Ari Paul

Stay hungry. Stay humble. Stay ambitious. Stay curious. Be a student, always.

@awertheim All the above. In my case at least, they all seem somewhat connected. Not necessarily true for you.

@AriDavidPaul I'm extremely similar on all counts sans the nicotine and THC. I don't have depression but get highly anxious over seemingly irrational things. Are the depression and anxiety the things you're trying to improve or are you trying to solve a different issue, like the burnout?

Sharing my mental and physical health journey and learnings on neurodivergence. My guess is this applies to many of you. 15 months ago I exited BlockTower and was beyond burnt out. I was anxious, depressed, and felt like I had the body and mind of a 70 year old. I spent the next year on the “basics.” Sleep, exercise, nutrition, minimizing screen time, connecting with close friends and family. That helped a lot, but I still struggled with a couple bad habits and felt far from being capable of tackling anything ambitious. The neurodivergence angle - a few years ago, I got assessed for autism and ADHD but definitively and clearly had neither (at least according to current tests, literature, and psychiatrists.) In the last month I connected with a couple new doctors including a brilliant neuroscientist that opened my eyes to various patterns. Almost all the literature and studies on these topics come from “average people.” High functioning people are largely absent from the literature because we don’t volunteer for medical studies and often “cope” so well that we go undiagnosed. I’m fairly certain now that I have some form of ADHD (and am somewhere lightly on the autism spectrum), very different from anything I’ve ever read about. My own pattern - hopping from rabbit hole to rabbit hole, a constantly working mind that’s only silenced by intense flow state like rock climbing, procrastination as my biggest (and almost sole) source of anxiety, and gravitating towards nicotine and THC with no desire for any other substances. Apparently this is an archetype for high functioning ADHD, and reflects a weak dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex that controls “executive function” in the brain. Buddhist style meditation and any type of arduous deep focus strengthens this part of the brain. Doom scrolling and staring at financial charts all day weakens it. I’m exploring a range of remediations - technological, nutritional, psychological, and already seeing benefits. Closer to the start of this journey than the end. Will share more soon with things that worked for me.

As a very rough historical pattern, markets have typically topped about 6 months after these kinds of mass exits. Two factors that are likely to contribute to a top, whenever that occurs, are rising interest rates and Dems heading for midterm election wins (amidst their anti-AI rhetoric.)

@DonahueRogers @khalidi79397 No, check out the dozens of examples in the tweet thread you’re replying to. The Arabs in the region were usually referred to (in the Arab world) by their nationality - Jordanian, Egyptian, etc.

@khalidi79397 Until 1948, "Palestinian" overwhelmingly meant people who lived in Palestine Jews were in a minority until the Nakba

Until 1948, "Palestinian" overwhelmingly meant Jewish. The Palestine Post (1932): Jewish newspaper, renamed the Jerusalem Post after Israel was founded. The Palestine Symphony Orchestra (1936): built by Bronislaw Huberman to rescue Jewish musicians from Europe. The Palestine Electric Company (Pinhas Rutenberg, 1923): Jewish. The Anglo-Palestine Bank: became Bank Leumi. Keren Hayesod was the "Palestine Foundation Fund." The Jewish Agency's official name was the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Jews carried "Palestinian" passports under the Mandate and used the term as a self-identifier. Arab leaders, meanwhile, rejected it. February 1919: the First Palestinian Arab Congress in Jerusalem declared Palestine "part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time." The slogan was Suriyya al-Janubiyya - Southern Syria. 1937: Auni Abd al-Hadi, founder of the Istiqlal Party, told the Peel Commission: "There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented. Our country was for centuries part of Syria." 1946: Princeton's Philip Hitti, the most prominent Arab-American historian of his generation, told the Anglo-American Committee: "There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not." The PLO wasn't founded until 1964. And even its founding charter explicitly disclaimed sovereignty over the West Bank (Jordanian) and Gaza (Egyptian). A distinct Palestinian national identity, defined against Israel rather than as part of pan-Arabism or Greater Syria, is largely a post-1967 phenomenon. PLO Executive Committee member Zuheir Mohsen put it bluntly in Trouw, March 1977: "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel for our Arab unity. Today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese." None of this means the millions who identify as Palestinian today aren't sincere. Identities get constructed, reinforced, become real. That's how nationalism works everywhere. But the sequence matters. A Jewish national identity tied to this land is millennia old. The Arab "Palestinian" identity, as something distinct from Syrian or pan-Arab, is a 20th-century construction. And for its first decades, the people we now call Palestinians actively rejected the label.

Doesn’t that thesis require that Gazan leadership and Gazans were part of the genocidal plan? Why else torture kidnapped toddlers in those places? Why use hospitals and mosques as military centers otherwise? Why launch an openly genocidal war via 300+ miles of tunnel networks that you as you’ve highlighted have been largely obliterated?

I finished @weizman_eyal's Ungrounding last night and it has left me overwhelmed & speechless. I'll have a lot more to say about it but suffice it to say for now that, while some extraordinary books have been written about Gaza, this one for me is the most important. Here's why:

Kind of. Jews are genetically prone to neuroticism since centuries of ethnic cleansing and massacres meant it was mostly the neurotic who survived. Same on October 7th. Most of those murdered were the most trusting and liberal Israelis who lived on the border and worked with and befriended Palestinians. They were massacred by their friends and neighbors in their homes or kidnapped and tortured.

@AriDavidPaul Zionism will do that to you my friend

They have, but it’s getting mingled in with all the other debunked hoaxes. Genocide, space lasers, mass famine, dog rape, Mossad pigeons, weather control, khameini as Mossad, Isis as Mossad, Mossad write the Quran… The activists were already caught lying about their injuries miraculously fully recovering an hour after their hospital photo op. How dumb do you have to be to keep falling for it?

Israeli soldiers raped flotilla hostages. Why won’t the news report on it? Because jews control the media.

@bitcoinbella_ Did it a good deal in my 20s and enjoyed it. Might try to get back into it, good idea.

@AriDavidPaul You may like hot yoga

Agreed, but I literally can’t do that yet. Overcoming procrastination, navigating interpersonal conflict are so demanding in me at the moment, that I’d burn out within months of trying something ambitious. Need to build a stronger foundation to then get back to building with energy and confidence.

@AriDavidPaul You are a builder! Its your inner self reminding you our time here is limited. Time to start building your passion/legacy project Ari!

@mradjames Rock climbing (which involves a lot of that) has been amazing for me. I also do a little slack lining and juggling.

Vulnerability is a sign of strength Ari. Appreciate you sharing. One of the best ways to deal with ADHD is by rebalancing the cerebellum, ironically by practicing exercises that improve balance. I learnt this from this study a few years ago - Open assessment of the therapeutic and rate-dependent effects of brain balance center® and interactive metronome® exercises on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - PubMed

I’m not trying to assert any objective truth. Here’s a different framing: 15 years ago I could do almost anything I wanted (professional or recreational) with little stress. I could derive joy from something with ups and downs. A year ago, unless something was “perfect”, it would give me meaningful anxiety and I struggled with motivation to do almost anything. My quality of life was far lower. Whatever changed in my brain or body, I want to understand how to change it back, or get close to a similar mode of living.

@AriDavidPaul ADHD is a myth; it's not a disorder. There's no mind or psyche. I reject the "ADHD" label entirely and consider such psychological conditions to be fabricated medical frameworks & argue that the biological body functions perfectly naturally via distraction and inattention . 1/3

@zxdcvcxlzxcvcx I don’t have anything to recommend, but a bunch of people replied to my tweet with recs that I’ll be checking out.

@AriDavidPaul Thank you for sharing! Any recomendations on literature, podcast etc?

My last year has been exactly that. No external stressors, lots of amazing adventures and connecting with people I care about. Yet my anxiety levels never drop below 3 out of 10. Procrastination remains a huge source of anxiety, because even simple fun things require some tiny bit of “work.” And I really enjoy tackling hard problems and building things, but get stressed over minor routine administrative tasks necessary to do that.

@AriDavidPaul if i'm allowed to say your new found diagnose (adhd subtype/autism) is intellektual spielerei (read old books and hit the gym is similar spielerei for those who don't have to work for a living) do what you want and like in life

@Jvnior Stop killing Palestinian children @jvnior

How many more of our kids need to die in order to satisfy the cravings and desires of israel? Look at these precious babies. They’re gone.

@Sarahjdublin Indeed. Friendly reminder that “Palestinian” referred mostly to Jews until 1950. “Free Palestine” was a Jewish rallying cry of the 1920s.

The more Palestinian history you read the more pro Palestinian you become

Because even with video proof, the NYT blamed Israel for Hamas murders and hospital bombing. As quickly as your hoaxes are debunked, you just move on to the next one. Even with full access to the child, you blamed Israel for child starvation while they were treating a child with a genetic wasting disease. You don’t get to demand that Israel “turn out its pockets” every day with a new hoax. Why not investigate Euro-med’s financing of terrorism and disinformation campaigns to promote genocide?

I appreciate the intense interest in my column. For skeptics, why not agree on Red Cross and lawyer visits for the 9,000 Palestinian "security" prisoners? If you think these abuse allegations are false, such monitoring visits would be protective. So why not?

@lightwordman @NihiloX Had never even heard the term “kazarian.” Just went on a little Google rabbit hole.

@AriDavidPaul @NihiloX Yeah and their are those who say the Israeli Jews occupying Israel are kazarians! I don’t believe any of the history the people who run this planet bestow us with! Beliefs are ignorance disguising itself as knowledge!

Israel's war in Gaza is absolutely a genocide. Israelis have been the aggressor for nearly a century.

It was never the Israelis rejecting Palestinian statehood. Since Arab league’s rejection in 1947, it’s always been the Islamists rejecting Palestinian statehood. Israel pushed for it hard 3 times. Arab league kept refusing, demanding Israel’s annihilation as a condition of Palestinian statehood. Plenty of quotes in videos from their leaders each decade, including Arafat when he wasn’t playing the western media.

@BarakRavid He is out of touch with reality. Real peace requires the recognition of a Palestinian state. Israel must show serious commitment and make a viable offer. The Arab position is clear.

The leaders, especially those of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan who don't have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, were surprised by Trump's request. "There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there," one of the U.S. officials said

@rahulajain @aapayes Sure. Is your argument the “terrorists” are expected to let themselves be murdered? If so, why the misleading propaganda hiding the heroic resistance?

@AriDavidPaul @aapayes Murder..you mean resisting the terorists?

Los terroristas sionistas israelíes de las FDI matan a un niño palestino de 14 años. Necesitamos que este video se vuelva viral. Compártelo. #CIJ_ICJ 🇵🇸🌎⚖️

Less to soothe in this case, more to justify and rationalize. Jordan spoke quite openly about why they invented the term “Palestinian” in reference to Arab inhabitants of the region in the 50s as an international law play. “Nakba” referred to the humiliation of the Arab league’s failed genocide in 1948 for a decade until it was first spun to have anything to do with the people we now call Palestinians.

@AriDavidPaul @NihiloX We tell ourselves stories to sooth our reality!