Voice 1 speaks of unbreakable self-worth. Voice 2 is a fickle status whore.

Voice 1 is the voice of constructive guilt. Voice 2 the voice of toxic shame.

Voice 1 is mostly quiet, except for a warm glow of content when things go well or a sad feeling when things go awry. Voice 2 is a constantly screaming loathsome hysteric.

Voice 1 is the voice of reason, conscience and compassion. Voice 2 is the voice of sinking feelings, confusion and demonization.

Voice 1 has simple guidelines: do no harm, try to do good, follow your bliss, to thine own self be true. Voice 2 is the internalized and internally contradicting gestalts - Spooks, in Max Stirner's parlance - of Parents, Bullies, Haters, Government, Society, Norms, Right and Wrong, etc.

Voice 1 wants relentless growth. Voice 2 wants Jante stagnation.

Voice 1 feels like me. Voice 2 feels alien.

Voice 1 uplifts and inspires. Voice 2 demands submission.

Voice 1 wants to learn by doing, to unfold life's story by constructive action. Voice 2 wants a frozen identity.

Voice 1 remembers the glories of the past and sees promise in the future. Voice 2 is fixated on mistakes and perils.

Voice 1 honors ancestors, nature, friends, and all good things. Voice 2 sees only pain in the world.

Voice 1 wants to talk it out. Voice 2 refuses discourse.

Voice 1 is hope. Voice 2 is futility.

Voice 1 is your truest self. Voice 2 is the imaginary echoes of all the world's haters.

Voice 1 wrote these words. Voice 2 didn't see the point.

I'd read enough blog posts and magazine articles and books about how the internet makes us lonely, or stupid, or lonely and stupid, that I'd begun to believe them. I wanted to figure out what the internet was "doing to me," so I could fight back. But the internet isn't an individual pursuit, it's something we do with each other. The internet is where people are.

And here:

As it turned out, a dozen letters a week could prove to be as overwhelming as a hundred emails a day. And that was the way it went in most aspects of my life. A good book took motivation to read, whether I had the internet as an alternative or not. Leaving the house to hang out with people took just as much courage as it ever did.

By late 2012, I'd learned how to make a new style of wrong choices off the internet. I abandoned my positive offline habits, and discovered new offline vices. Instead of taking boredom and lack of stimulation and turning them into learning and creativity, I turned toward passive consumption and social retreat.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet

I'm recently getting to be more productive and swear off the sloth lifestyle and get some work done.

I only know very few people and none of them I think would hold me accountable properly. 

Would anyone like an accountability deal with me?

Weekly or so, we both state goals and follow up with the other in the future to see how things went and suggest improvements if suitable.

The book for May is Hannibal and Me.

If you want to join, please let us know.

Call is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 26th, @ 7PM ET.

One of the best books for strategy/mindset is The 50th Law, by Robert Greene and 50 Cent.

If you are familiar with the 33 Strategies of War or The 48 Laws of Power, you will find many concepts from these books, but explained in a different way using example's from 50's life and others remarkable people in history.

I have the audiobook and frequently revisit one of the 10 chapters (about a 30 minute listen) when I am stressed/in need of inspiration.

Learn how his strategy, fearlessness  and self-discipline allowed him to use rap as a vehicle to turn him into a nine figure business man. And how you can apply this to your own life.

Is anyone interested in reading and discussing this book over 1 or 2 calls? We can start with one discussing chapters 1-5 (about 130 pages), and another for chapters 6-10.

Not sure if you want to read it? Here is a slideshow that covers the main principles.

Also, Ryan Holiday's take:

The 50th Law by Robert Greene and 50 Cent
Since I worked on this book it took me 3 or 4 tries before I could really lose myself in it and actually read it. My bias aside, it is very, very good. It almost feels a bit extemporaneous; the book flows well because it's centered on a single theme that it refines further with each chapter. Robert used much less of 50's bio than I thought he would and it has the effect of making the book very simple and to the point. The three best laws are Chapter 2 - Make Everything Your Own, Chapter 3 - Turn Shit into Sugar and Chapter 8 - Respect the Process: Mastery. They rely most heavily on the great black boxers, who I enjoyed researching and learning about. The publisher has tried to describe this book as more philosophical than Robert's other books, which I think is wrong or at least, a problem with the definition of the word. In fact, this book is much more practical than the 48 Laws or the War book. It has direct applications to your life, and not just in the sense of maneuvering around a bad worker, but literally the way in which you live your life. It's not a business book either and it's lame to hear it described that way. 

Please reply or PM me and we can try to get a call set up for the last week of April.

Thanks.

I got into the market like a month ago and I'm sure I'm not the only marshallite who's fascinated by this new tech?

Make the decisions in your strongest moments, that limit your choices in your weakest moments.

The wisest dude I know said that once, and it stuck with me.

I was just reading about will power on Recursive Self Improvement, and it struck me as an apt description of philosophy and strategy.

Why are your beliefs and goals important to define? Because they set the boundaries for what you do so you can put it on autopilot. This frees you up to use your willpower on new projects, new focuses.

Thought I should share, not much more to add.

• Nootropic compendium with really up to date info with clinical references AND anecdotal evidence from eg forums - would pay $100
  
• How to increase your street smarts - would pay $30
  
• A good guide on how to run mastermind groups online - would pay $20
  

But don't think that all of that is actually necessary. Don't beat yourself up if you miss out for a few weeks. You're most likely not going to miss that golden morsel of info that will change your life. And besides, the updates you really need to know about will trickle down to you anyway.

No, the truly life-changing stuff will come from real learning.

Probably you could pick 2 books this year, really read them and apply them to the max, ignore everything else, and truly LEARN. And you would get so much more from that than chaining yourself daily to your bursting-to-the-seams RSS feed which contains 10000x the amount of pure infornation yet only serves to paralyze and bloat you.

(Why 2 books? Because a little multitasking is necessary in life - motivation redundancy and identity diversification and all that.)

I'm not putting anyone down for insufficient asceticism - stuffing your head with Lifehacker.com and Hacker News is after all better than doing so with TV. But keep in mind that it's infotainment, not learning.

Info fasting and 2 books. Could you do it? 

Just read it already. And let's all add "TOM level" to our meme pool, shall we?