The Horseshoe Theory of Brainrot

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Everybody knows there are two types of anti-brainrot:

1. Locking in. Technical upskilling, serious writing, developing systems, building companies, solving hard problems. Pushing your limits to improve a situation.

2. Touching grass. Fully experiencing where you are and appreciating the beauty of it. Taking in every little detail of it without feeling the need to be doing something else.

Usually we talk about these things like they’re opposites, but at a fundamental level they’re very similar. They’re both about putting a full-assed effort into what you’re doing.

Full-assing touching grass is effortful! You have to put in effort to absorb every little beautiful detail of where you are and appreciate it. You know how if you eat dessert while thinking about other stuff, you finish it without realizing, and you can’t remember much beyond “it was sweet”, and you’re still unsatisfied and wish you had more? It’s because you didn’t put enough effort towards appreciating the dessert. Life is the same way.

The path from locking in to touching grass is a horseshoe and the top of the horseshoe is the no-man’s land where the brainrot is. It’s the half-assery. It’s the lack effort towards what you’re doing. You’re neither appreciating what is nor building what could be. You feel alive when you’re actively putting forth effort, and brainrot is the opposite of that.

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