Yo! This is DISRUPT Edition #7.

It’s been about 2-3 weeks since DISRUPT’s previous newsletter, so I hope you’re itching for some valuable content.

I’ve been diving into Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical ideas over the past couple weeks.

I find him and his ideas very interesting and quite useful in my life. In fact, I found that he and I shared very similar ideas and viewpoints on life and the world around us.

As I dived into Nietzsche’s philosophy, I found that it provides a good viewpoint on self overcoming and improvement. Good viewpoints that can help us live a higher quality life.
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An Overview on Nietzsche’s Ideas

Nietzsche grew up in a time period in which religion played a heavy role in society (mid to late 1800s).

During his time period, particularly in Europe, religion played a strong role in various aspects of society. This includes morality, culture, politics, and education. It served as the central point at which society would function.

At some point in his life, Nietzsche began seeing religion as a weak point in society. He begun to see that too many people would blindly live their lives in accordance to religion. He would criticize the way people would automatically would follow religion without questioning it. He believed that religion played too prominent of a role in society.

He was concerned about the growing prevalence of a “Herd Mentality” that people adopted as a byproduct of the prominent role of religion.

He saw that many people adopted “Slave Morality” as a byproduct of the prominent role of religion.

Nietzsche would famously declare “God is dead”, remarking that instead of letting religion blindly dictate what is morally right or wrong, we should think for ourselves and dicate for ourselves what is right or wrong. It signaled his belief that a decline of religious influence could potentially lead to the questioning of established norms opening the door for individuals to critically examine their individual values and beliefs. He would see this as a good thing. He thought that religion put too much emphasis on heavenly/moral pursuits and derailed the emphasis on solid earthly pursuits.

Nietzsche would then become concerned about the possibility of nihilism in society.

He rationalized that if religion ceased to play a role in society, if it ceased to play a role in directing people towards their ideal afterlife, people would be left with no meaning in their lives. People would be left with no foundation for meaning and morality. Essentially becoming directionless.

In conjunction with this, Nietzsche would be heavily against complacency, mediocrity, comformity, and apathy. He would refer to the man who embodied these traits as “The Last Man”

He would use the concept of The Last Man to critique the growing mediocrity and comformity that he saw in his time.

Nietzsche saw “the last men” as people who think they have discovered happiness through their comfort and pursuit of pleasure through hedonism. "...and they blink" - here Nietzsche refers to the fact that the last men aren’t aware of the true happiness. They think that they know what happiness is. But instead, they aren’t aware of what it really means to be truly happy. They ‘blink’ and the momentary happiness of comfort and pleasure is gone. They ‘blink’ and look away without truly thinking and then blindly follow the crowd embodying a herd mentality.
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Superman

Noting the issue of the Slave Morality, Herd Mentality, Nihilism, and the 'The Last Men' in society, Nietzsche would come up with a concept he would call the 'Übermensch' which has been translated to ‘Superman’ or ‘Overman’.

Nietzsche’s concept of the ‘Superman’ is the complete opposite of the ‘Last Man’. The Superman is one who rejects comformity, mediocrity, and complacency. They don’t follow the herd or have a slave morality. They don’t embody the values or viewpoints that society imposed on them. They denounce conventionality and accepts the fact that there is no universal meaning in life.

Yet, instead of embracing nihilism and accepting a life devoid of meaning, they counteract nihilism and fill the void by creating a unique meaning to their own life. Instead of attempting to find an inherent and universal meaning to life, they create their own purpose, their own meaning to life.

This Superman represents the subjective greatness that each individual human can become if they undergo a transformation. The superman is a being who is able to determine their own values and holistically sculpt themselves and their environment into something they find beautiful and uniquely their own just like an artist would create their own masterpiece with creativity and self expression.

Nietzsche had a framework for becoming ‘Superman’. It’s referred to it as the three metamorphoses​.​
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3 Metamorphoses

Stage 1 - ‘The Camel’.

Camels are beasts of burden. They carry the heaviest weights yet manage to survive in the hot desert. Camels undergo any burden without question and with characteristics of meekness, subservience, and submissiveness. The camel is willing to undergo this burden in order to accomplish whatever it was told to do. They do so with nobility, pride, and utmost dedication. At this stage, a camel is bound to what they are told to do. They are not bound with their own values. This is where the problem lies in a camel. They purely follow the conventional expectations imposed on them with pride rather than expressing their own unique intrinsic values with pride. In order to overcome this, they venture into the “loneliest desert”, a place where they continuously question the expectations imposed on them by others by continuously asking “why?”. Yet at this stage, a camel can cease to find meaning in life. Once they uncover that most of what they were told that they “should” do is actually devoid of a meaningful purpose they can become nihlistic, believing that nothing matters. It is here when the camel either transforms again or goes back into believing what they were made to believe by the functions of the external world.

Stage 2 - ‘The Lion’.​

When the camel realizes that what they were told they “should” be doing doesn’t actually have a meaningful reason behind it, they begin to reject the conventional expectations, norms, and values imposed onto them. It is here when they transform into a lion. A lion is the king of the jungle. They embody characteristics of tenacity, determination, and confidence. And even perhaps a sense of rage towards the “lies” they’ve been told through the conventional expectations imposed onto them. A lion has recognized and is very aware that there perhaps isn’t a meaningful purpose behind what they once believed. So they reject this conventional idealism and instead embrace an unconventional one. They roar out a sacred “no” to conventionality, conformity, and complacency of the world around them and reject it’s values, ideals, and norms. But after this immense roar, not much may be left for them. After aligning with the values, beliefs, and expectations that they were told to follow for so long, suddenly rejecting them may leave them with a feeling of loss. No guide, no direction, and no externally imposed meaning. It is here where the lion must look within. Ask themselves what they believe in, what they want to believe in, what they want to become, and most importantly, “why?”. It is at this point that the lion transforms into a child.

Stage 3 - ‘The Child’​

Once the lion has decided for himself that life in accordance to the conventional isn’t a life worth living and they discard of what once was. The lion then looks within in order to create something new. They find what they believe in, what they want to believe in, and what they want to become after a long period of introspection and mindful thinking. They find those values within themself and begin to exemplify them into the real world. It is at this stage that the child no longer acts in defiance of the conventionality of society but rather they affirm their on values for the sake of creativity, self-expression, and progress towards the ‘Superman’. This child represents a new beginning of life. A clean slate. And the child begins building his life with creativity, art, and determination to be the best person they can be. The child shouts the sacred “yes” and completely affirms life.
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Will to Power
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Through this process one begins to assert a ‘will to power’. Nietzsche defined this will to power as the natural will a person has to overcome themselves. It represents the desire any person has for self-expression, self-overcoming, and expansion of oneself out onto the world. ‘Power’ does not refer to power in the sense that one has physical strength or physical dominance over others. Here, ‘Power’ actually refers to power over oneself. We feel this ‘power’ when we overcome ourselves and a resistance that is resisting against us from becoming our true self that lies above us.

We don’t only look within ourselves, we look at who we can become to assert a will to power.

Will to power is sort of an art. An art of self expression and creativity by doing hard things in order to overcome oneself.

The will to power is not inherently good or bad, it carries no universal values or meaning, it just is what it is. A will for self overcoming and self expression. This means each person has a unique will to power that is uniquely expressed. Someone could have a will to power that leans towards expressing one’s value of dominating others just for the sake of tyranny. Or someone could have a will to power that leans towards expressing one’s value of seeking knowledge and using that knowledge to improve themselves and the world around them.

A person would embody a will to power purely for the sake of the will to power, not for only for the sake of accomplishing an external goal. Otherwise it ceases to be a will to power as the person isn’t really expressing themselves and their values. Although goals may be a direction, that isn’t the point of it.

And it is through this will to power that one can find true meaning within oneself. True fulfillment.

Nietzsche had a thought experiment that could indicate if someone was truly living a life that was worth living. This thought experiment is referred to as “eternal recurrence”.
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Eternal Recurrence

Eternal recurrence refers to the idea that all events in the universe have already previously occurred an infinite number of times and they will continue to occur an infinite number of times for all eternity.

Nietzsche suggested that we should ask ourselves how we would react if a demon suddenly came to us and presented us the idea of eternal recurrence. What if that demon told us we would have to live the lives we are currently living over and over again for all eternity?

If you were to discover that you have to relive the same life you are currently living for all eternity with all the joy, pain, happiness, and suffering, would you be willing to do so?

Nietzsche referred to this idea as the “greatest weight” for a reason. Taking on the “weight” of this thought experiment would require one to look deeply into their lives and consider if they are not only living a life that is worth living, but a life that is worth eternally living. And if one isn’t living a life that is worth eternally living, it would require immense change. It is a test that determines if we are affirming all aspects life, the joy and the suffering, or denying life.
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Amor Fati

Alongside the concept of eternal recurrence comes Nietzsche’s idea of Amor Fati, which translates to love of fate. It is fully affirming every aspect of life and loving it. Loving every single part of our fate. The happiness and the suffering.

If we are able to fully express Amor Fati and accept the idea of eternal recurrence, we become affirmers of life. They indicate that we are perhaps living a life worth living. And this is because we fully embrace every aspect of life. We want nothing to be different, we instead appreciate and affirm every single part of life. Saying “yes” to life instead of “no”.

Making things practical

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I believe that by taking a look at some of Nietzsche’s ideas such as the Superman and his will to power, one can begin to lives that are worth living.

Yet, fully putting the ideas of Nietzsche to use in our modern world isn’t a simple or easy task. Modern day commodities have turnt a large portion of us into what Nietzsche would refer to as The Last Men. The internet is widely misused, too much consumerism with not enough creation, too much instant gratification, and so many distractions are present in our everyday lives. And naturally, humans are wired to be part of the masses. Wired to stay conventional and comfortable. It’s helped us survive and thrive when we didn’t have what we have today. How else would we survive in the wild? Being part of a group would help us avoid isolation, potential dangers of the wild, and secure our physical survival. But we don’t need this herd mentality anymore. We don’t need to worry about survival, most of us have all that we need at moments notice. What we need instead is a thrive mindset.

But being unconventional and going on your own path was never meant to be easy. And if it was easy, we wouldn’t be living fulfilling lives. Where would the fulfillment that is derived from doing meaningful hard things come from?

You might ask, “Why would I want to be this Superman or embody this ‘will to power’?”

You have to look at it a little more deeper. The Superman makes use of will to power through using their creativity and self expression. They attempt to overcome themselves in a way that is uniquely their own as the draw from their inner values. Creativity and self-expression on it’s own is pretty rewarding. To be creative we also need to be curious. Creativity and curiosity, are very enjoyable and rewarding. And it’s because we ashumans don’t only look to survive and thrive on a physical level but also on a conceptual level. We look to output our own beliefs and solidify them onto the real world. This is why creativity and true self expression is rewarding on its own and is 1 piece of what makes striving for the Superman and embodying will to power fulfilling.

The 2nd piece that brings fulfillment from striving for the superman and embodying the will to power is the process of self-overcoming.

To overcome ourselves, we must do hard things in order to be a higher version of ourselves. Doing hard things and then seeing some success is rewarding. You see yourself level up. A good example of this is exercise. One works hard and if they do so with enough consistency then they’ll eventually see themselves improve. And that improvement feels rewarding because you are overcoming your physical limits.

Now when we combine the 2 pieces, we get joyful fulfillment within our lives. We self-overcome by doing hard things and seeing ourselves improve, but we put emphasis on the moment as we want to use our creativity and self expression to make our path of infinite progress uniquely our own. At this point, the path we choose to take becomes a path we don’t want to deviate from because it is a path that we truly identify with and a path that we get fulfilled by. So we stay on the path only for the sake of being on the path of self-overcoming. Then progress and success becomes a byproduct of taking consistent action to continue playing the infinite game of self-overcoming. You don’t focus on getting to a goal instead a goal comes to you as a result of you staying on the path of self-overcoming.

Essentially, we sculpt our own self into a higher version of our own self with the creativity and self-expression of an artist who is creating a masterpiece.

Taking a look at Nietzsche’s 3 metamorphoses, a person can begin a journey to their ‘Superman’. Say one is at the stage of a camel. The stage at which one automatically adheres without question to expectations, values, norms, and other external functions forced on them. One can just ask themselves “why?”. Why am I doing this? Does it serve me any purpose? Does it really give me any value or am I doing this because it’s something I feel that I “should” be doing?

One should reevaluate all values and all decisions that set the path of life that they are on. And when I mean all, I really mean ALL. Sometimes, what we automatically adhere to isn’t something we shouldn’t be automatically adhering to. Yet, it’s difficult to notice because we automatically adhere without question. So we should be mindful and aware.

Embody cognitive autonomy.

I’ve talked about the concept of cognitive autonomy in a previous newsletter. It’s a concept to be aware of if we want to take charge of our lives. Link​

Once someone realizes what they “should” be doing isn’t something that has any meaningful reason behind it, they begin to see through a whole lot of the “junk” in their lives. One would ideally begin to discard of the common notions that are useless to them. Just like the lion. Denying what doesn’t provide value and joyful fulfillment to their life.

This must be done with confidence, tenacity, and determination. With the idea and vision that by doing so, one would begin on a journey towards becoming their true and higher self. Otherwise, this path can become seemingly meaningless. And the path isn’t linear and is very uncertain. It’s a difficult path since humans survive on a conceptual level in addition to a physical level. We won’t want to naturally change, it takes conscious effort. And what’s difficult about an uncertain and unconventional path is the fact that it deviates from the path of a lot of the average person. But that is what makes you unique.

In this quote, the market-place and the mob refer to the common people. They don’t believe in higher men, the people who intend to go on an unconventional path that can yield them their version of success. Instead they think they are all equally average and that is their way of life. A higher man would have to deviate from the market-place, deviate from the mob to be their unique and higher selves.

This difficulty is what can bring meaningful adventure to one’s life.

And a person would have to find what actually brings meaning to them. What they actually value. What can bring them joyful fulfillment. What can lead them to becoming a better version of themselves. Otherwise, after discarding the values, norms, expectations and other forcing functions that were invaluable and meaningless to a person’s life, a person can feel devoid of meaning or direction in their lives (nihilism). We don’t want that. One should be in a thrive state in their own unique way rather than spiraling into a life devoid of meaning.

With a meaningful why, a person will be willing to endure almost anything. Perhaps this why, should be a why that reflects who you want to be. It becomes more meaningful to you that way.

Suffering on its own, without any meaningful purpose behind it is a curse to man. If someone experiences a life of unrelenting hardships with no visible growth, goals, any positive outcome to justify their struggle, or any meaning behind it, the absence of meaning will compound into distress. Into a loss of hope and a loss of resilience. Because why would one have hope if there is nothing to hope for? Why would one want to be resilient (aside from basic survival) if they see that they are going nowhere?

Reinvent your values, reinvent yourself, reinvent your life.

A way one can find what they uniquely value is to just intentionally experiment with your life. If you haven’t realized it yet, we live life as mini-scientists. Our brains have continuously gathered data on every single thing we’ve done ever since we were born. So we leverage this fact and begin experimenting to find what works for us and what doesn’t work for us.

Do things you’ve never done before. Do things you’ve done before in a new manner. Don’t hold yourself back or don’t let others hold you back. The point is to become a person that prioritizes who they want to be over what others want them to be. Take risks and get out of the comfort zone, complacency, and conventionality of life. Get out of a “herd mentality”.

Once you’ve found the path want to begin walking, then begin walking. Don’t look back.

Something to keep in mind though is that we change a whole lot. Our values can change, our preferences can change, our situation changes. This is what we seek for when we reinvent ourselves. It is the point of experimentation, to figure out who we can become and then become that person. It is a continuous process, not an end goal. But what’s important is to stay on the path of self-overcoming and express what you value.

And then as you go through this process you begin asserting what Nietzsche referred to as the “will to power”, the desire for self-overcoming with creativity and self expression. A mix of art and war. Combining the beauty of creativity and self-expression of values with the difficult yet rewarding path of self-overcoming.

Through this difficult path, one begins to embody Amor Fati, the love of fate. Think about it for a second. The difficult things one would go through would actually improve them. So if they benefit a person why should a person not love these difficult things??

Here’s a example situation for someone who works out.
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​"I don’t feel like working out. I feel tired."​
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​But wouldn’t working out improve your physical ability and enable you to reach your goal? Wouldn’t it make you feel better and accomplished? Especially after pushing through the feeling of tiredness?

The answer is yes.

They should look forward to them and fully embrace the difficulty as meaning can be found through it.

And of course with the creativity and our self-expression that we can leverage, a whole lot of the so called ‘difficulty’ in life can cease to be difficult. Because we give internal meaning to those difficult things in life. We receive a form of intrinsic motivation from doing these difficult things as they help us survive on a conceptual level and thrive. Thrive not only to survive our identity but to thrive above who we currently are.

I feel like I keep mentioning this multiple times in this newsletter, but I’m genuinely intrigued in this framework of living life. To me it seems important that we live a life like this to find a fulfilling purpose.

Every now and then I’d consider the thought experiment of “eternal recurrence”. (It reminds me of the stoic concept of “memento mori” which translates to “remember death”). If we aren’t living a life or we don’t experience moments in life that are not only worth living through but living through eternally, then are we living a life that we want to be living? And then ask yourself, how can I get to a life that I’d want to live eternally?

Yet the path of self-overcoming and the path to this Superman isn’t finite. It is an infinite process. So you must play the infinite game of improvement. Not play a finite game only for an end goal.
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​If you’re curious I touched more on infinite games vs finite games in another newsletter - LINK​

We continuously improve and there is no solid end goal. This is something to accept as it is part of our continuously changing world.

We may never reach a state of perfect success. In my eyes, what is success is living a life of joyful and meaningful fulfillment. Through doing hard things.

But if one day you’re able to reach this life, don’t become complacent and take it for granted. The moment you think you’ve succeeded (the moment that you learn how to not live like a down-goer, the moment you think that you’re great) is actually where your success ends because success is impermanent. But if you continuously are a down-goer and overcome yourself by doing meaningful hard things, then you’ll be an over-goer, someone who continuously overcomes themselves and reaches new heights that they want to reach as a byproduct. You don’t go to results, they come to you.

And make sure to take this all with a grain of salt, discard what is useless to you and absorb what is useful to you. Put your own opinion and unique view to things. All of this is just an idea. It could work or it might not work for you. This is just a framework for living life. Specifics on how to “correctly live life” cannot be handed to anyone as everyone has to live their lives in their own unique way. If you ask for specific help or specific directions, in a sense you cease to be your unique self. While guidance and advice can be useful, if followed incorrectly, you can inadvertendly infringe on your own values and who you really are.

This is it for now. Genuinely speaking, the ideas presented here are ideas that I’m the most interested about and gravitate towards. I’d say this is probably one of my favorite newsletters I’ve written.

Hope you found this valuable.

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See you next week Reader.

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