The Nature Of The Matrix ( And What Everyone Gets Wrong About It )
You have definitely heard the metaphor that we live in The Matrix.
If you are a free thinker or you strive to be one, you are familiar with the Matrix idea.
The idea that we live in some sort of a vicious cycle.
As someone who wants something more from life than just the regular default path, you’ve heard that you have to break free from the Matrix. You have to find an escape from this vicious cycle and become an original thinker.
But what does that actually mean?
I’ve come to understand the uncomfortable truth about “waking up” and “breaking free”. Most alternative thinkers are just switching from one pre-built worldview to another.
Everyone is telling you how to escape. Everyone is trying to sell you “the right” idea.
Monk mood, NoFap, Retreats, No-Sugar Diets, Dopamine Fasting…you name it.
Naturally, as a Gen Z kid myself, I tried self-improvement. Removing all the distractions, abstaining from junk food and porn. After all these are the “agents” of the matrix, right? Needless to say that it didn’t work out. The distractions and all the small addictions always won at the end. I was trying to cure the symptoms and not the core problem. The core problem was that I didn’t have a direction nor a vision for my future.
In order to truly wake up and escape the Matrix cycle we have to understand what the Matrix is. We need to see how the system influences our thinking process and puts us into a lower state of consciousness.
Metaphorically, when we say “a social matrix” or “a political matrix,” we’re suggesting that there is a structured system of relationships shaping how things connect and interact. Much like the rows and columns of a mathematical matrix define outcomes.
Your decisions shape your reality. Your decisions are determined by your perception. Your perceptions is determined through the following factors:
the Information input
the subconscious and conscious affirmations
If we look deeper into the Latin origin of the word, we’ll see that the word mātrīx literally means mother. So in a sense you are a child / product of a system that has a grip over your the way you perceive reality.
Everything in the matrix is tied together in a web of relationships. These can be social, economic, technological and cultural.
The way the System maintains itself is by reinforcing its own values through beliefs and powers structures. We have mainstream channels of information where beliefs are spread and reinforced. And we have structures within the matrix like schools, universities, companies.
In order to be successful in their hierarchy you have to follow the beliefs that the system requires. That is exactly the reason why this cycle is so dangerous.
The system knows exactly what you want, because it’s in our human nature. We all want freedom. We all want to be able to do “our own things” freely. But here’s the problem. The system showed you only one path of achieving that goal.
Going to school –> Finding a job –> Retiring.
The matrix has lied to you that you have to work for projects and people you don’t care about your whole life so you could enjoy your freedom after the age of 65.
It seems like a bad deal to me.
Society tells us that to figure out what we have to do with our lives when we are 18. But that’s again a product of the the vicious cycle. Up until that age your whole life revolved around mimicking your parents and outside world.
You were only thought how to maintain the matrix values, your brain isn’t fully developed and yet you have to make the most important series of decisions in your life.
When I was 18 I knew something is wrong, I knew I didn’t want to follow the predictable robotic behaviors most of the people do. But I lacked clarity. I didn’t know what is that one thing that should substitute the default path. In fact I am still figuring it out and there’s nothing wrong with that.
You have to reclaim your values and goals.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate ” – Carl Jung
Good, but how do I figure out what I want?
By process of elimination. Figure out where you don’t want to end up, first.
If you don’t want to work for realizing someone else’s dreams, you’ll have to start a business.
If you don’t know what kind of business, write down what interests/hobbies/skills you possess.
Then find out which of these interests might be found valuable to others.
There are two main approaches you can choose in the process of becoming the person you aspire to be.
1) Agency
Gradually evolving through the stages of reality and consciousness. You move through the levels of the game, you create your own games. Agency means the ability to overcome problems associated with your current level. Solving them would open the horizon for new, more complex problems. You know what you have to learn in the next month for example. But you don’t know what you’ll have to learn in the next year. You have to overcome the obstacles presented to you at your current level of development. In this case you “escape” the social and cultural matrix through slowly growing above it.
2) Cheat codes
Another possibility is skipping the gradual development and moving multiple steps ahead. These are the cheat codes, the glitches in the matrix, which allow you to move faster towards your goal. An example of this is quitting your job, moving to another city or country, starting a new business. Something radical that forces your brain to adjust to the new situation and change your identity. But you have to keep in mind that those experiences does not make you magically a new person. They are just tools that could accelerate your progress.
Don’t hate the game. Create your own game.
Every matrix is a system of limitations that were consciously put from its own creators.
We, humans, are limited by symbols we call language. Those symbols were given power through thousands of years of evolution. As a result you can use the language to create or enter new worlds. You can write or read books, articles and so on.
Sure, we can learn new languages, expand our vocabulary, create new stuff but we still operate within the structure of the language. And frankly, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem isn’t the system, the matrix itself. It’s the act of identifying with it rather than using it for our own good.
We can “escape” the automatic 9-5 matrix, the limiting social and cultural beliefs, the educational system etc.
But we still haven’t figured out how to “escape” the matrix of the Universe. It’s a limitation that someone or something has set to us. Maybe God, the infinite consciousness, the Source. I don’t know. That’s up to you.
Transcending rather than denying
“Escaping” or “Breaking” the system completely will lead us to the other extreme. A complete chaos. We as humans like order. That is why programs, cycles and matrix like systems are everywhere.
The problem occurs when we don’t include the system into something greater. For example an employee is a passive part of the society. He follows orders and serves the goals and visions assigned to him by his boss.
An entrepreneur on the other hand is aligning his personal goals, skills, visions and desires with these of the same society.
The employee is used by the system and the entrepreneur is transcending the system into something greater. He is adding value by embracing his own qualities.
You can stay a slave to the 9-5 framework for eternity. You can also choose to apply the experience you gathered from your job into creating a business.
Transcend and include rather than denying. Our natural instinct dictates that we seek growth, moving to a higher level of complexity. When you move to a higher state of development, you don’t simply abandon the good parts of your previous state. You rather integrate them into a broader perspective.
With this mindset you won’t be a servant to the matrix, but you still can incorporate some of its values.
Becoming multidimensional
The earlier points show us that in order to be the architect of your own reality, you have to be multidimensional. You can’t just cling to a single thing, because you’ll become dependent. This means having multiple interests, developing multiple skills and trying multiple things.
I love this quote from Naval.
“Specialization is for insects. I don’t believe in this model of trying to focus your life down one thing. You’ve got one life just do everything you want.” ― Naval Ravikant
Animals are required to “specialists” in one area in order to survive. But humans are required more than just surviving.
Our natural strive for complexity and integrating systems needs to be fed. We feed it with reading different books, exploring philosophy, psychology, art, starting businesses etc.
The human experience fundamentally operates in two neurophysiological and psychological states:
1) Survival mode
Even if we are build for something more than just survival we still use a brain which is wired thousands of years ago. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as it does it function – to keep us physically safe. But once it goes beyond that it’s like an “agent of the matrix”. It keeps us in the vicious cycle. If you do your work just to pay the bills ergo to survive, you need to rethink what you are doing.
This way of “living” is characterized by:
Stress
Fear- based emotions
Matter- focused consciousness
2) Creation mode
This is the time when you move from matter-focused to energy-focused consciousness. You start shifting the direction of your awareness. You start to concentrate your attention into creating. You are no longer being told what to do, you are consciously doing it.
Become a creative
Combining the previous points about creating your own systems, transcending the existing ones and becoming multidimensional, we come to one conclusion. You have to create.
If you think that being a creative is reserved only for art people, you couldn’t be further from the truth. A creative is not someone with specific skill based role. A skill that can be outperformed either by someone better than you or an AI. If you limit yourself with a label, you are not a creative. Those are labels such as: I am a coder, I am a designer, I am an actor, I am a painter, I am an engineer or any other role that requires a limiting skill set.
When you create something, you synthesize knowledge across different domains. You create novel solutions and perspectives. Creativity can be found in every field that requires to find a solutions that transforms the boundaries known up to a point.
Albert Einstein, for example, even though his work is perceived as scientific rather than creative, did exactly what we are talking about.
He combined two known ideas – the concept of time and the concept of space. He saw the interconnection between these completely unrelated on first glance things. He presented the idea of spacetime.
An abstract concept like time and a physical phenomenon like space are actually two sides of the same thing. Einstein transcended the known systems of time and space into a new system. This insight is nowadays viewed as a given fact by the mainstream science.
So creativity is not a talent reserved to a particular group of people. It’s a way of operating.
It is the main force that drives us to become more complex beings.
Zoom out
Outline your own blueprint for creating your own matrix.
Set yourself a time limit ( 6 months is a good number ) and transform your life by using the points I’ve listed.
1) Become aware of all the programs, limiting beliefs and dogmatic thinking models that were assigned to you.
Write down where you don’t want to end up in life. Than try to describe the life you actually want to build for yourself. Write down every distraction or belief that doesn’t align with that vision. Think about the actions and life decisions you were pressed to do from your parents, friends and teachers.
2) Transform the pathological systems into new upgraded ones that expand your level of complexity
Think about your current skills, interests and experiences and how they could be the foundation of creating a new life around it.
Change your physical and digital environment to support your new identity (new apps, different workspace, new social circles).
3) Start learning meta skills
Learn complex evergreen skills like psychology, making money ( yes, that is a skill ), pattern recognition and creativity. By the way you can check my article on Pattern Recognition.
That sounds great, but how to actually learn complex skill like creativity?
Meta-skills are transferable mental models and habits that apply across domains. You can’t “study” creativity directly. You develop it through practice in varied contexts and by changing how you think.
Creativity = combining existing ideas in novel ways.
Pattern recognition = noticing structure, similarity, or causality in complexity.
In order to improve in these domains you have to start working on a project. This brings us to the next point.
4) Start your first project
Once you have a vision in mind, you should start building a project around your interests and skills.
If your main goal is to build a business, a personal brand, YouTube channel or whatever it might be, outline the first step.
Commit to making one small step in the right direction daily for the next 6 months. This could be your first paragraph of an article. Your fist paragraph of a YouTube video script, your personal brand’s landing page…that’s up to you.
To sum it up:
The Matrix becomes problematic ones it starts to reinforce its values over its lower levels only for its good. Don’t allow it to force its pathology over you. Become an architect. Transcend the know Matrix systems and create new ones.
Thanks for reading.