18 Comments
User's avatar
Amey's avatar

Listen to enough of these guys and they say largely the same generic advice your parents give. It's just cheap dopamine but brilliantly packaged.

Patrick Kho's avatar

Hahah you’re exactly right about this. But it’s too sad that society has brought us to a point where general advice from parents has to come from grifters in order for people to listen

Ethan Kho's avatar

Agreed 100%. Such an unfortunate reality

DJ Hà Trang's avatar

Would be great if you continue to explore the pilates and pickleball girl era that is sprouting like mushroom in Asia 🫠

Patrick Kho's avatar

That’s a fantastic idea

Manali D's avatar

Jia Tolentino unpacks the darker side of Pilates in her book "Trick Mirror"; tracing it back to Pilates genesis as a symbol of modern womanhood’s pressure to self-optimize. Sure, it’s all wrapped in the language of empowerment, but she points out how classes like Pilates or barre often just rebrand old expectations of beauty and obedience into something that feels like choice.

Amazing amazing book on so many other topics too.

Patrick Kho's avatar

The reality tv essay was fantastic and so was the religion one (even as a practicing Catholic)… a very formative work fs

I couldn’t get through “I thee dread” tho lol and I thought her use of haraway in that barre essay was a bit underwhelming

Manali D's avatar

the "I thee dread" chapter could be an email -_-

cici's avatar

how to be a post-manosphere? their life seems great...

Patrick Kho's avatar

Lmaooo same hahahah

Rafaela Kottou's avatar

"In living outside the Anglosphere, the post-manosphere man is living the manosphere’s dream, transcending its purgatory of dark basements at home in favor of endless summers and passive income abroad." What an awesome line, I love it

Patrick Kho's avatar

I've learned from the very best (you)

Jenn's avatar

Incredible

Patrick Kho's avatar

Thank you Jenn!!

Simone Oltolina's avatar

It's just motivational crap/slop content for the TikTok age.

These guys became successful by pretend-teaching people how to be successful. It's the only path to success they actually know but, funnily enough, it's not the one they are teaching.

I understand why you are caught up with the sociology angle but, really, it would be more interesting to analyse these shills as an evolution of the "motivational industry", which used to be book/tv/event based.

Jai Howitt's avatar

prepared to be misunderstood by most :)

Gezani Artis's avatar

Great read. Feels like marginal progress — better to romanticize an “all sunshine eternal happiness” lifestyle over the “shut out the world and lock in alone” alternative.

John Pucay's avatar

I wish I had their invisible safety nets. Then I can also spend most of my entrepreneur days basking in the sun while I pay pennies to a bunch of third worlders to do most of my stuff.