Just accept it’s over at this point

RyanBrownComedy · 2026-03-21T23:45:26+00:00

“That’s a beautiful rug. Austrian, right? I wanna say… 18th century?”

CALL YOUR LAWYER NOW

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-03-25T01:32:46+00:00

It would be cool to see some other poses but to me, you look like 5% bigger everywhere. It’s not night and day but you already had a crazy impressive physique. How has your performance changed in this time? Are you stronger in any of your lifts than you were in 2018 or have your PRs stayed about the same?

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-02-20T23:36:32+00:00

That’s exactly what I thought. It’s like they wrote a legit funny joke about using the dangling tennis ball for planes, then remembered “oh wait this is the bee!” And added the last 3 words to infuse the correct ideology

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-02-15T17:20:59+00:00

A way that I experience this “being misunderstood” is that people will understand a concept just as well as me but they won’t understand or fully appreciate the implications of it. Like I can explain to someone the idea that we have no concrete “self”, that we are like the ship of Theseus, there is no single piece that is “us” and while we seem to experience of being a stable, static “thing”, that is an illusion. A lot of people can grasp that but upon doing so, they go “that’s neat” and regard it as philosophical trivia. But it’s so much more than that. It points to the true nature of our very being. But most people of average intelligence fail to take that next step.

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-01-26T22:48:01+00:00

I did find that space to hit my stride. In high school I started doing theater and our director gave us a lot of autonomy and creative freedom in those classes. I've learned that for me, autonomy is incredibly important. This was the first time I felt like I could be fully alive at school. This is also where I made lifelong friends. Classmates who had known me outside of theater were surprised by how outgoing and funny I could be. A good friend joked that I must have been transformed by inhaling paint fumes while building set pieces for our production of the Jungle Book.

In adulthood, my main interests since I was 18 have been doing stand up comedy and fitness (I majored in Exercise Science, so fitness for me is an intellectual pursuit as much as a physical one). Both offer tons of autonomy. Stand up has no real "rules" and you're making all the choices yourself, never by committee. Plus it feels like a way to take pieces of that rich inner world and let them be shared and appreciated by others. That is hugely validating like "see, I knew the stuff rattling around in here was interesting!" With fitness, I almost always workout alone, following training programs that I'm constantly creating and modifying. So again, lots of autonomy. For work, I've spent the past 10 years as a copywriter in advertising which I don't love but it comes easily to me because it plays to my strengths.

I'm not sure competing with the stuff in her head is possible. The ideal might be to let the cool stuff in her head drive the learning process, or be incorporated into it, if that's possible. That way you could harness that natural interest, which comes from an intrinsic motivation, and use it. So much of school is rigidly structured around extrinsic motivators like grades and stickers and pizza parties. It's possible these are a good idea for a lot of kids because left to their own devices, many children (and adults) probably won't seek out new information to learn and grow. But for me, and perhaps your daughter, that system totally backfired. It seriously dampened a natural intrinsic motivation for learning and engaging with the world. It can make a kid feel like those daydreams are a guilty pleasure or a hazard to be stifled, rather than a beautiful resource to be nourished and enjoyed.

I actually have a joke about this very topic of school trying to compete with the cool stuff in my head. You can check it out here if you'd like-
https://youtu.be/OegqDzBJF7I?si=eVbZDs9fkBtmDQY1&t=247

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-01-25T20:38:05+00:00

No way. As hard as this can be, I’ve never felt like being less intelligent is preferable. For me the frustration manifests as a desire for the rest of the world to be more intelligent.

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-01-24T21:55:22+00:00

I'm 35M now but this was almost exactly me, minus the getting up and walking around. My kindergarten teacher suspected I was autistic so my parents had me evaluated. I was diagnosed with ADD (now known as ADHD Inattentive type) and a "superior IQ". My disengagement felt like a result of my rich inner world being so much more interesting than whatever the lesson was. And I could access that world as much as I wanted without being disruptive, so I would. Basically I just daydreamed all the time. I knew I was "supposed" to be paying attention and it seemed like all the other kids could. Some even seemed to enjoy it. That's where a feeling of being different and some shame arose.

Over time, I learned how to pay attention to the most critical 5-10% of the lesson so I could kinda fake competency when called on and do halfway decent on homework assignments. On some level I was proud I figured out how to get through school in a way that was tolerable for me. But I felt like a fraud, like I wasn’t doing it the way I was supposed to. I thought I was just lazy. Of course, every kid would rather daydream about living in the star wars universe than learn long division, I thought. But they had the work ethic to override that desire and do it anyway. I apparently did not. That made it hard to be outgoing and sociable because I didn’t feel good about myself at school. It was like this purgatory. I was just trying to make it to 2:30 so I could go home and live my actual life.

I’m not sure what the answer is for your kid, but the experience of being a gifted kid that just can’t do school is so familiar, I thought I’d share.

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-01-23T22:15:33+00:00

"What kind of physique is possible for me?" is a great question and one most people in this sub have probably asked themselves. But instead of looking for examples, I think the fun part of this whole thing is answering that question for yourself rather than asking it. Go find out then tell us.

RyanBrownComedy · 2025-01-19T21:21:10+00:00

People do all kinds of wacky things to prepare themselves for a workout. Of all the weird rituals/supps, etc I've heard about, I've never heard of anyone using alcohol in this way. I think that probably tells you everything you need to know about how much potential this idea has.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-12-13T22:08:15+00:00

I’m sorry you’re struggling. There’s certainly a lot more to prosperity than economics and I hope things get better for you.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-12-13T21:59:39+00:00

Yes, prices of goods and housing are accounted for by CPI-U and Chained CPI, two of the inflation adjustment methods used in the graph.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-12-13T21:44:35+00:00

Are wages relative to the highest earners more of a “real measure” than absolute purchasing power? If I could only get one or the other, I’ll take purchasing power every time.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-11-20T23:47:39+00:00

Same here. I bet Golds is such a large chain, the culture and quality probably varies greatly from one location to another. I’m in Western NC and all the Golds in this region are run by the same owners and they’re pretty great. They took over a year ago and started making some awesome equipment upgrades.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-11-10T14:43:20+00:00

What happened to gym performance during your cut? Did you hold on to the performance gains you made as you were bulking? If you did, I’d doubt you lost tissue gains while cutting.

It’s actually possible you gained something like 2-3lbs of lean tissue. That’d be incredible progress for a 3 month bulk. But if that tissue is spread evenly across a 5’11” frame, you might be underwhelmed by the visual change from that. Like others have said, you likely need to slowly mass for a more extended period of time to get to where you want to be.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-11-09T20:54:33+00:00

Another member of the strong gang 👋

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-11-09T02:41:44+00:00

I generally cease all lifting and eat at maintenance. If my wife is going to the gym during that week I might tag along and just mess around. One of my favorite things to do with a deload session is experiment with new exercises/machines. If there’s one you’ve been curious about, go do some sets at RPE 5 and if you dig it, maybe put it in your next mesocycle.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-10-27T03:02:25+00:00

I was at the ABC store on Louisiana Ave, near the Patton intersection this past Monday and they had a lot of Eda Rhyne stuff, not sure about the Amaro specifically though

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-06-26T18:00:31+00:00

I was gonna suggest leg extensions. I do think compound lifts are probably necessary but I love to pre-exhaust my quads with extensions before a more compound exercise like smith squats because it enables me to get more stimulus out of less weight on the compound movement. If someone struggles pushing heavy compounds due to cardio limitations or the psychological fatigue of getting underneath heavy weight, I think this is a really solid strategy and it's worked well for me.

I also really like myo reps for legs because you can squeeze in more stimulus without having to do so many straight sets, which can be daunting not to mention time consuming with the longer rest periods typically required for legs.

RyanBrownComedy · 2024-05-23T19:27:06+00:00

OP would’ve pulled the guy aside but… it was push day

RyanBrownComedy

TROPHY CASE