that, people will just take advantage of me. And that's why you're supposed to be as soft as a dove and as wise as a serpent."

"I know you're full of snakes. I know it. Maybe I know it more than you do, but we'll play anyways."

"Even though the person you're dealing with is full of snakes, if you offer your hand in trust and it's real, you will evoke the best in them."

"Even under those circumstances, if you step carefully enough, maybe you can avoid the ax. That's a good thing to know if you ever meet someone truly dangerous."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Jordan Peterson on what scares him more than death

"You know, I was ready to die a year ago. And not casually. I had people I loved. So no, I'm not very worried about me, but I am very worried about making a mistake."

"Do I fear I've become a Jordan Peterson impersonator? I think I worry about it more than anything else. I hope. I hope I do. I better."

"Has fame corrupted me? No doubt. In some regard. It's a very difficult thing to avoid, because things change around you."

"Not if the red carpet is rolled out to you while you're on your way to perdition. That's not a good deal. You just get there more efficiently."

"If you gaze into the abyss long enough, you see the light, not the darkness. I'm betting my life on it."

"The angel of death sits on every word."

"I'd wake up every morning. Time short, get at it. Time short, get at it. There's things to do."

"I heard Elon Musk talk about that a couple of months ago. Someone asked him about death and he said just offhand, 'That'd be a relief.' And then he went on with the conversation."

"I'm more afraid of hell than death. I don't know if it follows or if it's always here. And I think we're gonna find out."

"You're more likely to die terribly if you live in a manner that brings you to hell. That's one connection."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Ft. @jordanbpeterson @lexfridman

[Johan @liebert_2026]

Jordan Peterson on what scares him more than death

"You know, I was ready to die a year ago. And not casually. I had people I loved. So no, I'm not very worried about me, but I am very worried about making a mistake."

"Do I fear I've become a Jordan Peterson impersonator? I think I worry about it more than anything else. I hope. I hope I do. I better."

"Has fame corrupted me? No doubt. In some regard. It's a very difficult thing to avoid, because things change around you."

"Not if the red carpet is rolled out to you while you're on your way to perdition. That's not a good deal. You just get there more efficiently."

"If you gaze into the abyss long enough, you see the light, not the darkness. I'm betting my life on it."

"The angel of death sits on every word."

"I'd wake up every morning. Time short, get at it. Time short, get at it. There's things to do."

"I heard Elon Musk talk about that a couple of months ago. Someone asked him about death and he said just offhand, 'That'd be a relief.' And then he went on with the conversation."

"I'm more afraid of hell than death. I don't know if it follows or if it's always here. And I think we're gonna find out."

"You're more likely to die terribly if you live in a manner that brings you to hell. That's one connection."

[Naruto @NarutoNolimits]

Elon Musk explains why the boring simulations get shut down first

"The most ironic outcome is the most likely, especially if entertaining."

"Only the simulations that are interesting will continue. The simulators will stop any simulations that are boring."

"In this reality that we live in, we run simulations all the time. When we try to figure out if the rocket's going to make it, we run thousands, sometimes millions of simulations just to figure out which path is the good path for the rocket."

"When we do these millions of simulations of what can happen with the rocket, we ignore the ones where everything goes right, because we have to address the situations where it goes wrong."

"We keep the simulations going that are the most interesting to us."

"Therefore, from a Darwinian perspective, the only surviving simulations will be the most interesting ones."

"In order to avoid getting turned off, the only rule is you must keep it interesting, because the boring simulations will be terminated."

"Video games have gone from very simple video games like Pong, with two rectangles and a square, to video games today being photorealistic with millions of people playing simultaneously. And all of that has occurred in our lifetime."

"If that trend continues, video games will be indistinguishable from reality. The fidelity of the game will be such that you don't know if what you're seeing is a real video or a fake video."

"AI-generated videos at this point, you can sometimes tell it's an AI-generated video, but often you cannot tell. And soon you will just not be able to tell."

"We'll create millions, if not billions, of photorealistic simulations of reality. Then what are the odds that we're in base reality?"

"The most interesting and usually ironic outcome is the most likely."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

why jordan peterson believes people choose a meaningless life on purpose:

"nihilists suffer dreadfully, because there's no meaning in their life. but the advantage is, they have no responsibility. so that's the payoff, and i actually think that's the motivation."

"maybe you've just allowed your belief systems to collapse, because it's a hell of a lot easier than acting them out."

"the price you pay is a meaningless suffering, but you can always whine about that and people will feel sorry for you, and you have the option of taking the pathway of the martyr. so that's a pretty good deal, all things considered."

"perhaps the reason that you're suffering unbearably can be left at your feet, because you're not everything you could be, and you know it."

"my experience is with people, that we're probably running at about 51% of our capacity."

"if you're wasting 20 hours a week, you're wasting $50,000 a year. and you are doing that right now."

"the conscience is this feeling or voice you have in your head, just before you do something you know is stupid, telling you that probably you shouldn't do that stupid thing. you don't have to listen to it, strangely enough."

"what would happen if you abided by your conscience for 5 years, or for 10 years? what sort of position might you be in? what sort of relationship might you be able to forge?"

"you're at the center of a network. you'll know a thousand people at least over the course of your life. and they'll know a thousand people each. and that puts you one person away from a million. and two persons away from a billion."

"the things you do, they're like dropping a stone in a pond. the ripples move outward, and they affect things in ways that you can't fully comprehend."

"if you live a pathological life, you pathologize your society. and if enough people do that, then it's hell, really."

"you can read the gulag archipelago, and you'll see exactly what hell is like. and then you can decide if that's a place you'd like to visit and take all your family and friends."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

why jordan peterson believes people choose a meaningless life on purpose:

"nihilists suffer dreadfully, because there's no meaning in their life. but the advantage is, they have no responsibility. so that's the payoff, and i actually think that's the motivation."

"maybe you've just allowed your belief systems to collapse, because it's a hell of a lot easier than acting them out."

"the price you pay is a meaningless suffering, but you can always whine about that and people will feel sorry for you, and you have the option of taking the pathway of the martyr. so that's a pretty good deal, all things considered."

"perhaps the reason that you're suffering unbearably can be left at your feet, because you're not everything you could be, and you know it."

"my experience is with people, that we're probably running at about 51% of our capacity."

"if you're wasting 20 hours a week, you're wasting $50,000 a year. and you are doing that right now."

"the conscience is this feeling or voice you have in your head, just before you do something you know is stupid, telling you that probably you shouldn't do that stupid thing. you don't have to listen to it, strangely enough."

"what would happen if you abided by your conscience for 5 years, or for 10 years? what sort of position might you be in? what sort of relationship might you be able to forge?"

"you're at the center of a network. you'll know a thousand people at least over the course of your life. and they'll know a thousand people each. and that puts you one person away from a million. and two persons away from a billion."

"the things you do, they're like dropping a stone in a pond. the ripples move outward, and they affect things in ways that you can't fully comprehend."

"if you live a pathological life, you pathologize your society. and if enough people do that, then it's hell, really."

"you can read the gulag archipelago, and you'll see exactly what hell is like. and then you can decide if that's a place you'd like to visit and take all your family and friends."

[Naruto @NarutoNolimits]

Elon Musk breaks down how to actually beat the competition

"a natural human tendency is wishful thinking."

"be focused on something you're confident will have high value to someone else, and just be really rigorous in making that assessment."

"a challenge for entrepreneurs is to tell the difference between really believing in your ideals versus pursuing some unrealistic dream that doesn't actually have merit."

"that is a really difficult thing to tell. so you need to be very rigorous in your self-analysis."

"be extremely tenacious, and then just work like hell."

"you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week."

"if other people are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you're putting in 100-hour work weeks, then even if you're doing the same thing, in one year you will achieve what they achieve in two."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

steve jobs on why passion isn't optional

"it's so hard that if you don't love it, any rational person would give up."

"the ones that didn't love it quit, because they're sane. who would want to put up with this stuff if you don't love it?"

"you have to do it over a sustained period of time. if you're not having fun doing it, you're going to give up. that's what happens to most people."

"the ones that are successful loved what they did, so they could persevere when it got really tough."

"it's a lot of hard work, and a lot of worrying constantly. if you don't love it, you're going to fail."

"so you got to love it. you got to have passion. that's the high order bit."

[Johan @liebert_2026]

steve jobs on why passion isn't optional

"it's so hard that if you don't love it, any rational person would give up."

"the ones that didn't love it quit, because they're sane. who would want to put up with this stuff if you don't love it?"

"you have to do it over a sustained period of time. if you're not having fun doing it, you're going to give up. that's what happens to most people."

"the ones that are successful loved what they did, so they could persevere when it got really tough."

"it's a lot of hard work, and a lot of worrying constantly. if you don't love it, you're going to fail."

"so you got to love it. you got to have passion. that's the high order bit."