Reality Laughs

I’m talking about Tim Grover’s Relentless. I finished it last night. Purchased because two people recommended it, I had to see for myself what they saw in it.

The message seems to be:

• Everyone (not just a few people) have what he calls the dark side. This is the inner you. This is the source you need to tap into, the place you need to be. It is the place of instinct. It is the place of true emotion.
• Only a very few people, however, live in their dark side. He doesn’t give numbers but maybe the usual 90/9/1 split is a start.
• The prodigious achievements of the few (he calls them Cleaners) come from a prodigious work ethic.
• Extreme hard work is necessary, but not sufficient. Willingness to work extremely hard, in fact, is the physical filter that separates the Cleaners from everyone else. They seek, relish the difficult path.
• There is a mental condition or state that the Cleaners live in, fueled by their dark side. The ability to maintain this physical state is the mental filter that separates the Cleaners from everyone else. And while in theory everyone can work physically hard, at least for a while, only a few can maintain this connection to their dark side over years and decades.

Relentless is an exhortation. That’s not a bad thing.

I will take a second read now to see what is there besides the exhortation. At 1/3 of the way through the book, I was electrified. By the end of the book I was puzzled.

Is every person capable of achieving Cleaner-level results? I think not. I think he is calling into action those who are Cleaners or incipient Cleaners. The others, he dismisses as not with his time. (I am more than fine with that unwillingness to waste time on doomed ventures.) “You, too, can achieve greatness.” “Nah, I’m going to watch Law & Order reruns again.”

How does someone who aspires to great achievement tap into and stay in his personal dark side? This is a topic the author explicitly disavows.

Is staying in the dark side self-destructive and destructive of others? Yes, it can be, says the author. This is not a good thing, given my history with a few self-detonations in it. Life is good now. Don’t fuck it up with ego-driven quests.

Overall, I wonder whether this book is modern mental cotton candy or whether it contains truth. Compared to another modern author (Taleb) Relentless is trivial.

But let’s see if I can pull out some important truths with a second read. I don’t need action steps. The answers to those questions (“What do I do next?”) come from within, and then from helpful people around you.

I want to know whether the author is just an exceptional person telling me how to pick the numbers he used the win the lottery. I want to know if Tim Grover is saying wet roads cause rain.

There is so much within me that resonates with his description of the Cleaner. I identify. That’s why it is important to reread this book. Either he is showing a portal to another world, or he has written a work that’s like a magazine quiz (“Do you have ADHD?” for instance) that everyone is guaranteed to get a score of 7/10? Basically astrology.

Actually I am wrong about practical guidelines. The book indeed has clues on exactly what you have to do in order to dominate. Example: Michael Jordan having an extremely regimented life from Labor Day onward, cutting out everything except the foundational work.

Edit: I am starting my second reading and making notes as I go along. Here are the related posts. The answer to the question (vapid or valuable?) will reveal itself as I go.

• Preface. “A Note from Tim Grover.”
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