Author: chaowdur

Entrepreneurship: Navigating Investor Feedback for New Founders

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As a startup founder, pitching to investors is a crucial part of your journey. But what happens after the pitch? How do you interpret the feedback you receive? In this post, we’ll explore the art of decoding investor feedback and what it really means for your startup.

Understanding the Feedback Landscape

Two Important Points:

  1. Investors Don’t Owe You Clear Feedback: While some may provide detailed critiques, it’s not their job to do so. Appreciate those who take the time to offer substantive insights.
  2. You Are Not Objective: As a founder, it’s natural to have emotional reactions to feedback, especially when it’s not positive. Remember, you’re fundraising, not feedback-raising.

The Five Types of Investor Feedback

1. “You’re Too Early”

This is often a polite way of saying no. If it’s the only feedback you receive, it might be time to move on. However, if you’re consistently hearing this, it could mean investors aren’t impressed with what you’ve achieved so far. The key is to demonstrate something special that points to a bright future.

How to Respond:

  • Show Progress: Highlight any significant milestones or traction.
  • Share Your Vision: Paint a clear picture of your future roadmap.
  • Seek Early-Stage Investors: Focus on those who specialize in early-stage startups.

2. “Your Market is Too Small”

When investors say your Total Addressable Market (TAM) is too small, they’re expressing doubt about your potential to become a unicorn. If they don’t ask detailed questions about your market, it might be time to move on. However, if they do, take notes and be prepared to defend your market analysis.

How to Respond:

  • Expand Your Market Definition: Identify additional segments or applications for your product.
  • Provide Detailed Analysis: Use data to back up your market size estimates.
  • Highlight Market Growth: Show trends indicating that your market is expanding.

3. “You Don’t Have a Moat”

A true moat isn’t just about patents or features. It’s about having a strong, contrarian opinion at the core of your startup. Think about Airbnb – their initial moat was that most people thought their idea would never work.

How to Respond:

  • Clarify Your Unique Value Proposition: Explain what sets you apart from competitors.
  • Showcase Defensibility: Highlight aspects like network effects, proprietary technology, or exclusive partnerships.
  • Articulate Your Vision: Emphasize your long-term strategy and how it protects your market position.

4. “You Can’t Make Money”

If you’re getting pushback on your business model, it might indicate that your financial storytelling needs work. A clear, convincing story about how you’ll grow is crucial, even if the exact details are uncertain.

How to Respond:

  • Refine Your Revenue Model: Clearly outline how you plan to generate revenue.
  • Provide Financial Projections: Use realistic scenarios to project future earnings.
  • Highlight Monetization Strategies: Showcase diverse revenue streams or potential for high-margin products/services.

5. “We Don’t Believe in the Team”

This feedback is rarely given directly. If an investor loves your space and traction but still passes, it might be an unspoken concern about your team. Make sure you’re not underselling your team throughout your pitch.

How to Respond:

  • Emphasize Team Strengths: Highlight each member’s expertise and relevant experience.
  • Share Success Stories: Mention past achievements and how they contribute to your current venture.
  • Show Complementary Skills: Demonstrate how your team’s diverse skills make you stronger collectively.

How to Respond to Feedback

  • Don’t Obsess Over Converting Every “No” to a “Yes”: There are diminishing returns in trying to change an investor’s mind.
  • Ensure You’re Pitching the Right Investors: Targeting the wrong stage or type of investor can lead to irrelevant feedback.
  • Look for Patterns in the Feedback You Receive: If multiple investors raise the same concern, it might be worth addressing.
  • Use Feedback to Improve Your Pitch and Business: Don’t let it derail your vision, but use it constructively.
  • Remember That Investors Are Trying to Decode You Too: They’re looking for signals about how you’ll handle challenges and changes.

Conclusion

Decoding investor feedback is as much an art as it is a science. While it can be frustrating and sometimes confusing, remember that each interaction is an opportunity to learn and improve. Stay focused on your vision, be open to constructive criticism, and keep refining your pitch. With persistence and the right approach, you’ll find the investors who truly believe in your startup’s potential.

Additional Tips for Decoding Feedback:

  • Network with Other Founders: Sharing experiences with peers can provide new insights and strategies for interpreting feedback.
  • Stay Updated on Industry Trends: Understanding current trends can help you address market-related feedback more effectively.
  • Regularly Review and Revise Your Pitch: Continuous improvement is key to addressing feedback and presenting a stronger case to investors.

By following these guidelines and maintaining a resilient mindset, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the complexities of investor feedback and make informed decisions for the future of your startup.

Boxing: Factors Affecting Punching Power like Muscle Mass, Body Mechanics, and Genetics

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As a long-time boxing fan, I’ve always been fascinated by the phenomenon of punching power. Why do some boxers seem to possess freakish power, generating more force than their equally trained contemporaries? Let’s dive into the factors that contribute to a boxer’s ability to deliver devastating blows.

Physical Attributes

Muscle Mass

Generally, boxers with more muscle mass hit harder. Examples include Anthony Joshua, Frank Bruno, and Dillian Whyte. However, there are notable exceptions:

  • Rocky Marciano, weighing only 185 lbs, was considered one of the hardest punchers of his time.
  • Deontay Wilder, one of the lightest heavyweights today, is renowned for his exceptional power.

Body Mechanics and Early Development

A boxer’s body mechanics, often developed during childhood and adolescence, play a crucial role:

  • George Foreman and Earnie Shavers attributed their power to chopping wood as youths.
  • Joe Louis cited moving ice blocks as a factor in his punching prowess.
  • Joe Frazier‘s legendary left hook may have been influenced by a childhood accident that slightly deformed his left arm.

Genetic Factors

While not the sole determinant, genetics contribute to punching power through:

  • Muscle fiber composition (fast-twitch vs. slow-twitch)
  • Bone density
  • Limb length and proportions
  • Size and weight of fists, shoulders, and chest
  • Muscle fiber attachment points for leverage

Technique and Skills

Fundamentals and Scientific Approach

Boxers like Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey mastered scientific power-punching techniques. However, some powerful punchers like Deontay Wilder have unorthodox, even sloppy, techniques.

Speed and Explosiveness

While crucial for some (e.g., Mike Tyson, David Tua), other heavy hitters like George Foreman and Sonny Liston relied more on looping, slower punches.

Timing

Precision timing amplifies punching power. Boxers like Mike Tyson, Joe Louis, and Lennox Lewis excelled at this, while others like Foreman and Wilder focused on raw power delivery.

Intramuscular Coordination

A key factor shared by powerful punchers is superior intramuscular coordination – the ability of muscles to work synchronously to generate maximum force.

The Physics of Punching Power

Breaking down the science, we can express punching power through a series of equations:

  • Power = Work / Time
  • Work = Force × Distance
  • Force = Mass × Acceleration

The goal is to maximize these variables:

  • Increase acceleration through technique and training
  • Optimize the punch’s travel distance
  • Minimize the time of impact
  • Target precise impact points (e.g., connecting with the knuckles of the pointer and middle finger)

Training and Development

To enhance punching power, boxers focus on:

  • Technique drills to improve form and efficiency
  • Strength training (both isometric and isotonic exercises)
  • Aerobic and anaerobic conditioning
  • Developing the “kinetic chain” to generate power from the ground up

Types of Power

It’s important to note that punching power manifests in different ways:

  • “Cracking” or gunshot-like power
  • Thudding, freight train-like power (more common in heavier weight classes)
  • Accumulative damage (e.g., Errol Spence Jr.’s style of breaking down opponents)

Conclusion

Punching power in boxing is a complex interplay of physical attributes, technique, training, and intangible factors. While some aspects may be innate, the development of truly devastating power is a result of years of dedicated practice and refinement. As the sweet science continues to evolve, so too will our understanding of what makes a truly powerful puncher.

The Burnout Society (Byung-Chul Han)

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In our modern world, we’ve become obsessed with achievement and productivity. Yay, capitalism. We’re constantly chasing success, optimizing our lives, and striving to be our “best selves” with YouTube gurus and high school understandings of Stoicism. However, this relentless pursuit of achievement leads to widespread burnout and depression.

South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han explores this phenomenon in
“The Burnout Society.” He argues that we’ve transitioned from a “disciplinary society” focused on obedience to an “achievement society” driven by an imperative to succeed. This is a fancy way of disagreeing with a kinky bald French guy who argued that we lived in a disciplinary society of punishing certain behaviors. Han argues that we now live in a society where people internalize the drive to achieve and do their own self-flagellation with Excel sheets. In the past, external forces controlled and constrained us. Now, we’ve internalized those pressures. We’ve become “entrepreneurs of ourselves,” willingly exploiting our own time and energy in the name of productivity. We say “yes” to everything, convinced that nothing is impossible if we just work hard enough.

This mindset leads to what Han calls “compulsive freedom.” This is the self-imposed obligation to maximize our achievements. We’re no longer competing against others, but against ourselves in an endless race of self-optimization. The result? Burnout, depression, and a hollowing out of the self. But also a lot of efficiency, the thriving of capitalism, and great little workers.

Han also notes “hyperattention,” a state more suited to wild animals constantly on alert than to thoughtful human beings. We’ve lost the ability to focus deeply or contemplate, frantically processing a never-ending stream of information. Our attention has become fragmented as we constantly multitask and jump between stimuli. In “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping,” Robert Sapolski explains how prolonged stress leads to physical and mental health issues like heart disease and depression, and offers practical advice for managing stress responses.

So how do we resist this culture of burnout? Han suggests we need to rediscover the value of deep attention and contemplation. We should welcome boredom back into our lives, resist constant stimulation, and give our minds space to breathe. This is an old thought from Søren Kierkegaard. Instead of optimizing every moment, we need to make room for leisure and cultivation of the self.

Ultimately, Han argues that our relentless self-exploitation is an attempt to fill an inner void. But hyperactivity and achievement can never truly fill that emptiness. Only by slowing down and rediscovering how to think deeply can we find a more fulfilling way of being. In a world that demands constant activity, choosing to pause, reflect, and sometimes do nothing at all may be our most radical act of resistance against burnout culture. Perhaps it’s time we measure our worth not by what we achieve, but by our capacity for contemplation and our cultivation of a rich inner life. Or not. Whatever.

Risks and Emotional Control: Navigating a Christian Life

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Timing matters for all aspects of life. When there is a task to do, you can do it fast or slow, or anything else in the middle. Some things are easy to discern at which timeframe to complete, but others are unclear. Even when it is clear, we should question our timing. There is a time for everything.

To start, there is a temptation that goes along with impatience to speed up the process and do things as fast as possible. We want results. Now. This forgets that some things require more care and attention that comes with slowing down. This is one aspect of the virtue of patience. Sometimes it takes a stronger person to slow down.

On the other end, we cannot be too slow. Life is limited and we cannot take forever. Being risk-averse is too common when we have such comfortable lives. We don’t want to lose what we have. And, more biologically, we don’t want to take risks that will endanger us–that can possibly cost our lives–if there’s a safer alternative. Yet we need to often overcome being overly precautious when the stakes really aren’t too high. It’s like a child in a life jacket that is dipping into the pool for the first time: there’s almost no risk objectively, yet to the child, it appears to be a life-threatening task.

We need to control our emotions. Emotions can be a good motivator to be proactive. As Christians, we have to be actively fighting temptation and constantly trying to move towards God. The safest way to fall into temptation is by inertia: being pushed along this world and slowly being nudged towards sin.  Emotions are also necessary for work and productivity, but they must be harnessed in a nuanced way. We can see the classic example through the arts. Music evokes universal and complex emotions; shows and movies can masterfully draw on universal experiences. The art is communicating just the right things to evoke a connection. It is so hard to communicate feelings earnestly and vulnerably, but it can be so rewarding when it’s done right. For everyone. It can be cathartic for both the artist and the viewer. It’s beautiful.  

There are risks we perceive as disproportionate or superficially prudent, like being scared of social rejection or the negative feelings associated with failure. On the other end, the extreme is being too risky. It’s a failure of prudence to take risks unnecessarily or at a disproportionate cost. The daredevil or thrill-seeker climbing high buildings with no equipment risks their lives with the reward of the thrill of adrenalin. In these areas, we should practice taking calculated risks and sometimes even practice failing to get us to re-assess our risk tolerance. Sometimes we fear from people the simple “No.” We can seek or “go-for-no” to practice.

Finding Purpose in the Daily Grind: A Christian Perspective on Work and Life

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As a Christian navigating the professional world, I’ve realized that spiritual growth can occur in any workplace. Our jobs can be tests of character, opportunities for growth, and even spiritual practices. Utilizing our youthful energy, focusing on deep work, and maintaining a proper perspective on work can lead to a fulfilling existence. Reflecting on my struggles and the decision to leave my demanding job, I prioritize health, relationships, and personal interests alongside professional growth. Despite uncertain times, I’m committed to building skills and pursuing new opportunities. Ultimately, work should be about more than just a paycheck – it’s a chance for growth, service, and living out our faith.

Christianity, Mental Health, and the Courage to Be

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I hate anxiety. Not just the somatic, psychological disease, but what the existentialists understood as an effect of a lack of meaning or fear of non-existence. But life is full of it. We dread the unknown and the future is entirely unknown, and somehow we have to make peace with that.

Jesus didn’t die for you to be anxious. He died for freedom from existential anxiety. He gave us the gift of purpose and certainty in God by repairing the relationship between us. We can be happy and truly happy. Even psychological anxiety is defeated: what do we have to worry about? There are no insecurities under the ultimate rock of God.

It’s only when we go back into ourselves and become self-centered and take on the delusion that we are self-sufficient. Our anxiety died in Jesus and it’s replaced with faith. There is such a freedom. Any earthly failure is insignificant. We rely on humility and prayer to God. Our identity is not in earthly work, but rather our eternal efforts. We have to keep the eternal picture in mind.

Whenever we are overwhelmed or lose control of our mind to the chaos of rumination, we can be certain that no authority compares even a little bit to God. Nothing on this earth can give us approval. All comes from God. We can throw the world away for a glimpse of the Lord.

One antidote is courage. The courage to be is a self-affirmation of one’s being in spite of a threat of nonbeing and the anxiety associated with it. We are full of the fear of death, guilt, condemnation, meaninglessness, and emptiness. In spite of this, we need the strength of faith to stand firm in God. Yet this is not of our own accord; we can only find the source of courage from God.

We need courage with every step. Every moment we forget our dependence on God. Our helplessness is always apparent and deluding ourselves into thinking we are not only reinforces the problem. Even in the mundane of everyday life, we need the courage to be.

Often, we need courage through action, and the main action we take in our modern world is through speech. Speech is the key device for interpersonal relations; we must use it to be holy. Being courageous must come with careful discernment and we must put a careful guard on our mouths. Yet we need to know when we must speak. When fear paralyzes our tongues yet we know it will do the Lord’s work, we must act and speak with courage.

A reminder is not enough. We have to actively practice courage at every moment. In all that we do, we have to lean into discomfort and get stronger under God. Little by little, we grow in God’s courage and become little gods.

Apologetics, Oration, and Aesthetic Appreciation: Christian Skills for Spiritual Enrichment

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Christian skills are closely associated with virtue. But Christians have skills that aren’t necessarily Christian skills. For example, Jesus was a carpenter, and while that may serve as a useful metaphor, there is no call for Christians to become better carpenters. However, there might be a call for Christians to acquire skills of reasoning, interpersonal skills, and skills of focus or self-control. It’s difficult to parse these out from virtues because, in some understandings of virtue, they are understood as a skill to be developed. If we understand loving others as a skill, then we might understand the virtue of charity as a skill. I don’t think this is the case. Skills can promote virtues in the way habituation can develop virtues and skills can enable greater virtues. Conceptually, it is easier to think of skills as a neutral device that is necessary for some virtues.

Memorization can be a skill that enables virtue. For instance, memorizing scripture and being able to comprehend it to apply it to relevant circumstances enhances virtues. The ancients used memory as the primary way to relay information and stories. The mind palace or Temple of Loci is an ancient technique to visualize multiple, complicated elements to memorize. Memory is what makes us, and they are so precious. It makes sense why it’s such a valuable skill.

General comprehension can be a skill for apologetics or teaching others. The gift of teaching is the gift of changing people and the way they think. You can radically alter the way they see the world. You give back a little bit of the precious truth you received. It’s important to develop this skill by identifying weaknesses one has and constantly seeking knowledge through the right questions. We have a web of memories, know-how, and experiences. Teaching can also demonstrate mastery; good teaching is mastery of knowledge to the point that it can be broken down and manipulated to be served on a plate to a beginner.

Oration is a skill in itself. Communication is so difficult, especially when it comes to complicated ideas. Oration involves the unique combination of being able to speak on the spot, synthesizing the right words, and translating abstract thought into the correct concrete words. Even more, there is the task of going through this process to end with something persuasive, adding gestures, intonations, and having the right rhythm.

Appreciation of aesthetic experience can be a skill. To enjoy the creation that God has given. I cannot appreciate fine wine and I’m a novice when it comes to appreciating classical music. But I know from my love of food and literature that more experience leads to greater appreciation.

Self-control is a skill. Tolerating discomfort is difficult in an environment where we are spoiled and have our every comfort met. Being calm and composed is easy in a tame and quiet environment. Exercising some semblance of discipline can be easy when we don’t need a lot of discipline to be successful in modern life. Self-mastery is a bit of a lost skill or virtue. Self-control is often understood as a virtue, but it’s such a wide umbrella of skills. Should we let this skill atrophy because we don’t have much adversity? Never. We have to remain sharp and continue to grow in virtue.

Wisdom is a compilation of skills. Philosophy is a love of wisdom. Human wisdom is lost. It claims to be precise, thoughtful, and polished, but we can never attain it. We strive to dig deeply in the wrong spot. However, philosophy can be useful if we are directed by God. Philosophy can help us think about God. Meditating on God and trying to figure out what God is trying to say. We can enjoy what little we know and what wisdom the Lord has given us. We can enjoy a piece of the joy of art and godly happiness. We can develop virtues of patience, diligence, and trust. We can think deeply, read rigorously, and do our best to play with our thoughts. But we need a balance of rigorous structure and creativity. We must consume but also create.

Excellence is context-dependent. For the Christian, it doesn’t necessarily mean beating out the competition in the rat race for our jobs, school, or other life goals. Excellence is a virtue. Excellence and reflecting God’s glory. Excellence is having a proper relationship with God.

God is perfect, but we are far from that. But we can strive for that by striving to be closer to God. We cannot be fooled into thinking that we must be excellent for our own sake or promoting ourselves; all of our excellence is with the aim of serving God. We cannot be drunk with power or self-centeredness once we start to get closer to excellence.

God’s grace is all we can rely on. We can take comfort in the fact that his power is made perfect in our weakness, and we don’t need to strive for perfection other than as an aspiration target. Yet we must still strive for this perfection, especially in the moral domain. But more generally we can strive to be a light in our culture, local community, and personal intellect.

We have to redirect our focus whenever it stops being about Christ. The perspective from which we act must always be focused on the service of the Lord. Not ourselves, not for the approval of anybody else. The excellence we strive for is secondary and prior to our relationship with God, but it flows naturally as well. It is not aimed at for its own sake.

Rigor takes a great deal of discipline. There’s a particular standard and it takes a particular level of conscientiousness to meet it. It takes effort, dedication, and patience. We must strive for rigor in the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the aspirational virtues that we work towards. Yet all is at the mercy of God.

We can apply this to our work, virtue, and devotion to others. The efforts we put in and the product of our hands must reflect an earnest work that pleases God. It’s taxing and difficult, but we work hard for God. It’s all we can do.

We have to be careful not to take the standard of rigor to be earthly. We need to focus on the perspective of God. It’s so easy to be swept up by the earth, make comparisons to others, and be influenced by what amounts to earthly failure. Remember, earthly failure can be a godly victory. We must be true to our loyalty.

Maximizing Talents and Influencing Others: The Way of Faith and Commitment in Christian Living

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A way of looking at the world can change after a night’s sleep. Some mornings we can wake up and everything in the world is shining and there is a veil of happiness; other mornings, doom and gloom, for no particular reason at all. In a more sophisticated way, we can be motivated by wages, the service of people, and, most importantly, hold the teachings and will of Christ in our hearts.

The perspective of Christians should be on Christ rather than Christianity. This is to say that our perspective needs to be aligned with the person and relationship we have with Christ. In contrast, we must not have our perspective aligned with the impersonal set of rules, doctrine, and theology of the church without first thinking of the person of Christ. The trap of the impersonal focus on Christianity is that we focus on the wrong thing: abstract bits and pieces that are applied in our lives that forget the very roots. It’s like copying out the letters of a foreign language without knowing what any of it means.

We must wait patiently for God’s plan. It can come overnight and we must be patient. By God’s will, we must trust and faithfully work as he guides us to larger milestones. The work is incremental and we might not notice, but there can be some drastic change we must be ready for at some critical mass. Since change can happen at any point, we have to appreciate the present. Things may seem monotonous but we can miss those days. We must value every day, minute, and second. And we have to work gratefully and diligently.

I try to be ambitious, whatever that means. I try to do the most in order to maximize what talents God blesses me with. But an issue I run into is having too many goals and having a fear of missing out. It’s important to maximize many talents and it might be possible if you delegate enough. You also need to make a game of being as fast and efficient as possible. All of this is also a fear of regret.

Life is short and we must remember we all die. We can take for granted that time passes and be passive until we face regret. Still, we cannot fear not achieving everything as this is a form of pride; we cannot believe that we are in any control of our lives and entitled to a kind of life. We must humble ourselves to the Lord and trust that we will live the best kind of life without any regret. The Christian life has no room for regret since we are fulfilling our true purpose–everything else pales in comparison.

As we live a Christian life, we always have to push hard and have a fighting spirit. We need to push through discomfort and be disciplined. Fortunately, with God, we have a good life and we can naturally push into these uncomfortable areas with a learning mindset and desire for knowledge. We can seek the truth and the tough road it takes to attain it. It gives us a tough day to come home and rest with satisfaction. We must commit to something, which means not committing to another thing. The opportunity cost.

Faith is the core of religion and has a bad reputation for being opposed to rationality. Faith is not irrational, as commonly understood. It is a leap after proper deliberation and forms a commitment in the areas that lack complete certainty. Complete certainty is often a lot more difficult to attain, especially with the scientific method. We aim for probabilities and inferences that are consistent with some base axioms. But we need not worry ourselves with questions of justifications among Christians. That’s the concern for natural theology.

There’s so much written on the topic of faith that it’s hard to add anything new; so, I’ll only share what I know, is unique to me, and I have experienced. Being faithful for me is always connecting everything in our lives to Christ. We give thanks first thing in the morning for continued life. The game that we get to play is insignificant from the eternal point of view. However, every action we take can have eternal ripples and we have to use every opportunity to serve God and glorify Christ. Faithfulness is directing all our actions toward Christ. We are the sacrifice: every hour, minute, and second. At the same time, we need not have an obsession based on some anxiety that we’ll be forgotten otherwise. Our eternal creator is faithful to us.

We can practice this virtue by being faithful to people. We can also be faithful to principles. It should be that order, however, because people should be our priority for serving God. He commands us to love others, not love rules. Rules are a guide to shape us to be loving. We have to keep loyal and steadfast in serving people. We have to remain trusting and confident that God will guide us towards the right people and that serving people will be a part of the great plan. And we have to be loyal to our relationships and love others fully.

Being faithful is ultimately a relational term. It is what binds us to one another. The precious relationship we have with Christ affects every part of us. It penetrates us through and through to the point that every decision in this life is understood through our relation to Christ.

Hope is the calming ointment from faith. Hope is also an act of faith and is tethered to the ultimate commitment of faith. Hope strives towards the eternity that is promised and that we cannot fully comprehend. Like a ticket of our faith, we hold onto hope and we experience the joy with Christ in anticipation of knowing him more. When we feel lost, we need to have hope. When we feel we are weak or alone, we must have hope. In the darkest times, we have to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. The relationship we have in Christ is unbreakable and perfect.

Hope overcomes the world. Any pain, strife, or trouble can be overcome by the hope we have in Christ. All is insignificant compared to the hope we have in eternity. We endure and wait as patient servants. Hope is has a direction: it points to our faith in Christ. Hope gives us the joy of desire and anticipation. We can have the safety net below us and we can always trust that our future will be good. Perhaps not comfortable, but good.

Being steadfast is understood in terms of resolution or being unwavering. We need this attitude towards our faith. It is not always easy to keep our faith in the center of our minds, even though it is the center of our lives. We have to have the right priority in being steadfast. The way we have to be steadfast in our work has to be in virtue of our faith, and not in the work alone. All the historical heroes are steadfast in their goals. They are steadfast in their mission through every trial or tribulation. We have to stay focused but focused in the right way. All other distractions get to draw us away.

It’s a commitment, loyalty, or faith in the Lord and his plan for us. We can never know if what we do is right or wrong or productive or completely silly. Our conception of what is correct is so often completely wrong, so we should lean on the Lord. That is our Archimedean point. We will be firmly fixed and not change in belief or determination. Like a servant or warrior, we will be moved and trust that we will grow to be sons and friends in the end. We have to grow.

Habituating Virtues: Training the Christian Mindset and Perspective

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Virtue must be trained. We are the sum total of our habits, and virtues must be habituated. To establish a habit, we need to train and practice, and reinforce actions. The starting point for Christians should be to habituate thinking about Christ. Connecting everything back to Christ and taking every step in virtue of Christ. The habit is the Christian mindset and thinking about everything from the Christ-like eternal perspective. This is no easy task and we can try so hard to have a brief glimpse of it. I don’t know how to make this easier. People devote their entire lives to this. Monastics escape the world to meditate. There is so much we can do, but we have to try.

The first practical step is to lean into discomfort. Professional athletes are devoted to growth and they focus on areas of most discomfort, that is, their weaknesses. Usually, weaknesses are the most uncomfortable to approach and work on. But our love of comfort often keeps us blind to our weaknesses. It is hard to know how to lean into discomfort because it is uncharted territory and it feels like jumping off a building. Everything tells us to stay comfortable and blissfully ignorant. We must be disciplined and approach actively the areas we avoid.

While there is an active portion of seeking discomfort, we must resist and stay resilient through attack. The temptation to cross the line or fall into sin is always present, sometimes stronger in one moment than others. Today, sexual sin is all around us, and resistance must be deliberate and focused. We have to draw the line and stick to it. Another example of line drawing is the white lie. We must speak the truth and be honorable even if it is inconvenient. All of this leads to an often neglected sin: gluttony. We are so self-indulgent and seek novelty gratification through technology without any restraint. It corrupts us in the same way excess food does–that is, it affects our minds and the way we control ourselves. We become too flippant in crossing the lines we draw and we have a hard time staying within them because of our lack of practice.

Kierkegaard wrote, “The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, ‘Create silence’.” Our lives are too busy. It is important to have the right perspective and train this perspective to always have it on in our day-to-day work. In the grander picture, our work is insignificant busywork. However, through Christ, everything is imbued with meaning. The insignificant busywork becomes a part of a grand plan that Christ has for us. We might only understand a small slice of it, but we can have faith enough to have hope and work hard. 

We must embrace the discomfort. The non-ideal constraints help us realize that nothing is in our hands. Our plans dissolve as the present moves into the future. In this, we have faith in Christ. In faith, we can take risks, embrace failure, and be fine with whatever worldly rejection we face.

We must train ourselves to be reminded of the importance of training. To lose sight of the importance of the eternal perspective can cascade dangerously. Minimally, we have to force ourselves to taste the eternal and understand its importance in order to tame everything else in the world. The world of distractions can be a wild animal that consumes us if were are not careful.

Fortune favors the bold. Does it? Superstition aside, it’s important to take risks to expose ourselves to novel opportunities. Taking risks allows access to the minimal chance of something amazing happening; there is an important difference between zero and non-zero chances, no matter how low. The converse of this optimism is that it exposes us to a non-zero chance of something catastrophic. That fear can be paralyzing and instinctively we might avoid it. But we may overexaggerate how bad it can get. Moreover, we can inflate trivially bad outcomes, like rejection or failure without real consequences. These sorts of things are internally bad and can bruise our self-image or egos. These bruises are sometimes good.

We should practice being resilient to failure or rejection. The “go-for-no” approach looks at defeating trivial failures and embracing them in order to gain the possibility of great success. It attempts to deflate the trivially bad outcomes and indeed leans into it, like exposure therapy. The phobia of failure and its bundle of social failures and anxieties are pathological yet so common in society. It’s important to rise above in order to exercise our radical freedom. It’s an act of faith.

Selfishness, according to Aristotle and Plato, is ordered into self-love through training our prudence and moderating our affect. This is done through virtuous habits. Selfishness, or self-interest, is a basic drive or passion that can be controlled through practical reason and willpower.

Humor can help with virtues. It can be a service and risk to leap and tell a joke. It can be a form of self-forgetfulness and humility. It can be a social enterprise and a tool of connection and communication. Moreover, it’s an intellectual exercise of performance and art. There’s little comedy in the Bible. But humor and comedy are clearly a part of God’s creation: there’s humor among friends, funny little animals, and a deep irony in life. This is no mistake and not a result of sin. We shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that the solemn nature of Christianity means there is no comedy in the Christian life. Comedy is interestingly authentic. Pretense is the opposite of true comedy. Comedy also is a truthful commentary of a shared experience. It’s relatable because it resonates with a particular view or experience in this life.

Understanding the Virtue of Purity and Its Relationship to Modern Struggles

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Purity is tied up with the ugly history of Puritanism. Without going into this history, we can try to unbundle the virtues of purity. There’s another aspect to also be careful of that might be tied up with the ugly historical developments. That is the basicness or primitivity of purity in our moral thinking. Recent evolutionary morality traces our moral reasoning to basic instincts or intuitions that are sensitive to notions of purity. The adaptive component is related to disease prevention, but the same mechanism leads to repugnant social norms, like homophobia. In any case, a look at Christian purity as a virtue must be informed by these distractions and traps.

Corruption can be understood as the antithesis of purity. There is a really broad way of looking at purity: anything that is sin. But that is too broad to be useful. Still, we can make some broad observations before diving into a more focused look into specific topics. C.S. Lewis locates all sin as originating in pride. Applied to purity, pride is a corruption of purity. We might look to the allegory of the Garden of Eden. It was a pure state that was corrupted by the sin of pride of disobedience and self-reliance on knowledge independent of God. The impurity of sin is introduced. Something went wrong and there is no longer perfection. This impurity distances us from the pureness of God’s nature.

How do these abstract stories and conceptualizations relate to the virtue of pureness? Purity is aspirational in that it seeks to return to a sinless state. To this end, the virtues of purity are associated with an increased sensitivity to sin and a striving to eliminate it entirely. Sin takes diverse forms, so, large or small, this virtue aims to capture it all. It strives for a perspective matching God’s nature that is incongruent with sin; it is the Archimedean point from assessing the entirety of actions and our spiritual self; it is an unconditional commitment that gives meaning to every step in our life and continually strives to inch closer to God.

I want to move now to specific topics, with no particular regard for importance other than that it relates to my own struggles and the struggles of modernity. To begin, let’s focus on a manifestation of pride in psychological terms: narcissism. Narcissism is so common in the technological era of being bombarded with grand narratives and main character syndromes, the constant reminder of inadequacy and comparisons leading to envy, and the self-absorbed naval gazing that results.

I want to suggest that this is a particularly devastating problem for our ages. In the age of technology and instant gratification, we have an issue with wanting a thrill, lusting after that dopamine hit. We cannot stay still with our own thoughts. We need to be a part of the constant stream of the technological network and be a part of that community. Missing out, or the fear of missing out leaves us gnawing to get back.

The gnawing feeling can be thought of as an addiction, but we can simply understand it in terms of gluttony. We have an informational gluttony for constant updates. Every desire to take away our internal monologue can be satisfied by picking up the phone. We are fed a constant stream of other thoughts and information which takes us away from our own. The escapism from whatever plagues us, whatever our mind urges us to tend to, and the real issues confronting us are taken away by the ether of our technology.

What is the remedy? We have to correct our desires and control our thoughts. We have to shape our will to develop the ability to desire correctly. Simply put, we need the habit of focusing on the silence instead of the buzz of technology. The difficulty in this is that there is no person to be accountable to, and transparency in our actions is hard to come by in the privacy of our relationship with technology.