ethangwang.

I would like to argue that the movie goers, tv series bingers, and youtube video watchers, just might be some of the most wise, emotionally intelligent, and experienced humans in the world.

Because when we think about AI, the more data they consume, the better they become. And just like AI, these couch potato bums have consumed a lot of data, and therefore, have a lot more years of experience and perspectives to work off of when making decisions.

Every movie, every episode, every video tells a story. Each story, filled with the lessons and learnings from other human lives.

And while they have not created a warfaring, death star empire to take over the galaxy(Darth Vader) or defended billion dollar drug overlords as a morally compromised lawyer (Saul Goodman),

Everyone who has watched these works of art now knows just a little bit more about love, the pursuit of money, and our humanity in a way you’d otherwise would have to live years of life to experience.

"Consuming Human Data" has essentially allowed them to learn a thousand lives worth of lessons, without having to live a thousand lives worth of mistakes.

And if you look at history, it’s exactly what all the greats did. Study the problem so they can work smarter and not harder.

Bill Gates studied the greats for 9 months to learn about what kind of mindset actually succeeds. Elon Musk devoured entire shelves of physics and rocketry to exploit decades of expensive bureaucracy inside the world of engineering. Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett read newspapers and biographies and look at them now… some of the wealthiest people who will ever get to live.

So maybe, just maybe, the humans who watch movies and tv series and youtube videos, they just might be a lot more wise than we’d like to think.

So consume data, watch good movies, and maybe read a good book, because this contrarian truth is the reason why some of the most successful, fulfilled, and happy people alive were able to approach life with a secret perspective others die trying to figure out.

Consume the right content and you’ll get to learn while being entertained.

(Doomscrolling is by far the worst option)
(Message me if you want recs :))

~ ethangwang