The Biggest Lesson I’ve Learned From You

Over the past 15 years, I’ve received questions and learned about the lives of around 50,000 people. And this has been my biggest lesson learned from all of you.

This is a Mindf*ck Monthly newsletter from May 9, 2022. Every month, I send out big ideas I’ve been chewing on in the hopes that it makes you less of a shitty person.

Let’s dive right in.

Today marks the one hundredth edition of this newsletter. For ninety-nine newsletters, I’ve written with the intent to help and inform you. But for the one hundredth edition, I’d like instead to share what you’ve all taught me.

I started my first blog in 2007. By 2011, writing and publishing online was my full-time job. By 2013, that writing was being read by over a million people each month. And while the exact number has fluctuated over the years, that still remains true.

Early on in my career, as you would expect, I was grateful and amazed at the fact that so many people were reading my thoughts. How fucking cool was that?

But as the years went on, I started to realize what was actually special about my situation: the unique ability to be exposed to so many other people’s thoughts and experiences.

Over the past 15 years, I’d estimate that I’ve received questions and learned about the lives of around 50,000 people. These people have been of all ages, from grade school up to people in their 90s. They’ve been from all over the world, from the US to Europe to India to Japan to Africa and back. They’ve been of all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The sheer variety of people that have shown up in my inbox looking for advice through the years is staggering. I’ve been truly blessed to be exposed to so many people from so many walks of life.

In fact, I truly believe that it’s the insane breadth of exposure that has had the greatest influence on my work. When you hear about life problems from Kenya, Serbia, India, Brazil, and New York, all in the same afternoon, you’re able to start zeroing in on what’s universal about the human condition and what is not.