The Endless Scroll of Confusion
You are what you scroll | Projekt Rattloch — Week 6 🐀🕳️
33 days until Memento vivere.
“One’s environment shapes the structure of the mind.
The mind shapes the structure of the human.
In essence, the world creates the mind.
The mind creates the human.
It is for this reason that all attempts at “self-improvement” are doomed to fail.
And all attempts at “behavior modification” are a non-starter.
For the human does not shape himself.
He is been shaped by the mind.
And the mind that is subject to treatments, therapies, and prescriptions violently rejects them.
The man who understands this will titrate his environment.
He will treat the air around him as if he were attempting to quarantine himself from an Ebola outbreak.
For he will have come to understand that the “societal virus” is one hundred times more potent.”
Kapil Gupta MD - World Creates Mind, Mind Creates Human.
Does the above quote feel extreme to you?
I understand.
Titrating your environment is hard in 2025.
But it explains a lot about what I’m about to share with you…
I’ve been following
and his work since he joined Substack, which is centered around building a perfsonal brand. I get all excited about his ideas, then I get bored, blah blah, it’s short-lived, as usual.There I was, consuming his content about personal branding and "monetising your authenticity" or whatever buzzword he's pushing now. One minute I'm convinced this is THE answer, the next I'm questioning why I'm even doing this.
But it's not just Dan Koe, is it?
My attention has been scattered like confetti in a hurricane.
Have you been chasing your tail like I have?
This year I’ve thought about, done, and got distracted by...
AI agency content,
YouTube monetisation tutorials,
AI for artists courses,
Affiliate marketing,
Marketing webinars,
Dan Koe and other tech bro-style personal branding videos,
- posts, basically copying Dan Koe ;-)
Alex and Leila Hormozi business zealously,
Looking at alternatives to capitalism like FALK (Fully Automated Luxury Communism),
Inverted and looked at removing what I ‘do wrong’.
…I've been consuming it all like some kind of digital glutton. There’s much more…Sending tinned goods to Tracey Emin and other people randomly.
Using habit tracking apps.
Listening to "Rat Race Escape" podcasts.
Website collaborations with
.Setting up a shop that just sells Mugs with art on them but then deleting it.
Starting 3 ecommerce sites to sell my art, then quitting.
Find my posts this year and look for all the different things I've started for yourself…
It's the same cycle every bloody week:
"I think about X, X is the right way, let's focus on X from now on."
I’m tired.
Or it’s…
"I'm not painting enough."
Then it's… Follow Daniel Edelstein to make an art documentary to promote my work!
Focus on Instagram!
……….No wait, focus on Notes!
Actually, focus on X!
Hold on, Threads is where it's at!
Focus on my writing!
NOOOOO….The best way is to Record audio and get AI to tidy up the transcript!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
Round
and
round
and
round.
My browser history is a graveyard of half-finished courses.
My YouTube recommendations think I'm having an identity crisis. My phone storage is full of voice memos titled "NEW IDEA" that I recorded at 2am and now make no sense.
What am I doing?
What do I want?
That's the question that I can’t really answer in any form of detail.
Can you?
I'm consuming everyone else's answers to questions I haven't even properly asked myself.
I'm following roadmaps to destinations I'm not sure I want to reach.
Can you relate?
This may be a bit of a rambling rant, but it’s important to realise how our minds are sent from pillar to post by the content we consume.
Maybe the problem isn't the confusion?????
Maybe the problem is that I never allow myself to sit still long enough to realise that the answer isn't in the next course, the next platform, the next strategy.
Maybe it's already here, in the mess, in the circles, in the endless beautiful confusion of just being human and making things.
It could…
Just be my judgment of my actions in a negative light.
What I do know is that it’s exhausted, and there’s got to be a better way.
I’m not going to say “I’m going to do this now” or “I’m not going to do this now” as I’m bored with the promises.
Let’s just see how the week goes with this newfound awareness.
Consider all of this for yourself. What does it mean for you? Can you relate? Or is it just me? (I know it’s not just me).
Until next week…
P.S.
We launched the Global Zine this week, cheers to
and for getting it over the line!
Previous Project Rattloch posts:
If you’ve scrolled this far, it’s worth repeating…
“One’s environment shapes the structure of the mind.
The mind shapes the structure of the human.
In essence, the world creates the mind.
The mind creates the human.
It is for this reason that all attempts at “self-improvement” are doomed to fail.
And all attempts at “behavior modification” are a non-starter.
For the human does not shape himself.
He is been shaped by the mind.
And the mind that is subject to treatments, therapies, and prescriptions violently rejects them.
The man who understands this will titrate his environment.
He will treat the air around him as if he were attempting to quarantine himself from an Ebola outbreak.
For he will have come to understand that the “societal virus” is one hundred times more potent.”
Kapil Gupta MD - World Creates Mind, Mind Creates Human.
1. It's not just you.
2. I do know what I want.
3. Kapil Gupta is pointing toward the world/society as the problem. Titrating the world makes it a lot easier to titrate our thoughts. Noticing that though we have thoughts, we are not them, helps. The mind only has so much of a hold on us. There is a greater intelligence beyond the mind you pointed to in https://www.creamofthecropbyslart.com/p/dont-panic-step-back-and-enter-the