Embrace the Left Curve Within
Stop thinking about everything all the damn time
Overthinking wrecks your prospects in life more than anything else.
So many times I’ll be talking to someone and listening to them ramble on and on, talking themselves into inaction because for the life of them they just can’t stop thinking about [insert problem here].
I always respond that the real answer™ to their problem is to go with their gut aka “stop thinking and to paraphrase our lord and savior Shia LaBeouf just fucking Do Something”.
Listen: There are very few situations in life that can be helped by overthinking.
Actually I don’t think there are any situations that can be helped by overthinking. The previous statement was me doing that annoying thing people do when writing online where they insert weasel statements as a Reply-Guy-What-About-This-Hyper-Specific-Exception-Comment-Deterrent technique. But I’m leaving it in because I like to embrace the shame.
Anyway.
To help visualize the concept you need to look at the midwit meme. Don’t just glance at it and keep scrolling. Study it. Look deep into the eyes of the guy on the left.
That’s who you want to become.
When you fully embrace the Left Curve Within then and only then can you transcend the curve and become the guy on the right.
You must allow yourself to become retarded before you can become smart.
Remember this simple maxim: the low-IQ move is the high-IQ move.
How does this play out in reality?
Here’s an all-too-relatable example.
Imagine you’re knowledge industry computer worker-type. You spend all day sitting and staring at screens, doing nothing of consequence in the real world but hey at least it pays the bills. Maybe you have a window you look out of longingly and occasionally fantasize about being an outdoor worker who gets to work with your hands and exist as something more than a disembodied brain that clicks and types. You spend so much time indoors that you start to view the window, your only known link to the outside Real World, as just another screen - you intellectually know it’s not but on a functional level it might as well be - and the Real World itself becomes just another abstraction like the stuff you’re doing on the actual screen that you stare at b/t eight and sixteen hours per day.
Like many knowledge-worker types, you listen to podcasts or music in the background while you’re doing your abstract screen-based computer work.
But you notice that you’re starting to have trouble concentrating.
What would the left curver think about that?
[Note: When imagining your inner Left Curve monologue it’s always helpful to give it a distinct voice. I prefer to use Simple Jack but you can use the retard of your choice.]
“Durrr I has only 1 brain. Work and podcast are 2 things. 1 brain can’t focus on 2 things at da same time.”
*exits Spotify and focuses on work and work only until the task is complete*
You can see how the Left Curve←→Right Curve connection is in play here.
What would a smart person think?
[Steven Hawking’s voice]
“Multitasking isn’t real. When you try to multitask you’re actually only paying attention to one thing at a time, but your attention is fragmented. You switch between paying attention to the music and paying attention to your work multiple times every single second. This reduces productivity.”
*exits Spotify and focuses on work and work only until the task is complete*
What would a midwit think?
“Wow this music is really distracting me from my work. There must be a problem with my brain chemistry. Maybe I should throw on a Huberman Lab podcast and see if he has a Protocol For That. If I listen to the podcast while I’m also listening to music and I’m also working I’ll really be optimizing this moment to perfection. Wow I’m so smart, look at me doing three things at once I’m saving so much time. Now if only I could figure out which supplement I need to buy to improve my focus because I’ve only completed 10% of the work I needed to do today. Maybe some influencer on X has a recommendation. Let me open up a tab and check.”
*looks over shoulder to see if anyone sees them being uber-productive and gets disappointed when they realize no ones looking/admiring*
In this example the Left Curve/Right Curve solution to the problem of lack of focus is painfully simple: do one thing at a time.
The midwit solution is to overthink and overcomplicate the situation.
Which one do you think works better?
Now take the lesson from this example and apply it to everything else in your life.
I promise it’ll take you far.
Yeah most things are not complicated. They are pretty simple but require effort. And it probably requires as much effort to create a complicated web of excuses to not do the work.
I need to print this