The Fritz Letter: November 17, 2024

On Being and Doing

What’s On My Mind This Week

In school, we systematically shave off anything that might help young people acquire personal power and make them legitimately threatening to the status quo.

We tell them that their only strength is in the form of a well-behaved mob, filtered through bureaucracy.

We teach them that the only way to express themselves is by being something (consuming to form identity), instead of by doing something (creating to form identity).

We teach them to despise excellence and celebrate mediocrity.

We convince them that the “good life” isn’t one of balance, creativity, risk, challenge, exploration, and service; the “good life” is short work days doing easy jobs from home, collecting great benefits, and spending money on comforts and tourism.

And we wonder why young people are depressed and disenchanted?

We wonder why we can’t sleep, we’re anxious, and we don’t get along?

Inside each of us, there still lives a child that wants to make things and show them to people we care about: “Mom, dad, look what I made! Can we put it on the fridge?!”

We’ve thrown that child in a cage, pushed the cage into the corner of a cold, damp basement, shut off the lights, and turned up the TV so we can’t hear the crying.

And to make ourselves feel better, we take potshots at people living more freely than ourselves. Instead of being inspired by excellence, we want to tear it down.

Just like we were taught by the institutions that are specifically designed to funnel us into the industrial machine.

But there’s a way out.

We need to let our inner children out of their cages. Bring them into the light. Give them some paper, glue, paint, and crayons. And remind them that their creativity is holy.

Being nice to yourself doesn’t mean eating ice cream at midnight, sleeping past noon, and buying things you know you can’t afford.

Being nice to yourself means pursuing the creative spark inside you and not tearing yourself down when what you initially produce doesn’t quite match your vision. It means giving yourself the freedom to fail, and to slowly get better at making the things you want to see in the world.

So, yeah.

Be nice to yourself.

You just might be surprised at how far your passions will carry you.

Just don’t let haters bring you down.

Yeehamaste, folks 🤠

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What I’m Working On This Week

I’ve finally published my first book: The Testimony of Jacob Cohen!

The Testimony of Jacob Cohen is a cosmic horror story about an archeologist on an Antarctic expedition who discovers a mysterious ziggurat hiding terrifying secrets from a forgotten past.

It draws inspiration from the narrative style of Dracula, the real-life Endurance expedition led by Ernest Shackleton, and Dionysian cult mysticism, along with modern astronomy, astrobiology, and mycology.

You can read the story in three ways:

• Read on Substack: Read it as a weekly serial for free here on Substack (just subscribe for free if you haven’t already) – I will start publishing this week

• Get the eBook: Buy the ebook for $3.97 on Amazon (paid Substack subscribers get it free!) – Purchase eBook

• Get the Paperback: Buy the paperback for $6.87 - Purchase Paperback

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Great Content I Found This Week

This is an interview between Chris Williamson, host of the Modern Wisdom podcast, and Donald Robertson, a psychologist, Stoic, and philosophy scholar.

In this episode they discuss the life and legacy of Socrates and what we can learn from this legendary figure.

It’s a great introduction to philosophy as a discipline, and it lays out a largely unbiased view of who Socrates was and why he matters.

Socrates in a nutshell:

• war veteran

• plague survivor

• working class

• resisted and survived a tyrannical dictatorship

• devoted his life to getting normal people to challenge their assumptions about high-level concepts like Courage, Justice, and Goodness

• fearlessly faced his own imprisonment and execution

• refused to bend the rules or take the easy way out by having his rich friends buy his freedom

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What I’m Listening To This Week

I’ve been going back to some old favorites this week and jamming to this playlist I made last year of jazzy lofi beats.

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