"The first lesson of drown-proofing is paradoxical: the more you struggle to keep your head above water, the more likely you are to sink."

"The trick to drown-proofing is to actually let yourself sink to the bottom of the pool. From there, you lightly push yourself off the pool floor and let your momentum carry you back to the surface."

"The second lesson of drown-proofing is a bit more obvious, but also paradoxical: the more you panic, the more oxygen you will burn and the more likely you are to fall unconscious and drown."

"More than a test of physical will, drown-proofing is a test of each cadet’s emotional self-control in situations of extreme danger."

"This skill—the ability to let go of control when one wants it most—is one of the most important skills anyone can develop."

"Most activities in life do not operate along the linear effort/reward curve because most activities in life are not basic nor mindless. Most activities are complex, mentally and/or emotionally taxing, and require adaptation."

"studies on work productivity show that we’re really only productive for the first four to five hours of each day."

"The inverted curve is the bizarro “Twilight Zone” curve, where effort and reward have a negative correlation—that is, the more effort you put into doing something, the more you will fail to do it."

"when the action becomes purely psychological—an experience that exists solely within our own consciousness—the relationship between effort and reward becomes inverted."

"Aldous Huxley once wrote, “The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and results come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity.”"

"The most fundamental components of our psychology are paradoxical. This is because when we consciously try to create a state of mind, the desire for that state of mind creates a different and often opposite state of mind from the one we’re trying to create."

"To stop chasing meaning and freedom and happiness because those only serve to move it further away from itself. To teach it to achieve what it desires by giving up what it desires. To show it how the only way to reach the surface is to let itself sink."

"You lean into the fear and uncertainty, and just when you think you’re going to drown, just as you reach the bottom, it will launch you back to your salvation."

"Modernism is the assumption that the world is clearly-defined and measurable."

"Modernists held that our understanding of reality could be infinitely improved upon through experimentation, observation, and reason."

"Postmodernism, on the other hand, believes that certainty is impossible. No matter how many times you observe something, you can never know if it’s entirely true, mostly because the observer is always fallible."

"While this all sounds like highly abstract mental masturbation, these two philosophical dispositions have actually infiltrated our day-to-day lives."

"Modernists believe in evidence over feelings. They see history as a series of struggles that bring humanity closer to truth."

"Postmodernists believe that truth is subjective, that facts are socially constructed and arbitrary, and, therefore, power is a question of which group has the biggest gun or loudest bullhorn."

"Postmodernists believe that people’s feelings matter more than evidence—as evidence is always corrupted by the individual narratives that present it."

"Modernism thrives in a slow-moving world where there are broadly held truths that everyone agrees upon. Postmodernism thrives in a fast-moving world full of uncertainty and doubt."

"This constant contrarian nature of the online world is the undertow that pulls us out to the postmodernist sea. In constantly being exposed to the world’s flaws and foibles, we lose faith in everything and everyone. Knowledge itself becomes politicized."

"Postmodern thinking radicalizes people, not because it makes them go crazy, but because it makes knowledge appear to be arbitrary and political."

"Postmodernism is the reason why everything seems to be becoming politicized these days, even if it shouldn’t be."

"In one essay, he took particular aim at the trend of irony—or what we would refer to today as snark, cynicism, or hipsterdom—the fact that it’s “cool” to say and do things that subtly undermine or mock things that are mainstream, common, or popular."

"This trend of deconstructing the social order for entertainment purposes was something new in the 1980s and 90s, and it worried Wallace deeply."

"This is because irony, entertaining as it is, serves an almost exclusively negative function. It’s critical and destructive, a ground-clearing. Irony is singularly unuseful when it comes to constructing anything to replace the hypocrisies it debunks."

"Postmodernism generates a sense of loneliness because it fosters distrust and distance rather than trust. Postmodernism fosters oppression because it rewards social status to those who tear down, not those who build up."

"Wallace finishes the essay by arguing that it’s only sincerity—that corny, “aw shucks guys!” practice of actually stating what you mean and showing that you care—that can give our lives a sense of meaning and fulfillment."

"1. HOW TO REMEMBER THE BOOKS YOU’VE READ"

"What you’ll notice is that once you start drilling down into these more specific questions, memories appear out of thin air."

"That’s because human memory doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it’s based on association. Most of your memories are dormant. You can’t actively access them whenever you want to. Instead, they must be unearthed by relevant events in the present."

"The problem is that most of us learn to read books for school. And school conditions us to assume that we should be able to actively recall most things we read."

"So, in that sense, you don’t actually need to remember all the information in each book, you simply need to remember what information is in each book."

"All the stuff I write on my website, I don’t remember it, I just remember where I saw it."

"2. YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ EVERYTHING—OR READ IT IN ORDER"

"Since we’ve established that our reading should be optimized for usefulness and not cramming as much crap into our brains as possible, then it follows that we shouldn’t necessarily finish every book we start reading either."

"In fact, I go into new books with the attitude that they need to earn my attention, either through the quality of writing or the quality of information. I have a personal rule, if I get 10% of the way into the book and am still not enjoying it, I put it down and move on."

"Similarly, if you run into a section in a book that isn’t interesting to you or that you already know a fair amount about—skip it!"

"I can’t tell you how many psychology books talk about the damn “Marshmellow Study” from 1972."

"I’ve read about it a dozen times at this point, so when I see it in a book, I skip it! I jump 3-4 pages ahead. And if I get 3-4 pages ahead, or 3-4 chapters ahead and I realize there’s information I skipped that’s important, then I flip through the pages I skipped looking for the important information."

"The point of reading a book is to maximize the processing of interesting information."

"Reading sequentially and processing every word of every book is rarely the most efficient way to do that."

"3. HOW TO READ MORE BOOKS"

"I find that people vastly underestimate how much time it takes to read “a lot.”"

"But the fact is, my reading speed is only slightly above average. My secret is that I schedule time to read every day and rarely miss a day."

"Not to mention, the more you read, the faster you become. Not just because you become a better reader, but because you’re able to skip over more stuff to get the point."

"When we fail to choose things for ourselves, we unwittingly outsource our lives to the world around us:"

"There are only two possible outcomes in this life: Either you choose who you are—or it will be chosen for you."

"What behaviors and beliefs have you allowed the world to dictate to you? What behaviors and beliefs are you confident you chose for yourself? How difficult was that choice?"

"What is the one thing that you are most likely to be wrong about yet unaware of? How can you find out?"

"Take your life back. Find something (or someone) in your life that has been dictating too much of your time or thoughts, and take some of it back."

"Effort and reward have a linear relationship when the action is mindless and simple. Effort and reward have a diminishing returns relationship when the action is complex and multivariate."

"The trick to drown-proofing is to actually let yourself sink to the bottom of the pool. From there, you lightly push yourself off the pool floor and let your momentum carry you back to the surface. Once there, you can grab a quick breath of air and start the whole process over again.1"

"Strangely, surviving drown-proofing requires no superhuman strength or endurance."

"Instead of resisting the physics that would normally kill you, you must surrender to them and use them to save your own life."

"The second lesson of drown-proofing is a bit more obvious, but also paradoxical: the more you panic, the more oxygen you will burn and the more likely you are to fall unconscious and drown"

"Most of the world does not exist on a linear curve."

"Therefore, most activities produce a diminishing returns curve:"

"Another example: studies on work productivity show that we’re really only productive for the first four to five hours of each day.5 Everything after that suffers severely diminished returns, to the point where the difference between working for 12 hours and 16 hours is basically nothing (not counting sleep deprivation).6"

"Friendships operate on a diminishing returns curve. Having one friend is vital. Having two is clearly better than one. But having 10 instead of 9 changes little in your life."

"It’s true, few things in life function on an inverted curve. But the few things that do are extremely important. In fact, I will argue that the most important experiences and goals in life all exist on an inverted curve."

"But when the action becomes purely psychological—an experience that exists solely within our own consciousness—the relationship between effort and reward becomes inverted."

"Aldous Huxley once wrote, “The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed."

"This is because when we consciously try to create a state of mind, the desire for that state of mind creates a different and often opposite state of mind from the one we’re trying to create."

"Control – The more we strive to control our own feelings and impulses, the more powerless we will feel."

"Freedom – The constant desire for more freedom ironically limits us in a number of ways."

"Change – The more we desperately want to change ourselves, the more we will always feel as though we are not enough."

"The goal is to take your mind—a wonderful thing that has spent its life learning to chase various creatures—and teach it to stop chasing its own tail."

"And how do we do this? By letting go. By giving up. By surrendering. Not out of weakness. But out of a respect that the world is beyond our grasp. By recognizing that we are fragile and limited and but temporary specks in the infinite reaches of time."