The Hero Trendency - a podcast by Ryder Richards

Becoming super is super, but what are your underlying motivations?
The extreme of self-optimization is to become heroic… and who better to look at than fictional superheroes to map out a few problems with power and overcoming. (This is part 3 in a 4 part series on Optimization.)
In this episode, we look at optimizing humans from fictional trained assassin killers to real world examples of Tiger Woods and chess families. The idea is to specialize and mold something/someone beyond average. From behavioral science we have paths forward, but to reach beyond our limits we often lean into technology. Yet history and fiction warn against science as deterministic and a problematic shortcut to actual overcoming.

The question of “why to self-optimize” becomes more philosophical: what are our goals? Are they spurred on by superficial conformity? We look at the Übermensch through Nietzsche, a template for the superhero often reduced to the image of the physically fit warrior. But the Overman is actually spiritual overcomer and creative, and to better understand that we must look also at Nietzsche’s Lastman, the secure rationalist.

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