Episodes
The complete Replacing Guilt series. Written by Nate Soares. Read and produced by Gianluca Truda. --- Contents 0:00:36 : Preliminaries 0:17:50 : Part 1: Fighting for something 1:03:20 : Part 2: Drop your obligations 1:30:27 : Part 3: Half monkey, half god 2:44:30 : Part 4: The dark world 4:17:40 : Part 5: Fire within 5:39:14 : Conclusion 5:43:46 : Series reflection (excerpt from Bit of a Tangent) --- The My Hero comic by Matt Rhodes:...
Published 06/25/21
This episode is made of two parts. Firstly, some updates on the project: the audiobook is still in progress and should be released soon. I'll be uploading it to this feed and will try make it as accessible as possible. To tie you all over until then, the rest of this instalment is an excerpt from the Bit of a Tangent podcast, which I co-host with my good friend, Jared. We discussed how and why I came to narrate Replacing Guilt, how to gain the most from listening to the series, and the types...
Published 05/18/21
Published 03/17/21
"All we need to do, in any given moment, is look upon the actions available to us, consider, and take whichever one seems most likely to lead to a future full of light." -------- Stay subscribed for future updates about a full audiobook version, as well as further discussions on the subject matter. Original post: http://mindingourway.com/guilt-conclusion/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate...
Published 03/17/21
"After nearly a year of writing, my "replacing guilt" sequence is coming to a close. I have just one more thing to say on the subject, by pointing out a running theme throughout the series." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/how-we-will-be-measured/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms...
Published 03/10/21
"Defiance-the-virtue is about having the same reflexive response, not towards an authority figure, but towards the state of a broken world. It's about making the fact that you struggle to fix broken worlds automatic and unspoken — you might weigh your options and bide your time, but you spare no thought for whether you will struggle. I don't know how to teach defiance, but it's one of the keystones of my motivation system. If you want to build yourself a motivation system akin to mine,...
Published 03/03/21
"The second dubious virtue is recklessness. As with desperation, there are many bad ways to be reckless. There is a nihilistic recklessness, in those with a muted ability to feel and care, that is self-destructive. There is a social recklessness, when peers push each other towards doing something dangerous that none of them would do alone, in a demonstration of commitment that can become needlessly dangerous. And there is a fiery, destructive recklessness in those too quick to anger, which...
Published 02/24/21
"The next three posts will discuss what I dub the three dubious virtues: desperation, recklessness, and defiance. I call them dubious, because each can easily turn into a vice if used incorrectly or excessively. As you read these posts, keep in mind the law of equal and opposite advice. Though these virtues are dubious, I have found each of them to be a crucial component of a strong and healthy intrinsic motivation system. The first of the three dubious virtues is desperation. There are bad...
Published 02/17/21
"I have found this mindset to be very useful throughout my life.  Confidence all the way up is what has me dive into the fray to try new  things, while others stand on the sidelines bemoaning a high degree of  uncertainty. It's part of the technique of treat recurring failures as data and training, rather than as a signal that it's time to feel guilty. It's part of the technique of knowing you're deeply limited without letting that interfere with your progress towards the goal.  Of the top...
Published 02/10/21
"Polished response patterns have proven useful to me, and I attribute much of my skill at math, programming, and running nonprofits to having sane responses to new obstacles. Regardless of where you get your response patterns from, I suspect that honing them will do you well." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/the-art-of-response/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and...
Published 01/13/21
"Sometimes, I wonder how successful a person would be if they just did all the obvious things in pursuit of their goals [...] So with that in mind, allow me to offer some quite obvious pieces of advice, which have proven very useful for me..." Replacing Guilt will return to schedule in 2021. Take care and enjoy the break. -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/obvious-advice/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing...
Published 12/23/20
"Ok, so "try" is actually a pretty useful concept; there's a reason we  have a very short word for it in the English language. Nevertheless, I  have found it quite useful to occasionally spend a few weeks refusing to  use the word "try" or any of its synonyms, at least when talking about  myself, and especially when thinking about myself to myself." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/there-is-no-try/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at...
Published 12/16/20
"Many years ago, when I was in high school, a friend of mine came back from college having joined a fencing team. He wanted to show me some of  the basics, so he tossed me a sabre, and we had at each other. We  crossed swords a few times, and he said something along the lines of "Nate, the goal isn't to hit my sword, the goal is to hit me." [...] " -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/stop-trying-to-try-and-try/ "SENS is currently fundraising, by the way": www.sens.org Find...
Published 12/09/20
"The last arc of posts has been about how to handle a dour universe. Become unable to despair, learn to see the darkness rather than flinching from it, learn to choose between bad and worse without suffering. Learn to live in a grim world without becoming grim yourself, learn to hear bad news without suffering, and stop needing to know your actions were acceptable. Come to terms with the fact you may lose, use the darkness as a source of fuel, and let go of dreams of total victory. These are...
Published 12/02/20
"In fiction, protagonists narrow their focus until the difference between success and failure on their specific task seems like the difference between victory and defeat. Batman attempts to solve the mystery while ensuring that nobody dies; meanwhile, children in Africa suffer from Malaria. The crew in The Martian spends billions of dollars worth of capital to save one man; capital that could have been spent curing diseases. Real people run a risk of duplicating this error, if they try to...
Published 11/25/20
"Most of the time, if something is hurting you, I recommend making it stop. There is one exception, though..." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/transmute-guilt-i/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms by Chad Crouch.
Published 10/29/20
"So here's my advice: Think the unthinkable. Consider that which is  painful to consider. Figure out what, exactly, is at stake. Weigh the  consequences. Come to terms with them." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/come-to-your-terms/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms by Chad Crouch.
Published 10/22/20
"If you have an excuse prepared, you will be tempted to fall back on it. An excuse makes failure more acceptable, in some way. It's a license to fail." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/have-no-excuses/ "But you know about the planning fallacy" "a wonderful opportunity for self-signaling" Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda....
Published 10/15/20
"... Maybe some part of you is pushing against reality, trying to deny it, willing the past to change." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/simply-locate-yourself/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms by Chad Crouch.
Published 10/08/20
"I'm betting that the last three posts have given many readers an incorrect impression about my demeanor. It's  easy to read those posts and conclude that I must be a grim, brooding  character who goes around with his jaw set all day long. Which is understandable, but silly. You don't need to carry a grim demeanor to draw strength from seeing the dark world. It's quite  possible to deeply want the world to be different than it is, and tap  into a deep well of cold resolve, and still also be...
Published 09/30/20
"When given a choice between bad and worse, you need to be able to choose "bad", without qualm." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/choose-without-suffering/ Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms by Chad Crouch.
Published 09/23/20
"Consider fictional Carol, who has convinced herself that she doesn't  need to worry  about the suffering of people who live far away. She  works to improve her local community, and donates to her local church.  She's a kind and loving woman, and she does her part, and (she reasons)  that's all anyone can be expected to do. Now consider fictional Dave, who failed a job interview. When telling  his friends the story, he emphasizes how the interviewers were biased  against him, and how they...
Published 09/15/20
"If you have money and want to save lives, you had better put a price on life. Scott Alexander explains it better than I can. But don't mix up the price of a life with the value of a life. I see this happen all too frequently. To correct this mistake, I'm going to tell a little story..." -------- Original post: http://mindingourway.com/the-value-of-a-life Some of us work in the mines to make the dragon's tax. Others prepare for the day we will confront the dragon — for the weapons we must...
Published 09/10/20
"Sometimes, when people see that their life is about to get a lot  harder, they start buckling down. Other times, they start despairing, or  complaining, or preparing excuses so that they can have one ready when  the inevitable failure hits, or giving up entirely and then failing with abandon.  These next few posts assume that you have the former demeanor, and they  might not be helpful to people who are inclined to respond to new  difficulties with despair. Remember the law of equal and...
Published 09/04/20
"Many people hold themselves to a very different standard than they hold others. They hold themselves accountable for failing to do the psychologically impossible. They fret over past mistakes and treat themselves as failed gods, rather than ambitious monkeys. This condemning-of-the-self can lead to great guilt, with all its negative effects. My suggestion for dealing with guilt, roughly speaking, is to first focus your guilt, by dispelling the guilt that comes from not doing what other...
Published 09/01/20