Purpose

Before we start with anything, the primary purpose of this writing is to be proof to my father’s words that education is one of the only things no one, group, or government can take away from you.

There is a recurring theme which is flatly outlined by the title of this writing: peace.

Shortcuts aren’t necessary the shortest path or the path of least resistence but the path that works the best with what you have.

Now there is a chance that drowning in the water can get you there (someone from that boat might want to rescue you) but this isn’t recommended just because it burns more calories (and you might be dead).

Disclaimers

There won’t be stupid assumptions or speculations. By no means am I assuming you want something but actually want something else. That’s delulu. I’ve seen countless times (usually men talking about women or women talking about men) saying XYZ wanted ABC but actually wanted DEF. I’m not going to say this is what you actually want. I can only deal with facts, objective understanding, and back it up with evidence when needed.

The pain of mistakes won’t leave. The worry of what could have been won’t dissipate. Failure is still an option.

This book isn’t necessarily to get rid of any of those, but to both reduce the possibility of it happening and to better handle the situation when it does.

Ownership and control are both a recurring theme in this writing. If you don’t want to change, then probably read this book later. You gotta want it. There are a lot of things we can’t control but this is something you can, but you have to want to control it.

And no, there won’t be a perfect time to read this. Or even a better time. It’s either now or never. If there is anything I understand about people is that if you have someone’s attention, capitalize on it because you won’t get it again.

As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said in his book on flow:

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.”

None of the following should be construed as advice or telling you what to think. This is about showing another perspective. Think of this as a conversation. You don’t need to agree with the book as a whole. You be the judge of the content you consume and pick and choose what you want and how you use it.

By no means do I want to waste your time or attention. The structure of this writing is intended to be as much information packed in a way that is both easy to digest and clarifies any tangents and caveats as possible without overwhelming the amount of information.

Just as economics is fundamentally the study of scarcity, this writing is about one key idea: weighted attention.

In psychology, this is often referred to as “attentional bias” which refers to the idea that your attention is naturally drawn to certain stimuli or goals over others, regardless of their actual importance or priority.

One major theme here is humans are naturally emotional creatures.

This writing doesn't have to be read in order so feel free to jump to whichever chapter or subchapter gets your -tism to tism. This is like a reference book, with citations and other readings if you want to dive deeper into a concept.

This is meant to be a research-based writing but to keep it visually clean, all footnote numbers will be available at the very end of book.

Keep in mind that everything covered here are not absolutes nor one-size-fits-all or a get-rich-quick scheme. This is just some of the tools in a warehouse of improvement. It has been and always will be your job to make something out of it.

Sometimes you have to break yourself down and build yourself back up. There are people who can and want to help you but you need to know who you are before you can distinguish those you want to learn from and those who aren’t worth listening to. You won’t be perfect (perfection is an illusion) but you will be better. That’s what counts.

You already have everything you need to be the person you want to be.

Flow of Contents