Gm, friends!
One thing I have been thinking about lately is why I love Twitter so much?
The simple answer is that it’s a forum that is hyperfocused around certain interests.
Here you will find the people you won’t meet in real life.
So in this newsletter I want to discuss what rabbit holes does to you and the leverage it gives you to find like-minded people and also a potential partner.
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Thoughts about spending time in rabbit holes and finding like-minded people
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my journey so far and the road further from here.
I also wrote a tweet related to this regarding happiness. For myself, I must say that I had never been as motivated as when I really hunted to become free from my 9-5 work.
Eventually, I quit my 9-5 job in February 2021, and I have worked for myself ever since. Sick to think about that it’s almost 3 years ago now.
So has my happiness increased after this?
Actually no.
The figure below describes this. But in short, the “Baseline of Happiness” theory states that no matter what happens in your life, you will always return to your baseline of happiness.
So after I became “free” I felt immensely happy…for a while, until reality hit me hard. Because now I had all the time in the world. And I felt pressure to utilize the time in the best way possible. After all, I couldn’t waste it on nonsense. Or could I?
I guess the journey of saving, investing, and grinding hard daily was what was fun.
And the moment I suddenly reached the goal?
Emptiness.
Not for the first weeks of course, because they were filled with euphoria. But after that, I started to think: “Wow, the life we live is in fact really long. Now what should I spend all this time on?”
I think I am still trying to answer this, but one thing I have always enjoyed is writing.
I think writing is my constant through my whole life.
I started a blog with no goal of monetizing it. I started writing on Twitter because I loved it. And I would have continued to do so even if it was unpaid. For me, it’s a part of self-reflection, and I need to put my thoughts on paper. These thoughts need to be written out, they cannot be spoken. At least I won’t be able to express myself as well as when I’m writing. But, eventually, I started to earn money from my writing. This was a consequence of showing up daily without the expectation of getting paid. I did it because I loved it and because I needed it. And I think this is the core of it if you want to start something, you must be willing to do it without thinking about the money. If you do, you will most likely fail. Because your goal is extrinsic, and you will give up when you see how hard it is to succeed.
Thoughts about spending time in rabbit holes and finding like-minded people and potentially a partner
One thing I have been thinking about lately is why I love Twitter so much? The simple answer is that it’s a forum that is hyperfocused around certain interests. Here you will find the people you won’t meet in real life. Eg. if you have a hobby like eg. crypto, fitness, entrepreneurship or something etc., you will find people who genuinely love the same as you do. People that spend all their waking time thinking, reading and studying these subjects.
Che said it perfectly in this tweet:
Tbh there’s no place better to be in these rabbit holes IMO. Anyway, lately I have been thinking about which arenas to find a potential GF. Like this is maybe a weird thing to write, and the obvious answers are bars, social settings, via friends, Tinder etc. But after watching a clip on Tik Tok about how the famous YouTuber, Mr. Beast, met his girlfriend Thea Booysen, it strikes me that I’ve probably looked the wrong places all along.
Now watch this clip first, and I will continue about my thoughts below
So in the video, Thea Booysen is reflecting on where she will meet someone that is as like-minded as her. And she says something like: “The probability that the guy that is perfect for me is spending most of the time at home alone is very high”. And for some reason I couldn’t let this thought go. If you’re reading this newsletter you already know that I’m probably online like 12-14 hours per day doing “work”. I put work in ““, because to me this doesn’t feel like work. I am spending time on thinking, writing, and talking with people about subjects I am genuinely curious about. For me this is my perfect life, and I honestly don’t want to change it.
Don’t misunderstand me, I love spending time on sports, meeting friends, go to a bar with friends etc., but not all of the time. Anyway, when I am meeting girls in normal settings it’s just like…they’re normal. Not that I am special or anything, but they have normal lives and most of them dream of a life built around a 9-5 routine which is not for me. I think I want kids one day, but this is not something I am stressing about. It happens if and/or when the time is right. So how can I find the perfect girl for me? Obvious criteria for me is that she is intellectual, deeply curious about life (a thinker), caring, loyal and I need to feel attracted physically to this person. Also I think it is important that this person enjoys her own company, because I love spending time alone. Or actually I think the best thing is when you’re with another person and both are doing their own things and just thriving. Just enjoying each other company without necessarily talking all the time. All right, I think I’ll stop it there. I understand not everyone wants to read about what I am looking for in a love life. Haha. My point with all this is that I have probably ignoring online arenas like Twitter for stuff like this. When I am thinking about it could potentially be a place to find a person similar to myself.
The perfect place to live
Does the perfect place exist? This is another subject I am thinking a lot about. I think you could be happy in almost every location at earth, because happiness comes mostly from within (50% genetic, 40% your thoughts about it and 10% external factors). Which means you can decide if you want to be happy or not. I live in Scandinavia (Norway), and have been living here all my life. Lately I have been thinking about moving somewhere else though. There are several reasons for this:
Like-minded people: Where I live I feel most people are focused around the classic 9-5 life. People are doing normal stuff, and most of my friends are living a very routineful life. Nothing wrong with that of course, it’s just that it doesn’t fit my life. I want to be surrounded by like-minded people (I have some, but would prefer even more). People that spends as much time in rabbit holes as me. Basically the Twitter people, but IRL.
The weather is pretty shitty. So between May to September I think there is no better place to live than in Scandinavia. It’s like people are waking up from their hiatus during this time. The temperature is mostly over 20 degrees, and the city becomes alive. But October to April /which is 8 out of 12 months, the weather is relatively cold, there’s snow, rain and windy. The winter has some quality aspects with snow, skiing and snowboarding. But honestly I like warmer weather better.
It could be nice to try something new. I’ve lived for over 30 years in one place, it could be exciting to explore a new country, another culture, new people, learning a new language or get even better in English. I am sure this would lead to great experiences, an evolved mindset and meeting interesting people. A new perspective on life.
Tax implications. This is probably what’s the least important. But it’s a bonus. There are places out there where I could tax zero or close to zero %. Portugal, Switzerland, Dubai and Singapore + some eastern European countries. For me, Portugal would be the most attracting. Good weather, a short flight back home (3 hours), crypto environment with lots of entrepreneurs and startups, I know people from Twitter there and also have a Swedish friend living there.
With that said there’s a lot of good things about where I am already living. I have my family and friends here, and it is a very safe country. I know I could create a great environment here too, but I am a dreamer and I like to think of what could have been.
As always, there are no conclusions to this kind of personal posts as I am just free writing. But feel free to give me some feedback.
Anyway, see you next week anon :)
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story, and I can completely relate to it! Thank you for sharing.
Just to let you know, I live in Sweden and originally come from the South of France, so I understand the struggle with the less-than-ideal weather.
If you ever decide to leave Norway, I believe it will broaden your horizons, and if you choose to return home, Portugal is only a 3-hour flight away, as you mentioned!
Impressive how I related to your post. Twitter really is where some of the brightest minds gain recognition among the wider audience.
Social media platforms are like funnels. Taking the example of cryptocurrency projects, a large portion of data and information primarily originates from discussion groups on Discord or Reddit, which end up being correlated and enriched, thus achieving a massive potential to spread on Twitter.
Information is the best commodity. In other words, if you want to be at the top of the information pyramid, Twitter isn't the best tool for that.
People are drawn to follower numbers. Most of them won't follow an account that produces quality content but only has 1,000 subscribers. There are many people smarter than you or me who have already tried to start the same thing you're doing today.
Many of them persist and don't grow, but they continue because the purpose isn't financial. It's a way to externalize, record, and preserve acquired wisdom. After suffering, the best teacher is the act of teaching something.
My tip for using Twitter more efficiently is to develop the skill of filtering out these "anonymous" players who provide extremely high-quality content but are seen by only a few people.
In reality, they don't gain recognition because they don't use growth strategies. The focus is entirely on quality, as the content is made for themselves.