[SOC]

It is the last day of February 2011. It feels weird that a month should be over so soon. Spring is in the air here in South Carolina which means pollen and allergies. I have spent the previous evening researching the paleo diet, the Atkins diet, Dean Ornish, etc. Basically, the conclusions that I reached in my article "Why You Are Fat" hold firm. Both the vegetarians and the carnivores lose weight on their respective diets, but no one cares to do them. Vegetarians are hungry all the time while the carnivores want to put a potato with their steak. The answer I have found is to blend the two by going low fat and slow carb. This means a grilled chicken sandwich on a whole wheat bun. And if carbs are a killer, the Japanese should be dead because 90% of what they eat is white rice.

The thing I am finding endemic in the American culture is a tendency to go extreme. We binge on burgers, fries, soft drinks, and processed foods. Then, we purge by eliminating entire food groups. There is no middle ground. And don't even get me started on supplements. There are two things every diet quack offers. The first is a book. The second is a bottle of pills. Yet, the biggest and best results are had with modest changes.



This contrast between going extreme and going simple is best exemplified by the differing approaches of Tony Robbins and Leo Babauta. Tony is the typical American with his cheerleading and motivational books and seminars. For Robbins, the answer is to have passion. Then, he whips his acolytes into a froth. They all decide to unleash that giant within. So, they go out and join a gym, make resolutions to change, and blah blah blah. Within a month or two, that giant is back to being a midget.

Leo is the mirror opposite. He tells you to go small and modest. Simplify your life. Focus on one or two goals. Take small steps. Ironically, his Zen approach beats the extreme approach of Tony Robbins because you end up making real changes in your life that last. The whole self-help motivation industry is a colossal joke, but Leo cuts through all that with his simple approach to things.

People believe that in order to change they have to defy their limits. They must expend tremendous energy to accomplish great things. But this is so much bullshit. People think the road to wealth is to get a bigger and better paying job when they could more easily accomplish the same goal with thrift. They go from the couch to training for a marathon when all they need is to go for a walk each day. They buy all these time management systems when all they need is to turn off the TV and the internet.

This extremism is the product of maximalism, and Americans are fundamentally maximalists. We do everything bigger and bolder here in the USA. The result is ambition, exhaustion, and failure. There is a better way, and this way is to go simple. Quit wasting resources on a hundred different things. Acknowledge that your failures are not the result of a lack of ambition but a lack of follow through.

I thought about this as I was editing the feeds on my Google Reader. I have 724 subscriptions, and this was after a purge. I am fixing to purge again. If I were to actually read every article that comes in on a single day, it would take me a year. Basically, I spend 95% of my time scrolling through shit I'm never going to read. What a waste. This is information gluttony. The first purge was easy. This second purge is way more difficult.

End.

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