#68: Why Success Works, and You Still Feel Disconnected

All of us were fed a certain modern promise of success: Work hard, become competent, and success follows.

And you know what?

Despite its flaws, it mostly works.

Effort compounds. Competence pays off. Success arrives.

But then something strange happened.

The questions that matter most don't go away. They get louder.

Not questions about strategy or leverage. Questions about connection. Meaning. Why all of this still feels… flat.

Here's the part no one warns achievers about:

The modern promise of success was never meant to answer those questions.

And the more success works, the more convincing the lie becomes that it should.

So achievers do what they're trained to do. They optimize harder. They take control. They try to solve the problem.

That's when things quietly degrade.

Optimization doesn't create intimacy. Control erodes trust. Problem solving doesn't generate meaning or fulfillment.

The very tools that built success start breaking the internal world.

Not because something went wrong. But because they were never designed for this terrain.

This episode is about that moment. The moment success still works… yet something feels disconnected.

No guilt. No self-diagnosis. No "find yourself" detours.

Just a clear explanation of why this happens, how achievers misread it, and what actually changes when success stops being the answer.

If success has worked… but the deeper questions haven't stopped…

Hit play.

Show Highlights Include:

• What to do when you feel uneasy after success so you don't jump into the throes of a mid-life crisis (1:44)
• How the modern promise of success can leave you disconnected, unfulfilled, and unhappy (even if it's helped you achieve external and material success - and what perhaps the #1 modernity philosopher recommends to fill that internal void) (2:47)
• The understandable, but false (and even completely backwards) assumption of success that achievers naturally gravitate towards which makes them look successful "on paper," but a chaotic mess inside (5:05)
• The "Hedonic Adaptation" trap you naturally fall into when you're successful that leaves you feeling broken (6:48)
• What ancient masters of discipline understood about effort and how it fundamentally changes your character (this is why progress creates friction) (9:19)
• Maslow's forgotten next step after self-actualization that can finally return your sense of fulfillment (15:08)

For more about David Tian, go here:

https://www.davidtianphd.com/about/

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