Hmm... why are you here?

If it's because of a bug, please let me know! [email protected]

So you want to get better.

You want to be more productive. More consistent. Less distracted.

You've read the books, watched the videos.

You're all-in for slow, quiet, incremental, 1%-better-each-day progress.

That’s good. That’s great actually… honestly rare to find people willing to put in that kind of work.

But here’s the thing.

Here's the reason why you keep slipping up. Here's the reason why you always seem to take 1, maybe 2 steps forward... but then 87 steps back.

And it's not what you think. It's not because you're fundamentally broken or lazy or lacking in self-control.

No. It's because you've never made it crystal clear exactly what you're after with this whole self-improvement thing.

What are the stakes.What there is to gain. What there is to lose.The real price of progress and success.

Without that sort of clarity, you've had nothing concrete to orient your decisions. Nothing to make it easy and automatic to say “NO!… I don’t want that basic crap. I want this instead".

So here it is. Here's what you've been missing.

The Two Paths

In life there are two paths you can take. You can take the White-On-Black (WOB) path or the Black-On-White (BOW) path.

The WOB Path features an abundance of white dots... little gumdrop moments of pleasure and distraction from the worries and stresses of life.

And who wouldn’t want that? It’s what we choose by default.

But the backdrop is black. It’s dark and dismal. Often miserable.

When you’re on the WOB path, and when you’re not urgently inserting food in your face or refreshing Reddit... you'll notice that background refrigerator hum of unease.

Or else it's regret, longing, sadness, or just... something else.

That's because there's no actual substance to gain there.

The White-On-Black path leads to a life of stagnation and painful mediocrity—a reverse nightmare that begins only when you snap awake from your latest doomscroll.

And yet… it’s not so bad.

'Cause you can always relieve the misery with another dose of instant pleasure.

You could always find a way to escape.

Now, Black-On-White path is, well... it's the opposite.

It’s got that tranquil mental backdrop we all seek.

A clear and content headspace. A calm and peaceful temperament.

On the BOW Path, the destination is not having this nor is it getting that. It’s not even succeeding or enjoying the many fruits of your labor—although that may very well be an eventual result.

It’s simply the blissful absence of wanting.Of being okay with what is in the here and now.

Of just being... happy.

There are, however, unavoidable black dots scattered along the HD Path.

This is discomfort.

If you choose to take the BOW path—if you decide to make that the focus of your self-improvement efforts—you have to learn to expect pointed moments, or dots, of discomfort.

But the good thing is—and this is why the Yin and Yang symbol was modified: the contrast softens over time. The discomfort will fade.

As you grow into the habit of letting it arrive, or even seeking it out, and observing it mindfully... it runs its course. It passes.

And with enough time and repetition, you get used to discomfort.It stops being such a big deal.

Making The Decision

Look. We all have background pain in our lives. From regrets about past mistakes, to anxieties about change and inevitable loss.This, we might say, is the grim and inextricable part of the human condition.

Then, there’s what we might call “optional” discomforts: the hard stuff you do that inches you towards a better life.

Showing up to therapy... pushing yourself when exercising... stepping out of your comfort zone... making yourself vulnerable to rejection...

As kids, we learned to avoid the optional kind... and relieve the mandatory kind through vices. The latter have become our habits.

So choosing the Black-On-White path is not easy.It's going to take some work. It's going to take time for any benefit to show. It's going to be, well... uncomfortable.

The point, though, is that you can’t have both white components of the symbol while avoiding everything black.You can’t have endless background happiness and peace of mind, free of all discomfort, plus limitless dots of pleasure.

That’s a fantasy.It’s also what you've been chasing ever since you started on your self-improvement journey. It's the reason you keep stalling out.

Because you can’t keep pushing the buttons of pleasure, gratification, and escape... while simultaneously expecting yourself to work hard and build better habits. You just can’t. Not when you’re depressed, unmotivated, and lethargic—when nothing has the chance to stick.

So at some point, you really do have to make a choice.

You can either continue on the White-On-Black Path, with its moments of pleasure against a backdrop of chronic misery…

Or you can commit to the Black-On-White path, with its moments of discomfort against a backdrop of happiness.

And there’s nothing wrong with choosing the first—with choosing easy pleasures over subtle happiness. With accepting some misery if it means avoiding discomfort.

In fact, given how abundant and effortlessly gratifying today’s vices have become... most people do just that.

But I know that's not you.I also know that I don't need to tell you that, committing to the Black-On-White happiness path, is a thousand times better than the alternative.

It won’t feel like it at first. But it is.

For starters, you’ll be directly targeting the root cause of your constant lack of drive and motivation (I go deeper on this in the free part of my Tapbook).

But beyond that, well... I just can't overstate how much better real, enduring happiness is compared to fleeting artificial pleasure.

How moments of discomfort pale in comparison to the misery and hangovers caused by vices.

How a life of meaning and purpose and contribution is infinitely better than a life of basic pleasures—of living solely for me, myself, and I, trapped on a hamster wheel, endlessly gratifying base desires.

How you're not even sacrificing pleasure and reward... how there will still be plenty of it, but it'll be the real kind. The earned kind. Not the hollow, vicarious, empty-calorie variety doled out by vices.

The Black-White-Path is just... it's just a better life.And I sincerely hope you choose it.- Simon D.

P.S. Of course, making the choice is step 1. Steps 2 through 999 are about living that choice—navigating life guided by it, sticking with it over the long term. And that's not easy.What is easy is slipping back into old ways. Old habits. Then regretting it all and beating yourself up afterward.

That's what my book is really about. What to do after you decide to pursue the Black-On-White path—after you decide to take on a Tech Sober identity, as I've come to call it.It's about how to live that choice day after day. How to turn a decision into a lived reality.