Jonas Muff
@jonasmuff1
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Deep-tech founder (@vara_ai) exploring spiritual depth at the very edge of high-performance culture.
Berlin
Joined March 2016
The last decade, my entire twenties, were devoted to building a legacy as a founder. Today, my first startup grew into Europe's leading AI for cancer screening. But the decade was ruled by The Curse of Being Driven.
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Full explanation, including pointers to the neuroscientific and psychological foundations: https://t.co/AkM0Y9lfuH
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Driven people suffer not from rejection and failure. But from imagining it.
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“I need you to improve my mental performance so I can run my company more effectively.” That’s how I introduced myself to my therapist years. One of the quiet tragedies of highly driven people: We reduce every moment to a stepping stone into a future that’s supposed to bring
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Most suffering isn’t from what happened, it’s from the identity we built around surviving it. Your brain organizes itself around trauma. Protective patterns: - hypervigilance becomes "being aware" - people-pleasing becomes "being kind" - emotional shutdown becomes "being
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I’ve felt kid-like excitement all week. That low-hum vibration, the tickle in the body, the thrilling anticipation. What you feel right before your first kiss. I don’t recall feeling this for a very long time. Maybe 15-20 years or more? Everything is more interesting and fun.
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Mental health is the greatest healthcare challenge of our time. More than one billion people worldwide are currently living with at least one mental health condition - depression, anxiety, addiction, PTSD, and many others. But behind this staggering statistic lie more than one
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That's fantastic! Good perspective and evidence for what I call "Lucid Living" – an approach to life that welcomes struggling and suffering as opportunities to find meaning in life.
Struggle grows your brain. But the type of struggle matters. Struggle + Curiosity = Adaptive Struggle + Chronic Fear = Maladaptive Pair struggle with curiosity and watch your brain grow.
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A man’s soul decays when he abandons responsibility. He hides behind pleasure, blames circumstance, and rots in comfort. Purpose resurrects him. Pain cleanses him. Every trial you endure is an invitation to evolve, or an excuse to decay. The choice is yours.
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Breakdown leads to breakthrough. We realize that the story we told ourselves wasn't real. That's the most important realization in life, and only deep suffering can teach it.
You aren't lost. You're just in an uncomfortable stage in life where your old self is gone. But your new self isn't fully reborn yet.
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Highly driven people often compare themselves to others – sometimes so much that, deep down, we even hope others fail. Even friends. Why is that, and how to escape it? My latest reflection on Substack.
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the startup graveyard is full of founders who waited for certainty
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Most “time management” problems are really just fear management problems.
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That's exactly why we should build meaningful stuff in life – it will inevitably lead to emotional intensity, but coupled with mindfulness, it rewires our brains.
Can you optimize for faster neuroplasticity? YES. Studies show that emotional engagement amplifies brain plasticity. The more emotionally engaged the experience, the stronger and deeper the neural change. Emotion is the voltage that powers brain flexibility.
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Hedonism is the devil. Chunk values rule the world today. A renaissance of spirituality and religious values is needed. I say that as an AI founder who raised 30m.
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Life becomes easier when you realize you can just do stuff. You are in control of rewiring your brain, not the other way around. You create your own reality.
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Such a big topic. Such an intellectually weak tweet. "Everyone needs a project to work on" "Building something of your own" I don't fundamentally disagree. But what should anyone do with that advice? How can someone take actions based on this tweet?
I'm convinced that building something of your own is the key to a purposeful life. Everyone needs a project to work on.
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More and more people start to grasp that psychedelics-assisted therapy will change how we understand and treat mental health disorders. This post is going a step further – thought provoking hypothesis on the impact on societal level in the profound shift we experience in
Most people think of #psychedelics as treatments for mental-health conditions - and rightly so. These powerful therapeutics hold extraordinary potential to help people heal from depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD. But I believe their potential extends far beyond
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Driven people reject self-help advice that suggests "slowing down". Rightfully so. It's an illusion. Withdrawing from ambition will numb the pain, and with it meaning and fulfillment. I am against both unreflected hustle culture and philosophically weak self help advice.
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