The Rudest Book Ever

by Shwetabh Gangwar

People are successful for a number of reasons: A hunger for money, status, power; A hunger to avoid poverty, desperation and conditions you wouldn’t want to go back to ever again; A hunger to prove in your own eyes that you are capable (which would be the concept of being special); A hunger to provide for those whom you love and are dependent on you. Success

Utility asks you: what’s the use of what you are learning? In how many areas, fields of study and practices can it be implemented? How much self-belief does this learning generate in you? How much self-value does it provide? Does it have value in the long term, in the market? And lastly, at what point does whatever you are learning start to have real utility in terms of success? Basically, where do you stand right now? Thinking in terms of utility makes you realise that there is a real world out there, away from your frog-well, with real competition, and the trophies you may be collecting are mere indicators that you are on the right path, but you haven’t actually won.

Opportunity asks you: how can you use what you are learning? How many doors will it open for you? In how many ways can you capitalise on this skill? How many opportunities does it have in the marketplace? What’s the full potential of this skill if learned until you are an expert? Where is the geographic hub for opportunities for this skill? Thinking in terms of opportunity gives you ambition. Ambition gives you seriousness. With ambitious goals, the nature of its utility in your mind is revised and reset as well. Ability

You stop relying on yourself and rely completely on ‘those who know better’ to tell you what you should do, how to do it, and what’s best for you. Your original ideas don’t matter until they have been approved by them.

Things that make you happy in general, and things you specifically enjoy, are two different experiences.

In short, fuck life in the long term so I can be happy in the moment, is what you do.

The thing about whatever you think are your wants is, they probably haven’t been chosen by you. You have to understand, to a lot of people and companies, you are a customer, you are part of a statistic, you are a target audience. You are being sold new wants every day. Your mind is being fucked with properly so you choose and like certain things. To put it differently, those things are designed in a certain way so that your mind will like them.

the true test of any idea is not its popularity, but how deeply it makes you think.

You have a limited number of hours in a day that you can spend on only a certain number of activities. Therefore, you are presented with a choice: either do what everybody around you is doing, or focus on what interests you.

You can’t please everybody. You can’t control anybody.