The Caveman Principle
Homo Sapiens have been around for 200000 years. For 190000 of those years we were hunter gatherers, for the most recent 10000 we were “civilised” farmers. You know, with war and stuff.
I’m not gonna get into deep science here, I’m a (bad) physicist – not an evolutionary biologist, but 10k years is a not sufficient time to evolve out of are pre-agricultural brain and body.
Following me?
This leads to a fairly simple conclusion:
We have the brains and bodies of hunter gatherers. Therefore what is good for a hunter gatherer, mentally and physically, is good for us. And good for you.
Did hunter gatherers eat six meals a day in a diet based mainly on grains? Fuck. No.
Did hunter gatherers cuddle their way into sex? Fuck. No. Don’t. Be. So. Stupid.
Did hunter gatherers pollute their minds with politics and political correctness. Nigga. Please.
Don’t get me wrong, with game, eating, lifestyle etc you should do your own research and make considered choices. But you should always consider the following – would this suit a hunter gatherer?
Or the cooler sounding version:
Would this suit a caveman?
Would worrying about how many facebook friends you have suit a caveman? Would bitching about your coworkers (co-hunters) suit a caveman? Would a caveman worry about trivial political “choice” between identical parties?
No. The caveman is concerned with food, shelter, fucking, meaningful friendships and relaxing.
You are a caveman in fancy clothes, and thus your concerns should match his.
When I make decisions about virtually anything, this question is at the back of my mind.
Inertia
Physics: The tendency of a body to resist acceleration; the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force.
Colloquial: Resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change.
Me: The third biggest threat to our generation.
In case you were wondering, the top two are feminism and information overload. Consumerism is fourth.
Inertia is like a viral infection. It has some specific causes, but sometimes strikes out of the blue. Known causes include sudden change, traumatic life events, the aforementioned information overload, stress, and distraction. It is highly contagious; your risk of infection increases with exposure and proximity to the infected. Symptoms include depression, DERPression, laziness, apathy, decreased productivity, time wasting, excuse making, over thinking, and most importantly: not getting a single fucking thing done.
Take this week as an example – I started new job and started smoking weed again. This shift led me to stop writing blog posts. I’m not gonna make up bullshit excuses, I couldn’t be fucked because I was getting stoned, having sex and sleeping in (evening shifts ftw).
That doesn’t seem too bad a trade off, except that I easily still had time to write but filled it with google reader, my favourite forum and facebook (add me).
This is a small scale example, but inertia can also cause problems of epidemic proportions. Our resistance to change is what leads to blind acceptance of conventional wisdom about productivity, diet/exercise, sex and relationships. Then, even as we are surrounded by unproductive, fat, celibate loners, we cling to our faith in conventional wisdom.
This is because we are prone to inertia. Change can be hard, change can be risky, so we settle for what is comfortable rather than what is good.
We can partially blame ourselves for this, but we live in a society that shuns risk taking and encourages us to settle for what is “safe” and easy. The thing is, if we were accustomed to getting shit done rather than seeking comfort, our inertia would work with us. Our resistance to change would make us find being lazy too boring and uncomfortable to tolerate. Being “on a roll” would be a normal part of life.
The means is inconsequential, as everyone will find their own way of becoming someone who gets shit done. It doesn’t matter what you do either; providing it means something to you. A job you enjoy, voluntary work, a blog, songwriting, painting. Just become an effective and productive person.
I don’t have the definitive answer for how to do this – all I can say is get shit done and make it a habit. I’d also suggest looking into a guy called Cal Newport, and a book called “The Now Habit” as two starting points.
“What’s the point?” you may ask. The point my friend is that when civilisation teeters and finally tips over the edge, lazy people will be the least survivable. Those who have internalised the act of getting shit done will rise to the top. Our generation is severely lacking in this type of person, so solve that shit.
The Site’s Gonna Look Weird for a Few Days
While I try and implement this gosh darn ad code. I need to place the code before Google can approve my site, so there’ll be random gaps all over the gaff.
Seeing as I didn’t make it onto a human rights organisation’s hitlist, and I have updated my disclaimer, I reckon I’ll get approved.
Wish me luck!
No Screen Sunday
Here’s an idea: for one day a week, don’t look at a screen. No computer, no TV (not big on that anyway). The only screens allowed are a phone, (to make logistical social arrangements or to do something productive like run an exercise app, not games, facebook or twitter) and a Kindle
This leaves an inordinate amount of time to do something worthwhile. Cook a meal, read a book, go for a walk, hang out. Just stay disconnected from the omnipresent distraction machine, and don’t fill the void with trivial shit.
I’m gonna be doing this starting Sunday. I am a firm believer that although technology is amazing, it can take over our lives without us noticing. By forcing myself to disconnect from it all I aim to clear my mind and chill a little. I’m predicting that this will also improve my attention span and concentration, and help me finally finish the book I’m reading (STILL on day bang).
A strict information diet wasn’t working for me, so hopefully just lowering the aggregate amount of junk going into my brain will do the trick.
Results will follow, as always, in a lifestyle report.
Text/Facebook Game
This Friday 13th, I managed to lock myself out of my flat. Not spooky bad luck, I just went full on retard. However when I came back I had a bunch of texts on my phone and some facebook messages from girls I’m working on.
This got me thinking about text game, and how different rules apply to men my age.
Firstly, if you’ve read Bang (and I highly suggest you do), you’ll be aware of the “keep it logistical” approach. The problem for younger guys is that so much socialising is done by text/facebook that girls will try and start proper conversations with you. When this happens the typical logistical approach will make you look boring and weird.
So what’s a man to do? Simple, talk as if you’re speaking face to face, but with three key differences.
1 – Be inconsistent – subtly.
Vary your reply times, and the tone of your messages. There’s no way of conveying body language through text, so to compensate keep her guessing about your mood. If your doing something and your phone goes off, finish what you’re doing before replying. Don’t be obvious and bi-polar about it, just keep things ambiguous and times varied. Aside from keeping her guessing, this also helps your inner game. To loosely quote Gmac:
Your time > her feelings.
By having normal, non logistical conversations you help build comfort. But at the same time your inconsistency keeps an air of mystery and intrigue. I would however be careful about getting too personal in text conversations, probing questions are creepy and divulging to much information is needy. You don’t want to be either of those things.
2 – Minimalistic texts and hard negs.
Your texts should never be longer than hers, or more energetic. You are the calm, collected, natural leader – she follows. This is not as strict for girls you are already fucking, who need to see the odd chink in your armour to stick around. Tailor accordingly.
3 – Randomly vanish occasionally.
The final technique is rapport breaking. My example of locking myself out was accidental but still relevant. Just vanish for a bit. I ignore my phone when doing assignments (helps me keep on top of my shit and work efficiently), but you could also just leave your phone in another room for a bit. This gets the hamster spinning on a new level, especially if you do it at the peak of a conversation when emotions run their highest. Be warned, rapport breaking is useful but don’t ALWAYS do it at conversational peaks, this is unsubtle and may make you look too disinterested.
There you go, my take on text game. For guys already with girls, if you choose to change to this way of texting, do so gradually or your girl(s) will freak out and give you shit.
Feel free to add your thoughts below.