All Grandeur Begins With Delusions of Grandeur

In this introspective discussion, Malcolm and Simone dive deep into what it means to find success, meaning, and responsibility as an individual in the context of society. They touch on the dangers of hedonism, the importance of "delusions of grandeur," why suffering is essential, why we're not all equal, playing your role, taking on the burden of humanity, developing real confidence, having initiative, and more. The hosts share personal stories and perspectives on how to be happy with yourself, live up to your potential, and positively contribute even if you're not destined for traditional status and recognition.

Malcolm: We are told that life is a race, but life isn't a race. It's an action RPG, and you have spec'd your character wrong. A lot of guys today, and I think this is one of the biggest problems, is they are specking characters that are designed to win in the sexual marketplace, and then it ends up f*****g up the rest of their life because a male who wins in the easy sex marketplace is...

It's a very poorly specced character for the job market. It's a very poorly specced character for the marriage market. It's a very poorly specced character for the dad

Simone: market. Yeah, even for like long term happiness like for more than just a 10 year period even, just terrible.

Malcolm: Some people are born to be kings and some people are born to be knights. Yeah. And that we have taught the knights of our society to be systemically unhappy with who they are, because they are followers and not leaders.

They are part of a system and that through acting as a part of that system, they can [00:01:00] Individually achieve the highest greatness that any human can achieve, which is maximizing your own potential in the world we are glorified for the crucible that life builds for us. It is through our suffering that we achieve things of meaning and we build an identity of meaning in one that we can be proud of. And that there is nothing to be proud of if you have no challenges.

Would you like to know more?

Simone: Malcolm, the other day, someone and they were like, let's be honest, Simone, you wouldn't have looked at Malcolm twice if he wasn't like super, you know, I can't remember what it was like super smart or successful or something. And I was like, 100 percent no. Like the reason why I was driven crazy by you, the moment I met you was.

Frankly, your delusions of grandeur that you sat across the table, you laid your cards down and you were like, you know, first, you know, I'm not looking to get married, I'm looking to find a wife, like, totally honest about your intentions, but [00:02:00] also like, and here's my vision for the universe, this is why I think humans are here, I'm going to get our planet, like, our species off planet, I'm going to do this, I'm going to protect sentience, I was like, You dream big and

Malcolm: even, even the way I come off publicly was something that I worked really hard on the video on how to get people to have sex with you is one that we can't publish because Claude said it was too naughty.

But one of the things I did over and over again when I was little is I would go to little, I don't know the word young, like high school, right? I would go to malls and I would practice walking up and talking to random people. And I would just do this over and over and over again, like reps. It was the goal being getting somebody's, you know, phone number and then, you know, doing some sort of post talk follow up or something like that.

Just over and over and over and over again both so that I learned to not feel pain at, , social rejection, because this is a really ingrained thing that's really hard to get over. But also so that I learned how to do that, [00:03:00] like, as a skill, how to maintain that positive energy when going up to someone, it's positive, non threatening energy is something that really.

It's not necessarily you're born with it, but you can learn to master it through repetition.

Simone: But for you, it was more than that. It was the passion. It was the dreaming big. Women find that super hot. Well, men find that hot too. Although men, I think love admiration, like genuine admiration for them from a woman more than like her confidence necessarily.

Yeah. Yeah.

Malcolm: Absolutely.

I think that this is something that really cannot be stressed enough in this modern, like mannose sphere environment, which is when you are out there and you were looking for a wife. The best way to attract a woman is with your passion. And this is something that women, the type of women who make for great wives. Are very attracted to and are looking for. They are looking for someone in this world who they are inspired to follow. I was watching this great [00:04:00] clip of Steve Erwin today. Uh, talking passionately about what he wanted to do. And I suggest you guys check out the clip, but I'll try to include the last little bit of it here, but it doesn't get as copyright struck where you can just see in his wife's eyes. Like, oh yeah, this is what I'm into. It's this passion. That I am into.

I want to save the world. And you know money? Money's great. I can't get enough money. And you know what I'm going to do with it? I'm gonna buy wilderness areas with it. Every single cent I get goes straight into conservation. And guess what, Charles? I don't give a rip whose money it is, mate.

I'll use it and I'll spend it on buying land.

Malcolm: But the point I'm making here is. I think that a lot of people can think that something's innate to a person instead of something that an individual worked really, really hard for. Now, I'm going to be honest, I think that innate things are also things that people work hard for. I mean, you know,

Simone: you're running at a disadvantage.

If you're ugly, you're running at a disadvantage. Totally, totally, totally. That's not what I

Malcolm: mean. Okay. One of the most interesting [00:05:00] statistics I learned recently is that how fat you are, your, your, your, your probability of being obese and how obese you are is about as genetic as your IQ. Oh. So. very genetic.

Now, here is what's really surprising about that. If you look at somebody who is two standard deviations from the norm in terms of human metabolism, that's only a difference of about 120 calories a day. Yeah, the truth is, is human metabolism doesn't actually vary that much in between individuals.

So that means that The vast, vast majority of this difference of this sort of preset obesity level that an individual is born with is based on behavior patterns that are inherited. So what's really interesting is even that story I tell about me going up to [00:06:00] people in malls until I learned how to be.

And nice to people you might be surprised to hear this about, but I actually heard a very similar strategy and it was actually something that my granddad, but congressman, it was no, wait, what did he do? So apparently he was considered very shy in his youth and then he learned to just walk up to people and say hi and try to start conversations so much that in college he was known for just standing in public areas and then going up and saying hi and trying to gregariously start conversations with people until he was no longer afraid of talking to people and he could learn to do this.

Simone: You know, that even reminds me of what our son does when he gets really scared. By something is then he like gets fixated on doing it until he's not scared anymore. Yes, really interesting

Malcolm: behavior. So I do that. My son does that. My granddad did that. It's a behavior pattern where I g