A Stoic's Guide To Looksmaxxing

Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Look, I I wish I didn't have to talk about this, but since a lot of young men follow the Daily Stoic and spend a lot of time on YouTube, I feel like I have to address this word that's all over the internet right now, which is looks maxing. Looks maxing. Looks maxing.

Looks looks maxing. Looks maxing. It's a TikTok trend taking hold of men seeking to maximize their physical appearance. And it can be hard to know how real some of these trends are, but this one is real enough and it speaks to something timeless. too.

But right now, because of social media, because of algorithms, because of toxic online influencers, young men are particularly obsessed with their looks, their muscles being more attractive, being alpha, being dominant. Some of this is harmless. Some of it's totally fine, whether we're talking about fitness or taking care of your skin or nutrition or getting proper rest. But some of it is actively harmful, if not absurd.

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