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- #122 – Self-Governance & TRT
#122 – Self-Governance & TRT
Quote, Podcast, Interesting Phenomenon, Question, Tweet.
Dimitri Gremos
September 24, 2025
Good morning everyone,
Hope you’re having a great week!
Let’s jump in.
read online on my website
read time 3 minutes
#122 at a Glance:
Quote: Your first and second tasks.
Podcast: Joe Rogan x Matthew McConaughey.
Interesting Phenomenon: Testosterone & TRT injections.
Question: Are you qualified to govern yourself?
Tweet: Being too serious to have fun.
Quote I’ve been thinking about:
“Your first task is to find what feels effortless to you. Your second task is to put maximum effort into it.”
Podcast I listened to:
The Joe Rogan Experience #2379 - Matthew McConaughey
A brilliant conversation between two men I greatly admire.
Just so easy to listen to.
Covering everything from finding passion and focus in creative work to AI governance and the future of humanity.
A thought I couldn’t stop thinking about after the conversation: “What is it in life that I can never envision myself not doing?”
Highly recommend.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
[Duration: 2 hours 45 minutes]
Interesting Phenomenon I came across:
People Always Want The Quick Fix
Came across this wild statistic courtesy of Chris Williamson:
“According to the American Urological Association, 25% of patients on TRT never had their testosterone checked.
One-third weren’t even deficient.”
***
If we think about the fact that 1 in 4 patients on Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) are artificially boosting their testosterone levels (presumably to increase muscle mass and strength) without ever checking their levels beforehand…
We always seem to want the quick fix.
The result without the work.
The outcome without due diligence.
The satisfaction but not the sacrifice.
Have humans always been this way?
Or is it just that interventions like TRT are now more accessible than they were historically?
Question I’ve been thinking about:
Are You Qualified To Govern Yourself?
While I was away, I took the opportunity to pick up a book that I have long wanted to read but never properly grappled with: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121–180) succeeded his adoptive father as emperor of Rome in A.D. 161.
Arguably one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written, Meditations is essentially a collation of Marcus’ notes to himself that he made as a way of better making sense of the world around him.
I must say, reading the philosophical musings of a former Roman Emperor whilst being immersed in the Tuscan countryside was just so awesome.
In the first section of the book, Marcus is reflecting on the lessons that he has picked up from some of the most influential figures in his life.
Everyone from his grandfather and first teacher to friends and colleagues.
When citing his learnings from his adoptive father and former emperor, Antoninus, he describes the following:
“They saw him for what he was: a man tested by life, accomplished, unswayed by flattery, qualified to govern both himself and them.”
That idea of being qualified to govern oneself has been playing around in my mind for the last three weeks since I first read it.
It was one of those lines you seldom come across where you put down the book without hesitation and attempt to fully comprehend the essence of what you’ve just consumed.
“Qualified to govern himself.”
There are so many ways to unpack that idea and to be honest, I’m still attempting to do so.
Here are some of the places my mind tends to shoot off to when I reflect on this concept:
What are the attributes of one who is qualified to govern himself?
What does it mean to effectively govern oneself?
How does one practically govern oneself?
Is it a prerequisite that one must be able to govern himself before governing others? If not, should it be?
And obviously there is the irony that one need not a licence to govern himself; one simply just governs. It is a birth right in the modern world.
But to be qualified to do so.
That’s a whole other story.
Beyond powerful and so beautifully written.
As I continue to contemplate these ideas myself, I thought I’d pose the same question to all of you:
What makes someone qualified to govern themselves and do you feel adequately equipped to do so?
Tweet I liked:
Being Too Serious To Have Fun
Lifetime observation: the fancier the restaurant, the fewer the smiles—and even fewer the laughs.
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb)
2:15 PM • Sep 23, 2025
Why does this always tend to be the case?
Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.
Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡
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This goes a long way to helping me reach more people :)
See you in the next one,
Dimi