The Anti-Fragile Mindset vs. the Fragile Ego by Created Context

All right so I've been working on a few

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videos that I want to make that address

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some of the larger issues that I've

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been thinking about and in the process I

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came across this realization that I

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thought was fun to share and this has to

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do a lot with again process and products

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right when I look at being a human being

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or the human medium as I like to call it

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these days what I see is that there's a

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process going on right you're processing

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incoming information and as a result

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there's an output right you could say

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that you learn things or you build your

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ego you build your persona and I was

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thinking about that and I was thinking

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about antifragility which you know

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antifragile is a book written by

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Nassim Taleb which is a great book

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and I would recommend everyone to read

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it and the concept of anti fragile

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really has to do with fragility versus

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antifragility where fragility means

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something that can only be made less

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through chaos so something that is that

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can only become less because there's

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forces interacting with it where

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antifragility is this idea where

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something can only become stronger

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unless its killed by the forces that

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it's interacting with basically to

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summarize you could say that what

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doesn't kill me makes me stronger and

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Taleb points out that there's a lot of

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things ideas concepts animals everything

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I think he's basically saying

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everything living is antifragile and

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when I was thinking about this idea of

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the human medium and the fact that

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there's a process and a product going on

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right you could say that your mindset

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and the way you look at life and the way

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you understand yourself is a living idea

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it's a it's a movement right you are

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dealing with an interaction that’s non-stop

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and the way you deal with it that's your

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process that is an antifragile process

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meaning you live and you learn if you

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pay attention you become better at that

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but the other side of that idea is that

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if you don't deal with reality if you

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don't commit to the process you start

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committing to the product of that process

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and that product is totally imaginary

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it's you it's ego it's your idea of your

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story or of who you are or of what's going on

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and the interesting thing is that this

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idea is mostly fragile especially if

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it's a negative approach and I will go

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into this in greater detail in

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this video that I've been working on

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which looks at the human experience the

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human medium or my perspective on what

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it means to be a human explained in

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logical terms but what you could say is

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that the ego is this fantasy of what you

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are what you would want to be what you

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wish to be and what you do is you

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compare this idea with reality a lot and

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you could say that that is the

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point where cognitive dissonance is

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created and this ego is a fragile thing

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where your mindset or your process is

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antifragile meaning you interact and

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you learn as you go

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so you you pay attention to the incoming

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feedback and whenever you get signals

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that tell you that something is not the

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way it should be

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you don't treat it as an attack on your

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ego but you look at it like maybe I

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should do something in the process to

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take this feedback into account right

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it's information for the next action and

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not something that is wrong it's not

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you're not judging it you're not

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looking at it and comparing it with

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something else and then having an

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opinion about it right you're looking at

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it somewhat in isolation and it's not

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true of course because nothing is in

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isolation but you're looking at it

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and saying okay if this is what's going

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on what does that mean for me

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or what do I want to do with it instead

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of receiving it in the ego side and

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saying this is going on that's not right

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or right I need to do something and what

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you can say is that as you're building

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ego it becomes larger and larger the

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story becomes bigger and bigger and more

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and more intricate and you need to

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protect that story right if someone says

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something to you or looks at you in a

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certain way you could interpret it as an

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attack on your story right the story is

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everybody likes me so I'm walking around

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thinking everybody likes me or everybody

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should like me or I'm such a likable guy

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and all of a sudden somebody looks at me

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in a way that I think why is he looking

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at me like that

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he must not like me something is amiss

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something is wrong right so the ego gets

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attacked and the only way the ego can

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protect itself is to be small to

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be tight to be resisting right because

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it's fragile ego doesn't necessarily

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especially if you don't have this

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realization about mindset and how things

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work this ego becomes a structure where

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your mindset in dealing with information

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is a process you're now looking at

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outcome if this and this happens what

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does that mean below you know if I do

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the calculation what is the answer

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to the question and if I don't

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like the answer then something needs to

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happen and what I've realized is that

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this ego is a fragile being because it

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can only go one way it can only become

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smaller it can only be attacked meaning

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you can build it up you can blow

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air into your story and make it into

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something where you're the king of the

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world

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but then there's only

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one way to go when you start taking in

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the feedback and that's down because

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you're deluding yourself into what's

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going on plus you're not in control so

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whatever the feedback is is what the

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feedback is you don't control that even

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if you're if you are the king of the

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world right somebody might want to

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challenge you

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you don't influence what that person

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thinks or how he looks at you right

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haters gonna hate you don't influence

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the fact that there are haters that are

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gonna hate you only influence how you

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deal with that incoming information and

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so it's very interesting that right I'm

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always thinking about process and

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product and I would say that product is a

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dead thing it's a dead structure right

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knowledge money outcome results are all

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dead things that you can't really

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interact with what you can interact with

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is the movement the thing

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that's going on and you can

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participate in that and what I realized

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again is that this process is an

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antifragile process it becomes stronger

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through time especially if you have a

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positive mindset where you believe that

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what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

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and you like interacting

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with that process and you like getting

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feedback and you like even some stress

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or some right some edge of your comfort

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zone stuff but if you're into the

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maintaining of a static thing which is

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impossible but we try nonetheless then

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you start creating this fragile thing

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and that creates cognitive dissonance all

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the time but it also like it's an

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exercise in futility right you will find

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that it is unattainable this structure

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to maintain this structure because

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you're protecting this little fragile

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thing that whatever's coming at it the

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only way to make sure it doesn't get

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damaged is to protect it completely

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which is impossible so we have our

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strategies of denial arguing pointing

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fingers right all these things it's just

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to say I need to protect this ego

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and really there's only one way to go

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and it's not completely true because you

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could say that you can build up your ego

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which would say you would make it bigger

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and stronger but that's not true the

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bigger an ego the less strong it really

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is because there's more to be influenced

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there's more to be touched right if I

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just want to be a likable guy that's

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something I can probably maintain for a

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while especially if I'm being friendly

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to people but if I want to be a likeable

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guy I want to be extremely intelligent

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and I want to be beautiful all right and

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all these things that I have where

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my ego is telling me that you know

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there's nobody better in the world than

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myself then I really you know should

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stay in the house and lock the doors and

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windows to make sure I can maintain that

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idea because the moment I step outside I

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go on the internet or whatever there's

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gonna be interactions that's probably

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that are probably gonna tell me that maybe

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that idea isn't maintainable so I felt

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that was an interesting concept to

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realize that the process is antifragile

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the product is fragile ego is something

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that you know you can it's not a

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workable strategy to “being happy” right

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there's no such thing as “being

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happy” there's this there's this chasing

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of happiness I would say but the process

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offers way more potential right the

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human process the processing of incoming

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feedback and having a good mindset a

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good perspective on that offers way more

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potential for growth and strength than

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does this

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idea of a residue of a structure of

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a thing that is you can't protect your

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idea of who you are but you can protect

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your idea of what you are because if you

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are honest and you get real then that's

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just what you are and then it isn't

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about protecting the idea it's about

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becoming better at it so you could say

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that antifragility

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in a conceptual thing is learning right

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all right I hope this is useful I will

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look at the human experience like I said

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in the next few videos I'm gonna

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make a video about morals as well

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because it's really interesting to look

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at in this human experience and yeah I'll

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talk to you later see ya