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You're Stuck In The Matrix, Here's How You Escape

Dan Koe21:47Added Aug 31, 2026

The matrix is real, but it's not what you think. Here's how society has been built to control the minds of the population.Research, write, and schedule conte...

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  1. Who Wrote The Software Running In Your Head?

  2. 00:00Who wrote the software running in your head? Are you sure you actually want it there? That's a part of a tweet from Elon Musk. And I think it helps shape what we're going to talk about.
  3. 00:09Quite well. Most people haven't practice thinking. When you talk to them, you aren't talking to them.
  4. 00:15You're talking to the TV, social media, their parents, their teachers, their insecurities and trauma or even patterns they picked up from AI.
  5. 00:22It's very robotic.
  6. 00:24Everyone cries about how you need to be more authentic when they are just parroting that statement from someone else, which is ironic.
  7. 00:31But the thing is, you can't escape this. This is just how the mind works.
  8. 00:35We remember information that is important to our survival, and the more it's repeated, the more efficient it becomes.
  9. 00:43The conscious mind can process around 50 bits of information per second, while the unconscious mind can manage around 11 million bits of information per second.
  10. 00:52If you want to change your life, your most important life task is using your limited conscious attention to become aware of and reprogram what's happening in the depths of your unconscious mind.
  11. 01:03And as Carl Jung said, until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
  12. 01:10So if you can reprogram this unconscious to move in the direction of success, then you achieve success automatically.
  13. 01:19You don't have to think about what to do because you just do it.
  14. 01:23And most people, since they have not done this, are heading off a cliff. By default, they're set on a specific path at birth. They don't question that.
  15. 01:31They become blind to every action that they take, and their destination is pure mediocrity.
  16. 01:37That's why it's extremely important to understand what got you into this situation.
  17. 01:42And this isn't some surface level advice of how to change your life.
  18. 01:46We're getting to the root of this and what has gotten us all into this situation. And it's kind of mind blowing.
  19. 01:51So once we go through that and your mind opens up and you reach this point of realizing, holy crap, like this is actually happening,
  20. 01:59then we'll break down how to reprogram your mind for automatic success.
  21. 02:03So the first thing we need to talk about is the concept of the social matrix. And we'll start with a quote from Krishnamurti.

  22. The Social Matrix (Program or Be Programmed)

  23. 02:11Thought is always conditioned and therefore thought is always mechanical.
  24. 02:15Thinking is mostly the automatic playback of previously encoded patterns, not conscious deliberation.
  25. 02:21Every thought comes from memory memories in the past, and when you are thinking you are just accessing stored patterns, not creating something new.
  26. 02:29Now why does this matter?
  27. 02:30Well, you're going to have to brace yourself here because this isn't pretty. I really want you to pay attention to what's going on here.
  28. 02:37There is this logical sequence of steps, this loop that composes this social matrix. And the only way to break out of it is by understanding it.
  29. 02:46And if you think we're talking about The Matrix, like the movie, we kind of are, but we're not talking about some kind of red pill.
  30. 02:53Oh, you need to escape the matrix and start a business and achieve freedom and break off from society. No, we're not talking about that.
  31. 03:00We're talking about understanding the actual matrix, because there is one. Now, credit where credit is due.
  32. 03:06Everything that we're going to talk about is actually a condensation.
  33. 03:09And my own thoughts on the video The Social Matrix by Actualized.org I would recommend watching that. It's like three hours long.
  34. 03:16Completely blows your mind. I love Actualized.org in general. Please subscribe to him.
  35. 03:21He has shaped my life in more ways than one and I owe a lot to that guy. So let's dive in to what this actual social matrix is.

  36. It starts with your parents

  37. 03:30First, it starts with your parents.
  38. 03:32Parents themselves were brainwashed by the previous generation.
  39. 03:36They pass on their worldview, biases and beliefs unconsciously.
  40. 03:39Most parents only love and approve of you if you conform to their values and beliefs, and you conform because you want to survive.
  41. 03:46You don't want to be kicked out of the house, kicked out of the culture.
  42. 03:50If you want to be fed, you're kind of dependent on your parents, so you have to conform to their values.
  43. 03:56And these parents got their information from the same system they're now perpetuating, which will understand.

  44. Early childhood conditioning.

  45. 04:02So that leads to the second thing, which is early childhood conditioning.
  46. 04:06Language shapes and limits what you can actually think about. Now stop and actually think about that for a second.
  47. 04:12The only reason you think about the thoughts that you do is because of the language you speak. That allows you to articulate those thoughts.
  48. 04:18Think about how many things you haven't thought of, or things you could think of if you weren't bound by a specific language.
  49. 04:25Now, beyond that cultural norms and values are planted in your head before you can think critically. Children learn to seek approval by conforming to authority.

  50. Public schools were explicitly created to reinforce obedience

  51. 04:34That leads to the third thing, which is that public schools were explicitly created to reinforce obedience as researched by UC San Diego.
  52. 04:42Now, whenever we talk about the education system, this starts to piss some people off. And that's usually because they're attached to it. They're dependent on it in some way or another.
  53. 04:50And they were told, since they were a child, that that's the thing that they have to do in order to be successful when that's just not the case anymore.
  54. 04:56The Prussian education model was designed as a long term solution to social unrest through the standardization of thought.
  55. 05:04Specifically, it was designed to create obedient soldiers, compliant citizens, and well-behaved workers.
  56. 05:10Horace Mann, an educator, brought this method to America when we were first industrializing to help educate large numbers of immigrant children.
  57. 05:18Now, this is where mandatory attendance training for teachers, national curriculum and testing for students, Division of students by age, and the concept of grade levels came about.
  58. 05:28Students were taught how to work and obey, not how to think, because that's what most benefited society. So what did this lead to?
  59. 05:35Teachers were educated by the previous generation in the same system. The curriculum was determined by school boards.
  60. 05:41Often parents who went through the same system, the concept of grade levels and advancement create incentives to memorize rather than question.
  61. 05:49The universities are funded by corporations with specific agendas.
  62. 05:53The academic journals have gatekeepers who went through the same system, and the professors must publish and approve journals to maintain their careers.
  63. 06:01Now here's where it gets very hairy. The fourth thing is information sources and authority.

  64. Information sources and authority

  65. 06:06Media and the internet are the primary sources of mass information. News outlets are owned by corporations with profit motives.
  66. 06:14Google search algorithms prioritize university and establishment sources, meaning that most people are getting information from universities where teachers were trained by teachers.
  67. 06:22Parents teach their children, and children learn from teachers.
  68. 06:25Wikipedia articles are written by academics within the school system that is already heavily biased.
  69. 06:30Social media reinforces biases through echo chambers and entertainment subtly programs, values, and worldviews.
  70. 06:37In science and academia, scientists and students rely on faith and thousands of studies they haven't personally validated.
  71. 06:43Research funding comes from corporations and governments with agendas.
  72. 06:46And all of this is most of the time, not all of the time, but most of the time is not good.
  73. 06:52So in other words, students and scientists trust the information provided by other students and scientists who were raised by parents who got their information from prior students and scientists.
  74. 07:01Do you see the problem with this?
  75. 07:03The students and scientists teachers were trained on government provided material which found its way into the information sources in general. This should just terrify you.

  76. Social media and AI amplify unconsciousness

  77. 07:12Now, the fifth thing here is that social media and AI amplify unconsciousness.
  78. 07:17Now, the propaganda model for how media shapes thought by Herman and Chomsky revealed five filters through which this media shapes thought.
  79. 07:25The first is corporate ownership.
  80. 07:26Then advertising pressures, sourcing from elites, organized flat campaigns and dominant ideology. So this was a problem with traditional propaganda.
  81. 07:34But social media and I take it to an entirely new level. Social media is a mimetic desire amplification machine.
  82. 07:40This is one reason why Peter Thiel invested in Facebook, because he understood memetics and knew how powerful it could be.
  83. 07:46Social media algorithms say they show you what you want to see, but the reality is that they program you to want what others appear to have.
  84. 07:55Every scroll reinforces neural pathways that lead you to thinking that you actually want the highlights of someone else's life.
  85. 08:01Now, in 2024, the Max Planck Institute found the first evidence that ChatGPT altered human speech patterns.
  86. 08:08So usage of certain words increased that I often used.
  87. 08:12In other words, you're starting to talk like the machine that learned to talk like you.
  88. 08:17So like when you were a kid, language shaped how critically you could think.
  89. 08:21Now that our language is becoming dumber with AI and immature Gen Z lingo taking over social media, our minds are slowly narrowing to further guarantee mediocrity.
  90. 08:30In the future, I will become a foundational layer that precedes social programing from parents in schools.
  91. 08:37Because teachers will use AI to teach, students will use AI to learn, and those students will go on to be teachers and parents. So AI is great.
  92. 08:45It's an amazing technology.
  93. 08:46I use it every day, but there is a certain way that you need to use it so that you don't become as dumb as a rock. If you want to understand that way.
  94. 08:54Go and watch my video. You have about 36 months to make it.

  95. Society is rigged against you.

  96. 08:58Now, the last and final thing here, the sixth thing is that society is rigged against you, and we're just going to rapid fire through these because this is getting a bit long.
  97. 09:07And I think you get the point.
  98. 09:08By this point, the need for a job forces you to be compliant with your boss's worldview. That boss went through the same education system.
  99. 09:15Marketing and advertising manipulate desires from childhood.
  100. 09:18The food industry is incentivized to poison you because people can't help but get addicted to hyper palatable foods, which affects mental clarity.
  101. 09:25The health care system profits from illness, not health.
  102. 09:28Social circles punish those who question too deeply, and you'll be cast out from the tribe.
  103. 09:33Dating and relationships require conformity, especially if you are lonely and non self-reliant. Politicians come from the same education system.
  104. 09:41Therapists come from the same education system. As you can see, there's a pattern here. It's a matrix. It has circular validation.
  105. 09:48Every entity that composes society and culture, media, education, science, government, business, religion, etc.
  106. 09:55justifies and reinforces the others when one source is questioned.
  107. 09:59You're met with programed responses from NPCs like trust the experts or it's in the textbook, or it's the law and it's tradition.
  108. 10:07Everything is validated against the same system. External validation is not possible. Therefore, we live in an illusion of our own construction.
  109. 10:15So one.
  110. 10:16You are born into a family already programed by the matrix to your condition, by language, culture. In early peer pressure.
  111. 10:23Three you are educated in schools that reinforce the worldview that benefits the system for you.
  112. 10:28Consume media and entertainment that further shape your beliefs and desires.
  113. 10:31Five you enter the workforce where survival depends on conformity.
  114. 10:35Six you participate in social, religious, and cultural rituals that reinforce group identity.
  115. 10:40Seven you seek information and validation from sources that are themselves the products of the matrix.
  116. 10:45Eight you are incentivized to conform and disincentivize to question, and nine you in turn pass on the same programing to the next generation.
  117. 10:54So that begs the question how in the world do you actually escape the matrix?
  118. 10:59Especially since people who teach you how to create the matrix are a byproduct of the matrix.

  119. How to reprogram your mind for automatic success

  120. 11:04So now is when we talk about how to reprogram your mind for automatic success. And we'll start with another quote from Maxwell Maltz.
  121. 11:12The brain and Nervous System constitute a marvelous and complex goal striving mechanism, a sort of built in automatic guidance system
  122. 11:19that works for you as a success mechanism, or against you as a failure mechanism, depending on how you, the operator, operate it and the goals you set for it.
  123. 11:29So when we look to psychology, there are a few things we know for sure, and we need to understand these before we go into the actual steps.
  124. 11:35First is that the mind evolves and expands through stages of increasing complexity, making life more interesting and enjoyable.
  125. 11:42But you can just as easily get stuck in a low level for your entire life.
  126. 11:46For this, you can see my article on the model that I created called human 3.0, but I'll also create a video on that eventually. I believe that'll be next week's video.
  127. 11:55I've been putting it off because I want it to be good.
  128. 11:57Second is that the flow state or optimal experience and enjoyment stems from a self-generated goal.
  129. 12:03Complete clarity on how to achieve it, and a level of challenge that is just above your skill level.
  130. 12:08For this, you can see the work of me here, except me and Steven Kotler.
  131. 12:11Third is that your mind interprets reality through a lens of psychological survival.
  132. 12:16Your identity forms around the values and beliefs of the culture you were raised in, and you feel threatened when your identity is threatened.
  133. 12:23I'm going to create other videos on survival and ideology in the future, and those are deeper videos than just what you think of when it comes to survival and ideology.
  134. 12:32I really like epistemology, and I'm going to be talking about that a bit more on this channel.
  135. 12:37And fourth, being extreme changes your brain because it enhances neuroplasticity, which is your brain's ability to rewire itself.
  136. 12:44Novelty challenge and big goals shape how you process and store information.
  137. 12:49So if you want to make success automatic by realigning your unconscious toward a trajectory that will change your life, here's what you do.

  138. Create your own matrix

  139. 12:58The first thing is create your own matrix because the mind creates order and certainty.
  140. 13:04That's why we are so quick to adopt the psychological infrastructure that others assign to us.
  141. 13:09We pursue society's goals which influence what we deem important enough to learn, which influences the choices we make, which condition those behaviors as habits that we unconsciously repeat.
  142. 13:19So all of this starts with a goal, a clear vision for the future.
  143. 13:24You need to replace the goals of go to school, get a job, and retire with something that you generate in something that is more meaningful.
  144. 13:32But many attempt to do this and fail for one reason.
  145. 13:35The fear of ending up like everyone else doesn't outweigh the fear of discomfort.
  146. 13:40You can tell yourself that you deeply care about your goals all day long, but the reason you don't change is because another goal is taking priority and that's unconscious to you.
  147. 13:49So how do you generate a goal so meaningful that you have no option but to pursue it? You gain complete awareness of where your life is heading.
  148. 13:58If you keep doing the same things, you question your life and sit with the discomfort without searching for someone else to give you the answer.
  149. 14:04You become so disgusted that the pain of staying the same makes the pain of discomfort feel like a little pinch.
  150. 14:10You remind yourself of your anti vision, the life you don't want to live, as a reference point from which you can aim in a different direction.
  151. 14:17But then you need to learn how to navigate the unknown.

  152. Pursue an interest-based education

  153. 14:21And that leads to step two, which is to pursue an interest based education.
  154. 14:26Because the education system has its perks, but it fails at the one thing that it's actually supposed to do, which is to educate.
  155. 14:32Public schools help with socialization and teaching you how to write and read, and giving you a base operating system to become a civilized human.
  156. 14:39But if education equals discovery, it is doing the opposite of just that. You learn the same topics as everyone else. You choose from the same classes as everyone else.
  157. 14:48You look up the same high paying skills in high paying jobs as everyone else to enter a race to the bottom.
  158. 14:53This is the only path you know, because you haven't begun the process of self-education, so your mind only works to achieve the goal of getting a job for the sake of money and survival.
  159. 15:03Luckily, we now live in a world where you can learn anything and do anything without permission, which is the next step. But how do you actually take advantage of this?
  160. 15:12Pursuing an interest based education.
  161. 15:14You take note of the current problems with how you are living.
  162. 15:17These typically fall within the domains of health, wealth, relationships, and finances. So what's wrong with your health or fitness? How you look? What's wrong with your financial situation?
  163. 15:26What's wrong with your social life or relationships? There's already problems there. Pick one.
  164. 15:31Then you start exploring the internet and social media as a curator, not a consumer.
  165. 15:36You experiment with various methods without becoming dogmatic about any of them.
  166. 15:40Then you dedicate at least 30 to 60 minutes a day to learning in a way that directly correlates with your self-generated goals.
  167. 15:47And last, you throw your mind into an entirely different environment and let your beliefs be challenged.
  168. 15:53So what you need to remember here is that you reprogram your unconscious by aligning your actions and learnings with a goal
  169. 16:01that was not assigned to you, a goal that you assigned yourself. So the process is goal. Interpret information. Act. Make mistakes.
  170. 16:08Correct mistakes. Repeat. If you can do that, you'll be successful.

  171. Teach yourself (and your children) to be high agency

  172. 16:13Now the third and arguably the most important step here is that you need to teach yourself and your children to be high agency.
  173. 16:20Agency is the ability to act without permission.
  174. 16:23Therefore, agency is the belief that difficult tasks can become easy because goals fall into three buckets.
  175. 16:30There's easy goals which are something we can do with our current knowledge, skill, and resources.
  176. 16:35There's impossible goals, which is something we can't do or is outside of the laws of physics. And then there's difficult goals.
  177. 16:41So something we can't do right away but can eventually do if we gather the right skills and resources.
  178. 16:46Now, imagine if I put a gun to your head and told you that you have to bench press 315 pounds within the next year.
  179. 16:53You will either interpret that as impossible because you can't see the way to get there, and then you'll just let yourself die, or you will do everything in your power to achieve it.
  180. 17:02And you probably will.
  181. 17:03And at that point, you have to learn and educate how to do all of that stuff. Then you actually have to do it.
  182. 17:08Now, on that topic, I actually started a side quest channel, a second channel that is more vlog a day in the life style,
  183. 17:15where I'm going to be talking about fitness and biohacking, and even behind the scenes of building the startup or building the software.
  184. 17:21Now those things reveal two problems with how the average person thinks.
  185. 17:25First, they have an external locus of control, believing that all great accomplishments are a matter of luck rather than skill.
  186. 17:32When they need help, they look to their friends, the government, or anyone else but themselves.
  187. 17:37Their first reaction is to blame, not think, and especially not take responsibility for their lives.
  188. 17:42The second problem is that they are missing the intersection of importance and urgency.
  189. 17:47They have not educated themselves or experimented to the point of generating passion around a specific life task, and they do not have an awareness of where their life is heading.
  190. 17:57Without that aim, they are not pushed or pulled in any direction by their own desire, but they are thrown around like a puppet by someone else's.
  191. 18:05Education is not about math or spelling or historical facts.
  192. 18:10It's about instilling agency in yourself and those who come after you.
  193. 18:15A high agency individual will learn everything that they need to in order to do what they want to do.
  194. 18:21A low agency individual will stay in its nest waiting for Mama Bird to bring it a worm. So how do you actually begin to practice agency?
  195. 18:29What are the practical steps?
  196. 18:31First, do not allow others to help you for as long as possible. Even if you struggle to.
  197. 18:37When you want something, practice taking small steps to learning about it and act on it. Three. Drop out of school or request to be homeschooled.
  198. 18:45This one holds a lot of baggage for a lot of people, but only those who think a lack of credentials will somehow ruin your life. I will not expand on this today. Four.
  199. 18:53Consciously expose yourself to difficult problems at least every 3 to 6 months. Build new projects. Study new material and five.
  200. 19:01Question what you are supposed to do and make a different decision.
  201. 19:05Agency isn't just taking action, it's deciding what actions are worth taking.
  202. 19:09Now, most of the time this is going to lead you down the path of entrepreneurship and self-direction because schools and jobs have values that you must conform to if you want to keep that job.
  203. 19:19And that narrows your mind, and it limits your ability to learn and act.

  204. Become a massive value creator

  205. 19:24Now, step four is to become a value creator because humans are tool builders.
  206. 19:29When we've encountered a problem like being cold, hungry, or in danger from predators, we created fire, shelter, and weapons to hunt and defend.
  207. 19:37And once those tools were created, the potential for better tools allowed for the society we built today. Nature is brutal.
  208. 19:45It's not this kind and loving thing that many hippies believe it to be. Unless humans had transformed the earth to be hospitable.
  209. 19:51We would be extinct by now and still drastically underdeveloped.
  210. 19:55Now, beyond that, becoming a creator is central to living a good life.
  211. 19:59Because happiness and enjoyment are the combination of progress being made and a contribution to something greater than yourself.
  212. 20:06Both are accomplished by solving problems for yourself and others. Problems are solved through creativity.
  213. 20:12The intersection of purpose and profit lies in creating solutions to problems you deem interesting, and passing those solutions down to contribute to humanity,
  214. 20:21you become able to solve more complex problems because you become equipped with more knowledge, skill and resources.
  215. 20:28Life gets better as problems shift from shallow to meaningful.
  216. 20:32Now it just so happens that the highest leverage place to create right now is on the internet. The internet is the path of high agency.
  217. 20:41You don't need permission to create something and post it on the internet.
  218. 20:44You don't need permission to navigate idea space and find the information you need.
  219. 20:49This may change in the future, but that only reinforces the point.
  220. 20:52No matter if it's the internet or intergalactic space or virtual reality, the answer has been and always will be, to share the value you acquire in a place where the right people can find it.
  221. 21:03That is it for this video.
  222. 21:04If you want resources on building a high value skill stack or becoming a creator not necessarily content creator,
  223. 21:11but your nature expressing your nature as a creator by becoming an entrepreneur and using the internet as a vessel to do so.
  224. 21:17Or you just want to read more about this philosophy. Check out the links in the description for all of that.
  225. 21:24I have various resources there. Before you leave. Like subscribe. It's just a button click. It's literally right with your thumb. It doesn't take that much energy.
  226. 21:33I would really appreciate it. Oh, and one last thing. I never ask people to do this.
  227. 21:36I don't know why, but turn notifications on just because the YouTube algorithm is all messed up and doesn't show videos to anyone anymore.
  228. 21:44With that, thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.