During my sophomore year of high school, I sat next to a skinny kid with a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air flat-top. His name was Anwar Grimmett-Lee. And while I don’t remember anything from the class we took together, I do remember that Anwar could dance, draw, and piss our teacher off when he was in the mood to be the class clown.

After we graduated in 2014 and Anwar was no longer saying “Wassup wit it, Dom?” to me in the hallways, I lost touch with him. But this fall I was struck when I came across his own song that he shared on Twitter. It was called “Sleepless,” and if you’re familiar with hip-hop, it sounded like a cross between Kid Cudi and Travis Scott: not mellow enough to lull you, but not raucous enough to stir you up either.

Soon after my first listen, I put “Sleepless” on repeat. But I didn’t want to keep this gem to myself. Below you’ll find a dynamic interview I had with Anwar as well as the music video for “Sleepless.” If you like what you see, his contact information is listed near the end.

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, can you explain what your primary interests and goals are?

I started off engineering and mixing songs for myself and my friend/artist Matty Wood$. That just has to do with mixing the sound of the voices on the track. My primary interest is my love for the music itself and my goals for right now are just to improve and create more tracks.

Aren’t you also involved with fashion?

A lot of people say this to me, but I don’t register what I do as being in fashion or anything. I just always liked nice clothes and would compete with my friends on who would get the freshest. I gave up competing long ago and now I just buy what I like no matter the brand. I believe the clothes one wears represents them – it’s the first thing anyone with eyesight will notice about you besides your face.

 

What do you want people to take away when they listen to your music?

I want them to take away a feeling, an emotion. Maybe for people to not go in trying to criticize it – don’t even think of me as the one rapping or singing but just to catch the feel of the track, what actually took place in the short three minutes of sound.

It seems like you’ve changed a lot since high school – is that accurate or were you hiding the real you back then?

Not really – only thing that has changed is my hair. I’m still goofy and an extrovert at times. I just found something new to put my energy into. I think that’s what everyone needs to do. Find the correct thing they want to put their energy into and improve on it every chance they can get.

It seems like a lot of millennials are waiting until they graduate or make a lot of money for their “chance” to impact the world. How can our generation change its mindset and do amazing stuff right now?

There is nothing to wait on. Ever. There’s no amount of money that’s going to get your life on track. It can only help materialistically. You have to go back in time to when you were a child and think of what your main joy came from and feed off of it in the now. Mine was music and drawing, [I spent] too many hours dancing and drawing to just cut it off because I found a major I halfway don’t enjoy. So I chose to pick that back up somehow. Our generation just needs to quit looking at and copying everyone else and find their true selves and feed off of it to create something to help the world.

Why do you think some young people are afraid to create?

I think people young and old are afraid to create because they don’t know where to start or how to even get to where they want to be. But that’s the problem, it’s not about where to start or how to get there, its just about starting somehow. And once you start just never stop and you’ll notice the improvements and amaze yourself. Once you amaze yourself a couple times you’ll start to feel an addiction building. Become addicted to improving.

Are we better than older generations in regards to creativity?

Not really. I would say [we’re] worse. Our generation is better at creating memes and other silly shit. Our cell phones and apps are destroying our real human communications and memory which affect the ability to be original. You have to create something original.

Do you value ignoring mainstream culture (media, trends, etc.) in order to produce valuable work?

Hmmm, I value sounding different. And yes, I casually refuse to create something already done that I know of. The only true way to add to the culture is by creating something new and different, not something that’s already been done several times. I do believe people either hate or love something different/new as well. I like that perspective.

What excites you most about the future?

I’m afraid of the future as much as I am excited about it. I feel like it’s the future right now – you just have to go out and see it. I just want to see the world start to look like a robot-techno world like the old cartoons and movies. I know its coming. Did you see that Amazon food store [commercial] where you just pick up items and then just walk out of the store? Lol.

What should we expect from you in upcoming years?

Expect more sounds and new visuals. That’s the only way I can reach everyone.

I send my subscribers reading recommendations every month – what’s a book that has impacted you?

The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

How can people connect with you?

Soundcloud: ANWAR; Instagram: anwar_is

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his monthly newsletter.

 

I recently rewatched one of my all-time favorite movies, Whiplash. But this time, the film’s message hit home for me. Below is my reflection.

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Towards the end of the 2014 film Whiplash, Andrew Neyman and Terence Fletcher sit across from each other at a jazz bar in New York to answer one question: can you go too far in the pursuit of perfection? Neyman (played by Miles Teller) is a young, determined jazz drummer and Fletcher (played by J.K. Simmons), is his famed yet abusive instructor. Throughout his mission to craft Neyman into a star percussionist, Fletcher resorts to mocking, slapping, and even hurling a chair at Neyman out of frustration during their rehearsal sessions.

But the film isn’t about Fletcher’s disturbing teaching style, nor is it about the dramatic narrative culminating in Neyman’s ultimate triumph. The purpose of Whiplash is to resurrect the often-ignored truth that the creation of genius comes at a substantial cost.

The 21^st century has created a Nerf-like environment for young professionals: anything flies, I’m okay, you’re okay, feeling trumps logic, give me the most for the least amount of effort. Whiplash shatters this ideology in the most flamboyant way possible.

Andrew Neyman forgoes friends, family, and a girlfriend in his quest for mastery. He drums until his fingers bleed. His teacher’s idea of mental training is to crush his psyche by calling him “worthless,” “faggot,” and “retard.” This teaching method is like killing a fly with a wrecking ball: you accomplish the job, but you cause a lot of unnecessary harm along the way.

Fletcher’s savagery shouldn’t be taken literally, though. Whiplash’s director Damien Chazelle, who has established a reputation as a masterful storyteller, even stated in an interview that the movie “takes it to a level that I do not condone.” Instead, Fletcher should be viewed as the personification of the cruelty and ridicule that all artists face in their creative pursuits.

Neyman’s willingness to endure this constant upbraiding is a plea for us to cultivate the kind of hardness and grit required to produce greatness. His character embodies the message that if you’re sincere about refining some craft, there are going to be aspects of it that are humbling, damaging, even terrifying. This realization is common among elite athletes, and it’s no wonder Whiplash resonated with some of today’s best.

When asked about Whiplash during an interview with Chuck Klosterman,

Kobe Bryant said, “Of course. That’s me.” Cleveland Cavaliers’ guard Kyrie Irving even wrote “Whiplash” on his shoes  with a silver sharpie during the 2015 NBA playoffs (right). Whether you think identifying oneself with a provocative film is morally unacceptable or writing on your sneakers is superstitious is irrelevant.

It’s the mentality that matters.

At the jazz bar, Fletcher looks Neyman in the eye and tells him, “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job.’” If there’s anything to take away from Whiplash, it’s this.

“But is there a line?” Neyman asks. “Maybe you go too far and discourage the next Charlie Parker.” The New Yorker movie critic Richard Brody provides some helpful commentary on this dialogue, noting that “a real artist won’t be lulled into self-satisfaction by ‘good job’ because a real artist is hard on himself, curious to learn…and to push themselves ahead.” The point is that the next Charlie Parker would never be discouraged. The talent he possesses is already present within him. All he can do is develop it, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.

The obstinacy and perfectionism portrayed by Fletcher mitigate the toxic effects of ego, yet pop culture wants to shy away from this rigidity. I’ve seen coaches hand out participation trophies and teachers change their corrective ink from red to blue in order to navigate around kids’ feelings at the cost of their potential. This is why Whiplash is valuable: it’s raw, uncut, and devoid of fluff – never leaving the viewer unclear about its purpose.

“Anyone can conduct…I was there to push people beyond what was expected of them,” says Fletcher. This push is something that Fletcher deems an absolute necessity. Otherwise, the world may be deprived of its next great musician.

Fletcher goes on to reference the story of Charlie Parker having a cymbal thrown at him after playing out of tune early in his career. The 16-year-old

was laughed off the stage, and nearly cried himself to sleep that night. But he vowed to practice relentlessly with one goal in mind: to never be laughed at again.

One would be hard-pressed to find a story like Parker’s in 2017. Instead of using negativity as fuel, teachers hold back their criticisms: “It’s okay, good try!” How am I to improve from that? This is a tragedy that the film confronts, whether the viewer wants to realize it or not.

Whiplash illustrates, with great lucidity, that artistic mastery is not the result of coddling. It is deliberately cultivated through hours of repetition and objective criticism. And although the film pushes the boundaries of taste with its aggressive dialogue and abuse, the viewer need not condone Fletcher’s actions to internalize the message: true greatness is agonizing.

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his monthly newsletter.

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References

Brody, Richard. “Getting Jazz Right in the Movies.” The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2014.

Fordham, John. “A teenage Charlie Parker has a cymbal thrown at him.” The Guardian. 16 June 2011.

Kiernan, Tony. “Whiplash: Terence Fletcher The Insults.” YouTube. 18 Feb. 2015.

Klosterman, Chuck. “Kobe Bryant Will Always Be an All-Star of Talking.” GQ, 17 Feb. 2015.

McKenna, Sean. “The Perfection of Storytelling in Season One of True Detective.” SeKenna.

McMenamin, Dave. “Kyrie and Cavs learning what greatness requires.” ESPN, 13 May 2015.

Robinson, Tasha. “Damien Chazelle on what is and isn’t ambiguous about Whiplash.” The Dissolve, 15 Oct. 2014.

Rotte, Sarah. “Love for La La Land.” Sarah Rotte, 30 Jan. 2017.

The Guardian published an article in 2013 titled “News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier.” After spouting off ten dangers of news, the only solution the writer offered, as she touted her 4-year break from news, was to stop consuming it altogether.

This binary attitude toward news consumption is an oversimplification, and a dangerous one at that. Granted, modern journalism (if you even want to call it that) has its problems, namely the recent fake news controversies. But genuine reportage is one of the great gifts of democracy, and we’d be foolish to rid ourselves entirely of it.

The solution is not a news purge – a news diet is. But what exactly does that entail?

Just as a diet to lose weight requires deliberate decisions about food intake, a media diet requires that we be deliberate about both the type and amount of news we consume. For most, this means no more news from Twitter and Facebook.

When it comes to deciding what we read, watch, and listen to, it’s tough not to indulge in the endless buffet of links. We inundate ourselves with more and more “news” and share our findings under the assumption that we’re becoming more informed, but are we?

Our modern shift from scarcity to abundance in news often causes us to become overwhelmed, even anxious. Barry Schwartz, a sociology professor at Swarthmore College, calls this the “paradox of choice:” though modern Americans have more freedom and autonomy than any society in history, we don’t see any psychological benefits.

The dizziness that comes from this unbridled freedom paired with countless fear appeals creates a toxic combination. We’re so saturated with polarized information that we yearn to return to the comforting, simplistic baby talk of childhood where feeling trumps logic and complexity is ignored. Some may argue Donald Trump took advantage of this in his recent campaign.

This is where the news diet becomes imperative: choose quality over quantity, even if it costs a few bucks.

Without buying news, or at least subscribing to it, we lose context. Those free-floating articles you see online today are crafted to survive the gauntlet of social media on their own. We’re so numb to information that headlines must be exaggerated, graphic, or divisive in order draw attention and encourage sharing. In fact, the primary factor that determines an article’s virality is how angry it makes the reader.

But real news isn’t viral by nature. It’s neutral, multifaceted, and frankly boring. Writers for the New York Times understand this. Writers for Young Conservatives and Teen Vogue might too, but they don’t care. Their sole purpose is to drive controversy that confirms their audience’s identity. This is why we need to eradicate such options from our media diet.

On the other hand, established newspapers have an incentive to produce quality work, not pageviews. If they don’t, their subscriptions dry up and they’ll go out of business. The Times doesn’t need to battle for name recognition, so they aren’t forced to fabricate stories to attract readers.

Generally, articles on complex topics such as war and foreign policy will fail to spread or generate ad revenue because they’re not sexy. Additionally, such hard journalism is expensive and difficult to produce. The publisher must pay a reporter for a long-term reporting effort, which may not even generate a story.

So we turn to Facebook where our news consists of borderline fiction.

We don’t pay for news, yet we’re all aghast that the quality declines. If Apple suddenly began giving away defective products, would we hunker down and deal with it? If I know my own generation well enough, we’d either demand better products or take our business elsewhere.

Unfortunately, we don’t apply the same logic when reading the news.

Our only hope is a disciplined news diet: no notifications, no aimless clicking. Find a copy of the Times or get The Wall Street Journal sent to your inbox. It might hurt initially to stop the constant flow of information, but less news enables us think rather than regurgitate.

As Publilius Syrus said, “Better to be ignorant of a matter than half know it.”

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his monthly newsletter.

No real introduction is necessary here. 2016, specifically the last week, was full of trivial complaints and regrets. This list should help to put things into perspective.

1. You were able to get out of bed and walk.

2. You’re able to read this, unlike 12% of the world that is illiterate.

3. You’re able to read this on a phone or computer that millions wish they could also have.

4. You had access to the Internet, which allowed you to connect and learn in ways that others did not.

5. You were able to vote for your public officials and representatives.

6. You were able to freely voice your opinions on social media without fear of punishment.

7. You didn’t have to worry about whether your water was drinkable.

8. You didn’t have a shortage of food.

9. You had the ability to travel much of the world with no restrictions.

10. Your country was not attacked.

11. You had a roof over your head, unlike the half-million homeless people in America.

12. If you got sick, chances are you got adequate treatment unlike the millions of Americans without health insurance.

13. You had access to books and other forms of education that much of the world did not.

14. You had the freedom to practice any form of religion, something many people in this world will never experience.

15. You had enough or possibly excessive amounts of clothes and shoes.

16. There was somebody, somewhere that loved and cared about you.

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his monthly newsletter.

Enter Pablo Picasso, arguably the most successful and captivating artist the world has seen. His creative gifts have been envied since he began his craft, and if you subtract him from the equation of modern art, a gaping hole exists. Picasso possessed all the power a man could want and more. But he lacked something that 99 percent of us already have: a conscience.

Pablo Picasso was a rapist, an abuser, and a narcissist. His distorted paintings of women reflected the pleasure that he got from hurting them. “He first raped the woman, then he worked,” said one mistress. Another mistress, Dora Maar, was beaten by Picasso and left unconscious on the floor.

Acquaintances of Picasso said that he would “honor” a man by stealing his wife and sleeping with her. “I would rather see a woman die than see her happy with someone else,” said Picasso, “Nobody leaves a man like me.”

It’s hard to comprehend how such a gifted creator could be capable of such evil. But this raises a serious question: does exorbitant fame and wealth induce the sort of sociopathy that Picasso exhibited?

I don’t imagine a 15-year-old Picasso beating women and proclaiming himself a god (no, Kanye West was not the first celebrity to do this). Instead, it was the unparalleled fame and insecurity about his own work that fostered his moral corruption.

One of Picasso’s mistresses hanged herself. His widow shot herself. His eldest child died of alcoholism. He died resentful and unhappy. But of course, these truths are conveniently edited out of his grand narrative.

The inability to grasp this pathology that celebrity culture creates is one of humanity’s greatest impediments. We’ve been so deluded by a system that deifies the famous and ultra-wealthy that we neglect how morally bankrupt they can be.

Enter superstar number two: Steve Jobs.

The Steve Jobs story is a fairy tale. He’s the visionary genius who starts Apple, gets overthrown by his own employees, then makes an epic comeback to turn Apple into the iconic brand we know today. But chances are if you worked at Apple with Jobs, you’d want him gone too. He was a nauseating, egotistical brat.

His biographer, Walter Isaacson, revealed much of what was previously kept from public knowledge.

Jobs was notorious for parking in handicap spaces at Apple’s headquarters. Could he not have paid for a valet, built a personal parking garage, or simply walked?

After one Apple employee pulled an all-nighter finding the type of flowers that Jobs demanded for a press event, all he managed to tell her was that her suit was disgusting (coming from the guy with a closet full of dad jeans and turtlenecks).

In 1984, Jobs said that Mick Jagger was “on drugs…or brain damaged” because he didn’t know who he was.

His egotism even carried over to his deathbed, where he restlessly searched for ways to cure his own cancer with acupuncture sessions, fruit juices, and spiritualists.

Despite these realities, we still regard stardom as some utopian thrilling lifestyle – this irrationality is an epidemic. Do we truly want to inhabit the world of the ultra-famous in which figures like Picasso and Jobs are so disconnected from reality that they view ordinary people as disposable parts? They are literally incapable of having genuine human interaction because their fortunes have numbed them, and if anyone dares to question their power, they are silenced and marginalized. Their highly-publicized charitable donations, philanthropies, and photo ops are screens to obscure what goes on behind closed doors.

To think that money is the only thing separating “us” from “them” is an illusion. What separates those living in reality from those in the celebrity bubble is selfishness and ignorance.

The key to fame, they tell us, is hard work and dedication. No. The key is greed.

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his monthly newsletter. For questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

After recently connecting with several colleagues on LinkedIn, I noticed that many of the skills listed on their profiles overlapped from person to person, no matter what industry they were associated with. I’m all for beefing up your résumé, but this begged the question: Is it really a skill if everyone else can do it too?

I reached out to co-founder and president of Hill Investment Group, Matt Hall, to get his take on my theory. Matt is relentlessly meticulous when it comes to adding people to his team – the firm has only eight members between its Houston and St. Louis locations. While fundamentals are necessary, they aren’t enough to get a foot in the door, and they certainly won’t create the wow-factor that our attention economy demands.

Here are a few we discussed:

Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel)

A basic understanding of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel is expected everywhere from ninth grade to Wall Street – there’s no need to promote something that won’t differentiate you. Familiarizing yourself with niche programs such as WordPress or Photoshop will increase your value.

Leadership

This term carries minimal value today – everyone is a leader if you ask them. Instead of arbitrarily listing leadership as a skill, demonstrate who, what, or how you’ve led in your “Experience” section. Have you planned a fundraiser, started a club, etc.?

Time Management

Managing your own time is great, but you’ll have to go above and beyond that to impress a potential employer. Demonstrating the ability to efficiently manage a schedule for multiple people, not just yourself, speaks louder than “time management.” Can you plan a monthly calendar for an organization or schedule shifts for a group of employees?

Problem Solving

What problems? Math problems? Problems on your college campus? Without tangible evidence of a solution that you’ve developed for an existing problem, “problem solving” means nothing. If you’re truly an effective problem solver, promote it in your “Experience” section.

“None of that stuff grabs my attention, and we are in an attention economy,” says Matt. “I need to know quickly what sets you apart and what’s interesting about you. How will you help me? What have you done that others have not? Do you speak Chinese? Have you written something powerful? Have you run a 100-mile race?”

Matt is adamant about pushing limits, taking risks, and challenging the status quo (you can read about that in his book). Bottom line: be remarkable – literally worth remarking.

“Blow my mind with something you’ve accomplished or that you’re working on,” he says. “If you haven’t done something unique or special, you might want to start there.”

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com

 

 

“And for homework…read 75 pages from the book that the school says you have to read, no matter how irrelevant, outdated, or disengaged from your interests it is.”

High school corrupted reading for my generation. It took something fascinating and tainted it by eliminating our options, then asking us to regurgitate information on a test. Who cares if you can apply it to real life, right?

I graduated in 2014 and swore to myself I’d never waste my time reading in college. I didn’t want to waste my time in the library sifting through hundreds of pages like I my mom or grandparents did.

But one year ago, I unintentionally rewired my brain.

During the fall of my sophomore year, a mentor of mine suggested that I research the work of media guru Ryan Holiday to supplement what I was learning in my PR and marketing classes. That same night, I stumbled upon his controversial book Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. I wasn’t ready for what would happen within the next week.

After receiving my package from Amazon and scanning the pages of my new book, I noticed something strange: I was eager to read it. But how, after years of rejecting the idea of reading, had my attitude changed so quickly?

I didn’t come up with a solid answer to this question until this week, which prompted me to write what you’re reading right now: you don’t know how to read until you do it for yourself, not for a grade or external validation. Trust Me I’m Lying resonated with my personal interests and nobody forced me to read it. That’s how reading should be. It’s like working out – it sucks when someone’s over your shoulder telling you when, where, and how to do it. But once you do it for it’s own sake, you can appreciate it with a new perspective. This, however, is only the start.

Many devout readers have a root book – one that inspired them to make reading a habit, not a chore. TMIL is the root of nearly every book I’ve read over the past year. Its “further reading” section, bibliography, and endorsers all led me to the books that ended up shaping my life. Once you find your root, something clicks. You crave more, your brain makes connections on its own, and material overlaps. One book leads to another, and soon enough you’re down the rabbit hole, never turning back.

I’m often asked why I don’t buy ebooks or audiobooks to save money. The thing about physical books is that you can reference them, take notes, share them, see patterns, and track your progress. Twitter and iMessage aren’t a click away with a hard copy.

Of course, some books will disappoint and seem impossible to engage with. Just as an investor has to know when to cut his losses, a reader should be able to do the same. It’s okay to be wrong; in fact, there’s an old rule for this: read 100 pages minus your age (if you’re 20 years old, read 80 pages). If it’s not adding value to your life by that point, put it down.

Your high school English teacher would probably cringe at that rationale, but it ties back to the lesson that put me on a new, better path a year ago: I couldn’t read because I wasn’t doing it for myself. Read what keeps you reading, read what makes you better. Nobody is watching.

P.S. If you’re looking for a place to start, I send a newsletter with book recommendations twice per month. I’ll start you off with my “5 Books to Base Your Life On.” Just click this link or send me an email: dominicvaiana@gmail.com

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  He founded a campus newspaper and went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

Ryan Holiday built his reputation by being one of the most hated and controversial figures in the media industry. As American Apparel’s marketing director, he ran some of the most provocative ad campaigns of the decade, including one featuring a half-naked elderly woman. He started fake boycott groups and destroyed his own billboards just for the publicity, then exposed all of it in his book Trust Me I’m Lying – all before he turned 25.

Holiday, now 29, has made more high-stakes decisions than most professionals will make in a lifetime. Your typical twenty-something would have cracked under the pressure. But your typical twenty-something also doesn’t practice an ancient Greek philosophy known as Stoicism.

For most, the word philosophy conjures up images of stuffy intellectuals and thick textbooks filled with obscure discourses that complicate life instead of simplifying it. Stoicism, however, differs from lecture-room philosophy in one distinct sense: it’s purpose is for practical application, not endless intellectual debate. Its practices enable us to control our emotions and discipline our mind. To sum up its rationale in one sentence: we cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond.

Although Stoicism originated over 2,000 years ago, it proves to be more functional than the barrage of self-help courses and success gurus of the 21^st century. Until recently, it was severely underappreciated in the world of business, sports, and everyday life. Ryan Holiday, however, would change that.

For the past 10 years, Holiday has studied, written about, and applied Stoicism to his own life. He has leveraged his audience gained through his marketing skills and edgy writing to resurrect a nearly-forgotten philosophy and create a cult-like following around it.  This transition from business to philosophy raised a few eyebrows, but nonetheless solidified his reputation as one of today’s prominent writers and thinkers.

Following the release of Trust Me I’m Lying, Portfolio Penguin was reluctant to accept Holiday’s proposal to write a book about a relatively unknown philosophy. Nevertheless, he took a pay cut in order to fulfill his calling to write the book that would give Stoicism the prominence that it rightly deserved. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph was released in May 2014, and its wisdom quickly circulated worldwide. Within months, the book made its way into the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger and LL Cool J as well as the locker rooms of the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Suddenly, Stoicism was no longer reserved for library dwellers, but for entrepreneurs, athletes, and politicians.

But a book simply describing Stoicism wouldn’t have reached such a vast audience. Holiday brought Stoicism to life by relating its principles to the lives of iconic figures such as Steve Jobs, John D. Rockefeller, and Amelia Earhart – human beings just like us who thrived in spite of unfortunate circumstances. And while Obstacle dealt with Stoicism in relation to external obstacles, it would only be fitting for Ryan to follow it up with a book that used Stoicism to combat the greatest internal obstacle: ego.

One of the most highly-anticipated books of 2016, Ego Is the Enemy debuted as an international bestseller. A treatise on the hazards of our own mind, Ego further progressed the transformation of Ryan the media manipulator into Ryan the strategist and intellectual – and his audience didn’t hesitate one bit to stand by his side.

Waves of new Stoic fans (pardon the irony) have emerged seemingly from nowhere. The subreddit r/Stoicism now has over 36 thousand readers. Holiday has given talks about Stoicism to teams such as the Texas Rangers and the University of Alabama football team. Fans constantly post pictures of themselves with Obstacle and Ego on Twitter and Instagram. Books, philosophical ones in particular, are finally cool because he actually made them with the reader in mind. And just when you thought he would rest on his reputation as a bestselling author, Holiday decided to contribute once more to the movement he started in 2014.

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, set to release this week, is a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring new translations from Stoic icons like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and more. This new work has already garnered more media attention than other philosophical writers could dream of, and if Holiday’s prior work is any indication of what’s to come, he’s sure to attract even more enthusiasts.

It would be easy for someone such as Holiday to let early success get to his head, but living out the Stoic principles that he teaches is perhaps what has enabled him to produce such a large body of work. He has managed to eschew the limelight and make superior-quality work his priority.

Ryan Holiday lives in the real world, not inside his own head like thinkers of old. He wears jeans and button-downs, not upscale suits. His tone is relaxed and conversational, not self-righteous or preachy. It’s undeniable that Holiday revived Stoicism and influenced thousands in the process, but whether his books stand the test of time is what will ultimately determine his legacy.

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  He founded a campus newspaper and went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

This article originally ran on The Good Men Project

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I’m sure it was agonizing to watch.

I writhed in humiliation, scanning my mind for some scrap of an idea to prove that I knew enough to answer my professor’s unnecessarily-complex question. After a series of “um’s” and “I think’s” followed by some off-topic answer, I had a subtle yet liberating realization.

I could have simply said, “I don’t know.”

But wait, “I don’t know” connotes laziness and indifference – I’m supposed to be better than that. Of course, this is what our ego tells us: that we need the answer now, and if we can’t formulate an answer out of thin air we’re unintelligent.

It’s time to call bullshit on this.

Used strategically, “I don’t know” is a tool of humility, and ultimately a tool of power. The moral philosopher Publilius Syrus once said that it’s better to be ignorant of a matter than half know it, and there’s a reason why that saying survived over 2,000 years. Scrambling for answers to questions we’re unprepared to answer not only makes us look dumber than if we admitted ignorance, it makes us look insecure as well. Too often our ambition often seizes us and we indebt ourselves to opinions that we’re unqualified to defend.

Fortunately, we have this alternative.

The idea that you don’t have to pull an answer out of your ass is freeing. It saves you from weak answers that start with “I hope,” “maybe,” probably,” and “I think.” You’re off the hook. And after five minutes, nobody will care or remember that you said “I don’t know.”

But what do we really mean when we say we don’t know? Not that we’re devoid of ideas or theories – everyone has their two cents. “I don’t know” is an easier way to communicate that that you haven’t tested your assumptions enough to make a compelling case. It isn’t an excuse for not learning, it’s buying time to learn more.

Certainly, there’s something to be said for contributing to group discussions and brainstorming. But we cross into dangerous territory when we place too much confidence in ourselves and forget how difficult it is to be truly sure.

That impulse to be sure is perpetually enabled by a world that values instant gratification. It takes constant effort to rewire our brains, come down to earth, and embrace humility.

“I don’t know” is underrated. It’s like your 5^th Amendment right for daily conversation.  Let the others aimlessly run their mouths until the dust has settled – until you know.

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups.  His personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations are sent in his bimonthly newsletter. For any questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.

I wrote this out of frustration and disgust when the “top headlines” of my day involved Kim Kardashian’s see-through dress, bacon-wrapped tater tots, and mannequins that got breast enhancements. What follows is a critique of our broken media culture and a shaming of a society that values clickbait over reality and suffocates dignity and logic.

Those clickable headlines I mentioned are fun in the same way that eating Cheetos is fun: it’s convenient, easy, and we can’t seem to get enough. And just as too many Cheetos cause our bodies to become lethargic and gross, so too does media junk food have the same effect on our brains. If you’re a frequenter of online media, you know that clickbait and gossip drive the agenda – but how did we get here in the first place?

Try to determine which of these headlines were from the late 1800s and which were trending online last week.

“Couldn’t Sell His Ear, Old Man Shoots Himself”

“Is There a Right Way to Get Naked?”

“Owl Frightens Woman to Death in Hospital”

“You’ve Been Shaving Wrong This Whole Time”

“War Will Be Declared in Fifteen Minutes”

“How Fancy Can You Decorate a Bedroom for $200?”

People today are suckers for the same slop they were over 100 years ago: lies, exaggeration, and overly-sensationalized “news.” The only difference today is that those headlines glare at you from your iPhone screen instead of being yelled at you on a busy street corner.

We get tired of real life stories. Real life is harsh, complicated, and requires us to stop and think. So instead, we immerse ourselves in a fantasy land of celebrity slideshows and sped-up cooking videos.

The genuine, thought-provoking journalists and stories that we desperately need are out there. So why can’t they rise to the top where they belong?  Well, basically because of people like you (and me).

As you can imagine, the industry is a slave to money. But how do blogs such as Buzzfeed, Gawker, Elite Daily, and Total Frat Move generate so much cash? It’s not through subscriptions like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Blogs make money from selling ads, usually at a rate of 1,000 impressions. The publisher’s revenue equals the cumulative cost per thousand impressions (CPM) multiplied by the number of pageviews. Bottom line, views equals cash.  And every time you click, you put a little more money in the pockets of the scam artists.

But of course, these calculations mean nothing unless there’s something shiny to entice us.  Algorithms continuously troll the web for lucrative search terms that are hot at the time.  The popular sites you follow then create, listicles, quizzes, and “articles” based on those search terms, cap them off with a clickbait-y title, and hit “publish.”  Whether the information is important, helpful, or accurate is irrelevant.  What matters is speed and quantity.  You can think of it as a digital sweatshop.

So there you have it – that’s how your media sausage is made.  How you choose to interpret this information is up to you.  This is the culture in which I was brought up, and the only solution seems to be developing awareness to navigate around the bullshit and stop funding corrupt media with clicks.  I have seen too many promising writers and thinkers go into journalism, only to be consumed by the slowly rotting system of pageview-centric garbage that is online media.

What’s left is a generation that can’t think independently or distinguish truth from opinion.  Maybe you think you’re not affected by the system. I hope this is true, though it probably isn’t.

The Cheetos of the Internet will always be out there – you can’t avoid them.  But it’s never too late to go on a diet.

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Dominic Vaiana studies writing and media strategy at Xavier University.  He founded a campus newspaper and later went on to advise, ghostwrite, and edit for colleagues and startups.  His biweekly newsletter with his personal articles, essays, interviews, and book recommendations can be found here. For questions or comments, email dominicvaiana@gmail.com.