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Congratulations to the following people who made it onto the leaderboard this week: @Grahame Cossum 🚀 – 1,854 points @Travis Turner 👊 – 1,284 points @Elizabeth Ingalsbe 👊 – 742 points @Troy Swezey 👊 – 568 points @Nicholas Kelly 👊 – 532 points @Mike Guerry 👊 – 524 points @Victor Floden 👊 – 523 points @Emma Simpson 👊 – 470 points @Sergil Cave 👊 – 433 points @Matt Levick 👊 – 428 points Some people talk about changing their life. Some people prove it. This leaderboard shows who’s actually putting the work in. New week. Reset. Go again.

A lot of suffering starts from one bad assumption: that other people think like you. That they have empathy like you. That they have morals like you. That they care the way you care. A lot of the time, they don’t. And the longer you keep expecting decency from people who have repeatedly shown you they don’t operate that way, the more you screw yourself over. That’s the real point. Most people are more selfish, colder, more self-absorbed, and less self-aware than you want to believe. Not all people, but enough of them to do serious damage if you stay naive. A lot of us were raised on the idea that people are basically good, that love fixes everything, that forgiveness always works, that everyone can be reasoned with. Sounds nice. But where has that mindset actually got most people? Usually betrayed. Used. Heartbroken. Drained. The biggest mistake is trying to treat everyone with the same depth, empathy, and understanding that you would want from them. That works with the right people. With the wrong people, it just makes you easier to manipulate. Some people don’t learn, don’t reflect, don’t take responsibility, and don’t care how their behaviour affects others. You keep explaining, they keep repeating. You keep giving chances, they keep doing the same thing. At some point, the answer is not more understanding. It’s acceptance. Accept that some people are selfish. Accept that some people will disappoint you. Accept that some people are never going to meet you where you are. And once you accept that, you stop wasting energy trying to get emotional depth out of emotionally shallow people. That’s where peace starts. Not in changing them. In seeing them clearly. Then detaching.

We are off to the countryside!

If you’ve ever wondered why you seem to trigger people, there’s usually a simple reason. You’re honest. You’re direct. You don’t play games. And you don’t buy into people’s nonsense. That alone is enough to upset a lot of people. Many people are comfortable around “yes” people — the ones who agree with everything, never question anything, and never challenge bad behaviour. Those relationships are easy because nobody is being held accountable. But when someone comes along who refuses to play along, things change. Suddenly the lies don’t work. The manipulation doesn’t work. The excuses don’t work. And that makes people uncomfortable. A lot of people who develop this kind of honesty usually didn’t start that way. Most of them tried the opposite first. They tried being overly nice, keeping the peace, putting everyone else first, avoiding conflict. But eventually life teaches them a hard lesson. Being passive doesn’t protect you. It just makes you easier to take advantage of. After enough betrayal, disappointment, or loss, people reach a point where their tolerance for nonsense drops to zero. They stop pretending. They stop apologizing for being clear about what they will and won’t accept. And when that happens, some people won’t like it. Not because you’re cruel or arrogant, but because they can no longer control the situation. You don’t have to argue with those people or prove anything to them. The most effective response is much simpler: stay calm, set your boundaries, and keep living your life the way you choose. Ironically, when people react strongly to that, it often means you’re doing something right.