1/ In Maps Of Meaning, Jordan Peterson writes he'd "always enjoyed engaging in arguments"
Subjects didn't matter
It was all a "game"
But in university, something shifted...
Jordan Peterson: "Suddenly, I couldn’t talk— I couldn’t stand listening to myself talk"
What happened?
2/ Peterson, an opinionated man, "started to hear a voice" inside his head
It commented on his opinions. Whenever he said anything, it made "critical" remarks:
"You don’t believe that. That isn’t true."
He wondered: "Which part was ME—the talking part or the criticizing part?"
3/ And then Jordan Peterson started having nightmares
He dreamt of nuclear annihilation, dogs butchering humans, mud rain, and "skeletal black ruins"
He became "very depressed and anxious"
He found his very "awareness of things" unbearable
His mood was "apocalyptic"
4/ One night, Jordan Peterson returned home drunk
He was "self-disgusted and angry"
Picking up some canvas and paints, he started sketching
It became a "harsh, crude" image of Christ: crucified with a cobra "wrapped around" him
It looked "demonic"
It SHOCKED Peterson
5/ In his agony, Peterson tried something new:
"I tried only to say things that my internal reviewer would pass unchallenged. This meant that I spoke much less often, and that I would frequently stop, midway through a sentence, feel embarrassed, and reformulate my thoughts."
6/ Jordan Peterson felt much "less agitated" when he said things in line with his inner voice
He realized that most of his ideas were "stolen"
His beliefs were just things that "sounded good, admirable, respectable, courageous"
Cost of such stolen ideas was internal hell
7/ Jordan Peterson gave up religion as an adolescent, deciding it was for the "ignorant, weak, and superstitious." After being tortured by endless nightmares and an identity crisis when he couldn't speak, he came back to God. A study of myths made his "horrible dreams disappear"
8/ JBP says the Devil is the "rejection of the unknown"
When the young Peterson rejected God, he was acting out "Luciferian pride":
"All that I know is all that is necessary to know"
But the truth is "something we cannot see protects us from something we do not understand"
9/ How did JBP go from tormented young man to becoming a father figure to millions today?
He started treating conversations not as meaningless power games but as truth seeking exercises
He started thinking of religion not as superstition but eternal reality described mythically
C.S Lewis almost died in the trench warfare of WW-I
Became best friends with Tolkien. Sold 100 million books...
On the cusp of WW-II, he gave an iconic lecture at Oxford University (1939)
His question: Does beauty matter when bombs start falling?
THIS is his profound answer👇🏻
1/ The permanent human situation is endless strife, chaos and pain
C.S. Lewis:
“Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself”
Yet culture breaks out
2/ If we waited for peace to create art the first cave painting would still not be made
Always some “imminent danger” looking more important than culture
Lewis: “If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun”
Disagreeableness has become the most important psychological trait. Everyday there is propaganda to ignore, psyops to reject, perversities to stay out of. The skill and speed with which you say "no" will determine how far you go
You evolved for a better signal:noise ratio. You have no internal defense against breaking news, algo-driven scrolling, 24/7 entertainment on tap, marketing on full blast, nefarious psyops, etc. So you have to build a defense system and then internalize it. Become disagreeable
90% of modern creativity advice is "be curious." But curiosity tethered to no higher principles, limited by no formal requirements, is just you collecting random data points until you drown in them. There's so much untapped creativity alpha in disagreeableness
There is a reason your creative juices start flowing in airplanes and long road-trips
I call it the "Kinetic Stillness Paradox" and I found this principle at play in the lives of nobodies like:
- JK Rowling
- Charles Darwin
- Albert Einstein
Let's dig in:
1/ 600 million people have read Harry Potter books—where was this iconic character born? In a train, as JK Rowling sat still for 4 hours, too shy to ask someone for a pen, mentally noting all details as the idea “simply fell" into her head
Harry Potter, inception location: train
2/ The theory of evolution rocked the foundations of religion, culture...even politics. Where was Charles Darwin when the eureka moment hit him? A horse-carriage...he remembered the "very spot in the road" 4 decades later
Theory of evolution, inception location: a horse-carriage
1/ Love precedes lovability: "Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her."
1/ Love precedes lovability because a "primary devotion" to a place, thing, or person is the source of the creative energy that transforms it. Begin with love, not scorn. Commitment beautifies
2/ Modern streets are "noisy with taxicabs and motorcars," but that's the noise of "laziness and fatigue," not activity. If everyone walked, streets would be quieter but more alive. Modern thought is like a modern street - noisiness, long words, loud ideas...hiding laziness
You can do almost anything with a phone - and that's Bad, Actually
Because you can do anything, you end up doing nothing
The best tools are constrained and specific. They do you a favor by limiting you...
Thread:
1/ On a typewriter you cannot stream movies, check stock prices, or play online chess. You can only write. On a camera you cannot tweet, google trivia, or order groceries. You can only click. These older tools gave you a tunnel vision that their advanced alternatives just cannot
2/ If the only tool you have is a hammer, then all your problems look like nails. If the only tool you have is a 7 inch flat screen, then all your problems look like pixel arrangement problems. That is Objectively False. Real problems demand more than tapping, clicking, coding