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Whatever the course, I trust Stefan implicitly. Philosophy isn't a popularity contest? Yes it absolutely is. Accepting the NAP means nothing if you are the only one who does. He has said repeatedly that the only way to shrink the power of the state is to improve parenting. Railing on about taxation is an utter waste of time, as seen by the libertarian movement that has achieved nothing over the last hundred years, because that is only a branch issue. The only reason it is acceptable to be taxed is because of parenting. If you'd like, there is nothing stopping you from re-listening to the podcast series. There's only so much philosophizing to be done without outright issuing conclusions.

You should stop pretending to think and go read a book or something. Learn how to actually think so you don't need to put up this pitiful pretense.

That's a total cop out. No one ever means corporal punishment as a means of self defence against 8 year olds going on a shooting spree or the 1 in a hundred thousand case of psychosis.

Ha! I love it! Shotgun a beer every time you mark a space, take a shot for repeats and a bingo.

Welcome. I would highly recommend listening to the original podcasts. What's on youtube is only the tip of the iceberg. Also would recommend reading his books if you think you might be in anyway inclined to what stefan has to say, they're a hyper-condensed form of the podcasts and you'll end up saving yourself a lot of time.

I'm not sure what I want to do. It seems like there's so much worth doing, that picking one over another is a way of missing out.

Things tend only to happen when you stop thinking about the process. For example, when I first learned how to ride a bike my father did the typical thing where he pushed the bike as I pedaled and let go without telling me. I was fine for about a block and a half until I realized that he wasn't pushing me, then I lost control and hit a street sign. The only thing that differentiated the two moments before and after I realized he wasn't there was that I wasn't thinking about the process of riding the bike when I though I was being pushed. So in terms of dating, don't think "I need to find a virtuous woman", be someone that would be attractive to a virtuous woman. I think having high standards and red flags is important. For me piercings and tattoos are more or less an automatic disqualifyer because they tend to signify emotional problems with the father. Excessive makeup can signify insecurity or vanity a woman may have about her appearance, either way, it is in a sense a way of masking who she is. I guess what I'm getting at is that if you don't want to date a smoker, you should first quit smoking because you wont meet someone who doesn't in the smoking section of the restaurant. As for porn and canalization of sexual desire, NoFap is a decent community to look into if you haven't heard of it already. I don't think complete celibacy is the answer but a lot of the people there seem to find value in it. I think it's repressive to discipline your desires and the opposite extreme to wacking it 5 times a day. But watching porn is absolutely terrible imo for two reasons: first, it makes your base brain think you have a harem of a million different women waiting for you at home, whats the point of risking rejection if that were true, and second, you are watching another man have sex with a woman you desire, that is the literal definition of a cuck.

Bridgewater in Somerset county. You?

I'm going to have to push back a bit on this. An introvert or someone who is autistic wouldn't be bothered by their lack of sociability as op appears to be. Most people would describe me as an introvert because I spend so much time by myself, but speaking from experience, extreme isolation in my childhood made me "comfortable" with it in the same way a zookeeper is "comfortable" around lions.

Personally, it is just a matter of saving time. Online dating makes the dating process incredibly efficient. I'm in decent shape, but I'm no Adonis. How many hours a day would I have to be in the gym to be the male equivalent of some bombshell chick? My guess is 3+- hours to maintain. Now, if she's spending that much time in the gym, my question is how many hours is she spending on reading, self knowledge, personality, charity, etc. A beautiful woman can do very well in the world without any of that. From there its just a matter of statistics. How many children of billionaires develop a strong work ethic and learn the value of a dollar through hard work and discipline? Probably very few. How many drop dead gorgeous women will take the time and put in the effort to develop a good personality, self knowledge, and be well read when they can do just fine in the world without it? Probably very few.

There's nothing immoral about having meaningless sex, just realize that it's only glorified masturbation to have sex with a woman you do not love. Is normal masturbation not an option? Why are virtuous women not attracted to you and/or vice versa? When was the last time you were single and for how long?

This is something that is sorely missing from western philosophy. It speaks to how most people view the self--as a ghost piloting a 200 pound flesh machine. But the flaw is thinking of our body as a list of parts instead of a single unit. Lets say that your foot represents 5% of you in terms of parts. If you lose a foot to diabetes does your quality of life drop only 5%? I'd be shocked if it dropped any less than 75%. Even though it is a small amount by the pound, your mobility is cut drastically, something simple like going up a flight of stairs will become strenuous, which will make you want to exercise even less leading to obesity, depression, etc. I can all but guarantee that no one will take you seriously about philosophy if you are unhealthy. Why would anyone buy a diet book written by a 400 lb person? I had a similar problem with a coworker a while back. I would praise something like the gold standard, explicate its utility, and the next time the topic came up it I would have to start all over again. This bothered me for a while until I realized that it was not a flaw in my logic, but how I presented myself as I presented it. My shoulders were hunched, my face had a scowl, and my voice was monotone. I might as well have been saying "Come, join me on misery island". People don't want to right, they want to be happy. If a virtuous life looks like a repressive puritan village, most will take a different path because they get that there is no point in being miserable if joy is also an option.

Hey everyone! I've been listening for just over a year now and finally joined the community after ploughing my way through most of the podcasts. I cannot articulate just how much this show has changed my life for the better. I'm 20 years old and am in the process of figuring out what to do with my life. Right now I'm working nights at a grocery store restocking the blast freezer with product. It's a more enjoyable job than most people think, not the work itself, but having 8 hours with no distractions allows me to consume more audio content in a day than I'll probably ever be able to do in the future. I was going to college but recently decided to stop because I was wasting my energy in the pursuit of something that I didn't want to do, in a place where I didn't want to be, with people I didn't want to be around, encouraged only by people who were either miserable or total failures in life. Recently I've started learning to play the guitar. It's pretty fun. Otherwise I don't have a whole lot going on. There's not a lot to do where I live besides restaurants and bars, and most of my friends are fairly significantly apathetic. It's kind of funny in a way, I've been weaning myself off self medication to the point where I'm working on getting rid of caffeine and my morning alarm, but now I have nowhere to direct my increased focus and energy. --Mark