Your mind is completely overwhelmed.
One influencer tells you to follow this fad diet. Another guy in your Instagram feed tells you the exact opposite. One dating coach tells you to optimize your Hinge profile. Another tells you that dating apps are a scam and you should build your social circle instead. Alex Hormozi says you need to quit your job if you're serious about being an entrepreneur. Sahil Bloom says you should focus on putting in 10x the effort at your day job first.
Whose advice are you supposed to follow?
Tough choices, so maybe it's best to sit down with ChatGPT and a Google Doc for a few hours to weigh the pros/cons of each option, simulate all the possible outcomes of each action, and then you can come up with an optimal plan that—
No. Stop that bullshit.
Retardmaxxing has entered the lobby. And the core tenet of retardmaxxing is this:
Do the thing. Or don't do the thing.
That's it. Instead of ruminating, trying to come up with the perfect routine, the perfect plan, or the perfect mental model, you just decide to take action or not—no overthinking.
I only started implementing retardmaxxing into my life a few weeks ago. Though I've barely scratched the tip of the iceberg, I'm seeing massive benefits already. Less anxiety. More confidence. More positive change.
Here's how you can do the same.
Stop remembering everything
Are you the type of person who remembers everything?
Breakups with exes, trauma from childhood, betrayals from friends—whatever it may be—do you remember every little detail of those negative life experiences?
If so, you're putting yourself through unnecessary anxiety.
The issue with memories is that they're stories.
Stories have two components to them:
- The details
- The lessons
The details are what make stories emotionally charged, often negatively. The lessons are what we take away from them. The insights, learnings, and new behaviors that we extract from the tale that we just heard.
The lessons are the useful part. The details are emotional baggage that weigh you down.
And it's difficult (but not impossible) to divorce the two.
One of the best ways to separate them? Pride yourself on having poor memory.
Think about it. When's the last time you heard someone brag about their bad memory? I'd venture to guess that the answer is "never."
Instead, "smart" people pride themselves on remembering every little detail. This is the year that so-and-so broke up with her ex. These are all the ports we went on during that Bahamas cruise. This is what I did that caused Mom to take away my Game Boy that one time.
What use is that? It's not like God is going to quiz you on all these random facts before He lets you into heaven.
All a good memory gets you is a bunch of trauma you can't drop.
Forget the mistake. Remember the lesson.
Move your body when you're unconfident
I cold approached a girl in the gym the other day.
And I can assure you that I wouldn't have done it if I gave myself a chance to think. Because once you start thinking about whether you should approach the person or not, you've already lost.
One doubtful thought leads to another, and before you know it, you've come up with ten different reasons for why you shouldn't do it. All of which are complete guesses (how can you be sure that because she's looking at her phone, that means she doesn't want to be bothered?).
I can still remember what I said to myself in my head before I walked up to her:
"I'm so retarded. Let's go."
And then I started walking over. Before I gave my mind a chance to overthink, I put myself in front of her—physically.
And now she's saying "hi" or "how can I help you" and there's nothing for me to do but to spit some game.
And the world didn't end! We had a great conversation and introduced ourselves, and that was that.
Sometimes, you need to move before you think.
Master the retard feedback loop
Retardmaxxing is not a philosophy about never thinking.
It's about selective thinking. In the case of cold approaching a girl in the gym (a fairly safe scenario), you shouldn't overthink it. Just do it.
But when it comes to, say, skiing down a double black diamond even though there's a green trail you can take instead and you've only been skiing for eight months—yeah, you should do a bit of thinking.
But those are extreme examples. Is there a general framework to be followed for when to retardmaxx in more mundane contexts? When to turn your brain off and just execute?
Yep. And I call it the retard feedback loop.
Here's how it works:
- Turn your brain off (retardmaxx)
- Take action
- Turn your brain on
- Assess what results taking action from step #2 got you; think insofar that you generate another insight you can take action on
- Repeat
The critical thing being in step #4 when you actually think, you shouldn't think so much that it becomes overthinking.
Instead, you want to think to the point that you have an action item. Some little experiment you can do and then analyze the results of later.
If you've already got that action item and you're still trying to simulate different outcomes or weigh pros/cons, you're overthinking it.
Every second spent thinking past that point is energy wasted on theory, not action.
And action is the only thing that can change your life.
Happy retardmaxxing, friends.