Absurdism: Life Sucks, Do it Anyways.

🧠  Absurdism: Life Sucks, Do it Anyways.

Epicureanism, which we covered in Part 1, came out of the ancient world. Epicurus set up shop in Athens around 300 BCE, offering a way to live well in a chaotic world without electricity and sewage systems. 

Ancient philosophy usually assumed that meaning existed, the real question was how to live well inside it. (i.e. how the hell am I suppose to get rid of my shit)? 

Their answers were practical: pursue pleasure wisely, build friendships, avoid unnecessary pain, and keep life simple.

Absurdism, by contrast, is modern. Europe, 1940s. Two world wars, faith in decline, science booming, but still no cosmic direction. 

The old answers weren’t satiating the appetite of modern man. The new philosophers: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, started asking a darker question: what if there is no meaning at all?

In comes Camus who offers a take that passes the vibe check for me: He said humans are wired to search for meaning, but the universe stays silent. That mismatch, our hunger for purpose versus the world’s indifference, is what he called the Absurd. 

Sisyphus: 

Some people (they tend to have fine-line tattoos), know Sisyphus as that guy with the rock. It’s been memed by the corporate side of the internet for pointless grind, endless emails, never-ending laundry, Monday morning commutes. People love to throw it around as a symbol of futility. 

But that’s not how Camus saw it. Sisyphus wasn’t a cautionary tale, he was the man with serious main-character energy. The hero who stares down the absurdity of his condition and still chooses to push. The rock doesn’t crush him - it defines him. 

And Camus comes up with one of the most gangster lines in modern philosophy:

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Earlier this year I made a shift. From creating for other people to creating for myself. (If you’re also picturing a man with slightly smaller calves, you’d be correct, we’ll circle back to that.)

About 8 months ago, I finally threw myself into the content world. Stubbornly. People had been telling me to do it for years, but if I was going to enter, it had to be on my terms. My way meant production value. Thoughtful scripting. Stuff that looked like someone actually put in work, tried. Not the ramblings of a TikToker killing time while they waits for her Tunacado sando at Joe and the Juice.

My advantage was obvious, I’ve been behind cameras for 15 years. Of course the work was going to look polished. But polish only gets you so far. The real question was: what about substance?

That’s where the “gravy voice” came in. A 31-year-old man who’d been muzzled from exposure his whole life, suddenly free to speak. Best believe I had opinions. About MSG, about gym etiquette, about the strange rituals of modern masculinity.

Looking back, what I stumbled into is a weird mix: high-value, low-stakes content. The production says premium, but the rants are about sitting wrong at the bench press. 

In the best way I know how to name it, this whole ride - painful yet beautiful, feels absurd.

🍯 Dopamine
Amending the Gravy Commandments

I’m adding a new amendment to the Gravy Commandments: Provocation With Meaning. Because if I’m going to poke the bear, it better come with a pot of honey. It has to be tied to something I actually believe. And yes, the bear may still eat me, but at least he’ll have dessert and think of me kindly.

And since I’ve been revisiting these lately, here’s the full list as it stands. This isn’t carved in stone,it’s a living recipe I’ll keep tweaking as I screw up, learn more, and hopefully get a little sharper along the way.

1. Make it. Leave it.
   The act of building is the statement. No apologies, no post-rationalizing.

2. Listen without bowing.
   Market feedback is data worth hearing, but never worth handing over the pen.

3. If it’s not intentional, it’s gone.
   Every choice, object, and frame must carry weight,or it doesn’t make the cut.

4. Design by author, not audience.
   The blueprint starts and ends with the creator’s vision, not crowd approval.

5. Build for permanence.
   Create work that survives trends, not work that depends on them.

6. Trends get filtered, not followed.
   Inspiration can pass through, but only after it’s been stripped, rebuilt, and made your own.

7. Better to build slow than build hollow.
   Pace is negotiable,integrity isn’t.

8. Provocation with meaning.
   Push boundaries only when the blow lands on something true, not just for spectacle.

📚 Things Worth Your Time

🍗 Calf Training (Told you we’d get back to this.)
Honestly, this could just as easily be the Things Not Worth Your Time section. At the very top of that list? The Seated Calf Extension. Massive waste of time. There’s a ton of science behind it that smarter people than me can explain, but the gist is simple: for calves to grow optimally, the knee needs to be straight.

So here’s the roster: standing smith machine calf raises, leg press calf extensions, donkey calf raises, all in. Seated? Totally out. And in all of these, I’m hammering the stretched position, because that’s where the magic (and the pain) really is.

Pair that with masochistic-level frequency (minimum 3x a week), and I’ve managed to put a full inch on these suckers over the past year. Which, in calf terms, might as well be the Empire State Building. (Also built in about a year).

🎤 Theo Von x Louis CK (Interview)
Specifically the moment around 1h35m in, but honestly, the whole thing is worth your time.

Theo Von is an underrated master of the interview. He’s disarming, curious, and somehow gets people to open up in ways they don’t with anyone else. Louis CK has done plenty of interviews, but I’ve never heard him go this deep about his 2017 cancellation (can you believe it’s been that long??).

It’s raw, powerful stuff about turning the hardest moments into fuel for growth.

🧂 Salt Boxes
Because I’m a materialist ho, and I haven’t encouraged you to spend your hard-earned dollars on anything in a while, let me change that.

This is one of those things I can’t believe people don’t do… until I go to someone’s house and see a crusty salt shaker that looks like it’s been there since plastic bags were free at the grocery store.

Salt boxes. Or even just a nice little bowl. Doesn’t need to be fancy. Fill it with coarse kosher salt and suddenly you’re seasoning like a chef, not sprinkling like a cafeteria worker.

Ya know what? I’m not even going to link one! You probably have a little bowl lying around. Salt away, my friends.

🔜 Coming Soon

Out now – Toxic Masculinity (IG)
Sunday Gravy School. I think about how I suck because I’m a man… but then the whole introspective spiral leads me to the conclusion that men are pretty great too. Silhouettes of dicks and all.

9/24 – Best Hoochie Daddy Shorts (IG)
Gravy Code. We wear short shorts not out of vanity (though we work hard for our quads - the people should know), we wear them out of ritual.

9/26 – Anti-Hair Care Hair Care Routine (IG)
A Friday first. I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to hair care. Some outspoken IG comments and a strong desire to have hair that doesn’t “suck ass” have pushed me into building a routine. With Erica’s help (stealing her products), I’m digging the results so far.

✌️See Ya Soon

For the next 5 weeks I’ll be pushing for a 3-a-week cadence on IG. It’s an experiment to see if volume is really a reliable strategy for growth in this wild social media world.

I love hearing from you on IG, so if you made it this far, slide into my DMs.

Loving this ride. It’s a grind, it’s a gift, and in the truest sense of the word, it’s absurd. 😉