You know, if you take people and you expose them voluntarily to things that they are avoiding and are afraid of
You know, that they know they need to overcome in order to meet their goals, their self-defined goals
If you can teach people to stand up in the face of the things they're afraid of
They get stronger
And you don't know what the upper limits to that are because you might ask yourself
Like if for 10 years if you didn't avoid doing what you knew you needed to do
By your own definitions, right, within the value structure that you've created
To the degree that you've done that
What would you be like?
[Chorus]
What would you be like?
What would you be like?
(If you stop wasting time)
What would you be like?
What would you be like?
What would you be like?
(If you spoke your mind)
What would you be like?
You know, that they know they need to overcome in order to meet their goals, their self-defined goals
If you can teach people to stand up in the face of the things they're afraid of
They get stronger
And you don't know what the upper limits to that are because you might ask yourself
Like if for 10 years if you didn't avoid doing what you knew you needed to do
By your own definitions, right, within the value structure that you've created
To the degree that you've done that
What would you be like?
[Chorus]
What would you be like?
What would you be like?
(If you stop wasting time)
What would you be like?
What would you be like?
What would you be like?
(If you spoke your mind)
What would you be like?
Better than alcohol, man
Yeah, and the funny thing is if you're trying to stop drinking you need something better than alcohol
And alcohol is pretty good so you better find something a lot better, man
Estimable people do estimable things it's like, yeah, well you wanna figure out something that you're doing with your life that's worth not getting drunk and screwing up
You might say, well, why do people drink too much?
If you like alcohol, that's a stupid question
Why do people drink too much?
Well, 'cause it's great
So why stop? Well, you do stupid things when you're drunk
You hurt yourself you compromise your health it's really hard on the people around you
You tend to turn into a liar and it screws up your life
It’s like yeah, but it's pretty fun
Yeah, well it is but
You need something better than that
And what's better isn't
Being straight and not making mistakes
It's like that's all prohibition in some sense, what's better is
No, you need an adventure, man
Yeah, and the funny thing is if you're trying to stop drinking you need something better than alcohol
And alcohol is pretty good so you better find something a lot better, man
Estimable people do estimable things it's like, yeah, well you wanna figure out something that you're doing with your life that's worth not getting drunk and screwing up
You might say, well, why do people drink too much?
If you like alcohol, that's a stupid question
Why do people drink too much?
Well, 'cause it's great
So why stop? Well, you do stupid things when you're drunk
You hurt yourself you compromise your health it's really hard on the people around you
You tend to turn into a liar and it screws up your life
It’s like yeah, but it's pretty fun
Yeah, well it is but
You need something better than that
And what's better isn't
Being straight and not making mistakes
It's like that's all prohibition in some sense, what's better is
No, you need an adventure, man
Without that beauty, there's no call to higher being
You know? This is also why I've mentioned to people that they should clean up their rooms
That's become quite the internet meme
But I'm really serious about it, 'cause it's really hard to do that
It isn't just that you clean it up
You also make it beautiful
[Chorus]
Make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
Make it – Make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
It's really hard to make something beautiful
Make it beautiful
And it's really worthwhile
Make it beautiful
It's really hard to make something beautiful
Make it beautiful
And it's really worthwhile
You know? This is also why I've mentioned to people that they should clean up their rooms
That's become quite the internet meme
But I'm really serious about it, 'cause it's really hard to do that
It isn't just that you clean it up
You also make it beautiful
[Chorus]
Make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
Make it – Make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
It's really hard to make something beautiful
Make it beautiful
And it's really worthwhile
Make it beautiful
It's really hard to make something beautiful
Make it beautiful
And it's really worthwhile
You gotta be oriented towards something
Because otherwise you're disoriented you just spin around in circles and then you suffer
And so do people around you
It's not a good solution
Orient yourself towards something
You have to figure out what it is
What will work for you
What goal
Would justify the suffering of your life
Start trying to piece that together, you're going to get better at it
Start trying to piece that together, you're going to get better at it
But it's a personal process so you need a personal place to stand because otherwise you're going to be handed a place to stand on a plate
And it may be one that makes you a puppet
Of someone else's goals (Yeah)
So, I would say what are the processes?
Well, I think, what I've recommended to people is
Because otherwise you're disoriented you just spin around in circles and then you suffer
And so do people around you
It's not a good solution
Orient yourself towards something
You have to figure out what it is
What will work for you
What goal
Would justify the suffering of your life
Start trying to piece that together, you're going to get better at it
Start trying to piece that together, you're going to get better at it
But it's a personal process so you need a personal place to stand because otherwise you're going to be handed a place to stand on a plate
And it may be one that makes you a puppet
Of someone else's goals (Yeah)
So, I would say what are the processes?
Well, I think, what I've recommended to people is
[Intro]
Happiness is fleeting
And suffering requires a sustaining meaning
Happiness is fleeting
And suffering requires a sustaining meaning
That place where the meaning and the fact are conjoined
That's the proper place to lecture from
What you wanna do as an academic is tell your students
About something that you've encountered that you've fallen in love with
And to communicate the love that you have for that
And not to say, “Well, you should read this book.”
But to say, “Well, here's this book, and here's what it can open up for you and this is how it does it, this is what you'll gain from it”
There's something in it that's of unbelievable utility, and you have to believe that in order to communicate it
To communicate that commitment you have to beauty and to truth and to literature
Happiness is fleeting
And suffering requires a sustaining meaning
Happiness is fleeting
And suffering requires a sustaining meaning
That place where the meaning and the fact are conjoined
That's the proper place to lecture from
What you wanna do as an academic is tell your students
About something that you've encountered that you've fallen in love with
And to communicate the love that you have for that
And not to say, “Well, you should read this book.”
But to say, “Well, here's this book, and here's what it can open up for you and this is how it does it, this is what you'll gain from it”
There's something in it that's of unbelievable utility, and you have to believe that in order to communicate it
To communicate that commitment you have to beauty and to truth and to literature