Francis Bacon Called You a MIDWIT (And He's Right)
What a 400-Year-Old Philosopher Taught Me About Being a Midwit...
“Men ought to know that in the theatre of human life it is only for Gods and angels to be spectators.” — Francis Bacon
I've been reading some Sir Francis Bacon lately, one of England's greatest philosophers, and I felt pretty inspired to write this short article after reading his thoughts on academia nerds and how they hold society back.
Bacon, a philosopher and statesman, believed knowledge should be applied to action, not just studied for its own sake. He valued both contemplation and action. His philosophical works, though little read now, “moved the intellects, which moved the world.” He made himself the eloquent voice of the optimism and resolution of the Renaissance.
“Was any man so great a stimulus to other thinkers?” — Will Durant
In this modern day and age of mindless brain-rot content and this new wave of AI slop, I think we are long overdue for a digital renaissance.
But this renaissance will only come if we stop behaving like midwits and contributing to the decay of civilization by the continuous spreading and consumption of hate and doom online.
Social media has made us so distracted. Instead of making us more enlightened, social, and united, we have become more nihilistic, tribal, and conflicted.
Bacon came during a time when philosophy and science had stagnated. Academia nerds who had never actually practiced their own observational science were deemed the end-all-be-all truth to science.
Bacon’s influence is evident in those who transformed Europe into a centre of art, philosophy and science. He believed in the limitless potential of humanity, advocating for a united effort to overcome nature’s obstacles rather than fighting amongst ourselves.
Him, like Goethe, scorns knowledge that does not lead to action. Bacon believed that studies alone could not be either the end or the source of wisdom, and that knowledge unapplied in action is a mere academic vanity.
It gives me a lot of pain to admit this but for over ten years of diving into personal development content, I've found myself drowning in contradictory information to the point of paralysis by analysis.
There's so much contradictory 'science' out there that there's literally an argument to be made for anything these days. Including 'seed oils are actually good for you, according to new studies'… Seed oils. The toxic sludge that was originally meant to lubricate engines in WW2. Somehow better for you than butter from a cow that we've been eating for millennia. Why are we still in the dark ages when it comes to health and nutrition science?
Well, I think it’s time we took a page out of Bacon’s book and began applying his philosophy to our lives…
I thought I was better than the retards who doom scroll on TikTok…until I realized I am just as dumb.
I for the longest time prided myself for not being some normie NPC who consumed TikTok short form content all day.
I thought I was so much smarter for being on YouTube and consuming longer-form educational content that actually brought value to my life…
But now as I have entered into my 30’s… I am realizing… I have fallen into that same trap that the average TikTok consumer is doing…
I am numbing my mind with endless information and content…
Endless information that creates this paralysis by analysis…
I am using YouTube as a form of escape because I know deep down there are actions I need to be taking, but I am avoiding them and choosing rather to distract myself with what I perceive to be “high quality” content. But instead, it’s just more of the same watered-down, regurgitated talking points that everyone is recycling.
I have become a MIDWIT…
I realize… I am highly distracted… and I myself have become a “mental masturbator.”
So finally I did it… I had to unplug… log out and turn everything off…
I realize that… I already know most of the answers I am looking for for the current problems in my life… And the ones I am uncertain of… don’t need more research… they simply need ACTION.
Now I am fully aware that the answer to all of our problems isn’t simply MORE ACTION.
(Although I would argue a majority of our problems could be cured by simply taking more action, but that is a topic for another day.)
One of the reasons why I love reading Sir Francis Bacon is because he not only understood the value of observation and analysis, but he knew that theory without practice was an academic’s form of “mental masturbation.”
Bacon understood that the accumulation and analysis of data reveal the forms, or laws, of phenomena. Understanding these forms allows us to remake the world according to our desires, making knowledge a powerful tool for both theory and practice.
“Of theory and of practice; one without the other is useless and perilous; knowledge that does not generate achievement is a pale and bloodless thing, unworthy of mankind.”
— Francis Bacon
The 10 Dark Years…
I remember when I just got started on my first business in music production and freelancing. The struggle I went through trying to go full time… I failed three times before I finally got some traction and started getting consistent clients in my studio to record and send me records to mix and master.
So much of that pain throughout that six-year process could have been avoided had I just focused on trying to get better at business and actually applying what I was learning… instead of obsessing over 100 other things like trying to create the perfect website and landing page, or get better at this mixing technique or sound design skill… that really did nothing for my income.
I knew for six years what the answer was all along, which was… put more content out there of me creating music… and the clients will come… and when I finally mustered up the courage to do so… guess what happened?
…They came.
pause.
Don’t even get me started on when I was first learning to produce, engineer and make music. How much time was spent consuming YouTube tutorials thinking I was being productive and “getting things done”. And then eventually when it came time to actually make music, how much time was wasted on searching for the right kick drum, synth, sample or compressor plugin to get that specific sound I was looking for… How many countless hours were wasted in each song because I would obsess over these tiny details that the average listener and the artist I was producing a record for would never even notice…
Same thing when it came to my fat loss journey.
I was a chubby kid growing up and eventually got pretty fat when I was in my early 20’s until I had finally decided enough is enough.
It was time to master fitness.
There was so much time wasted on consuming content. Probably hundreds, if not, thousands of hours of podcasts and long-form YouTube videos trying to figure out what the best supplements, fat loss protocol, and strategies were to burn fat and build muscle WITHOUT EVER HAVING TO COUNT CALORIES…
And as it turns out the only solution to this was… put the blinders on and begin running my own tests by tracking everything I ate, what i lifted, what my daily measurements were and what my daily steps were with ninety-day bursts to see what truly works for myself…
And in the end… I found the solution… that WORKS FOR ME that I have never heard in any podcast, reel, IG story or short form video from any fitness influencer.
It took me close to ten years to figure this one out. Only in the last eighteen months did I finally crack the code to staying lean NATURALLY… and it happened because I stopped listening to all the fitness advice out there and just ran my own tests to see how my body actually responds.
So much time wasted… and it hurts my soul knowing I was this MIDWIT for so many years.
no…not another prescription…
“To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar… Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them...” — Francis Bacon
So when do we know when we have learned enough and it’s time to act?
Honestly… I think you, the person reading this, already has the answer to that…
You already know deep down… what you need to do… but here you are reading my poorly written article right now…
(To which I will say thank you, and I appreciate your time and attention, so I am going to keep things brief and to the point so you can get back to conquering the fucking day.)
Honestly, I don’t think I can give you the answer to that.
Everyone in this online space seems to have the antidote or prescription to this question.
However, what I will suggest is this…
You are going to have to run your own tests and see what works FOR YOU.
I can only tell you what I have tested out for myself and what has worked for me and has not worked for me.
So let’s get in to that now.
First, a MINDSET SHIFT is required…
After over a decade of consuming shitty social media content and observing the changes in the algorithm, I have come to this realization…
It’s all garbage.
It is either all hyper-sexualized videos, brain rotting memes, geo-political noise, or some fucking hyper-specific ad targeted at you…
Long gone are the days of these social platforms being a cool place to hang out online with your buddies and share what you are doing with your friends and ONLY see what they were doing on your feed/timeline.
Now, everyone is too timid to post because they are scared of being judged online and having this “digital footprint” haunt them for the rest of their lives…
And the ones that are posting are just trying to sell you some product or flex a lifestyle that isn’t real…
Sixty percent of Instagram’s feed is a “Sponsored Post”… which is basically an ad targeted at you because they sold your information to assholes like me who pay for ads to target retards like you to buy my shit…
So why are you logging in only to see ads and retards behaving like retards?
Ask yourself, why are you going to spend time on that platform unless you yourself plan on using it to your benefit to post content to grow some kind of online business or personal brand?
If that’s not you, then delete it. It’s a complete waste of time and mental bandwidth that could be better used to develop other areas of your life.
The BACON Framework: From MIDWIT to Action-Taker
Here’s a little framework I recently developed after years of behaving like a MIDWIT. I’m calling it the BACON Framework in honour of Sir Francis himself:
B — Blinders On
Pick ONE thing. One goal. One skill. One problem to solve.
If you have a YouTube problem like me, unsubscribe from a BUNCH of channels first. Then get into the habit of only looking at your “Subscriptions” page, not the “Explore” or “For You” page.
I also got into the habit of ONLY watching YouTube videos on my computer so my consumption becomes more intentional. When I am watching it on my laptop, I find I am more immersed in what I’m watching and I am also prepped to be taking notes and adding them to my second brain for later use.
A — Acquire Focused Knowledge
If you have a personal goal or target that you have for your business…
PUT SOME SKIN IN THE GAME.
Just buy that course.
Stop being a brokey that is unwilling to invest in himself and just shell the cash out!
You will only take this acquired focused knowledge seriously if you had to shell out your own hard earned cash to get access to it.
Buy that course, log out of YouTube and then GO HARD powering through that course as FAST AS YOU CAN, ONLY FOCUSING ON THAT ONE THING.
C — Commit to 90-Day Tests
Run your own experiments. Track everything. See what actually works for YOUR life, YOUR body, YOUR business.
Stop looking for the perfect answer in someone else’s content.
O — Observe Your Results
After you have gone through a few iterations of these 90-180-365 day cycles, pay attention to what your data and progress tells you, not what some influencer promises you.
Your results are your truth.
N — Next Actions
By now you have already ascended to a new level of consciousness, financial literacy, health markers, business acumen, technical skills, etc.
You’ve figured out that solution to the problem that you initially intended to solve in your life.
It is now time to move on and focus your attention to your next pursuit.
And so the cycle repeats itself once again.
We are not being complete meatheads with this approach that never study or take the time to learn new things. But we also aren’t being academia nerds (a.k.a midwits) that only consume, analyze, and theorize all day without ever applying anything they’ve learned to their lives.
It is really that simple.
There is no need for me to drag this concept on for any longer.
Why should we make this any harder or more complex than it should be?
That’s all there is to it.
End of journal.
Enjoy your day.
Peace!