Why I don't listen to music

Two nights ago, a friend sent me a reel that caught his attention.

It was from Leila Hormozi.

You know, THE LEILA HORMOZI. The $100M CEO of acquisition+com.

In the clip, Leila exposes her secret, favourite music for “deep work”:

Degenerate music.

(W.A.P. and the likes)

She says she likes them because of their “beats” and “rhythm.“

(I’ll give her that — their beats are fire.)

My favourite part was her description of how Alex Hormozi and her co-workers reacted. They’ll swoop in, and to their horror, meet a crazed Leila bopping her head to Cardi B’s bars.

It was a chill video, but a part of me couldn’t help but judge Leila.

“Why would you listen to that crap?“

If your goal is to live an enjoyable life, devil music is poisonous to your goals.

Two reasons:

(1) Music is Evil Programming

Biblical scholars believe God created the universe out of words.

Whether you believe in this or the Big Bang, I’m sure you’ll still agree that words are powerful. Our thoughts affect our actions, which affect our experience of life. Positive affirmations are popular because of this — because what we say matters.

To do means to act.

Consuming content, believing it, and acting it out are all respective actions.

To make sense of Aristotle’s quote, we must understand how the mind operates.

The mind is a tool. It doesn’t really have a “mind of its own.” You control it. It accepts whatever you give it, stores what is relevant, and outputs what you ask from it.

For something to be “relevant” — and get into long-term memory — it must:

1. Solve a problem

2. Become familiar

3. Connect to information already stored in the long-term memory

Positive affirmations, memorisation, spaced repetition, and consistency are popular because of this. They circulate on “tricking“ the mind to store information long-term — aka learn — by making them familiar. They're cliches in the self-help world because they work.

If you repeatedly hear the words “you’re ugly,“ you start believing it. This leads to an identity change (I am an ugly person), which begins a chain of actions that manifests a decrease in your attraction.

You skip brushing your teeth sometimes.

You stop getting a monthly haircut.

You stop going to the gym.

If you were a “5,“ you become “3“ after 12 months.

And it started with words.

Music does the same, but its effects are in a whole new league of catastrophe.

No, you may not commit murder after repeatedly hearing a rapper blurt “Shoot that n*gga.“ But you’ll pick up subtle behaviours from them.

Like excessively using swear words after listening to rap songs.

(For dudes) Treating women disrespectfully after vibing to “whoop that trick.“

(For ladies) Playing mind games with good men after jamming to female trap stars.

And, again, it all started with words.

You are what you eat — nutritionally and informationally.

Make sure you’re only consuming information conducive to your goals.

(2) Music is Overstimulating

Music makes life more interesting than it already is, based on its design. It’s in the same league with porn, video games, social media overuse, alcohol, and hard drugs.

I’m not judging.

But if you want to live an enjoyable life, disconnect from these vices to reconnect with yourself.

The most fulfilled people in the world can sit down at a spot without moving an inch for 3 hours without feeling irritated. If you can’t do that, then you’re overstimulated.

You need to:

• write

• meditate

• and reduce your time on the aforementioned

Or you can live a life that is unenjoyable without those stimulants.

True, deep happiness comes from within.

Fake, shallow happiness comes from the outside.

I don’t listen to degenerate music anymore. All I listen to these days are rain sounds, lofi, and binaural beats.

So, if you like “beats“ and “rhythm“ like Leila, then replace devil music with this playlist:

Do it for 7 days and text me on X letting me know how the experience felt.

I hope this helps.

— Francis

PS: I'm rebranding the niche creation course to a Value Visualisation course. I wanted to give a 15-minute course away to help you find your niche, but shallow isn’t my style. I felt disgusted by what I built, so I’m going for a depth-focused approach.

(Though, it won’t be a 2-hour course haha.)

It goes live next week. Stay tuned.