definition
false prophet: someone that claims to be the “chosen one” in the name of power and influence. driven purely by human greed and desire for importance. someone that is seen to be greater than life with no backing.
true prophet: the exact opposite of a false prophet. the “chosen one”. someone who is greater than life and with so much legitimacy that its impossible to deny.
context
the reason i have decided to make this post is because i watched dune for the 6th time last night. for anyone that has not watched this movie—watch it. one of the greatest movies/worlds i have watched and i would encourage everyone to watch both i and ii.
to get people up to speed—there is this concept of the lisan al-gaib on this planet called arrakis. arrakis is a planet with this substance called spice. all you need to know is that spice is used to essentially power the galaxy. this has caused other planets (called the great houses) to enslave this planet and use it to gather spice. the lisan al-gaib is the one who would lead arrakis out of enslavement. to be the lisan al-gaib, there is a prophecy with concrete indicators of if the person was the lisan al-gaib.
in dune paul atreides is claimed to be the lisan al-gaib and frees arrakis from the control of the great houses.
origin
i bring dune up because i want to unpack the idea of false prophets, something some of the people of arrakis called paul.
as mentioned in my definition, false prophets tend to not have the backing needed to be considered a real prophet. these people are often seen as phonies, frauds, and liars.
however, what many fail to realize is that a true prophet was once a false prophet
delusion
paul in the beginning of the movie denied himself of the label lisan al-gaib. he told his mom and the people that he was only there to learn the people of arrakis’s (fremen) ways to seek refuge from one of the great houses that wanted him dead. however, throughout the movie, he continued to learn the ways of the fremen, and continued to position himself to have all indicators point to him being the lisan al-gaib. once he did everything he begins to believe in the label of lisan al-gaib. he sees the way (shout-out anyone that gets the reference). it was only when he convinced himself of his worth, which in turn convinced others that he was the lisan al-gaib.
in the same way, we as people need to prove, not only to others, but to ourselves that we are our own true prophets. that we are deserving of something more. that we can move mountains, tame worlds, and reach success that is so hard to comprehend that people call you delusional. we too must face the trials and tribulations to become our own lisan al-gaib. we must prove to ourselves that we can do the tasks needed to break out of the frame of false prophet, but we must believe internally that we are NOT false prophets. the goal should be to execute so fast that it is literally undeniable by anyone that you could EVER be a false prophet.
luck
now many will argue that anyone in paul’s position could have been the lisan al-gaib. he was carefully trained to be able to be aligned with the prophecy by his mom. in other words, paul was very lucky to have been in the position and environment he was in, therefore anything he did in the movie was not impressive. while there is merit to this, the fact of the matter is that he is seen as lucky because he used his luck. he used the voice (mind control) to bend people to his will, he used his combat training to compete with fremen warriors, he used his extensive knowledge of the desert to give him a leg up when he was left on arrakis (not really but let’s assume this was the case). paul was impressive because he used his luck as a tool to become the lisan al-gaib, not because he had access to become the lisan al-gaib.
in the same way, we as people need to put ourselves in as many environments with the greatest luck factor. we must optimize for our “surface area of success”. paul was fortunate enough to be in the environment for success and used it. we as people either need to use the environment that we are in, or find these environments. i would have never sold my first company if i never sought out quantum computing events that i could go to and network at. i would have never gone to cornell if it wasn’t for joining my high school’s business club, which told me about a small school in cornell called cornell dyson. i would not have been able to travel the world if i didn’t send an email and said yes to dropping out and coming to sf. in the same way we as humans need to find rooms that enable success. rooms won’t give it, they only enable it.
the water of life
in dune ii, paul drinks the water of life. this is considered a poisonous liquid that will kill any man that drinks it. in turn, this enables you to see the past and future and access the memories of those individuals. it was only when he drank this poison, that he truly became the lisan al-gaib.
we as people need to do the same. we must drink the water of life. we need to take the jump, we need to seize that opportunity and never look back. larger than life goals were never achieved without a risk. the water of life is an allusion to someone taking the leap of faith. to trust their body to recover and for us to trust ourselves to succeed.
drink the water of life.
now
writing this in india. this has been one hell of a job. i am currently constructing the data flywheel to support the largest data flywheel of egocentric data. i will update on this later.
