How to heal your mind from brain rot

When I was 22 years old, I spent the

majority of my free time distracting

myself. And at 24 years old, I published

my first collection of short stories,

which was a product of reading and

writing every single day. And what I

want to talk about with you today is how

to heal your brain from brain rot. Um,

we live in a shortterm gratification

culture, right? We live online where we

are overwhelmed all the time with

information, with noise, with

meaningless content that doesn't nourish

us. It doesn't nourish our souls and it

doesn't uh give us any deeper sense of

humanity. What we are left with is uh a

feeling of overwhelm, a feeling of

anxiety, a feeling of directionlessness

uh and and not having any motivation to

do the meaningful difficult things that

make human life worthwhile like create

art, like uh you know move our bodies,

like meet new people. Um part of our job

as modern humans is figuring this out

and learning to build into our own lives

practices that make us feel alive. Um,

and today we're talking specifically

about reading and writing. These two

practices will make you feel more alive.

They will start to heal your brain from

uh all of the distraction. It'll teach

you to start to pay attention again. And

just by having these little micro

habits, like you'll you'll learn to pay

attention to your own life. You'll be

able to look back at the end of a day, a

week, a month, and remember what

happened to you because you've been

tuned in to the flow of your experience.

How cool would that be? How cool would

it be to, you know, lay in bed at the

end of a day and feel like, oh, I feel

like I lived today. You know, I feel

like I'm aware of what today was within

the narrative of my existence. Okay. Um,

here's how it starts. You need to get a

journal and a pen. I would recommend you

do this like right now as you're

watching this video. It doesn't have to

be anything crazy. Get a piece of paper

and a pen and just write down ideas that

come to you um as we talk through this

together, you and me. Um, it doesn't

need to be anything concrete or

organized. Just as you have thoughts,

write them down. You'll realize that

this is the base of what we're talking

about in terms of writing. It's like

it's it's just capturing the little

ideas that come to your brain without

judgment, without trying to make it

something grand. Just getting in the

practice of noticing a thought you have

and then giving words to it. That is the

base practice of what we're talking

about here. Um [sighs]

so do that right now. And then um moving

forward for the next week and the next

month, I want you to sit down for 5

minutes when you wake up in the morning

and write down how you're feeling. I

want you to write down uh a single

moment from the day before that stuck

with you or and or you can do all of

this. You can do one one of these

things. Think about what lies ahead of

you on the day you're writing. You know

what? What do I have to do today? What

would make today a win? What do I want

to maybe avoid today? What's one thing

that I don't want to do? What's a person

who's a person I'm excited to see?

what's one just one one tiny little

thing you can track. Um at the end of

the day I want you to sit down for 5

minutes and write. Now if you feel

yourself compelled to do more then do

that. And over time you will start to

crave this practice of putting pen to

paper. Uh I I would highly recommend

that it's physical pen to paper. You can

do it on a keyboard if that's easier for

you. But I recommend the physical human

tactile practice of writing by hand. Um

that's what the writing practice starts

as. And I want you to do this before you

look at your phone. I want you to do

this before you do uh take in any

digital information. I want you to do it

before you expose yourself to any kind

of algorithm that knows you better than

you do. Right? Recognize that a good

chunk of your media diet is coming from

an algorithm that is designed to addict

you. It is designed to keep you trapped

on an app. Uh because then because that

reduces you to uh it is designed to keep

you online because that's how the big

tech companies make money is like by

reducing you to advertising dollars. So

before you expose yourself to that, take

ownership of your own consciousness by

writing a little bit of what's in there.

Um, and over time it'll it'll become

more and you'll start to enjoy that. Um,

now I want to talk about the reading. So

it's time to become more intentional

about what you're consuming. U, I want

you to think about how much of the

information that's coming in is

something you chose to consume and how

much of it is recommended for is just

like on your feed. You ran into it

randomly. You might have come across

this video randomly. That's interesting.

Um,

reading books is supposed to be fun. Uh,

it it is fun when you get into it. Um,

it is a way for you to feel connected to

other humans who you've never met. It's

a way to feel less alone in the world.

It's a way to literally expand your um,

capacity for imagination. So, if you

think about your human imagination as a

muscle, the same way you think of like a

bicep or another muscle on your physical

body, you can train that muscle by

putting it under stress or by using it,

by putting it to work. Um, and reading

and writing is a great way to do that.

Reading specifically, when you read

fiction, you expand your ability to

imagine things. What I'm going to

recommend that you start reading is not

self-help literature like Atomic Habits

or um How to Win Friends and Influence

People. Like nothing against those

books. I think those can have a place,

but to expand your imaginative capacity,

you got to read fiction. And I recommend

that you read short stories. Um so you

you know, I swear this is not just an ad

for my book, but you could start with

Dopamine Hole, which is the book I

published last year about some of the

it's a pretty neurotic book about the

anxiety. What is it about? I don't even

know how to talk about my own work. It's

difficult. You'll discover this as you

start making your own. Um, it's 13 short

stories about people crashing out in the

modern world. Um, uh, it is kind of

messy. I I looking back on it, I I think

I can do better, which is why I'm

already working on the next one. I show

up to write every single day. It's I I

treat it as my main craft. I I really

take it seriously and I enjoy it and it

has replaced consumption for me. I hope

that you can find a practice that does

something similar. Um, but this is just

the first like I don't know collection

of of work that I've published

officially. Um, and I'd recommend you

it's pretty easy to read if you're um

haven't been reading for a long time.

There's also there's an ebook you can

get as well. Um, links in bio

everywhere. Um, you could read

Pastoralia by George Saunders. He's been

a phenomenal mentor to me. Um, I highly

recommend his work. Um, yeah, you could

go with that as well. You could go

Cathedral Raymond Carver. Great option.

He's been a huge inspiration to me as

well. Um,

short stories, right? And when I say

short, I mean really short. Like you

could you read them in a single sitting

and sometimes no more than 15 minutes

and you leave feeling full, feeling like

you've had a meal. Do you realize how

different that is than when you're

scrolling on social media addictive

apps, right? Like you you never feel

satisfied leaving Instagram, leaving Tik

Tok, sometimes leaving YouTube. You

don't feel like you've consumed a

complete piece of media that is a full

story that leaves you feeling more

connected to humanity or or the people

around you. You don't have to read War

in Peace by Toltoy. You don't have to

read Dostofki. Start with a short story.

That's it. You can also, if you want,

you can just watch some of mine on

TikTok or YouTube. You can listen to

them. You can go on a walk. Nothing

wrong with audiobooks. The point here is

for you to consume longer deeper media

that is a complete story that expands

your imaginative capacity that maybe

inspires you to write and create your

own. Okay. You could also read heat

Joyce Carol Oats huge inspiration. Her

level of output over the many years of

her life is insane. She has written in

so many collections of short stories and

novels and she shows up to her craft

with like a an intensity that we could

all learn something from. Um so those

are just a few recommendations. Those

are collections that I enjoy and that

have educated me in my own process of

writing. Um, but I more than any one

recommendation, I want to encourage you

to find your way back to the fun of

this. That there's a real joy that comes

from consuming deeper media. Um, in the

same way that eating real food satisfies

your body in a way that fast food never

will, right? You could live on a diet of

McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts and just

like I don't know just fast food quick

hit quick spikes of sugar and you would

never feel satiated. You would never

feel full. You would always feel craving

the next meal while never while always

being fatigued. You'd be in a horrible

state. I think the same thing is true

for your mind. Consider what your

information diet consists of. Right? And

think about what you actually want to

consume. If you sit in a quiet room for

a little bit and listen to what your

mind is curious for. Um, you might find

yourself called towards deeper media,

you might want to pick up a book that

you enjoyed as a child, right?

Children's literature is a great option

for someone who's getting back into

reading because those stories have are

do such a beautiful job of condensing

human truths or or just like really

distilling them. A Wrinkle in Time. um

Alice in Wonderland, like do not look

down on children's literatures. It's

honestly it it is deeper and more rich

with values and and complex thinking

than a lot of the brain rot media you've

seen in the last month, you know. And

also, it's important, you know, I'm not

there's no judgment in this. Um I get

fired up because I think about how many

years of my own life have been sucked

away from just mindless scrolling. Um,

and I and it far I just know that you

deserve better and you are capable of

more. You're capable of thinking better

thoughts and thinking and and creating

more meaningful, more interesting

things. Um, this is a very serious thing

that we're talking about and if we don't

figure it out, we will continue to be

taken advantage of, exploited by

technology we were not prepared for. Um,

we have to take ownership here of

ourselves because no one is coming to

save us. Um, and I I don't mean to scare

you and I don't mean to cast any

judgment or harshness. Remember that

this process is going to be fun. It's

going to be deeply fulfilling as you

give yourself to it. Be patient with

yourself. Um don't try to force change.

Just ease your mind and body into it.

Settle into these this morning and

evening writing practice and a reading

practice that um

like calms you down. It makes you feel

good, right? Like you should feel at

peace. It it should be relaxing. Um,

when you're reading, you'll notice your

brain start to drift. And that's because

uh you haven't read a book in a while.

And that's okay. Don't judge yourself.

Don't give up. Notice when you're

trailing off and be like, "Oh, that's

interesting. Okay." And then come back

to the page. Read very slowly. It's not

about reading as many books as you can

in a year. Oh, I read 150 books in 2026.

Forget that.

What am I getting out of this sentence?

What am I getting out of this page? Am I

with the story right now? Am I with the

character? Am I going through this

experience as the author, as the creator

intended, right? Um,

those are some thoughts. Reading and

writing

is how you will save your brain. Writing

is like the mental workout. Reading is

like mental nutrition. Does that make

sense? You train the body. You use your

mind through writing. And then you feed

your mind through reading.

This is how you're going to save

yourself. Go very slow. Build in these

daily practices. Don't worry about it.

Do it just a little tiny bit. and then

stack the days. You will be amazed at

how you feel internally in a 100 days or

in in 7 days. Don't even worry about any

of that. Do it today and enjoy today.

It'll be worth it. Promise you. Um I

have a bunch of stories posted on all of

my social media platforms. And if you're

interested, you can get the book. Uh

first of many, I'm going to write as

many books as I can in my life. I am

going to take I'm going to do everything

I can to bring back literature because I

believe in it. I love this work. I love

writing and performing stories. I I

[ __ ] love it. And I am not going to

be nonchalant about that. I love it. And

I'm going to keep going. And I think

that this is a very real part of

contributing to humanity's growth. I

think that stories and connecting over

shared stories as human beings in a real

room with each other is going to heal us

from the isolation and the distraction

we've felt the last 10 years. I think

that we don't want to be distracted. I

don't think we want to be endlessly numb

and addicted to media that that doesn't

care about us. I think we want to tell

and listen to deep stories and feel our

brains and our imaginations stretch. We

want to stretch our capacity. We want to

be at we want to be at the edge of the

of the known world. We want to be going

into new terrain mentally and

physically. Um [laughter]

and I think that uh we're capable of it.

So ask yourself what it is you want and

um start doing it. That's what I've been

doing for the last few years. More

recently, in the last several months,

I've taken short stories seriously and

I've filled like 10 of these things cuz

I love the work and I'm obsessed and it

feels great and I want that for you,

too. Um, so let me know if you have

questions and I will make videos about

them. I want to keep doing this. I want

to keep educating in this way. It's very

fun for me. Um, I like being real on

camera and I want to keep that going.

So, let's let's make the internet what

it should be, you know? Let's let's be

human beings with each other and um make

some great art as well. Um no, like

nonchalant uh sincere sincerity. Let's

make some great art. Um and it's going

to be fun. Okay,

cheers.

Happy writing and reading. Love you.

Bye.