143 Comments

Well I don't know how I ended up in this app, this this substack but this particular post was enlightening as to how self regard as most people would like it to be is not something purely internal but a vicarious interplay of both internal and external. Thanks man I need to put this into use and even more so it actually helps me understand why some people live in delusions

Expand full comment

Yeah, Nietzsche was just bad. Your comments about status are valid, you may choose to not value status, but status will determine your social value.

I recommend getting over pursuing it for its own sake, but never ignore that it is real and affects your life.

Expand full comment

What a bomb about Nietzsche!

Expand full comment

Nietzsche seems to have had a genetically inherited brain disease. His father had the same symptoms before he died.

Expand full comment

A better way of expressing the core message here is that we should focus on “The Good” itself rather than the self our point of focus. That way, we can remain honest and good and constantly improve ourselves in a legitimate way. “Status” is a flimsy, volatile thing, dependent on context. I want something stronger than this to base my life off of.

Expand full comment

IMO when they push the meme she's beautiful but doesn't know it, it's really deltas/gammas trying to word-spell the mediocre girl they like into being considered hot. Like that chump who was fawning over Pearl here recently

Expand full comment

The song is about dispelling her doubt, and her anxiety about whether she is beautiful.

Genuinely hot girls don't question whether they are hot. Smart men don't question that they are smarter and quicker than others. But the anxious women are trained to hate parts of themselves and look for reassurance. Is she beautiful enough and thus magnetically sufficient for him not to leave her for a hotter less anxious woman?

'Would you please stop being so anxious, woman', works much better in prose than in lyrics.

Expand full comment

Nice post. I believe that “developing high self-regard” can be acquired to an extent through deep introspection; it is paradoxically the gradual acceptance of one’s own flaws that allows one to become a more complete person worthy of respect. As Schopenhauer wrote, ““Man had not learnt to direct the light of speculative thought towards the mysterious depths of his own inner self.”

Expand full comment

1. Honest introspection (keyword honest)

2. Introversion (operate on internal validation)

3. Self-sufficiency (at least the ability to walk away from a job where you are disrespected/mistreated, or from a hot GF who does the same.

Expand full comment

Emil Cioran, who only very rarely gave interviews, on Nietzsche (whose work his was often compared to) in 1983:

“When I was studying philosophy I wasn't reading Nietzsche. I read "serious" philosophers. It's when I finished studying it, at the point when I stopped believing in philosophy, that I began to read Nietzsche. Well, I realized that he wasn't a philosopher, he was more: a temperament. So, I read him but never systematically. Now and then I'd read things by him, but really I don't read him anymore. What I consider his most authentic work is his letters, because in them he's truthful, while in his other work he's a prisoner of his vision. In his letters one sees that he's just a poor guy, that he's ill, exactly the opposite of everything he claimed....it's because that whole vision, of the will to power and all that, he imposed that grandiose vision on himself because he was a pathetic invalid. Its whole basis was false, nonexistent. His work is an unspeakable megalomania. When one reads the letters he wrote at the same time, one sees that he's pitiful, it's very touching, like a character out of Chekhov. I was attached to him in my youth, but not later on. He's a great writer, though, a great stylist.”

Expand full comment
Jun 15·edited Jun 15

Yeah, so if we are talking about psychology, what about MKULTRA and Sigmas? Those experiments caused a lot of controversy. They turned this gamma guy, Ted Kaczynski, into a psychotic terrorist and led to a big ethical crisis within a certain agency. Frank Olsen, who was a Delta, allegedly jumped from the 13th floor of the Defenestration Hotel even though hotels usually don't have a 13th floor. It's a pretty wild story.

If gammas went hard gamma, and Deltas went hard Delta during their trips, what happened to the Sigmas? What is a Super Sigma? The Wrath of Khan? Elon Musk? Vox Day?

Expand full comment

To what extent can adherence to Christianity (not Churchianity) influence or help in building internal self-regard? Or is it dependent on the individual and if that individual wants his internal world to include that? The SSH is morally neutral, so my question may not be relevant.

Expand full comment

Christianity elevates believers into children of God. Highest possible status, at the cost of dying to self.

The Jewish leaders were astonished when they interacted with Jesus's disciples post Resurrection. Simple fishermen became bold speakers able to address well-educated and trained teachers of the law.

Their resort to physical violence against the Truth of the disciples' testimony says it all.

Expand full comment

It’s huge. The objective moral compass and awareness of constant metaphysical judgment makes the high character part easier. And since true self-regard is rooted in honesty, access to Truth ties to honesty, humility and other Christian virtues.

Anecdotally, after conversion, I morally levelled up. And that has objectively elevated my social impact on others over time.

Expand full comment

The gamma wants to be at the top of the mountain by taking a helicopter. The Alpha finds his way to the top of the mountain from the bottom by taking a long walk.

Expand full comment
Jun 15·edited Jun 15

Alpha recruits a bunch of Bravos to help him (and some of them) to get to the top. A Sigma, does it on his own.

Expand full comment

Perhaps the best article yet on this blog. I will leave the tab up so I might achieve self-regard via osmosis.

Expand full comment

Sorry in advance for the irrelevant post, but I am looking forward to more exposition on the delta. I now have a direct report who has that delta vibe. Quiet, unassuming, but totally focused on doing the best. How does society serve these men so they don't get unappreciated and give up.

Expand full comment

Give good men incentive to feel invested in civil society, and let them manage their personal affairs.

The rights of the Roman citizen and the common rights of Englishman are both good historical examples.

Expand full comment

A flourishing society is one which rewards and promotes honour, honesty, diligence and hard work. Delta's thrive in this environment and so does society. Fail to do this and, well, look at the rapidly collapsing US empire of lies.

Holding fast to the Good, the Beautiful and the True benefits everyone but especially deltas.

Expand full comment

Re Deltas: I am married to one and quite thankful that I am.

Start here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMCeaXyrl7k

Expand full comment

Thanks, I will check this out. :)

Expand full comment

Is there anything to learn from a gamma and his work?

Expand full comment

Subject Matter Experts.

They are above average intelligence and can use it to deeply know a topic. Just not able to generalize that intelligence to social aptitude.

Expand full comment

You might be familiar with the concept of "know-how." Typically, you'd see it in a tech related contract. The idea behind it is exactly how it seems -- practical knowledge about how things are done. There is also a more esoteric concept of "anti-know-how" that you occasionally come across. The idea is that already knowing what not to do can have great value. Gamma can provide you with deep anti-know-how.

Expand full comment

Anklebiters can help a guy to correct; this is only for as long as it is tolerable to listen to or read their critiques. Not applicable to the ex-top fans scorned or thought scorned, though.

Expand full comment
Jun 15·edited Jun 15

Domain expertise and how to make empty space at a party.

Expand full comment

One byproduct of taking vehicle #3 Developing High Self-Regard in the absence of #2 Material Accomplishment is that many people will mistake your self-regard and confidence as arrogance.

“But…he’s not rich, or accomplished in his career…why does he think so highly of himself?” Even when the confidence is genuine.

Overcoming this takes an enormous amount of self-development.

Expand full comment