how to be an alchemist

you need it to have a secret, not a sinister secret, not like a body in the chest freezer kind of secret, just a little secret just for yourself. You should always be up to some sort of mischief that nobody but you knows about. Secret little project running in the background of your ordinary day, something that'll make you just a little bit mysterious, something that you just have to get home to attend to. That'll give you a little edge. It'll let people sense that you know something that they don't because you do. You have to make stuff, okay? Constantly, badly. The more experimental you can be, the better. Nobody you've heard of, nobody you admire just made one incredible thing. They have made thousands of shit things and finally one incredible thing that you heard about. Make stuff, okay? As Jabhat Ibn Hayin puts it, there is no mastery without experimentation. Have a cause, bigger than yourself, smaller than God, something ideally like a local franchise of God's work that you can actually handle, something that you can get to before you die. People without a cause just become so solipsistic, feeding themselves with themselves, that they start to look like this. Keep a nemesis, have an enemy, forget the propaganda of the wellness gurus, okay? You need somewhere to hang your shadow, a pig, a person. Ideally, someone modestly successful, similar to you, but slightly better. Somebody who's a little bit ahead of you, somebody who's every tiny success feels like a personal attack on you. Do not get rid of them, do not heal them away, do not heal away the anger, okay? Use it, build with it. Your enemy is doing a lot of unpaid labor for you, okay? Appreciate them silently and then plot your revenge. Talk to your materials, talk to your surroundings, out loud, talk to the dough that you're making, talk to your car, talk to your manuscript. Part of you that decides things, your brain, this one, it is mute, but it is literally the nosiest, okay? It is always eavesdropping. It interprets the tea that it eavesdrops as commandments. So, address your world as if it has a will and watch it develop one. If you want more tips on how to become an alchemist, then check out the full list on Substac, come join us in this year's alchemy program. Bye-bye.