Thread by @KapilGuptaMD

ON PRESCRIPTIONS, SILICON VALLEY, AND THE FINAL MILE

There is a concept at play in every facet of society

Every craft, every discipline, every business, every sport

This concept is so fundamental to the way humans think, that it is rarely noticed, much less questioned

The concept is this:

If one wishes to learn something, achieve something, or acquire something

Then he must be given a pill, a potion, a method, or a technique

This pill may be a veritable ingestible pill

Equally often, it is a "How-to," of one sort or another

If you examine those who follow "the how," thirty years later they are still "working on it"

Thirty years later, they are still "almost there"

They struggle, fret, roam in circles, as they move about from "how" to never-ending "how"

If one were to take these very same humans, and look at what they did best, they would find very little struggle in these domains

In the things that they do best, they more or less "have it"

If you ask humans who are great at something, "how" they do it, they will attempt an answer

And it is in this very attempt that they will experience the greatest struggle

For what they are struggling to avoid is the Truth

Which is that they do not really know "how" they do it

A Founder or CEO bucks all trends, and by his own unique magic, creates a shining star of a company

This very same individual, whose iconoclastic and contrarian qualities took him to unspeakable heights, then decides to go on a journey of self-improvement

In going on a journey of self-improvement, he for the first time in his life does something out character

He follows trends

He succumbs to norms

He joins "groups"

He follows tradition

And pursues all things opposite to the way in which he attained greatness in his own domain

In following the norms and traditions in the domain of self-help, he becomes the very person he has always refused to become

And this leads him down a road of endless struggle

For majority opinion, tradition, norms, and status quo Always lead to struggle

What is most ironic is that Silicon Valley is filled with gloriously talented, iconoclastic, and original thinkers

Yet many of these World Number One's have fallen for the common, derivative traditions of the spirituality and self-help domains

Of all places in the world, Silicon Valley is the one place that is made to buck all norms and traditions

It is the one place that is made to reject all that is not Original and True

It is the one place that is made to deny all forms of artificiality and disingenuousness

If there is a Non-Prescriptive culture, would it not be Silicon Valley?

If there is a culture that seeks the Ultimate, rather than cheap, flighty, and temporary "experiences," would it not be Silicon Valley?

You see, prescriptions are essentially "medicines"

They are politicians who know what is "good for you"

They are meditation instructors who promise that "if you practice for 30 years, one day it will come"

But "30 years" have passed a hundred times over

And "it" hasn't come

In practicing "the how," one becomes forever beholden to the how

He becomes a man who for 30 years practices flexing his knee in hopes of getting it just right, so that he may walk to the front door

The wise man understands a Great Secret:

The "how" is created by the mind

In order to keep one enslaved to the mind

For as long as the mind has a man pre-occupied with the how

He will never leave its premises

He will be a permanent prisoner

The practitioner knows every "how"

The Artist knows none

That which is created by the hand of Instinct

Cannot possibly be duplicated by a method

If greatness were a method, there would be a Rembrandt on every corner

Then @naval @pmarca @sacca @JeffBezos @BillGates @Benioff @TigerWoods would each write a book explaining precisely "how" and what makes them great, and those who read the book would become just as great

If a man becomes supreme in his own domain

Why should he lower himself toward lesser ideals in any other domain?

Becoming a master of one's domain is not the ending point, but the starting point

For becoming a Master of one's Mind

Becoming a Master of one's Mind

And, by extension, the Master of oneself, one's thoughts, one's emotions, and one's destiny

Is the Final Mile

This is the Everest that is the real privilege of the successful

For in achieving This,

They will have truly achieved All

Namaste.