@cryptogee,

This was the first post you've ever written that I ever considered not upvoting at 100%.

I did so anyway ... because we are friends.

Crypt, you need to listen to me ... there are no shortcuts to brilliance. If it doesn't hurt, you aren't doing it right.

Who do you know who has spent more time studying the brain than I? Who do you know, yourself included, who is more obsessed with being brilliant than I am?

Crypt ... think.

In all my years of neurological research, my big takeaway is that we don't have a clue how the brain works. It is an enigma wrapped up in a riddle ... multiplied by a million. Whatever it is, it's nothing more than chemical interactions ... that we DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!

DON'T FUCK WITH YOUR BRAIN!!!

Honestly, if I were in England right now, I go to your house and punch the shit out of you. For others reading this comment that may sound like hyperbole, over-the-top figurative language. Cryptogee knows better.

Crypt, you received a gift ... for which you did nothing to earn. As did I.

Nevertheless, both of us can do things with our minds that others can only dream about. Don't risk fucking it up. The whole apparatus is so astonishingly delicate that it is a miracle that it works at all. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is no Free Lunch.

Fuck it. I'm booking my plane to London right now. Go take a look at yourself in the mirror. What you see is about to change. French Foreign Legion ... remember?

There is only one way you get to be smarter. You throw yourself against minds as great, or greater, than your own. Steel sharpens steel. Everything else is a cheat ... and cheating has consequences.

The problem is, I have a wife and child, and a small two bedroom apartment with no spare room to go off and write in. To top this off, my wife is a teacher, and is still delivering lessons over Zoom and Google classroom.

So I've been thinking about my old friend Modafinil again. I realise that the last time I simply abused it, and went overboard, causing the effects to wane and in fact have the opposite effect of what they're meant to.

These are the rationalizations of a Junkie.

Crypt, you are one of the smartest guys on the blockchain. Use your mind to analyze what you've written, an articulation of your thoughts, versus what I've written, an articulation of mine. Then ask yourself ... why is Quill wigging out?

I am older than you. I've lived through a LOT more than you can even imagine. As brilliant as you are, you do not yet possess the wisdom (fear) that comes only from witnessing seemingly too-good-to-be-true ideas implode.

The number of people on the blockchain for whom I would have written this comment could be counted on a single hand ... with fingers left over. Let that give you pause.

Crypt, before you respond ... show this comment to your wife.

Your Very Good Friend,
Quill