🔥 Nietzsche🚶‍♂️on self-help, NBA Champ SGA on playing past 40, Anthony de Mello on fear & love, a one-liner on AirPods

#63: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.

Welcome to the 63rd edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.

If your porch is not already adorned with giant spiders + life-size skeletons, I humbly suggest you get your act together! 🎃 💀 Having a toddler capable of being excited about Halloween has rekindled my love for the holiday. Plus I’ve almost learned all the words to What’s This by heart. What a month!

This week, we talk Friedrich Nietzsche, what he’d think about self-help authors and what it inspired me to think about AirPods.

Plus SGA shows us his true colors. And Anthony de Mello distills down every human thought & action.

With love,
Chris

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Here’s this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:

1. Nietzsche🚶‍♂️on self-help

2. NBA Champion 🏀 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on playing past 40

3. Anthony de Mello ❤️ on fear & love

4. a one-liner 🎧 on Nietzsche & AirPods

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1.) Nietzsche🚶‍♂️on self-help

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself.

There is one path in the world that none can walk but you.

Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!

Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations

Friedrich Nietzsche would have hated self-help.

It’s goals—reducing anxiety, increasing positivity, find balance, optimizing yourself—would have left him nauseous.

To him, these were the trails, bridges & demigods, “who would glad carry you across” to river of life…but at the price of your soul.

He thought the real juice of life was squeezed from struggle. From pain. From chaos.

You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

He called this struggle self-overcoming.

And while it didn’t feel good all the time, it was uniquely yours—no one else’s. He believed this chaos would eventually turn into sweet music that only you could hear.

Self-help books, popular hacks, fad diets, 5-Step Methods to Happiness, gurus. All distractions from truly sinking your teeth into the ugly beautiful meat of life.

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I nearly ended this section with something like, So how do I find my unique path?

But if we’re to close in Nietzschean fashion, such tidiness will not do.

Instead, I leave you with a few questions to ponder:

• What would you hear if you stepped away from noise + listened to yourself? What would you want to create?

• What would happen if you turned your mistakes into art? Or fuel?

• What’s the difference between improving yourself & becoming yourself?

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2.) NBA Champion 🏀 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on playing past 40

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (aka SGA) of the NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder was asked recently, with stars like Lebron James and Chris Paul playing well into their 40s, would he follow suit?

Here’s his answer:

“I definitely think I can,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I won’t, though. A hundred percent.”

“I won’t want to miss that much of my kid’s life,” SGA said. “I won’t want to be away and miss his first basketball game every year, his first soccer game, football game, piano lesson, chess lesson, whatever it is.”

When he was asked whether he thought his career would end in his mid-30s, SGA responded, “There’s no telling. But I promise you it won’t be 40.”

People value things differently. I love how he’s chosen to prioritize his.

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3.) Anthony de Mello ❤️ on fear & love

There’s only one evil in the world, fear. There’s only one good in the world, love.

Anthony de Mello, Awareness

All human thoughts & actions can be distilled to one of these.

Which do you want more of?

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4.) a one-liner 🎧 on Nietzsche & AirPods

I’ve been thinking about AirPods a lot, and how they insulate us from the magic of everyday life (like Kurt Vonnegut talked about last week).

And after writing the section on Nietzsche’s path, this popped into my head.

Walk your path (without AirPods) until the path itself becomes music.

To become so enthralled with your life that you avoid distraction at all costs—would be a wonderful way to spend your days.

Walk your path (without AirPods) until the path itself becomes music.

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Two last things for you this week:

1. Choose Love over Fear somewhere in your life this week. Feel the weight lifted.

2. Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥

With love,
Chris

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