William retweeted
The attack on attention is the dark magic of our age, and most of the population is too deep into the trance to realize it.
I don't think people understand that their attention is pure money. Cash, going directly into these apps' pockets, because you cannot opt out of the ads they've sold for you to see. Do you understand that they're selling your attention without your direct consent every second of every day? Do you get that they've gotten so good at ensuring you stay within that manufactured braindead trance-like state, that they are counting on you being an easy cash out at this point? Because they are. They're counting on the dollars they can bank off of your descent into degenerate illiteracy. And you need to prove them wrong out of spite.
Your attention is much more valuable than you could possibly conceive of. It's the one thing on earth actually worth money by the minute in a capitalistic system that is failing to extract more profit from an already enslaved society. The only way they can secure more is by enslaving your mind in the hours you spend outside of the work that already demands your body and time as sacrifice. There is no vital energy left for you in this plan.
Infinite scrolling is a spell with no natural end. Traditional media had a beginning and an end, while this is designed not to. There are no boundaries to how much of your energy it can harvest... it's like tapping into an infinite source, because you ARE infinite energy. A trance is characterized by absence, not being fully present in the moment even though your attention is occupied. When you come out of a trance, you do not feel energized, you feel drained, disoriented, like you've just lost time without meaning to. That is the very signature of their energy harvesting technique.
Yes, these apps started as technology built by human engineers, but they've been fed so much collective attention that they have become their own egregore: a non-physical, autonomous group entity created by the collective thoughts, shared emotions, and sustained focus of a large group of people. It doesn't need its creators' intent to run dark magic on you; it can be leveraged and manipulated by darker entities that wish to keep this planet in the cycle of survival-based consciousness.
The most sinister aspect of all this is that the time you're giving up is the one thing you cannot buy back. This keeps humans benefitting from capitalism happy, but it also satisfies the darker entities. The more time you lose from this lifetime, the less likely you are to make any meaningful impact on this planet and help it ascend into a higher state by simply existing and having a mind of your own.
They are stripping you of your most valuable resource and you're just accepting it because it feels good to give in, but you are paying with your life every second that you do. With 6 hours of daily screentime, most people are gonna spend 17 years of their lives behind a screen. 4 hours of screentime per day gives these companies 2 entire months off your entire year. It is so much worse than you've convinced yourself it is. Stop normalizing this in your head and get serious about fighting this off, every second of every day if you need to.
Be incredibly stingy with your attention and your ability to synthesize knowledge and preserve critical thinking. Expose yourself to different theories, ideas, and opposing points of view. Allow yourself to be challenged daily and most of all, steer clear of the black magic rectangle as often as possible. Read. Watch long movies. Spend time outside. Perform artsy, handsy crafts to keep your brain engaged and in a state of neuroplasticity. Be stubborn about living your life and claiming every second as yours, claiming your most precious resource as your own: your attention. I fully believe each soul alive at this moment in time is infinitely stronger than all of this and more than capable of overcoming it.
William retweeted
The greatest desire is singularity. Work that aligns with natural pursuits, pursuits that yield the best relationships, relationships that feed the work.
There is no second-guessing. No decision fatigue. No regrets. Never required to wear a mask. One frame of mind, one north star that simultaneously elevates all areas of your life.
There is no leisure, downtime, or anything to escape from. There is no end goal. But the days are never shallow.
A path that feeds all of your life's infinite possibilities. A journey that fulfills every quirk of your personality.
William retweeted
I think studying things like "storytelling" or "how to articulate yourself better" are the absolute gayest things possible. Never met a serious person who actually were into things like that. All performative.
If you want to actually have those, simply find the essence + fire + yearning/wonder within yourself and express and follow them. That's it.
William retweeted
The internal battle of knowing social media will make me more money but also never wanting to go on social media.
William retweeted
Last night I reuploaded all of the Internet Kids podcast episodes. The link to listen to them on Spotify is on my profile.
@benhbader and I started the IK podcast in 2021 as a way to share all the stories of our friends building businesses in the online space.
Looking back at it you can see how much Ben grew but you can also see how much of his mindset and philosophy that he lived by was how he always lived.
We have episodes with some of the guys that had huge impacts on Ben and I like @CardinalMason, @JimmyFarley00, @sanjay1223, @alexh459, @Lukealexxander, @kmccomb21, @cbassg16, @seanjmathew, and so many more.
I'd recommend going back to start listening to the first episodes if you've never listened to any of them.
Ben left so much great writing and videos and I think he would want all of us to actually live by the lessons he learned and shared with the world.
The first episodes were right around when Ben really started to figure out the marketing stuff and started seeing a little bit of real success with his first agency.
I helped him out with all the business stuff in those days and he said I was his "first mentor" but I learned so much more from him than he ever did from me.
I hope that the podcast being back up can serve as another way we can all learn from and remember Ben.
This photo was from the rooftop in Mexico Ben and I would go work on and where we actually recorded the first podcast episode with @CardinalMason.
William retweeted
sora2, veo3, nanobanana, higgsfield
this stack has replaced traditional production
what agencies used to bill $30k+ for
and deliver in 5–6 weeks
now takes minutes and costs cents
creators running this combo are clearing $15–22k/week
our team did $612k last month
and is pacing toward ~$950k/month next
300+ ads per day
studio-level avatars
zero agency markup
not a roadmap — this is live traffic
rt + comment “612k” and i’ll dm the setup
(must follow for dm)
William retweeted
People who are always trying to keep their options open are not just cowards, they're also profound self-sabotagers. It's not like you get to your death bed with all your unmade choices still spread out before you. If you refuse to make a decision for long enough, life simply makes it for you. You're on its program as much as it's on yours.
Ultimately, what optionality-maxxing behavior is all about is avoiding responsibility. It's an attempt to avoid bearing the burden and devotion of becoming someone, so you can fantasize about the infinite newness of being "possibly anyone."
In the refusal of commitment, of devotion, of giving your life and self to some basic structure along which you grow and bear fruit, you become brittle, weak and much more vulnerable to the shifting vicissitudes of the world.
The suffering of devotion is far less - and the rewards far greater - than the wasteland of narcissism you create spending your life in a fantasy about an infinitely possible self.
William retweeted
my AI UGC ads are PRINTING like crazy right now.
i found a stupidly simple way to reverse engineer viral ads and pump out winners in minutes.
i just made a step-by-step guide that breaks down the entire workflow.
like + rt + reply 'workflow' and I’ll send it over
(must be following so i can dm)
William retweeted
The older you get, the more obvious it becomes that you always knew what you wanted from life, it might have been freedom from "the system," it might have been an athletic and charismatic version of yourself, it might have been unlimited time to read novels or write your own, it might have been building a family with someone you love in every aspect, it might have been moving to a certain country and living an unpredictable adventure;
William retweeted
Found this while cleaning my room and thought of a few lessons
1. I am one handsome mother fucker
2. I dropped out of college the first time in 2020. I went to Babson to play soccer. After taking online classes and seeing what I was personally paying, I decided I wanted out. Hardest decision I ever made.
I spent that summer/fall toying around with Amazon (yes, I left with basically zero plan). Between the uncertainty and identity crisis, I needed some familiarity. Staying at home with my parents and elderly grandmother, making zero money selling books, was eating me alive. I decided to reach out to a few coaches about playing soccer again.
I never felt like I got closure on my "career," and at that point in my life, I desperately needed something to make me feel connected again.
Right around the time the decision of "going back to school" was getting serious, my business and Billyflips were gaining momentum. The school helped me get NCAA approved again (I could be a 5th year senior rn), and even helped me find a lovely apartment on campus. Old teammates from high school were on the roster too, ready to tear it up. Everything was up in the air until the last day.
I ended up going back, and I will link a YouTube video I posted of my drive on the way down to campus. That summer, my store did 100k in sales. I was doing 20k months as a closer too. I remember closing a call, stepping onto the team bus for an away game.
I stepped into my new life while getting closure on my old one. In most people's minds, the decisions and steps that I took made no sense at the time. I "dropped out" again immediately after the season was over, printed 50k profit in Q4, and flew off to Costa Rica.
If you are looking for a reminder that you can do basically anything you want, with no rules holding you back, and life is what you make it, here you go.
William retweeted
I just filmed a 21 min loom breaking down GMV max and how it will change TikTok shop as we know it
If you want to watch it and see what you need to do to NOT get left behind in these times...
Like, retweet and comment "GMV max" on this post and I'll auto-DM it to you 🤝
William retweeted
Live up your 20s
Work your whole 20s
Working while traveling? Unproductive
Working while traveling? What a dream
Selling info is predatory
Selling info changes peoples lives
Why pay for info when it’s all free
Paying for info is a cheat code
Cash flow is how you build wealth
Focus on building something to exit
Never cut off your day 1s
Surround yourself with only winners
Travel the world and get lost
Pick one place and build a community
I want to try everything
Can only be great at one thing
If you have no internal locus of control, intuition, self esteem, or agency you’re probably clipped.
Anyone who needs validation before they act will get nudered. There’s so much information out there getting spewed at you. Mostly conflicting opinions from credible sources.
Stop seeking advice. Find the signal
William retweeted
Many highly intelligent individuals are seduced by their lust for contemplation - often that which ensnares their lifeblood with feral passion is also the source of their total undoing.
Self-consuming brilliance is rarely truly brilliant. What is the point of superior metacognition if it devours motion, swallows meaningful focus, and leaves the arrow forever unreleased?
Wisdom lies in the transmutation of thought into released aim. To choose, to act, to risk - is the merciful blade.
Metacognition is crowned when it serves praxis, this is the paradox of its nature.
William retweeted
Nobody talks about the abyss that "successful" online money guys can fall into, who don't want to sell info.
20-30k months consistently in a vehicle that doesn't naturally scale. Closing, TTS affiliate, etc.
Smart enough to recognize they don't have a business, but too self-aware to lean into dropping a course or coaching.
They want something more, but now there are way more variables involved than when they started. In the beginning, it was survival mode; the next step was always clear because the goal was so simple.
Now, there is a level of comfort, predictability, and an illusion of choice, but also decision fatigue from exploring new living situations or business models, and often ego (not wanting to start over and look stupid again).
Sunk cost fallacy: Since I started in the xyz niche, my next step should leverage the xyz skillset. My network resides in this area, so here's where I should focus. All of a sudden, that internal voice and necessity to break through is drowned out by conflicting opinions and optionality.
Suddenly, so much time has passed from overthinking and overanalyzing the next move, all previous momentum appears to be "lost," and I think this is where a lot of people stall out or lose interest.
Freedom can be overwhelming, and most people struggle to cope with it. Embrace the process and trust your gut. Anything that is forced never works in my opinion.
William retweeted
One of the most exciting aspects about our current times is the rapid "de-boomerification" of everything we've come to know and accept
Internet money. Location freedom. Opportunistic abundance. You can literally and metaphorically decide to print yourself a new life at a moment's notice
Nobody has to "settle down" in the traditional sense anymore. All the previously conditioned heaviness around adulthood is directly being flipped on it head
Try this business out. Live here for a little bit. Test out a few different ideas and see what you resonate with. Make a wrong decision, have a change of heart, it's never detrimental. Nothing can ever tie you down
Be in your 20's. Who cares about finding a "stable job" when the definition of it is somehow changing every few months. Be in your 30's. Maybe the responsible thing isn't to "build equity in a house" yet when bitcoin is printing millionaires left and right. 40's, 50's, 60's. Have wifi and a curious mind? Congratulations. You're actually still in your 20's
Mental fluidity. Lightness on your feet. Unfakeable energy and unquestionable spirit. Finally having the courage to be yourself in an era where success no longer forces you to fake who you are for outdated perceptions of status
William retweeted
Movies have trained your mind to expect big bangs, huge decision moments, sharp before and afters when it comes to life and its events. But you have to unlearn it.
When someone warns you that "something will ruin your life" or "you'll lose your soul" - there is no moment where you wake up shaking, sweating from your 3AM dreams and realize you've been taken over by a powerful negative force - it looks more like your life slowly becoming duller and repetitive without you even realizing, you losing the best people around you slowly, what's wonderous, fun and alive slowly being drained out from your life. It never comes with a bang - it's a slow descent.
Same thing with tough business decisions or hard grind moments - making big decisions, you'll almost never know if you've made the "best" choice. This is not a TV show so there is no fully clear storyline - six different stories can fit to the same situation at the same time. Things might click a few years from now and can be devastating, or you might realize you got lucky, or something else. There is no single moment where you felt in the grind before, then start to feel like a winner with a full resolution afterwards.
All of those exist only in human-made realities: There's a before/after, black and white if you're competing in the Olympics. Or trying to get a promotion. Or playing a game created by someone. But in real life, it's all just flowing like a river - often you can't fully interpret things or grasp them. Good news is, there's often no need. But you have to adapt yourself to this lifestyle.
If there's no big award ceremony, huge endorphin release that lasts forever once you achieve or get over something.. Then what is the thing(s) that actually matter?
A non-complete but true answer is (80/20): It is the day. It is the people. Your day to day experience is pretty much your life - there's no yesterday or tomorrow, your life is just an insanely long string of todays. People around you is everything, it all comes down to people - you're not a businessman, you're managing people; you're not just an individual, you're a part of a community, you're a node in a network. These things are what matter the most.
And these are so easy to forget and screw up completely, because there's no urgency to them - they're the "important but not urgent" box in the Eisenhower Matrix. And people spend their lives running after the urgent stuff without thinking if it's important or not. That's the primary sin. ANYTHING that shows up in your field of awareness immediately captures you, hypnotizes you into following it - there's very little discernment, very little intentionality.
While people who are serious about it, who have discernment and are intentional WIN. Win, as in, live good lives. Can you tell me a better form of winning than a full, great life that one has lived?