Extreme Logic: The Mental Framework To Change Your Life - Doc Ep 98

Yo, back with episode 98 of Dot the Journey. It's crazy. I was just on a podcast which I'm started doing again recently, where I feel like I dropped way too much value and then I think fuck, this is why no one. This is probably why I can't monetize my YouTube. I haven't really tried. And he was asking about my YouTube and I was like, ah, it's quite cool to look back. And yeah, I guess I've nearly done 100 videos, not quite one a week, sorry, average of like I don't know, one every 1.7 weeks or something since I started the brand a little over three years ago. But yeah, episode 98 bit different today. I can't be asked doing vlogs. I feel like no one gives a about the vlogs. Maybe it's cool seeing behind the scenes. I've been thinking about something recently. I think about a lot of things because I'm a massive overthinker and I'm a deep thinker and I'm probably on the spectrum and probably quite adhd, but it's quite apparently cool to say those things these days, which isn't intention, but it's just true. And often I grasp onto a concept that's relevant to me and I've seen in myself and this one has felt very relevant because it's caused me a lot of pain in probably the past few years, particularly in the past six months. Even so, when I talk about stuff like this and I like preach almost, I'm not giving advice, I'm just sharing what I found for myself. And I'm not saying I don't do this because I have done this. It's actually why I'm thinking about it. But basically the concept of I'm calling it extreme logic and ultimately reflecting on my lack of extreme logic over the past few years. So basically when you're born, I probably sound like a scripted this and I fucking have an asshole. I probably should start scripting my videos. It would help me articulate points I actually think quite interesting irrelevant without sounding like a just droning on. But when you're born, you grow up, you know, everything's. You just follow societal structure, right? Go to school, you probably go to uni or drop out like I did. But you go to uni in the first place in most cases, and your opinions and the ways of doing things and your limiting beliefs or beliefs in general of political views or views on money or understanding of things basically comes from your parents and people around you and you don't you don't have your own opinion until. I don't know, I think for me maybe I started to think about things differently. I don't agree with that when I was like 15, 16, 17, 18, whatever. But you don't have the resources and the context from life or experience to like say that any of those things are true or not. And I guess, yeah, using like the entrepreneurial mind versus the I guess more normal mind. And they're not. One's not inherently better or worse than the other, they are just different. And I think I associate the entrepreneurial mind with high agency, ability to create rather than consume and the ultimate like net positive, net optimism even in the face of adversity and shit stuff. And that's like a view. And actually it's funny because I have a twin brother and not many people know that non identical. We're very, very different people and we're probably a great example of nature versus nurture and like working out. Are you born with certain stuff? Are you not? I feel like in our case we must have been so have the same upbringing but we do things so differently. And basically yeah, when I was like a teenager I started like questioning things and I went to uni. I thought this is all. And I could see through I guess like the trained narrative of must get job, that's the only way to make money. And then I did a internship when I was like 19 and I met entrepreneurs for the first time, like successful ones, not econ ones, but like older ones that built like cleaning businesses or whatever. There's one guy that sold a business for like 50 million quid and I suddenly thought you don't have to be a footballer or a celebrity to make money basically because I used to probably think obviously incorrectly that you're either born into it, you're a footballer or you're a celebrity of some type. And if you're not that, you're a normal person that gets a normal job and maybe you'll make 100 grand a year by the time you're 50 and then you'll, you know, be too old to enjoy it by the time you have any real wealth or whatever. Just I come from a normal background, like most people, like not wealthy at all, but not poverty either. You know, just like normal, the comfortable middle class I guess, but not actually that comfortable. Anyway, where am I going with this? And I guess I started to. That internship opened up my eyes. I went to union, dropped out and then ever since then I probably started being like super, the system in my early 20s, you know, made some money, lost some money, massive, like I said. But, like, particularly in that period when I was making money on the come up, like probably 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, I operated with extreme logic. And what I mean by that is I feel like by default, most people's lives and the decisions they make don't make sense. Not because they're dumb necessarily, but because they're not being logical. And they've trained, their brain's been trained to not be logical. And if it tries to be logical, it's brought back to earth by societal norms. So what I mean by that, for example, like, it was actually pretty fucking illogical that I went to uni because I thought, I have to go to uni, but it would have made more sense for me to probably just start a business. I guess in my case, it worked out quite well because it showed me what I didn't want to do. And I met people there that started businesses with and stuff. Another example might be, like, people hate their job and they hate where they live, but they don't ever make a change because, yeah, like, money is a thing, but, like, if they really wanted to and they believe they could, they would figure out how to make a change and even just fuck off to Bali for a month, right? So that'd be like extreme logic in that case. Or people say they want to lose weight and they understand calories and, like, calories in, calories out. They understand exercise and basic nutrition. They know that the processed stuff they're putting in the mouth is bad. But I guess they don't believe enough that they can do it, so they basically don't do it. And obviously it's hard and stuff, but, like, in most cases, they're not even really changing the input and they're expecting a different output. So that's like the opposite of extreme logic. Whereas extreme logic is I dropped out of uni because I thought my parents want me to get a degree, but I have no fucking interest in having a job that a degree would enable me to get. So I will go all in with my high risk, high agency mindset, especially back then when I had less to prove from it and I had no reason to believe in myself other than just my internal narrative. I immersed myself in the world, went to meet loads of entrepreneurs because I thought, well, all the people around me are uni students, so I need to go and meet entrepreneurs that I never met before. Went to this event in Singapore anyway, you get the point. And then, like, the next few years, I guess I applied that thinking massively. So, you know, the societal norm would have been, why not settle down and get a job or at least like have your business in an office. And for me it was like, well, because I want to see the world, so I will go and live in Bali or go to Australia. And like, my parents would be like, this is crazy, you're traveling all the time. And. But like, what's crazy is there. Well, not my parents necessarily, but like the other people that were saying, oh, this is stupid, makes no sense, are stuck in one place that they fucking hate when they can change it, even if it's hard to do so, and then generally stuck because they believe they can't change it because of societal conditioning. Right? So, yeah, I went through this. I guess I was super high agency, particularly in my, you know, ability to get things done, make things happen, change my life for the better when I was going through a good period. And, you know, I used to live where I wanted. And basically my point with like this extreme logic is over complicating it. But like, it's basically what high agency people do. They apply extreme logic to what they want, so they change the input or they apply a certain input to get an output that they want. Right. Another example of this, a great example is like people will generally complain, like, I don't know, bash at the government for like high taxes or a better example actually. But like, say I'm never gonna be able to afford to get on the property ladder. And it's like, well, so what do you do for work? I make 30 grand a year as, I don't know, recruitment consultant. And then complain that they can't afford a million pound house. And it's like, well, extreme logic would be, of course I can't afford the house I want or any house because I only make 30 grand a year, which after tax is probably, I don't know, 22, which is like fuck all money, right? Extreme logic would be in that case, okay, recognizing that to have things that rich people have, I must become rich. Not saying it's easy, but recognizing that and then taking the steps, which in most cases, in my case that was, I wanted a supercar, right? That's probably one of my early motivations. I can't get a supercar if I'm on a 25 grand a year graduate job. But if I start a business, I make 300 grand a year EBITDA and have cash flow to afford the finance and the lump sum down payment. Then I can afford that. So that's what I did. And I guess my brain was very logical and extremely logical. Even though like I guess most people would think even if you have money, like you can't have that when you're 23 because that's what old people have. Right. So there's that. And then another example probably relevant to even myself more recently is you know, people complain our taxes are too high. So all right, so go, go live in a zero tax place then. Oh, I can't do that because I can't do that because you know, blah blah blah. I was like, well you can either complain about it and change it or you can recognize that you're not willing to change it and for maybe other reasons it's not worth the trade off and you can stop talking about it. Right. That's like extreme logic either side. Yeah, I think the most, the greatest entrepreneurs I know, especially like young the few I'm thinking of that I won't name. I've always just had that to a high level, higher level than I ever even had it. So like one thought about his offshore tax planning two years prior to his exit because he, he foresaw an exit coming and he didn't want to pay, you know, millions in tax and now he has millions of pounds more than he was would have had and he's invested it and it's compounded and you know, he took big swings investing in XYZ stocks and they've returned really well and his parents probably would have said that's super high risk. But you don't get rich and outsized leveraged returns without taking risk in any area whether it's starting a business etc, etc. So anyway, hopefully I'm resonating, this is making sense. But basically when my business failed a few years ago and then I've recognized this myself the past few years, kind of lost this concept probably because my underlying belief system got sent back to almost where it started because I lost the confidence in what I was doing working. So a great example, the best example is I've always known that living in a sunny place makes me feel better. My testosterone is higher, I tend to eat better, I eat less shit, I lose fat really quickly, I respond very well to it, I get tanned which makes me feel more creative and high dopamine, all this stuff. Yet I have chosen to live year round for the past six years in London, which is weather, especially in winter. Obviously summer's pretty nice, but I'm talking about winter especially. Doesn't, doesn't Cultivate that feeling. Environment. Me, I mean, I literally look like a different person between summer and. I'm starting to get tan back now, I don't know if you can tell, and winter. And I thought. I started to think again, I kind of have to be here because, you know, I don't know, I'm running a more serious business now. And, like, this is where my parents would expect me to be, and I couldn't possibly go back to Bali, say. And obviously, I'm not living in Bali. I'm in Bali right now for, like, two weeks. But the traditional view would be, you can't run a business from Bali. Extreme logic would say, why there's actually less distractions in Bali than there is commute to an office in London. Right? Do you see what I'm saying? But, like, traditional viewpoints would think they're logical, but actually they're not, because they're only logical as far as their preset societal conditioning will allow. So if. If being in the Arctic, living in an igloo was more productive for the business, like, in theory, like, you obviously wouldn't do that because it wouldn't feel very good. But, like, that would be better, right, for the business. But most people would think, oh, you have to be in the office in Manchester, right? Because that's what most people do. Even if the alternative, as extreme as it might look or sound or appear, is objectively better for the outcome. So that's what I'm talking about. And then, like, the last six months, I lived in Clapham in London, which was the most wild decision in my life. And I was depressed, to be honest. Um, and actually, it was completely in my control. I was the opposite of high agency. I knew living there would be shit, but I'd convinced myself I needed to be near the office for a certain period of time. And I did, in a way, and it plugged a gap. Whatever. Lesson learned. But my creativity went down, my fitness got worse, I felt worse about myself in general. Got into really quite a dark hole again, which people might have recognized on this channel or on Twitter or whatever. Just is what it is. My mind's quite susceptible to that. Well, actually, I could have just moved somewhere that was better for my mental health. Not necessarily close to the office, but I could have gone in once a week instead of three times or even once a month and got outsized returns. So, yeah, my point is, like, everyone has the opportunity to apply extreme logic, which is ultimately like a combination of agency leverage and, you know, following your gut. But I think Often we, and myself included, even like when I'm considered like relatively successful, experienced, blah, blah, blah, fall into a pattern where we do stuff because we think it's what we should do, or someone more experienced told us that's what we should do, even though we know it's wrong deep down. And often things are gray areas. I'm not saying like living in the sun all the time is good or living in fucking rain in London all the time is good. Probably somewhere in between is optimum, at least for me. But you have to ask yourself, does something actually make sense or am I just pretending it does? Because society have trained me to think that, right? Like my parents ask me every fucking week, like, when are you gonna buy a house and settle down? I'm like, well, that's a classic, like, societal narrative if that's what you do when you can afford to and you're getting a bit older. And I'm like, well, I understand the argument around having a base, but A, I don't know where I want to live long term right now. Certainly not like what neighborhood or even city. B is not a great investment compared to say the S and P or a lot of other things. C, there's massive stamp duty, tax and actually property, especially in areas like London, is probably quite a bad investment in many ways right now because it's a large bubble in a lot of places. So, like the extreme logic view would be, well, of course I just rent and invest the money and stay flexible, right? But people won't apply that thinking even if that's what they actually would prefer. So yeah, extreme logic, combination of literal thinking, objective reasoning and high agency based on what you actually want, right? So that's really what I'm getting at and I think using it to an extreme degree and I'm trying to do this myself, like even in business, right, There's a lot of things we've kind of sunk some time and money into and I feel like you can't change it because that's what we do now. But it makes no fucking sense. So the other day I just said, we're canceling this today. And everyone was, I don't know, we've got a two month notice period on this. We can't do that. I'm like, no, we're canceling it today. It doesn't make sense to keep doing this. It's not producing the returns we need. It's a massive distraction. It's lower leverage. Let's turn it off. Oh, we can't do that because We've changed the plan, the plan changes. Now we're not doing it anymore. That's like one example. You know, people want to be rich but they won't invest in, I don't know, a consulting call with someone that's two grand an hour, whatever, when that could actually be the highest leverage thing they do all year, for example. So yeah, people say they want money but they catch themselves in jobs that never going to make them rich. They say they want to be in shape, but they eat crap and they don't train. They say they want freedom but they choose to live in high tax countries that are becoming increasingly liberal and refuse to move because why would they move? It's controversial, they complain, but they won't make the logical change. And a lot that has been me. So yeah, that's been my wake up call the past six months. Spent somewhere, yeah, spent six months living somewhere that I didn't want to because I thought I had to be there. When actually even just on a basic logical level, I chose to be in a place that drained me when I didn't have to. I didn't move somewhere that would have made me feel better, like maybe Spain in the winter or whatever, somewhere else sunny. I told myself I had to be there when actually I never did. Like, it was like this fake. It's like that image of the ant that's like drawn a circle around and they can't leave the circle. So I just got in this weird mindset and not being high agency like I used to be, probably because of lack of confidence during a certain period due to PTSD from the past. So yeah, basically what I'm getting at is you can apply extreme logic to anything in your life and usually get closer to an outcome that is better for you, hopefully and always financially, mentally, physically, spiritually, health wise, family wise, friends wise. There's usually an answer, but it probably involves quite a big change what you're currently doing, which is often the uncomfortable part, but actually usually is the very minimum of what you need to make like a step change in any area. Right. Otherwise everyone just stays comfy and life kind of just floats by. So yeah, extreme logic is uncomfortable, but I think it's the ultimate thing that moves you forward and sets you free. Because most people know what needs to change, they're just not doing it because it's uncomfortable. The family judges it. Society doesn't understand it's not considered normal. But the only way to be abnormal and an outlier is to do shit that's not normal. Right? So yeah, I've been reflecting on this a lot for myself. Thought I would share it might be complete utter waffle. So if you like this kind of video, let me know. Maybe I need to get better at articulating like a 20 minute video down to like five minutes. That would probably make a lot more sense. But yeah, something I'm thinking about, something I'm trying to apply to my own life, my own business ultimately, in the pursuit of more growth, more enjoyment as well, and a better life at the end of the day in all areas, right? Health, wealth, love, happiness, get rich, create something cool, get in great shape. Have beautiful relationships with friends, family, girlfriend, etc. Because you probably can have it all. I think you can. But I've lied to myself that you can't in the last few years especially so it's been a big reflection and I'm trying to apply extreme logic now to get out of that rut and ultimately get back on. I gotta go for dinner. This guy's waiting outside. But hopefully that resonated. If not, leave a comment, let me know what you want to see and subscribe to the pod. I'll be back chatting more soon along the journey. Bosch. Sa.