Chapter 7: Organised Planning

Chapter 7 had a questionnaire to be completed once a year. It’s probably not the best out there, but I believe that it doesn’t need to be. It’s just a way to have a structured, regular check-up on your goals.

1. Have I attained the goal which I established as my objective for this year? (You should work with a definite yearly objective to be attained as a part of your major life objective).

I have not attained the goal I established this year, mostly because I didn’t bother setting a goal after failing last year’s goal of finishing my novel. I guess my implicit goal this year has been to pass all of this semester’s exams and to develop better habits. I have made some progress on that. On the other hand, I haven’t found a systematic way to get myself to write every day. I feel like if I could find a good how-to guide or book to write light-novel style stories, which I could re-read every day, then that would be advantageous. Unfortunately, if there are such books, they have not been translated into English, so I will need to either machine translate a Japanese resource or cobble together something with the existing English language resources. Basically, even if it’s not perfect, I want a formula that I can follow and then tweak afterwards as need be.

2. Have I delivered service of the best possible QUALITY of which I was capable, or could I have improved any part of this service?

Yes, I am satisfied with most of my writing this year, even though it has been rather sparse. As for the novel I have been editing, it’s no good, so I have decided to start a new project. Also, I have realised that I have no interest in Virtual Reality and Isekai anymore because there is no built-in end to the story, unlike, say, a detective mystery, which must end when the culprit is revealed, or a romance story, which ends with the couple getting together. I am not saying that’s how they should end, but it’s how they usually end, in a satisfying way. Basically, I didn’t know how to end my story, so this time I want to outline extensively, and I want something which has a built-in ending. The genre I have chosen is the time-loop story, where the story ends once the main character finds out how to escape the time-loop after having learned a lesson or grown in power.

3. Have I delivered service in the greatest possible QUANTITY of which I was capable?

No, unless I am writing every day then I am not writing enough. Again, I need something a little bit more structured than saying “Write 1k words everyday” on my to-dos

4. Has the spirit of my conduct been harmonious, and cooperative at all times?

I have been a bit more antisocial this year admittedly. However, I think it’s because the people I met with last year mostly had different goals than mine. I want to build an otaku master mind group, but it’s not going to be this year, because I have to build some skills of my own to offer to such a group, or else they would have no reason to be in it.

5. Have I permitted the habit of PROCRASTINATION to decrease my efficiency, and if so, to what extent?

Perhaps not wanting to start a master mind group right now is also a form of procrastination.

6. Have I improved my PERSONALITY, and if so, in what ways?

I think I have gotten better at not arguing with people, whether it be online or offline. It is liberating not to feel like I have to convince anyone of things.

7. Have I been PERSISTENT in following my plans through to completion?

Well, everyday I do about half of the habits which I have set up to develop but those which are the core of my daily plan; anki and novels, don’t get enough attention in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I don’t know what else I can do for anki, except try to get back onto doing it.

8. Have I reached DECISIONS PROMPTLY AND DEFINITELY on all occasions?

I have been pretty decisive this year, and taken responsibility for my work. Although I still do end up not doing everything which I promise to myself and others, I have come to reconcile for now I should just focus on doing what I can.

9. Have I permitted any one or more of the six basic fears to decrease my efficiency?

The six fears are poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age, death. I won’t say which but one of them did affect me.

10. Have I been either “over-cautious,” or “under-cautious?”

I feel like I am being a bit under-cautious regarding some health issues I have had which I won’t reveal here. As for over-cautiousness, no I don’t think so.

11. Has my relationship with my associates in work been pleasant, or unpleasant? If it has been unpleasant, has the fault been partly, or wholly mine?

It has been alright. No major issues.

12. Have I dissipated any of my energy through lack of CONCENTRATION of effort?

Yes, unfortunately.

13. Have I been open minded and tolerant in connection with all subjects?

Yes

14. In what way have I improved my ability to render service?

I have experimented with certain tools such as converting speech into text for some blog posts. Maybe I should use it for some of these blog posts too to save time.

15. Have I been intemperate in any of my habits?

I have been overeating a bit. The problem is that I eat my meals at irregular time. Sorting this out is not a top priority for now. I have tried calory counting, and it works but not with this schedule.

16. Have I expressed, either openly or secretly, any form of EGOTISM?

Yes, and I will continue to do so, because if I don’t look out for my interests then others certainly won’t, at least not in a way that pleases me.

17. Has my conduct toward my associates been such that it has induced them to RESPECT me?

Yes, I have done what I have agreed to do and no more.

18. Have my opinions and DECISIONS been based upon guesswork, or accuracy of analysis and THOUGHT?

If I don’t have the data then yes it’s been based on guesswork. I have been looking at more and more information helpful to me though.

19. Have I followed the habit of budgeting my time, my expenses, and my income, and have I been conservative in these budgets?

My time? Yes. My budget? No.

20. How much time have I devoted to UNPROFITABLE effort which I might have used to better advantage?

Too much.

21. How may I RE-BUDGET my time, and change my habits so I will be more efficient during the coming year?

I don’t know. I have experimented with time-boxing and alternating between tasks according to a timer. This worked for a bit until it didn’t. I am still going to do it for now. At least if I can manage 1 hour of anki per day that would be good. I have also started to give different tags for my habits on habitica so that I don’t get overwhelmed by my habits.

22. Have I been guilty of any conduct which was not approved by my conscience?

No, not really. I guess maybe giving in to some requests by others.

23. In what ways have I rendered MORE SERVICE AND BETTER SERVICE than I was paid to render?

I have not.

24. Have I been unfair to anyone, and if so, in what way?

I have not been unfair to anyone.

25. If I had been the purchaser of my own services for the year, would I be satisfied with my purchase?

Probably not.

26. Am I in the right vocation, and if not, why not?

I am not, because getting work to write what I want to write, is a lot easier said than done.

27. Has the purchaser of my services been satisfied with the service I have rendered, and if not, why not?

They have been satisfied enough.

28. What is my present rating on the fundamental principles of success? (Make this rating fairly, and frankly, and have it checked by someone who is courageous enough to do it accurately).

4/10.

End of Self-analysis Questionnaire

The problem I have with this chapter is how it glorifies the employer-employee relation, and the employee-customer relation (i.e. what he calls capitalism). I have been a customer and an employee and honestly both of those positions suck. I feel like the attitude we are forced to have in public with everyone is the attitude that servants had towards their masters in the medieval era. Honestly, I am not sure I would call this society harmonious which is why this pent up vitriol surfaces up on the internet. Having said that as an individual person, I don’t see much use of arguing about what economic system is the best, since it is out of your hands, whatever the system you should look to how you can survive and thrive in it. At least I don’t see myself escaping society into the woods or the jungle or the mountains or the desert to live with animals.

Really, the question is at what point do you stop being superficially nice to people. I felt the same when reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, when I realised I would never be able to do it, because I can only pretend to like someone for so long before their presence becomes unbearable. And yet in business, as opposed to personal life, you need to be able to put up with others who are also trying to put up with you by showing a smile. I think the key here is to not apply this stuff to personal relationships as opposed to professional ones. Is that hypocritical but necessary? Maybe but not if you view your personal and professional life as separate to a reasonable extent. Unfortunately, increasingly people don’t have a personal life, which makes me wonder if people like Hill are to be blamed for this disappearance of a personal life into the professional, but then again, maybe it was inevitable. To put it bluntly, if you have no money, you can’t go anywhere, and you have nowhere to invite people to.

Chapter 8: Decision

Analysis of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of REACHING DECISIONS PROMPTLY and of changing these decisions SLOWLY if and when they were changed.

The gist of this chapter is that courage, or the ability to tolerate uncertainty, is necessary to be decisive, and if you listen to people’s opinions all the time, then, unless you are very lucky, you will second-guess yourself and change your decision before it can bear any fruit because you can't tolerate the uncertainty. The truth is that nobody knows what the future holds, and so generally speaking, within reason, it’s better to just stick to your decision.

Close friends and relatives, while not meaning to do so, often handicap one through opinions and sometimes through ridicule, which is meant to be humorous. Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes with them all through life because some well-meaning but ignorant person destroyed their confidence through opinions or ridicule.

Generally speaking, I have found that it is true that it’s better to keep my goals to myself. Or at least I have not found it helpful. Most people are not really interested in your goals anyway, so if you excitedly relay your grand plan to them and they do not care, that can be painful. Instead, it’s better if you have it written somewhere no one else can see it. Of course, if you think they could and would be helpful, that’s another story, but don’t expect them to help you unless you have something to offer them in exchange.

This chapter again goes on about the master mind group idea, which is in perfect harmony with your goals, but I wonder if, for most people, such a supportive group is just a matter of luck. As a substitute for this kind of friend group, people are turning to AI. Alternatively, you can speak with people whose job it is to help you, but they won’t really care about you any more than a bot, so you will need to try to be unemotional about it as well, for example, if you get some feedback on your writing saying that it’s no good for X and Y reason, it’s better to look at this objectively rather than fall into despair and conclude that you should stop writing and start some other project instead. The biggest problem is that access to these people is limited, though, and often locked behind money, and it’s not always clear whether the advice they give actually helps you.

I watched the Hell Mode Anime, and surprisingly, I liked it enough that I am going to try reading volume 3. The first season of the anime adapted the first two volumes. What I liked about the protagonist was his calmness and decisiveness to get better and better despite being reincarnated as a serf. The gradual rise was very satisfying to watch. Does he have cheat powers? Yes, but all powers and abilities are cheat powers, and they would be useless if the protagonist just gave up. Another thing which is remarkable is how entertaining the story is despite having poor production values, with CG animation frequently used for the monsters which the protagonist summons.

I watched the movie adaptation of “I Want to Eat Your Pancreas,” because I was looking for an anime film which was tragic, but it wasn’t the sad scenes which made me sad. One thing which TGR (Think & Grow Rich) constantly emphasises is that you need other people to achieve things, you can’t do it by yourself, and in order to get that cooperation, you need to be able to provide something in exchange. Movies like these promote very conventional views, which might brush against otaku who are loners, because a lot of activities which otaku do are difficult to incorporate into a group setting. For example, you could read novels together in a group, but whether it is reading or writing novels, it is fundamentally something which you do alone. Those light novel authors who write one volume a month are commendable for their effort, but there is little doubt that they must live lonely lives to be able to dedicate themselves to their work like that. All that said, it was their decision, just as this anime is about the protagonist deciding for himself, not to be a loner. To see the fruits of our decisions, we must stick to them and only change them slowly. Even though it is not in our hands when and how we will die, it is up to our choices how we live, so I think this story has a beautiful message.

Chapter 9: Persistence

“EVERY FAILURE BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT ADVANTAGE”

I think the problem with this belief is that it can lead people to become less empathetic to others and to pretend that they are doing others a favour by berating them, even though, in reality, they just do it because it feels good to berate others. It’s the worst when two people who are already down start looking down on each other.

On the other hand, if you can look at it this way for your own life, if you believe “I am the kind of person who can turn failure into opportunity,” then that might be more useful than being paralysed by despair, and therefore failing to maintain any discipline because of a lack of motivation.

I watched the anime adaptation of All You Need is Kill, which is about two characters stuck in a time loop where if they die they get sent back to the morning. One criticism of time loop is that it’s inevitable that the characters will find a solution given enough loops, I think that’s stupid, because seeing them figure out the solution to the loop through persistence is what is so satisfying, but at any rate it is perfectly plausible for characters to get permanently stuck inside the loop with no way out, so it isn’t really a valid criticism anyway. In this movie, they still resort to the idea that the time loops are limited just to placate some of those unfounded criticisms. I think the best thing about time loop stories is that they definitely can cultivate a sense of persistence.

According to TGR is caused by: Definiteness of purpose (knowing what one wants), Desire, Self-Reliance, Definiteness of plans, Accurate Knowledge, Cooperation, Willpower, and Habit. And basically, being stuck and having to escape a time loop led the characters of All You Need is Kill to acquire all these to have a chance at all to escape.

I am ten episodes into Moshidora. A story about a highschool girl using advice from Drucker’s The Practice of Management to get her school’s baseball team into Koshien Stadium, where the National High School baseball tournaments are held. The novel which this anime was adapted from was a best-seller in Japan, and it was adapted into a film and manga as well. The message of the anime is that principles from business management can be applied to voluntary organisations like a high school club as well. I got an ebook version of the Drucker book, apparently there is an audiobook but no one has uploaded it online yet. The anime was kind of rough I am not going to lie, and I think the problem laid in trying to directly mix educational content with narrative content. Neither is more valuable than the other inherently but they can be at the expense of each other. Nevertheless, the premise has intrigued me so much that I have started reading a machine translated version of the novel (there is no official translation despite this being a best-seller in Japan). Despite this being a high school baseball anime there was no romance, or if there was any, it could be said it was Minami’s persistence to take her high-school baseball club to Koshien.

According to TGR, there are four steps which lead to the habit of persistence:

1. A Definite Purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfilment.

2. A definite plan, expressed in continuous action.

3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances.

4. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both the plan and purpose.

Minami’s definite purpose is her burning desire to take her team to koshien to make her childhood friend happy. She plans to use this book by Ducker on management, which doesn’t even apply directly to baseball, but still serves as a fountainhead for ideas to improve her team. The important thing is to have a plan and then refine it while putting it into place, rather than waiting for the perfect plan to act. Her mind is closed against the negativity and lack of ambition of the club’s members and coach. Her friendly ally is her bedridden childhood friend, who shares her goal and desire.

In the anime, at least, Minami, did not face major obstacles, and people were surprisingly willing to follow her tough advice without much backtalk. Perhaps things may not be as easy in real life but that is not the point, nor is that an excuse to do nothing, this is just an ideal of how things should go. For instance, Minami decides to interview new recruits to the baseball club and those with vague reasons, like improving their fitness, are excluded, yet we don’t see anyone hating her or hating the baseball club for suddenly becoming more selective, even though it’s a voluntary club. The point of that scene, however, is that you need people who believe and are invested in the goal you are aiming for, if they have a different goal then it’s not going to go well every time yours and their goal are not perfectly aligned.

Finally, I will leave this blog post with a machine-translated version of the first page of the novel, which will give you a good idea of Minami’s character.

## Prologue

Minami Kawashima became the manager of the baseball team in mid-July of her second year of high school, just before summer vacation.

It happened suddenly. Until shortly before, Minami had never imagined she would become the baseball team’s manager. Up until then, she was just an ordinary high school girl who didn’t belong to any club activities. She had no connection to the baseball team whatsoever.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances, she ended up becoming the baseball team’s manager. As a result, even though it was an awkward time—right before summer vacation of her second year—she joined the baseball team.

As manager, Minami had one goal: “To lead the baseball team to Koshien.” That was why she became manager.

It wasn’t something vague like a dream. It wasn’t even a wish. It was a clear goal. A mission. Minami didn’t *want* to lead the baseball team to Koshien. She *decided* she would lead them there.

But having decided that, she didn’t have any concrete ideas about how to achieve it. As mentioned, she had lived a life completely unrelated to the baseball team. So she didn’t really understand not just the baseball team, but even what a manager does.

Yet Minami wasn’t worried about that at all. She simply thought, “It’ll work out somehow.” That was the kind of person she was. She acted first, before thinking.

It was the same when she became the baseball team’s manager. Before thinking “how can I lead the baseball team to Koshien?”, she first decided “I will lead the baseball team to Koshien.” And once she decided, she stopped thinking and immediately took action.

“There is a false saying: “How can someone who can’t save himself save others?” Supposing I have the key to your chains, why should your lock and my lock be the same?” - (Nietzsche, KSA 10:4[4])

I read a very long article going over Napoleon Hill’s life as a scammer and deceiver of women, supposedly failing to listen to his own advice that: “no wealth or position can long endure unless built upon truth and justice,” and ending up losing his wealth over and over again in the process. A similar criticism is levied at Nietzsche as well, not many of Nietzsche’s enemies are brave enough to say it as they actually think it, the more courageous will whisper it to each other in private communities, but only the most stupid among them would voice their criticism that Nietzsche went insane because of his beliefs, and so his beliefs must be wrong because they weren’t useful to him, they didn’t save him and so they must be useless and therefore untrue. Maybe, it is anticipating and replying to this that Nietzsche wrote that posthumously published fragment. Maybe the one coming up with the solution and the one implementing it need not to be the same person. After all, if someone were rich already then why would they not feel the need to write a book about getting rich. I like Nietzsche, and I believe he is a great writer, even though I have never read him in his native language, but behind the rich in meaning in his every sentence is, not much practice. I guess what I am getting at is the disconnect between the theory and practice of philosophy. It’s as if the man of ideas and the man of action are two people these days, since you have got to commit everything to one thing, Nietzsche might call it a life unifying purpose, and Napoleon Hill would call it a definite purpose but in practice, is it that different? Children grow up like their parents and their imagination is gone.

You can read the Anti-Napoleon Hill article here. Unfortunately none of the comments to the article got archived. Well none except one of the 300 odd comments which have been deleted:

“That’s a lot of energy invested in writing such a long article about someone who is no longer alive to defend himself and that has inspired so many thousands of people to go on the most important journey of all: Know Thy Self! The simplification of “you just have to visualize something for it to appear” that is mentioned in this poorly researched article, is an example of the bias and mediocrity in the media that the Cabal has bought over the years. You’ll say anything to keep people away from the empowering knowledge that quantum physics PROVES today: That you create your own reality with your thoughts and emotions - that nothing exists outside your own consciousness and that all you witness as an outside phenomenon is just a projection of your own consciousnesses. That YOU are God, or an extension of source energy, All-That-Is, whatever you want to call it. Every master that walked on this planet said so... All sacred texts mention that you can indeed move mountains. That You are powerful beyond measure - and if you believe that you are nothing, born in sin and at the mercy of circumstances, etc - that’s exactly what you’ll experience... How convenient to write an article that strives to maintain the Status Quo in society, by debunking yet another empowering author and associate it’s teachings to Donald Trump (who is not a Free Mason, Skull&Bones, Bilderberger, etc) as an example of something that we do not want... Journalism? Umm... No, Propaganda! This comment will surely not stay here for very long...But for the many intelligent and capable people that like to base their opinions on real facts and use your own discernment, I suggest you google: #Biocentrism #Stillnessinthestorm #BenjaminFullford #Pizzagate #WikileaksSatanicClinton #BasharDarryllAnka #AbrahamHicks #SethJaneRoberts” - NonSheeple, 12/07/16 11:10AM

This article and the reply are both unfortunately tainted with the political madness which intensified from 2013-2016 but this is not a politics blog so I will not comment on any of it one way or the other.

It sounds like Hill believed in some version of Spinoza’s God, or in other words that God is everything and everyone, and that we are all on; no wonder some of his writing almost sounds like it’s talking about telepathy with an “Infinite Intelligence,” and with other humans both dead and alive. These ideas are dangerous because there is a possibility that you will be taken advantage of by charlatans who tell you they have found what you are looking for. Nevertheless, faith remains a powerful foot both of the rulers and the ruled.

“Life’s battles don’t always go To the stronger or faster man, But soon or late the man who wins Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!” - Thinking, a poem by Walter D. Wintle as quoted in Think And Grow Rich.

I rewatched Kimi no Namae wa. I feel like it would have been better as a TV series. In fact, I felt like I was watching a compilation movie from a TV series which does not exist. Nevertheless, this is not a review blog so I will stop there. The important point is that both the time travel/gap and the body switching of the protagonist and the heroine are both typical otaku delusional fantasies. Furthermore, just the resilience of the main characters is admirable, and rewarded with romantic success rather than tragedy. You don’t always get to see a teenager working at a part-time job and having to face bad customers. I think the film also did a good job of showing the beauty and hardships of both the traditions of the countryside and the fast-living of the city. Honestly, even if we can’t bodyswitch with cute girls, I wish it were normalised for young people in the countryside and the city to be transferred to each other to see both. In any case, it is a film that shows that the place where one is born shouldn’t necessarily be the limit of one’s aspirations. There is a novel version of this movie which I might read cause I wanted to see more of the characters.

"Thinking" is a poem written by Walter D. Wintle, it is included in Think and Grow Rich, in the Chapter on Faith. I thought I’d share the whole thing since it is pretty short:

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost;
For out in this world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!

The reason why people give up on motivational content is because the psychological high which they give is temporary. It is difficult to maintain a constant positive outlook in the face of adversity. Memorisation and repetition is key to overcome this.

Chapter 4: Auto-suggestion

I think this is an important section of the book, but also a very problematic one, because it claims that our thoughts determine whether we are rich or poor, since material reality is subordinate to our minds and consciousness. That being the case, whether it is true or not, from an individual level it can be useful to believe that you have total free will, because otherwise you may not exert yourself because you will believe that reality is outside of your influence anyway so why bother? The mind is very sensitive so I think you need to be careful what you put in or else you will end up discouraged without any hope and just give up.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that society doesn’t also wants you to believe that you are to blame for your circumstances or that society is blameless. The key, I think is to trust the belief that you are the master of your faith, but to look at it as deflection of responsibility when people try to blame you for your life without offering any help. Not that they owe you help but unsolicited advice is not help, it is just self-satisfaction.

In general I would say to distrust those that tell you to be selfless to control you, not just because they are often transparently hypocritical, but also because their so-called self-lessness and favours are tool for controlling others.

Chapter 5: Specialised Knowledge

This chapter is about education and how to promote personal services. Hill claims that public school is ineffective because it is free. Perhaps he is right but I think that a better motivation to go to school would be to literally pay students to go to school rather than pretend that that going to school is just for their good so they should just go whether they like to or not. I also feel like school should be more like university in terms of school time, extra curricular clubs, and assignments… Especially after the kids have learned to do basic reading and sums. Rather than emphasis of getting the highest marks to get to a good university, there should be an emphasis that it’s not important where you go but what you do when you go there. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking but if it so then it’s mostly because people believe that to be the case. However, this is not a blog about how to fix society, but self-development so I will stop there.

The last half of the chapter is about how to promote personal services. A lot of it is good, except maybe the idea of making a book sized CV, no modern employer is going to care about, but if you can build some kind of portfolio for the field you are trying to get it then it’s better. Part of me though is worried that there are so many people doing these things to appeal to employers that it’s kind of a race to the bottom of who can suck up to an employer the most. I refuse that, and that leaves me with the choice of building some kind of private income.

In any case, the most important point that this chapter makes is that education doesn’t stop after school ends, that is where the true self-directed learning begins, and specialised knowledge is readily available everywhere, and that ideally and in practice you will have to delegate tasks on a large project anyway. Hill calls this kind of ideal group of people a Master Mind. It is kind of an odd name, because it implies it is a singular mind at work but given his belief that God is some kind of Infinite Intelligence then maybe you can square that round peg as a group who is so harmonised that it works as one mind. I would like to have an Otaku Master Mind but the problem is that I need some kind of skill or money for that to work. Am I being too risk averse? Honestly, one reason I said to give people money for going to school is because it might lead them to take some risk and do activities that they wouldn’t do otherwise which would broaden their horizons.

Chapter 6: Organised Planning

The last section of this chapter is about the creation of Coca-cola, except it is regaled in a romantic fashion which to be honest I have never thought about, given what a mundane and maybe even slightly decadent part of life I take Cola to be. But honestly who’s to say I am right and he was wrong. Maybe the only reason why I saw things that way is my pessimism.

“Success Requires
No Explanation

Failure Permits
No Alibis ”

This is quite cruel and true. Elsewhere in the book, Hill quotes someone saying bluntly that the world has no time for a loser. Belief systems which try to claim that no one is really happy even when they are successful, or that we all default to the same mood no matter what happens, I think these are just excuses whether on a social or individual level, for the current state of affairs.

All Powers Are Cheat Powers

I watched Unnamed Memory. It’s a time-loop story, and while it is not great because of how rushed of an adaptation it feels like, I am sure that the source material must be good. In any case, if I was every offered a choice between different super powers then I would certainly pick the ability to to time leap/travel. It might sound like it’s unfair to repeat the past but really what’s a fair super power? If it’s that you need to struggle for it then then time leapers have to struggle too, and if it’s that there needs to be a possibility of definitely failing then that’s just stupid. I also feel like time-leaps and loops have the possibility of teaching us a lot compared to other super-powers. Although we can’t literally repeat time, almost everyone has a predictable routine and so the chance to learn from previous attempts.

I just finished watching Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider.

It’s about a bunch of middle-aged people who can defeat monsters by simply believing they are superheroes. Actually, it’s much more specific than that, but I don’t want to disrespect true Kamen Rider fans by explaining their franchise badly. The important point is that it’s another anime which explicitly presents consciousness as having mastery over matter. Now obviously, this is a comedy, but the characters are also earnest and intense and lacking in common sense because of their obsession, so I count this as an otaku anime, though I suppose the right term is chuunibyou.

Significantly, the characters are adults because, as people get older, they have less time and their thoughts get clouded by their physical decline. An otaku, at his best, is someone who refuses to give up that childhood optimism.

Chapter 3: Faith

“To make this “deceit” more realistic, conduct yourself just as you would if you were ALREADY IN POSESSION OF THE MATERIAL THING WHICH YOU ARE DEMANDING when you call upon your subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind will transmute into its physical equivalent, by the most direct and practical media available, any order which is given to it in a state of BELIEF, or FAITH, that the order will be carried out."

This quote really does sound like chuunibyou behaviour. There are studies which show that self-affirmation and autosuggestion work and others that don’t, but I think the problem with all this psychological research is that it’s all based on averages, so I don’t think it’s useful as much as it would be if you could run the tests on yourself, because really the only thing which matters to you is whether this works for you. If psychiatrists could provide these tests to individuals, and people could see their own EEG results and such when they try different methods, then I think they would be a lot more convinced and amenable to continuing the treatment.

However, since there is no way to acquire this equipment and data on an individual level, except by doing primitive self-reporting surveys, the only way to gauge the effectiveness of self-affirmation/auto-suggestion is to try to do them with as much belief as possible.

The reason why faith is necessary is that otherwise it will not be translated into actions. True, you might believe that by just changing your behaviour, you can change yourself or worse yet, someone, but if you are forcing yourself with motivation to do something you don’t really believe in and so you don’t really want to do, then you will give up.

Perhaps you may not believe all your self-affirmations and auto-suggestions, but if at least you can remember them through repetition, then you can tweak them until you reach something positive which you can approximately believe which you can achieve.

In short, rather than changing your behaviour first and expecting your self-image to follow, you should try to change your beliefs through self-affirmations and auto-affirmations. The greatest evidence for the effectiveness of this is religion; what is prayer if not autosuggestion? The only difference is that your self-affirmations and auto-suggestion should come from your beliefs. You should be a one-man church. I am not saying you can’t borrow the words and beliefs of others, and have to be this mythical Übermensch who can birth new values; in fact, feel free to steal freely and discard liberally when it comes to beliefs in general. However, remember that there needs to be a good reason why you jump from one identity to the next, because otherwise, you are just running away from your beliefs before they bear any fruit. Of course, there will come a day when you have to admit new values, and determining when is hard, but there is no easy way out. You need to be able to tolerate uncertainty, in other words, to have the courage to have certainty in your optimistic beliefs, while knowing that you will face tragedies.

Just finished watching season 1 of Yuusha Party wo Oidasareta Kiyoubinbou. The protagonist’s story is about a member of the hero’s party getting kicked out for being too weak. A few other things are going on in the story behind this generic premise, but this isn’t a review blog, so I will hold off on recommending whether it is worth watching. The protagonist is definitely a “hero,” by which I mean that he fits the moral ideal of our era. He is kind, courageous, and self-sacrificing towards his comrades. I think that there are both valid and invalid reasons for rejecting this ideal, which gets imprinted on many young otaku’s minds.

Rejecting heroic standards as unrealistic just because they are presented in fiction is pathetic, but on the other hand, questioning for whose benefit and at whose expense these ideals are set up is not necessarily wrong, as long as it’s not an excuse to give in to despair. Just because these ideals are set up as exemplary by society, it probably means the heroic exists for society’s benefit and at your expense; that doesn’t mean you should choose the hopelessness of a disappointed idealist who pretends to be an enlightened egoist.

“I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure unless built upon truth and justice. Therefore, I will engage in no transaction that does not benefit all whom I affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness and cynicism by developing love for all humanity because I know that a negative attitude towards others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and myself.” - Think and Grow Rich, Chapter 3: Faith.

Some allege that Napoleon Hill’s life was full of scamming, and I guess the implication is that there is no such thing as a “heroic capitalism” as a path of success for most people, but maybe it is wrong to look at it through a purely political lens rather than a general truth. In other words, Homo homini lupus, man is a wolf to man.

It is certainly tempting to see things this way when at the social hierarchy’s bottom, whereas in the eyes of someone with social (not necessarily economic) privilege, it might be easier to believe that "homo, sacra res homini" (man, an object of reverence in the eyes of man).

The question really is whether these views become self-fulfilling prophecies. That is to say, believing that man is a wolf to man is a poverty mindset; that is, a mindset caused by poverty, but also which causes poverty.

If so, then while being sceptical that these “heroes” presented to us as created to benefit the social order at otaku’s expense, we must not abandon them as unrealistic and idealistic, but must have faith in the heroism presented in otaku works of fiction. Or in other words: Scepticism (Thesis) + Faith (Anti-thesis) = Romantic Otaku Delusion (Synthesis).

I have read other more modern self-help books like Atomic Habits, How to Make Friends and Influence People, and even Mark Manson’s Models, and although I learned some things, I felt like following the advice in these books would make for a very boring, clean-cut person, and would take me away from my otaku-ness. Many of these books, by American writers, are just the Protestant Ethic repackaged for an irreligious audience.

To cut a long story short, what Think and Grow Rich has in common with otaku media is the belief in unbounded optimism through delusion. I think many Western otaku who get into anime looking for something different from the usual shallow Hollywood movie happy ending end up misguided and cynical, thinking that storytelling is realistic only when it is dark and pessimistic, and looking down on certain anime as “power fantasies” with “self-insert protagonists.” These terms are nothing but thought-killing cliches which are ever only selectively applied and so are ever meaningless.

They muse that “such things happen only in anime,” by which, of course, they mean: “why doesn’t such a convenient development happen to me? Wtf I hate this anime now,” and so, as the saying goes, they miss the forest for the trees, by projecting their personal issues on the anime. Some go so far as to blame the anime for “misleading the youth” by which, of course, they mean to blame the mistakes of their own youth on anime. The tragic thing about this is that anime, and all art at its best, only seeks to lift their souls, which are bound by the gravity of social expectations.

However, if we don’t look beyond who or what is to blame, there will be no way to move forward, so let me briefly explain who is not to blame for this misreading. Anime creators are artists; they can only show you an ideal, not write a guide on how you should live your life. If you doubt this, look at any educational manga that seeks to teach you X or Y skill. If they are short, they are bearable, but any medium- to long narrative that vomits practical information is going to grow formulaic pretty fast. In short, it is not the otaku media creator’s job to tell you how to live. Is it the reader, then, who is to blame for looking at art in an overly simplistic way, as if to teach them how to live? No, because they didn’t know any better, so they cannot be blamed either.

Then is it society’s fault for letting individuals drift away with no guidance to the point where they seek to find out how to live from fiction? No, because even when society seeks to socialise its members in a controlling way, it is incentivised to educate them in a way that is beneficial to its growth and status quo rather than the individual’s wellbeing at the expense of these things. What I mean by this is that, for example, as a man, it might be better for you to take risks. Still, having many men who break social rules does not necessarily benefit society. It can lead to chaos, so instead, socialisation is geared towards creating all sorts of anxieties and fears of failure. Men turn towards a path which leads to neither riches nor happiness in an attempt to attain some security and certainty, rather than gaining the courage to tolerate uncertainty. Thus, fear and pessimism become the order of the day. The fatalism of the ancient Greeks, with nothing of their strength. This is what hides behind modern notions of personal success.

What does success mean for an otaku? Is it to become an otaku creator to create yet more works like those which inspired them? No, because if that were the case, then there could be only a few successful otaku who would at any rate subsist parasitically (i.e. parasocially - it’s the same thing) from selling their art to the majority of those otaku who can’t or won’t be successful artists, selling what for the audience is a “lie” which is unhealthy for them.

Is success as an otaku then saying “no” to all social expectations of success and becoming a social failure? No, and not because it would be a “negative reaction,” because why would that matter if it’s a negative if it’s against something which is not healthy? But rather because it’s just transparently rebranding defeat as victory, a fragile state of mind which is liable to be broken apart by something as mundane as seeing a young couple walking outside, which may be why this type of otaku ends up as a NEET (notwithstanding any actual mental health conditions ofc). For this same reason, escaping from material reality into dreams of delusions is also not really successful as an otaku. As impressive as anime is, watching anime is not a spiritual experience. It won’t let you escape from the bounds of material reality into some higher world. Once the runtime ends, no matter how great a masterpiece it is that you watched, that feeling of satisfaction will gradually go away, and since you will be spending more time not watching anime rather than watching anime, no matter how hardcore you are, this is not a sustainable feeling. In fact, it is an attempt to sustain this unsustainable mind state, which leads some to watch thousands of anime series but to understand nothing.

This finally gives us a hint about what success consists of as an otaku. An otaku cannot be a generalist who jumps from one anime to another and passes superficial judgment like a film critic; obsession needs to be specific and focused. It’s fine and good if you haven’t even watched a thousand anime series to look around for what’s there, but beyond that point, rather than trying to build the perfect anime list, which is a Sisyphean task that can never be completed, you should find the one anime (or otaku creation), which for you, embodies the best of all. This is not so that you have to spend the rest of your life as a cheerleader, venerating someone else’s creation, or create a cheap copy in the most likely vain hope of being able to create a better imitation.

I am not going to reveal what that work is for me because it is too personal; in fact, I would advise you to do the same. It can be something which is generally considered to be great, but it’s more important what you feel. However, you shouldn’t seek validation for your opinion from others, including by putting down other people’s favourites; it just shows you are insecure in your tastes and are desperate for attention.

The next step is crucial: Make it a ritual to rewatch that anime every day, and reflect on why it is that it appealed to you. You can write your analysis down if you want, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you have noticed everything. So much of so-called analysis is done to forget a work, as in “This is all there is to say about this work, now let’s file it away, and get excited for the next product.” Repetition is the mother of learning, and so if it’s really as great as you thought, then you will not get sick of it. Eventually, you will most likely find another favourite, but by that point, you will have learned a lot more about the work and about yourself.

I got this idea from reading about Bob Proctor, a motivational speaker who claimed to have read Napoleon Hill’s book every day for most of his life. I just started my third re-read of Think and Grow Rich myself, and although I am not going to mention the anime, which I am also rewatching, the messages from both are connected. There may or may not be something unique about this book. I have been inspired by books before without making much change to my life, but the point is rereading the text itself and seeing if it will have the desired effect. I guess the first thing which I liked about the book is the shamelessness of the title itself. That is otaku-like. There are other things which I liked, like the idea of an “imaginary council,” which is also very otaku-like.

This is an experiment in repetition; even I don’t know what success as an otaku means, and maybe there is no such thing. However, I don’t think it is something which can be determined through arguing about it in an essay. It’s something that I need to do to see if it will create a change in my mindset or not. The first quote I want to share from the book is this:

“When Henley wrote the prophetic lines, “I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul,” he should have informed us that we are the Masters of our Fate, the Captains of our Souls, because we have the power to control our thoughts.” - Introduction, page 37.