Garbage trucks are filthy and disgusting. I got a reminder of that as I walked past one this morning. It was as empty as they tend to get, but there was still refuse stuck in parts of it. 

Even being empty, the smell lingered. 

That’s not a criticism. Garbage trucks work by concentrating and containing garbage. By having such a large amount of trash inside, it keeps the rest of the city clean and fresh. 

Soldiers are similar. They’re trained for violence, combat and destruction. Again, that’s not a criticism. Thanks to their service, most of us live peaceful lives. 

It’s useful for society to take unpleasant things, distil them down and hand them over to a professional to deal with. That beats the alternative – a thin diffusion of awfulness that could spike into an unhealthy trash pile or an insurrection at any time. 

Of course, this isn’t a perfect system. If a garbage truck overturns in your street, that’s worse than if a few plastic bags full of scraps and leftovers were sitting there. Same with the soldier – if they go off mission and decide you’re a target, that’s a bad situation. 

But garbage trucks rarely turn over and soldiers rarely go on rampages. 

Thanks to good design, selection and training, it all works out most of the time. 

I wonder what that could be for you. 

I wonder what terrible thing you could draw into yourself and process so others didn’t have to. 

There could be something lucrative and fulfilling there. Just imagine how much we’d pine for garbos in a city where they didn’t keep our streets clean. 

Something to think about. 

Something else to think about: 

Whether you’re like a garbage truck or not, life gets easier with the right skills. 

And often these skills aren’t what you learn at school. The ability to make anyone’s day is better sales training than most sales training out there. 

That’s why I wrote Your Story Isn’t About You. 

The ability to see things as others do is extraordinary. That could revolutionise your career, your relationships, your peace of mind and even your spiritual life. 

And you can download it at no cost to you here: 

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

A tale from my atheist days:

I went through a phase where I was intrigued by phi – the Golden Ratio. It’s not as common as some folks would claim, but that strange, beautiful number shows up in some strange places.

Designers like it, which is why it pops up in soda cans and picture frames.

And in pentagrams. Draw a perfect pentagram and the ratio of where the lines cross to the length of the sides is in the Golden Ratio.

The Golden Ratio also shows up in biology.

That makes the pentagram a symbol of life.

I thought Christians opposed the pentagram because of a historical accident – pagans worshipped it as a symbol of life, Christians opposed the pagans, so they slandered the pentagram as a symbol of evil.

Fast forward to the holy present:

Christians honour, respect and even adore life.

But we don’t worship it.

Some of the Enemy’s tactics are brute force assaults on your soul and sanity.

And some of the Enemy’s traps are insidious. Worshipping life sounds wholesome, pure and good. Life is beautiful and a product of the divine.

But it’s not divine itself.

Idolatry isn’t always a call to worship Ba’al or Moloch. Sometimes it’s a call to worship something good but that isn’t God. That’s what makes the pentagram evil – not because life is evil (it very much isn’t), not because it’s wrong to admire it, but it’s wrong to worship it.

The pentagram is an unholy symbol. It might be beautiful, it might refer to something great, but to treat it as divine is – at best – a distraction.

Remember – the Enemy’s goal is for you to worship anything but God. That’s a victory. If you revere life, love, freedom, yourself, the Pope or even the Bible ahead of God, then you’ve fallen from the way.

God has to come first. Anything else is folly.

And part of revering God is learning to serve Him better.

That means growing stronger and wiser but staying humble.

This, right here, is a real work for your mind – a fundamental change to how you see the world.

When you realise what you’ve been missing, you can’t help but stay humble. After all, you’ve overlooked something this simple for so long:

People don’t listen to you – here’s why

Apparently this is my 300^th day of writing for Antipater.

I haven’t missed a day – and a few of those, I sent out multiple emails.

Surely a nice round number like that deserves a special message. Maybe some useful advice I normally keep in my back pocket. Maybe something gushing and sentimental.

I guess not. Because while trying to think of something like that, I drew a blank.

So this is my 300^th day of posting – a dull, self-obsessed message bereft of content.

Two morals:

The first, arbitrary milestones are arbitrary. Celebrate achievements more than the turning of numbers.

The second, to get anywhere you need to show up. You won’t always be dazzling, inspiring and transcendent. You still need to show up.

Consistency beats the occasional flash of brilliance.

So here I am, being consistent.

And it wouldn’t be consistent of me if I didn’t share this link with you.

On the other side is something more useful and valuable than this email.

Which, if you can read between the lines, really says a lot:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

If you questioned the severity of the recent virus – or if you challenged the insanity of masks and lockdowns – they said you believe the virus doesn’t exist. 

They mocked folks for wondering how a bridge could fall down after a ship collided with a support column. But no one I heard wondered this. Everyone asked how the ship lost control in the first place. 

If you’re even two years behind the Approved Political Thought, then they say you’re an ignorant, hate-filled lunatic.  

If you hate what’s happened to series like Star Wars and Doctor Who, then they say you’re just intolerant. Never mind that these series have has strong and prominent female characters in every incarnation of the media.  

They lie because they hate what’s True. 

They also hate what’s Beautiful – that’s why they’re so quick to defend what shows like Star Wars and Doctor Who have become.  

And they hate what’s Good. Hard work, marriage, discipline, confidence, tradition, dedication, mental health, community – these are all objectively Good things, yet the woke rally against all of them. 

So let them lie about you. 

Let them be so oblivious about the world, including you, that they fail to anticipate your next move. 

Because they’ll never see it coming: 

Jesus taught you to love even the liars, the sinners and the insane. He died for them, too. 

Love them, pray for them, then keep living a wholesome, strong and virtuous life. 

That, more than anything, will erode their lies. 

On the topic of strong and wholesome living: 

You already know many ways to do that. 

Be generous, be in good shape, pray often. 

And do this: 

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

The latest social media thing:

“You [if you’re a woman; or your daughter if you’re not] is alone in the woods. Would you rather [she] encounter a man or a bear?”

The typical answer is a bear. A bear is less dangerous than a man is, when you factor in power and intent. A bear has more brawn but probably wants to leave you alone. A man, though, could want anything.

I can’t refute the thinking here. Based on the information given I, too, would rather my hypothetical daughter encounter a bear than a man in the woods.

But here’s where it breaks down for me.

“Would you rather [you / your daughter] encounter a bear or a woman in the woods?”

The (politically) correct answer is a woman. I can’t imagine why. A lone, random woman in the woods is less dangerous than a lone, random man is, but not by much. Women can be violent, psychotic, opportunistic and unpredictable.

If you’d rather a woman than a bear, then you’re lucky this is just a hypothetical.

Calling all (or even most) women safe is the same as calling them weak. “No! Women are strong but virtuous!” Heh. What a world that would be. High school, social media and custody hearings would look a lot different there.

Because this discussion is missing a variable.

Add one datum to the discussion and it all changes. Here’s my list of woodland encounters, starting with most preferred:

1. Man raised by a good mother and father,
2. Woman raised by a good mother and father,
3. Bear (of any parentage),
4. Woman with an absent, weak or cruel father,
5. Man with an absent, weak or cruel father.

The gap between (1) and (2) is tiny – the man has the edge in case he needs to carry her or fight off (3), (4) or (5).

The other gaps are enormous.

None of this is a guarantee of anything. I’d hope any daughter of mine would stay vigilant no matter who she found. This is simply based on the odds – and the odds are clear.

If the point of the Man vs Bear thought experiment is to highlight the uncertainty women have to live with, then fair enough.

But the lesson here is inevitable.

If women hate feeling this way, then they should hate the factors that cause men to be… well, the sort of men they wouldn’t want to meet in the woods.

They should hate things that lead to single mothers – hookup culture, Godlessness, feminism, the degradation of masculine virtue, a lack of accountability and the breakdown of the family unit.

Fatherhood is sacred. Men should never casually walk away from it. Women should never casually keep her children from their father. And women, more than anyone, should be demanding this.

There’s a reason why virtually every society treasures fatherhood.

And why we’re seeing so many problems now – a few generations into undermining it.

That leaves you with a choice:

You can give up and watch Western Civilisation crumble around you.

You can post dank memes and argue with bots online.

Or you can get to work.

Don’t focus on what you can’t fix. Focus instead on being better tomorrow than you are today.

You already know that – this isn’t anything new. “Personal growth is awesome” isn’t a hot take.

But acting on that, every day, makes you exceptional.

So here’s today’s improvement for you:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Today, someone tried to sell me a course on AI.

Not on how to train AI models or use OpenAI’s API – literally just how to use ChatGPT to do things.

Useful, no doubt.

Except for a few teeny tiny problems.

The first – the sales page went on and on about how using AI would save me dozens of hours per week… except they didn’t mention why I should learn from them. It was all “AI is good!” without telling me why they were worth listening to.

It could inspire you to learn on your own.

One of the key selling points of this training was you get lifetime access. I’m sure that’s what you want from training that’ll be obsolete in three months.

The second problem?

They were charging – no joke – a thousand US bucks for this course.

They justified this by how much time and effort using AI will save you. But, again, nothing they said talked about why you should pay them anything.

If you want to learn to use ChatGPT, then here’s how to learn:

1) Go to ChatGPT. Or better yet, go to Universal Primer, a ChatGPT variant designed to tutor you.

2) Ask it how it can help you do your tasks.

That’ll give you immediate, tailored and affordable (if not free) answers to all your chatbot questions.

This person isn’t unique. I see folks offering to sell you AI queries that work oh so well. That’s about as useful as buying Google queries.

Most of it you can figure out from playing around.

The rest, from some simple research.

If you’re curious, I use AI for learning, researching, idea generation and as a co-pilot while playing D&D.

I don’t use it for writing these emails though – or even for coming up with ideas for them. After slogging through endless derivative manure (even when the prompter says to “make it unique!”) I find handcrafted writing to be better.

It sure makes me feel more connected to you than copying and pasting cheap, generated garbage would.

There’s still room for the human touch.

And not everyone knows the human touch is a skill. It’s something you can refine, embrace and improve.

For a lot less than a thousand bucks, I can tell you that much.

I tell you more here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Today is ANZAC Day, dedicated to the brave Australian soldiers who fought and fight for our country.

Some folks say it glorifies war.

No.

But it does glorify the soldier.

I’ve worked with many military folks over my time, but I can’t say I know what being a soldier is like. I’m an outsider to the military, looking in with stunned humility. What they do just to keep folks like me safe…

Celebrate the ANZAC spirit today. If you don’t like war, then celebrate twice as hard – this is what keeps us safe.

I have nothing to sell you today except for that. Enjoy the rest of your day off, my fellow Aussie. Just don’t forget what it cost to give it to you.

P.S. I attended the Dawn Service this morning – along with tens of thousands of other people.

And when it got to the Lord’s Prayer, I wasn’t the only one who said it. It was like being in a chorus.

Yeah, it wasn’t everyone. It probably wasn’t even most people. But Australia is about as chilled out and secular as a country can be – and we’re not that chilled out and secular.

It’d be premature to declare a resurgence of Christian Nationalism down under. But watch this space. We might just make our ANZAC forefathers proud yet.

LinkedIn is the best social media platform, so it’s merely awful.

It’s full of pathetic wanna-be gurus dropping truth bombs like if you don’t treat employees with respect, they don’t like it.

Or a video of a cat and a turtle who are friends, captioned with something about the power of trust.

But today I saw the best one yet.

I’ve seen snippets of this before, but never this clumsy and overt. Someone posted to their feed something like:

Certainly! Here’s a post about leadership principles that would be suitable for LinkedIn:

(List of principles where each ***Heading*** shares some familiar formatting.)

(Bland summary paragraph that sums up to a cheap reiteration of the glory of leadership.)

Goodness glaciers.

If you’re confused, this is the output your get from chatbots like ChatGPT or the others with better names but dumber algorithms.

This fool asked one for something to post on LinkedIn, then posted it without editing it.

Or even reading it.

I’d mock them further but just imagine how their life must be. They want – or maybe need – clout on social media but they’re so vapid, empty and without thought that editing generic AI bullmanure is beyond them.

Their life is punishment enough.

Now, this is the part where I smoothly transition into a call to action.

I’ll post a link in a moment for something I offer that I believe will be useful to you.

I’m being extra transparent just in case this champion of LinkedIn is reading this. It’d be awkward for them to get confused by how content works.

Anyway, my link –

It’s for Your Story Isn’t About You and if you’re ever confused or frustrated by other people, reading it could change everything.

Here’s how to find it:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

No matter how masculine modern women act, accountability still separates us.

Masculine men take accountability for everything. If you’re sad, poor or failing right now, then it’s your fault.

Everyone else dodges accountability like they’re re-enacting the Matrix. Everything is everyone else’s fault. Every flaw is secretly a virtue – and they’ll gladly tell you their hallucinations as to why.

The masculine take is better psychologically, practically and spiritually.

So why stop there.

The two major challenges facing the modern man in the dating landscape are masculine women and entitled women.

You can blame both on men.

Women act masculine because they have to – without strong male presences in their lives, they have to provide that themselves. They can’t be soft, vulnerable and nurturing without someone to make that safe for them.

And if women feel entitled, it’s because weak men simp for them, praise their every fart and fail to provide examples of good men during their formative years. Women don’t have reasonable expectations because men have failed to show them what that looks like,

The role of the masculine is to restrain feminine ideas into what’s true, good, beautiful and useful. Without that guidance, they come up with crazier and crazier ideas, expectations and demands.

If you want to know why the world seems so insane right now, this is a big part of it.

It’s entirely our fault. Women aren’t expected to know better. It’s not that they can’t – plenty of women are smarter than men – but, collectively, they do strange things few men would.

This is all down to gender differences. If you think gender differences aren’t real, then you’re arguing that diversity isn’t useful.

Something that is useful:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

If you’re like most folks, you’re reading this sentence at about the same speed it would take you to read it out loud. 

Or maybe you’re a little bit faster. 

That’s because of how you learned to read in school. For a teacher to know you can actually read something, they get you to read it out loud.  

It’s efficient for them – an easy way to verify your skills. 

But it’s not efficient for you. 

And it’s not how I read. 

Except for when I choose otherwise – like when reading poetry and I want to luxuriate over the sounds of the words – I take things in fast. 

I can glance at a sentence and understand it. 

It’s not perfect. I could be a lot smoother, faster and more consistent with it with some deliberate practice. 

But I never knew this wasn’t a thing everyone could do – not until I read a sentence in the fraction of a second it took my eyes to focus on it. 

You could do worse than learning to read by the sight, not by listening to a narrator in your head. 

There are plenty of other simple skills like this too. 

Like, no one taught you how to properly use your sentience – your ability to see the world as others see it. 

And like with reading, it means you’re often slow, clumsy and bad at it. 

This isn’t a big deal. It only impacts any part of your life that involves other people. So sales, management, working, creating art, parenting, dating and feeling as though life has meaning. 

Things change when you remember Your Story Isn’t About You: 

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay