I just finished reading a book of aphorisms called The Authentic Reactionary: Selected Scholia of Nicolás Gómez Dávila. Banger after banger is found in this book.| lessfoolish.substack.com
Being an “online person” carries psychic costs, especially for those who earn part or all of their livelihood from creative work tied to their personal image, such as a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a Substack.| Less Foolish
I like aphorisms. Laconic sentences that strip away bullshit and reveal uncomfortable truths. Without question, the best in the game is Colombian moralist Nicolás Gómez Dávila.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I appreciate good reasoning. If someone provides coherent reasons for their positions, even if I disagree with their conclusions, I cannot help but respect them.| lessfoolish.substack.com
2025. The year we get our shit together. The art of getting one’s shit together should not be underestimated. It tastes better than that donut you want to eat, it enlivens more than the Netflix show you want to stream, and it has greater meaning than the next thing you are pulled to scroll on the screen.| lessfoolish.substack.com
Shamanka. That’s what I call her. A friend with spiritual sensitivities, attuned to subtle realms. She “held space” for me after I put up the bat signal for fellow “space holders”: coaches, therapists, and guides who, in their own way, listen deeply and inquire with another about what matters most to them.| lessfoolish.substack.com
Arrested-developed masculinity. It’s a hell of a drug.| lessfoolish.substack.com
"Mysticism is the art of union with Reality [God]." - Evelyn Underhill| Less Foolish
Compulsively, you grab your phone and click, scroll, like, share, and browse. It feels like your face is being pulled into the screen, sucked into the spectacle. This reduces your impulse control and overall agency. You never feel fully nourished afterward. In fact, you feel the opposite. If you paused and felt into the sensation, what you'd feel is emptiness.| Less Foolish
Camille and I had a very touching, beautiful experience last weekend related to our emerging faith, but it's all very personal, not something I want to discuss much here, as one should not sensationalize their spiritual experiences.| Less Foolish
In the last entry, I wrote about the theory, or metaphilosophy, behind my practice and philosophical inquiry more generally. In this entry, I’ll be exploring the practice itself. I don’t have a formalized system; I’ve mostly been intuitively winging it since I began over four years ago.| Less Foolish
The Philosopher, founded in 1923, is the longest-running general philosophy journal. One of its mottos is: “Saving philosophy from the academy since 1923.” Its 100th birthday issue asks the question: Where is philosophy going?| Less Foolish
On multiple occasions, I received the feedback that I “punch above my weight” in terms of my online activities.| Less Foolish
I recently read what actor Ted Danson said to Kelsey Grammer when he turned 40: "You know what it means, don't you? Now that you're 40, it means you're finally worth having a conversation with."| Less Foolish
A reader asked me the following question: “How do you begin embodying your philosophy when you've been disembodied for so long--and when there's so much philosophy still to learn?”| Less Foolish
I wrote an entry last week called “How to Win Friends and Get Things Done ... With Wisdom?”, wherein I created the following 2×2.| Less Foolish
I have a mysterious, esoteric inquiry practice that I can’t quite find the right name for (basically, I just say “I do coaching” when speaking with normal people).| Less Foolish
One of my friends likes to call me “jazzy” because of my eclectic intellectual interests. I like the description. This Substack is pretty jazzy—sexbots, sociopaths, scenemaking, entities, goofies, etc.| Less Foolish
I’ve been told I appear “unflappably Stoic.” Hah! Little do they know. You see, it’s all an illusion to help contain the whirlwind of emotions inside. Real “Stoics” don’t repress their emotions; they just try—sometimes desperately—to maintain a modicum of agency amidst the chaos their inner world can provoke.| Less Foolish
I get asked often: “What is The Stoa?”| lessfoolish.substack.com
"If you don't have your own psyop, you become part of somebody else's psyop." - Terence McKenna, paraphrased| lessfoolish.substack.com
If you are pushing against The Pull while mainly using a smartphone, then you're setting yourself up for a Herculean task. It is an all-purpose device that is not only a phone but also a messenger, email client, camera, calculator, flashlight, alarm clock, GPS, etc.| lessfoolish.substack.com
The Pull is the subtle, unconscious force that draws you into the screen. I am writing this series as a practical guide to overcoming it for good—before it’s too late. In this entry, I’ll discuss the high-level roadmap needed.| lessfoolish.substack.com
Thus far in this series—a guide to overcoming The Pull for good—we’ve covered the following:| lessfoolish.substack.com
It no longer feels like we are in a culture war but rather a spiritual one—an “unseen war,” as my Orthodox brothers and sisters call it. For secular-minded readers, an unseen war can be understood as a conflict in which one force seeks to capture attention and pull it away from what is most important—a.k.a., what’s most sacred.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I have been exploring the phenomenon of The Pull—the pulling sensation that comes from being addicted to the internet. The screens (computer and phone) are the physical source, and it is best understood through images:| lessfoolish.substack.com
Warning: A potential metaphysical shock ahead.| lessfoolish.substack.com
On their press junket, Wicked actresses Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande appeared confused and performatively moved when their interviewer told them that people were “holding space” for the lyrics of the song “Defying Gravity.”| lessfoolish.substack.com
“Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” - Orange Catholic Bible| lessfoolish.substack.com
This is a 4,400-word guide to help men respond—not react—to the potential for needless debate, petty status dynamics, and physical violence found in social fields where men with a certain threshold of testosterone gather.| lessfoolish.substack.com
This essay is over 5,500 words and contains commentary on Tony Robbins’ “Unleash the Power Within” workshop, along with brief visual references used to illustrate the experience.| lessfoolish.substack.com
A common fallacy committed by life coaches, self-help gurus, and multi-level marketers—though not explicitly stated, yet indirectly expressed—goes like this:| lessfoolish.substack.com
This “person” is a deepfake…| lessfoolish.substack.com
There are some people you should read if you're interested in the spiritual dangers emerging with AI and what some call “The Machine”—a self-perpetuating force, socially framed as technological progress, that has a “direction of travel” toward replacing nature with technology, eliminating tradition, and ushering in a post-human world.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I am going to write a book expanding on the article “Based Definitions: A Philosophical Practice.” It was one of my favorite entries, and I believe more people would benefit from engaging with it.| lessfoolish.substack.com
You’re free. Congratulations. You made it to the other side. Something “popped.” No longer are you a slave to The Pull.| lessfoolish.substack.com
Michael Trembly of the Stoa Conversations podcast (no relation to The Stoa) invited me to his podcast because one of his listeners requested he speak with me about my interpretation of Stoicism.| lessfoolish.substack.com
"Philosophical counseling is to reason what psychotherapy is to emotions."| lessfoolish.substack.com
Click to read Less Foolish, by Peter Limberger, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.| lessfoolish.substack.com
This entry is part of a five-part series on “terrible communities”: 1.| lessfoolish.substack.com
Its physical source is the screen, whether on a phone or computer. Its digital source comes from email, messaging apps, or social media. Its emotional source comes from various unspoken social expectations, FOMO, and an existential loneliness stemming from a lack of belonging and “feeling seen” outside the screen.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I noticed a difference immediately—a greater sense of peace from day one. It was a spontaneous decision to go on a digital fast: no social media, messengers, or email. My laptop sat on my desk, unopened for two weeks. Camille’s work provides her two weeks off during the holidays, and I wanted to join her, shifting my focus away from the screen.| lessfoolish.substack.com
IRL = In Real Life, sometimes contrasted to AFRL = Away From Real Life. The series that Katherine Dee and I are launching this Friday, titled Internet Real Life, is a play on the IRL acronym, echoing the premise that opened this entry.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I was meeting some friends in the city and wanted to read a book on the subway ride.| lessfoolish.substack.com
There's a certain magic as the spring equinox approaches.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I’ll be hosting a session called “The Living Question” during Limicon 2024 at The Stoa on its birthday, March 21st.| lessfoolish.substack.com
“To argue in support of an opinion or to provide evidence to justify a statement requires basic skills of general reasoning, which are not innate abilities.” - Tim Van Gelder, reasoning sensei| lessfoolish.substack.com
This entry is an appendix to my five-part series on “terrible communities”: 1.| lessfoolish.substack.com
This entry is part of a five-part series on “terrible communities”: 1.| lessfoolish.substack.com
This entry is part of a five-part series on “terrible communities”: 1.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I used to read a lot of "self-help" books and blogs.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I will be a keynote speaker this Friday at a soirée on the merits of engaging in "public philosophy." I've started contemplating my stance on the subject upon receiving this invitation.| lessfoolish.substack.com
When thinking of what to call my philosophy practice, I did not want to use the word coach.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I am starting my philosophy practice again next week.| lessfoolish.substack.com
In my previous entry, I introduced the term “vocation gap” to refer to the all too common phenomenon of having a livelihood and vocation misaligned.| lessfoolish.substack.com
"A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading."| lessfoolish.substack.com
After my "transperspectival masturbation" phase of being a "niche internet micro celebrity," I have become fatigued with sensing all the different philosophical perspectives active on the internet.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I am hosting an in-person event in Toronto tomorrow @ Danu Social House on power literacy.| lessfoolish.substack.com
People do not know how to disagree well.| lessfoolish.substack.com
People have things ass-backward.| lessfoolish.substack.com
I have been getting positive feedback on my five-part series on "terrible communities," with people privately thanking me for clarifying problematic characters in their communities and we-space practitioners telling me they are changing their curriculums to avoid the failure modes the series outlined.| lessfoolish.substack.com
This entry is part of a five-part series on “terrible communities”: 1.| lessfoolish.substack.com
This entry is part of a five-part series on “terrible communities”: 1.| lessfoolish.substack.com
