🫠 Why most people stay dumb

🫠 The Dumb Trap

Most people aren't dumb because they're born that way.
They train themselves to be dumb every single day.

Not because they lack access to knowledge, but because they treat knowledge like entertainment.

♦️ Listening to a podcast while cooking isn’t learning.
♦️ Reading X threads isn’t studying.
♦️ Consuming content all day doesn’t make you smarter.

It just makes you feel busy.

MRI studies show that multitasking shrinks the part of your brain that controls focus and decision-making.

Less grey matter = worse thinking, worse memory, worse life.

Everyone talks about wanting to be smart, but almost nobody builds a system to get there.

Real growth is boring. It’s reps. It’s struggle. It’s hours of deep work while the world tries to rip your attention apart.

If you spent just one focused hour a day for a year, you could become dangerous at anything.

But almost nobody will.
It’s easier to scroll, snack, swipe, and stay stuck.

The dumb trap isn’t an accident.
It’s the default.

🚫 Motivation Is a Scam

Most people stay stuck because they think they need motivation to get smart.

They wait for the perfect mood. The perfect energy. The perfect day.
It never comes.

Motivation is a feeling.
Feelings are random, unstable, and unreliable.
You can't build a sharp brain by hoping you feel like it.

The smartest people aren’t more motivated.
They’re just better at building systems that make action automatic.

🔒 They set phone blocks so they can't scroll.
🔒 They time-block hours for deep work.
🔒 They remove every cheap dopamine trigger from their mornings.

It’s not motivation.
It’s design.

Studies show that environment design beats willpower almost every time.
Make the right action easy.
Make the dumb action hard.

🛠️ Want to study more? Put the book on your pillow.
🛠️ Want to work deeper? Lock your phone in another room.
🛠️ Want to learn faster? Kill multitasking completely.

The secret isn’t doing more when you “feel like it.”
The secret is feeling trapped into greatness.

👇 Let’s build a brain that wins by default.

🧠 How to Build a Winning Brain

You don’t need more random facts.
You need a brain that can think, solve, and create.

Here’s how to get smarter, scientifically:

✅ Deep Work (Cal Newport method):
Work 60–90 minutes on a single hard thing, no distractions, no phone.
This builds myelin, the "muscle fibers" of intelligence.

✅ Active Recall:
Instead of re-reading notes like a zombie, close the book and try to remember everything.
Testing yourself strengthens memory better than passive review.

✅ Deliberate Practice:
Push into the edge of your ability, not just what’s easy.
Top performers in any field train at the limit of their skill, not inside their comfort zone.

✅ Compound Learning:
Link new information to something you already know.
The more connections your brain has, the stronger your memory web grows.

✅ Protect Sleep:
During deep sleep, your brain cleans itself and cements learning.
Skip sleep, and you lose half of what you studied.

Most people will never do this.
They'll scroll “10 brain hacks” posts instead of doing one real hour of focused work.

Not you.

If you build this into your days,
Your brain will outgrow 99% of people without even trying harder.

Tools & Resources

💊 Mind Lab Pro - My daily nootropic for clean brain fuel. No caffeine, no crashes, just pure focus.

📖 Deep Work by Cal Newport - Teaches you how to train your brain for extreme focus in a world designed to destroy it. If you can master deep work, you can master any skill 10x faster than the average person.

📱 Anki - A free flashcard app that uses spaced repetition and active recall. Stupidly effective for long-term memory building.

☀️ Sunlight, Exercise, Sleep - Still undefeated. Still free. Still, the real brain boosters.

Good reads

Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime
A science-backed look at why “doing nothing” is crucial for brain power.

The Myth Of Multitasking
How multitasking makes you less productive and less smart.

The Feynman Technique
A simple, powerful method for mastering complex ideas.

Video recommendation

🙏 Thank you for reading.

I started this newsletter not long ago, and I love writing it.

But I have no clue what my readers think.

If you’ve got a second, comment and let me know:

👉 Was this helpful?
👉 Was it too long, too short?
👉 Should I go deeper? Or keep it lighter?
👉 Any ideas for what you’d like to see next?

I read every comment. Seriously.

Your feedback helps me make this better every week.

Thanks again, and I’ll see you next Sunday.

Stay sharp,
Ernest