MT

Max Ehrmann was an American writer, lawyer, and spiritualist, studying philosophy and law at Harvard University. He lived most of his life in his hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana, practicing law and working in his family's meat packing plant. "Desiderata" was his most notable work, a poem on simple living. Desiderata is Latin for "something desired," poignant for a humble man who was largely unknown in his lifetime, only achieving fame after his death.

During the same period was an American poet named Robert Frost. Popular in his lifetime, Frost was regarded for his depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquialism, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Among the works of Frost, "The Road Not Taken," when paired with "Desiderata," achieves a consonance of tranquility. On their own, they stand as great works. In combination, textured by their history, they become a complete work. A parity between Eastern philosophy and American spiritualism. Just as ancient as it is modern. Christian as it is Taoist. A treatise on balance; whether a sheepherder or a big firm attorney, one can find relevance...

Books I Recommend:

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). If you'd like to do a single donation, you can use Paypal: https://www.musttriumph.com/donate/

You can also find me at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam and https://facebook.com/musttriumph

*If you like MMA, anime, pro wrestling, Leftist politics, and meme comedy, check out my other podcast: Southpaw (not to be mistaken for the major league sports podcast and the other one about furries)*

Getting punched in the face is rather unpleasant. You should avoid it if at all possible. If you, however, HAVE gotten punched in the face or have wondered why it's such a common story element, or why so many people seem fascinated by it, or why it's more shocking than it is painful, you have accidentally stumbled your way onto semiotics. The study of signs and metaphors.

And fortunately for you, you don't actually have to get hit in the face to understand the most important lessons from fighting, and really, the most important lessons of martial arts. So I'm about to save you a lot of money, in training fees and hospital bills.

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). If you'd like to do a single donation, you can use Paypal: https://www.musttriumph.com/donate/

You can also find me at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam and https://facebook.com/musttriumph

This is a special episode because I want people to listen to this as a form of mental preparation. Something you listen to, to psych yourself up, give you confidence and will, or if you are a competitor, to get your mind right before an event. Something you can listen to over and over again.

Ultimately, you're not fighting an opponent. You're fighting yourself. However, if you can make peace with your mind, then you can take on the world.

This is the third of a three part series.

Follow Alec:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/AlecBaulding

Instagram: https://instagram.com/alecbaulding/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/alecbaulding/

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). If you'd like to do a single donation, you can use Paypal: https://www.musttriumph.com/donate/

You can also find me at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam and https://facebook.com/musttriumph

This is a special episode because I want people to listen to this as a form of mental preparation. Something you listen to, to psych yourself up, give you confidence and will, or if you are a competitor, to get your mind right before an event. Something you can listen to over and over again.

I actually want this to be something even Alec can listen to for his own mental prep.

This is the second of a three part series.

Follow Alec:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/AlecBaulding

Instagram: https://instagram.com/alecbaulding/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/alecbaulding/

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). If you'd like to do a single donation, you can use Paypal: https://www.musttriumph.com/donate/

You can also find me at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam and https://facebook.com/musttriumph

This is a special episode because I want people to listen to this as a form of mental preparation. Something you listen to, to psych yourself up, give you confidence and will, or if you are a competitor, to get your mind right before an event. Something you can listen to over and over again.

I actually want this to be something even Alec can listen to for his own mental prep.

This is the first of a three part series.

Follow Alec:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/AlecBaulding

Instagram: https://instagram.com/alecbaulding/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/alecbaulding/

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). If you'd like to do a single donation, you can use Paypal: https://www.musttriumph.com/donate/

You can also find me at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam and https://facebook.com/musttriumph

Become a Super Saiyan and get access to all premium episodes! https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph

You can also find me at https://twitter.com/StuffFromSam and https://facebook.com/musttriumph

The parable of the Butterfly can be told in a paragraph yet it's sparked whole college courses, and countless books and movies. It is THE principle theme in Christopher Nolan's Inception: Am I awake or am I dreaming I am awake?

The Parable of the Butterfly

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering here and there, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between myself and the butterfly, there must be a distinction. THIS is called the transformation of things.”

Eames: Listen, if you're going to perform inception, you need imagination

Am I dreaming I'm a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man? If dreams are subjective, then everything must be a dream. We interpret reality in the same way we interpret dreams. We can never know for sure because the comparative bar for knowing is in itself subjective—there is no objective. Both claims are equally valid and ultimately unanswerable.

The beauty of Eastern writing is it does not try to over-explain. It does not think about the audience because unlike the idea of a "writer" in the Western sense; they did not write for an audience. They wrote as a contemplative exercise to clarify their own observations, using parables and analogies. Much in the same way shorthand notes compress massive ideas. That's Eastern philosophy. Rather than domain-specific philosophy, Eastern philosophies are general systems. All purpose, all occasions. Just add imagination...

It begins with the king as a boy... having to sleep alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. While he’s spending the night alone, he’s visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail — symbol of God’s divine grace. A voice said to him, ‘You shall be keeper of the Grail so that it may heal the hearts of men.’

But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement, he felt for a brief moment, not like a boy but invincible — like God. So he reached in the fire to take the Grail, and the Grail vanished leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded. Now, as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper. Until one day life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any men, not even himself. He couldn’t love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die.

One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simple-minded. He didn’t see a king. He only saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, ‘What ails you, friend?’

And the king replied, ‘I’m thirsty, and I need some water to cool my throat.’

So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. And as the king began to drink he realized his wound was healed. He looked, and there was the Holy Grail that which he sought all of his life.

He turned to the fool and said, ‘How could you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?’

The fool replied, ‘I don’t know. I only knew that you were thirsty.’

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). If you'd like to do a single donation, you can use Paypal: https://www.musttriumph.com/donate/

*Special thanks to Steve Little, and as always Rachel Fox for lending their voices to this project.

Our memory is collective. The only reason we know more than the previous generations isn't that we have genetically superior brains (in fact, research shows the opposite), it's because the previous generations left us their CliffNotes, from building cars to curing diseases.

Without these notes, we'd know less than they did. If you put us and someone from a thousand years ago on an island, we'd die immediately whereas they'd have a shot at survival. Because we don't actually know more than them, we just have more access to information than them. We live in houses, yes. But who between us and our ancestors would actually know how to build shelter offhand? Without access to information, we're nothing. And now we take this access to information for granted.

If history teaches us about the mistakes of the past, then it also teaches us, for most of human history, the average person had no freedom. We were either slaves or serfs. If the fear of not studying history is the doom of repeating it, then it's not so inconceivable that we can return to a time when the common person had no freedom. Because that's the historical status quo.

The humanities and the arts are the life manuals that took us thousands of years to create, that teach us how NOT to go back to a time when we had no humanities—when we had no freedom. When we couldn't even conceive it. But if we ignore these manuals, then we'll return to the time of our ancestors...

Books I Recommend:

Music

If you'd like to support my podcast and help me do this full-time, become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/musttriumph (a site where you can monetarily support your favorite content creators). As a thank you, you will get access to bonus episodes along with transcripts for every episode (including this one). 

There are those who'll always say, no matter how efficient the financial markets are, no matter how much automation there is, the outcome will always be the same: more jobs and more human prosperity for all. But if more jobs are created by greater efficiency, then what's the difference between efficient and inefficient? Because efficiency is supposed to mean fewer people for more work. 

For example, a computer that replaces everyone's job would mean greater efficiency. So we've all been sold a bill of goods, there's less real work out there but we're constantly being told "no, you're wrong, greater efficiency is creating more jobs. Don't trust your eyes!"

And though over the past century there has been a dramatic decrease in productive jobs, there has also been a proliferation of bullshit jobs. Jobs that basically do nothing of actual use. The answer to greater efficiency replacing real jobs was to create more fake jobs. Then capitalism sounds a lot like communism doesn't it?