17 Dec 2025 · 4 min
A short podcast (+1) episode by Brian Johnson presenting the 'microscope and telescope' metaphor for optimizing life: use a microscope to zoom into the immediate, actionable challenge and a telescope to zoom out to long-term life perspective. The episode also includes a brief promotional description of Brian's Philosopher's Notes and the Optimize Me membership.
You're listening to the Optymyze with Brian Johnson podcast. Unlock the full Optymyze experience and join over 10,000 premium members at Optimize Me. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one, we talked about the power of drawing a huge circle and then a little pinpoint dot, zooming in to rock the current challenge and zooming out to hold the bigger picture. Here's another way to look at it. The master warrior of the mind philosopher has a ton of tools in his or her shed, including these two, the microscope and the telescope. Now we use the microscope to zoom in on that little dot that is our number one current challenge. We go all the way into that challenge, right down to today. We can see a masterpiece day with vivid detail. Then we continue zooming down right into this moment and we can step back from the microscope and bust out our telescope. We consciously, deliberately step way back from that dot on a little piece of paper. We look to the super big picture of our lives. All our three years, five years, 10 years, an entire lifetime. We know our future just keeps getting better and better. Hope 101 style microscopes, telescopes, super simple metaphors, super helpful ones as well. Today's +1. How are you doing with each of those? Do you use one more than another? You got some dust on either one. What's one little thing you can do to optimize your scopes today? Let's do that. See you on Mars and in the nanograms. Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up. But if you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on how to optimize your life and pull out the big ideas that can really change your life. You know those sections you underline and asterisks and mark all up? Then imagine that guy me connecting those awesome ideas to other great books and helping you actually apply the wisdom to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes, where I've distilled hundreds of great books into 20 minute super practical summaries. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in hour long Optimal Living 101 classes on everything from productivity, purpose and confidence to nutrition, goal setting and conquering procrastination. Helping you optimize every facet of your life so you can actualize your potential. You've got a personal trainer. I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus modern science plus practical tools. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. If you're feeling it, we'd love to have you join us.
