The first of many - Meeting the modern philosopher. I met Dr. Jordan Peterson on Tuesday, May 7th, 2024 during the book tour for his latest book, We Who Wrestle with God. The book analyzes the Bible stories and explains them from a scientific and conscientious perspective. Pittsburgh was one of his pitstops, so I snagged a VIP pass to meet him. ($492, in case you're wondering.) Who is Jordan Peterson anyway? Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and a 3x best-selling author who has written: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999) 12 Rules for Life: The Antidote to Chaos (2018) Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life (2021) All of whose themes revolve around psychology, mythology, religion, personal development, literature, and philosophy. He also has an extensive academic career as a Psychology professor, having lectured and extensively researched at Harvard University and the University of Toronto. Tammy's husband and father to Mikhaila and Julian Peterson, Jordan is also the founder and architect of the Future Authoring Program and Peterson Academy, the latter of which is coming soon. Learn more about Jordan Peterson here. My notes In Jordan Peterson's language. On Writing Writing is the deepest form of thought. When you think, you translate your thoughts into words through writing. This is why I write. On Righteousness To sin is to miss the target. Biblically, sinning is going contrary to God's command. Thus, you miss the target of spiritual salvation. On Inspiration The USA is a country where people's success encourages others; It's called The Land of Opportunity for a reason. It's also partly why capitalism thrived while communism crumbled post-Cold War. Great players are inspirational people. They don't just win the game - they inspire other players to win it as well. Always aim upward. On Adventure At 75 years old, Abraham left Midian to seek an adventure on God's command. God promised Abraham (nee Abram) an eternal covenant and an eminent reputation. And there is nothing that protects you more than a reputation. On Sacrifice Christ is the Spirit of voluntary self-sacrifice. His life epitomizes the willingness to die for humanity's malevolence. On Integrity If you don't speak up, something will happen. Abraham spoke and saved his nephew Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah. On the other hand, Jonah refused to speak, and a fish gobbled him up for three days. When you lie, you live a lie and enact a life full of lies, not your life. Stop lying. Freedom of speech, defined by the First Amendment, is not about insulting or attacking others but speaking the truth against tyrannies. On Faith You should have immense faith that you accept whatever happens to you as the best thing that could ever happen to you. Don't lose faith, no matter what. Prayer is a faith catalyst that most religions emphasize on its importance. Prayer is also a form of gratitude - At least you're not on fire. On Responsibility Sacrifice yourself to the highest possible, self-imposed responsibility you can take and watch yourself bloom into the incomparable reward it brings. With responsibility comes meaningful suffering, and that is life's essence. And that reward mostly justifies the suffering. The greatest game to play is the highest possible aim you can give yourself. You don't need politicians to change the world if you take personal responsibility and do it yourself. Do not under any circumstances abdicate your moral obligation like Jonah. "What would you tell 23-year-old Jordan?" There was also a Q&A session where attendees asked 517 questions through a QR code. And with limited time, Jordan can answer only so many. But, of course, I still took my shot, so I asked mine. Interestingly enough, you could upvote the intriguing questions, which would bump them higher on the list. But anyway, Jordan answered three questions. And thanks be to God, the last one was mine. "What would you tell 23-year-old Jordan?" His answer: As summarized by Fr. Mike Schmitz, Jordan would tell his 23-year-old self to: Stop drinking. Marry Tammy sooner. Stop making a fool of himself. Conclusion Jordan is someone I emulate to be as a motivational speaker, not a psychologist. (People dub me for motivational speaking; we'll see.) I also like how he speaks on the spot and sometimes with his laptop. There's a fandom theory that goes: Jordan is a having a conversation with himself and we have the pleasure of listening in. And I thought that was true. Needless to say, Jordan is indeed a man of our times. It's like seeing Plato, Aurelius, or Socrates alive in the 21st century - Jordan, to me, is their 21st-century counterpart. This isn't the last time I'm meeting him. First of many, God willing. Until then, . . . ~T.K.K

If you put the work in. Here’s how I attempt to be excellent at everything I do. PS: Let’s start with one thing because doing many at once is diluting. Plus, if you learn how to excel at one, you can replicate it in another. PPS: I don’t know everything. 1. Know what you want. If you don’t know what you want, then everything else is futile. 2. Be reasonable Be reasonable with yourself that you can achieve what you want, given your circumstances. As a case study, I’m 23, with Math, Data, and Leadership experience. I can be a rocket scientist if I want because I can attain the necessary resources for this. On the other hand, I’m an immigrant, so I can’t be POTUS. 3. Start with the basics. I love the First Principles way of thinking - breaking down a problem into its simplest basics. With First Principles, I ask, “What are we getting ourselves into?” “What is this?” “What are our options?” And so on. It’s mostly from First Principles that I determine next steps. Let’s say I want to bake cookies. With First Principles, I can deduce, “Okay, I know what a cookie is and what an oven is, flour, milk, sugar, etc. How can I mix all these to get a cookie? A recipe. Okay, next step: Google ‘Cookie Recipes’ online.” 4. Execute The whole point of learning something is to execute it, correct? 5. Connect the dots The more you learn, the likelier you will expose yourself to new information that can relate to the old. You started with A and now find yourself at B - Learn how B relates to A. Similarly, if you get to K - make the connections from A to B to D to K. And so on. You want to be a Math guru, yet Math has numerous topics—Trigonometry (T), Calculus (C), Measurements (M), Logic (L), etc. Despite varying concepts, they relate to each other in some way. It’s your job to find these connections and identify their relationships. I think the ability to make connections and inter-relate concepts is a sign of high intellect. 6. Know the final outcome Step back to review what you’re learning and assess if it’s leading you to your goal. If so, proceed to step 7. If not, return to step 1. Don’t climb the stairs of the wrong building. 7. Bridge the “Connecting the dots <------> Final Outcome” gap. You will have some initial knowledge now that you’ve reached step 5. Between where you are currently and your final destination lies a massive gap to remedy. There are two possibilities: Using Learned Information: If the gap is something you know, repeat steps 4 & 5. If your goal is to run a marathon and you know how to run 100m, then repeat the 100m runs X more times because a marathon is essentially a 100m run X-times over. Using New Information: If the gap pertains to something new, restart from step 3 with the benefit that you’ll have new First Principles to deal with. If your goal is to start a business, you will begin with market research. Once you become good with research, you pivot into Product-Market fit - you’re a noob at this. You’ll have to start all over again learning the PM-fit essentials. 8. Review the process Do this once you’ve bridged the gap in step 7 - You’ll most likely have completed the intended task. Maybe you’ve done a lot, maybe you’ve done little. Maybe you put too much effort, maybe you did the bare minimum. Reviewing this will help you see if it suffices your final outcome. “I’ve just knitted my first dress…but did I like how I did it?” “Did the dress turn out as I wanted?” “Could it be any better - how I knitted, the final piece…or both?” Once you’ve accomplished your task, you should ask yourself these sorts of questions to comprehensively review yourself. 9. Refine Even though you’ve done the job, your process won’t be 100% efficient, especially if it’s your first time doing it. Find these defects in your learning and fix them ASAP to make your entire learning experience more efficient and execution more effective. The dress could be better. I can run faster in five minutes. The cookies should have more chocolate. Just because the job’s done doesn’t mean you did it right. Zero-defect your shortcomings. 10. Iterate Refinement and repetition go hand in hand. Iterate your learnings over and over. You don’t need 10,000 hours - You need 1,000 trials. People will say that’s unreasonable…and that’s why the elites are out of this world. Iteration coincides with mastery (step 12) because you feed your attempts into memory. 11. Document Document the process by journaling, vlogging, creating a manual, etc. When you document it, you’re subconsciously teaching yourself twice, further ingraining it deeper in your memory. It’s also here that you will have grand expertise in your skill. You now know what works and what doesn’t. You will save others from stressing out about finding a working methodology. Because you can always get better, the documentation is a work in progress. Play the Infinite Game, where the goal is not to win…but to keep playing the game. 12. Master Repeat steps 1 to 12 until you function on autopilot. Until it becomes your sixth sense. Until you do it effortlessly. If you can do this with one thing, you can do this with anything and excel at it. Peace, . . . ~T.K.K

All you need to know about the Decentralized Web. I'm trying to make sense of this new and vast field, as I'm considering investing in it someday. It's the future of innovation, and I'm as futuristic as they come. It's the democratization of the internet as we know it. Welcome to Web3. What is Web3? Web 3 is simply a decentralized internet powered by blockchain. Think of it as the decentralized web. Meaning if blockchain can decentralize currencies (e.g., crypto), then it can decentralize the internet as well. Read more on blockchain here. Web3's main goal is to address some of Web 2.0's shortcomings - privacy concerns, censorship, and the lack of transparency in online communications. But what's Web2? Web2 is the current Internet as it is, characterized by the dominance of social media, e-commerce, and cloud computing. And while Web2 brought its own merits in innovation and connectivity, it also has its demerits in data privacy, censorship, and tech monopolies. Many enthusiasts consider Web3 a radical departure from the current web massively controlled by big tech. Web3's main principles Web3 builds on the principles of decentralization, privacy, accessibility, interoperability, and trustless transactions. *Why is Web3 unhackable? For three reasons: Decentralization, immutability, and cryptography. Decentralization—Blockchain distributes data across many computers, so hackers can't exploit a single point of failure. Immutability - You can't change data that's already on the blockchain. It's immutable. Unchangeable. Thus, it's hard for anyone to alter the data without the network's consensus. Cryptography - Blockchain uses cryptographic techniques to store data - the same ones used to make cryptos. Each block in a blockchain is connected to the previous block using a unique cryptographic hash (or ID) which makes it impossible to change past transactions. Pros and Cons Pros Users own and control their data. Users have greater privacy because they own their data. Imagine owning your social media and deciding who can access it. Transparency: Because it's on a blockchain, anyone can audit publicly available Web3 transactions. No intermediaries are required as transactions happen between peers. Innovation - Just as we innovated with Web2, who knows where we'll be with Web3? Cons Scalability—Web3's complex requirements for consensus mechanisms and node validation make it hard to scale. Hopefully, interoperability can fix this. Security—For every piece of tech that brands itself as "secure," hackers are always attempting to prove the contrary—hacking smart contracts, cryptojacking, etc. There are "51% attacks" where a chain breaks if malicious miners control more than 51% of it, and a broken chain is susceptible to manipulation. More here. Accessibility—Current blockchains have high transaction fees and slower speeds, which limits widespread adoption. Web3 Use Cases The Metaverse—A huge virtual reality space where users interact in a computer-generated pseudo-world. It is decentralized, allowing users to control their own data and assets. Cryptocurrencies—Digital currencies created through cryptographic techniques. In Web3, cryptos are the default medium of exchange. Read more about cryptos here. Blockchain Games—Just like a regular game, only that it's on the blockchain, meaning all your points are permanently stored and seen on the blockchain, and no one can take them from you. Transparent supply chains—Web3 provides an immutable record of transactions on the supply chain (because it's on the blockchain), so everyone can track their products along the delivery cycle. Decentralized Finance (DeFI): Imagine performing all your financial transactions without needing a bank. That's DeFi for you. Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital, unique assets minted and stored on the Ethereum blockchain. They showcase proof of ownership and authenticity of each asset. Watch this 90-second NFT video. Decentralized Identity (DID) - DIDs help users control their digital identities. Web3 apps use DIDs to confirm your identity. Decentralized Applications (dApps)—Apps built on blockchain. Since dApps are open source, no entity controls them, plus they use blockchain to store data and smart contracts to automate actions. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)—These are orgs run by rules in a transparent computer program controlled by DAO members, not a central government. Closing Thoughts Web3 is the future of the Internet, or, as Cathie Wood would say, the "unfinished business of the Internet." Most of it is still abstract right now, so it's hard to comprehend it fully right away. I think Web3 will be an online democracy for sharing ideas, which, as far as the current status quo is concerned, will bring forth free speech. Given our current standards, the promise of greater control, user privacy, and innovation opportunities all seem too good to be true. The convos for a decentralized internet have just begun, and we're still in the beginning phases. Looking at the decades ahead. And like I always say, The best is yet to come. Cheers. . . . ~T.K.K References Web3, metaverse, the next internet | Deloitte Insights What is Web3 and why is it important? | ethereum.org What Are the Scalability Issues of Web3? Blockchains Scalability (doubloin.com) The Rise Of Web3: What Cybersecurity Concerns Should We Look Out For? (forbes.com) Subscribe to The Weekly Chronicle for weekly bangers delivered in under a minute.

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