My brain is still reeling from the truth bombs dropped on it by Joseph Everett through his YouTube channel "What I've Learned." With infuriating regularity Everett delivers deep insight and wisdom that makes you think, "What am I doing with my life?" It's deeply ironic that, despite doing a great video on how the internet kills productivity, right this second it is taking every ounce of will power not to drop everything and continue binging on his content.

TL;DR

The video takes a novel approach, following the life of a fictional(?) character named "Jeff" starting from birth and the many influences exerted on him without his knowledge. The creator relies heavily on clips from the Simpsons which makes it fun and engaging.

Issues discussed include:

• how the decision to have women give birth on their backs in chairs increases the pain associated with the birthing process which leads to epidurals, which actually makes it harder to give birth, which leads to more C-sections, which means the healthy bacteria in the mother's vaginal canal cannot be transferred to the baby, which may cause ADHD
• how the decision to circumcise babies leads to them being given a pacifier dipped in a concentrated sweetener called "sweet-ease" which activates the baby's endogenous opioid production creating an analgesic effect and starting the baby along its lifelong addiction to sugar which is satisfied daily by countless products filled with sugar along with an establishment narrative that a low fat, high carbohydrate diet is "best" despite little scientific backing
• how teaching children to engage in rote memorization and medicating those who don't take to it with amphetamines sets them on a path of expensive college, expensive textbooks, student loans, an uninspiring job that enables them to pay off the student loans, find a mate, buy a diamond ring, and have a wedding they can't afford

The unique approach enables the author to cram a ton of information into a relatively short video (embedded below) which I couldn't hope to "summarize." So I will end this post with a quote from the video:

"Take the time to look inside the standard systems, conventional practices, and mainstream products we've been asked to buy into, because you may find that most of them ... are filled with random soft drink and condiment labels."