Not going to pretend I’ve been active. I haven’t, not on Spartan Ownership at least. It’s no secret that I’ve been away for years. At times, I attempted little base-touches with the Youtube audience, usually not trying to promise anything, some of you may know that I have been struggling with finding the right angle for continuing my content creation with Spartan Ownership. Even now, saying Spartan Ownership just doesn’t feel right to me anymore. It took 10 years to find the new angle.
I’ll be honest. One of the main reasons I stopped coming out with content was because I felt a mix of things, one of which was a bit of imposter syndrome. Who was I at 21 years old to speak of masculinity and so on? This is why I tried making my angle more about interviews rather than me speaking from authority.
Deep down, I always felt like I needed more experience if I was going to come out with content in this field. One thing I’ll say in my defense is that my thirst for wisdom was authentic. Growing up kind of socially stunted and without much guidance especially from men made me want to discover what it was to be a man. I knew there was more to it than what I could immediately see. I knew it was more than guzzling beers, getting fat, and getting divorced or whatever the average man subjects himself to.
My first video was 10 years ago. I’m proud to say that I disciplined myself and used a heavy dose of restraint. It wasn’t laziness. It was restraint. I felt like I needed more time, experience and contact with reality before I started to come out with content/coaching/products.
Not to mention, has anyone been following the manosphere lately? Or in the past few years? It was a chaotic jumble of infighting, of indecision, of charlatanism, and fake gurus. Not to mention, most advice just sucks in general, especially the stuff that spreads the easiest. By definition, if a video spreads far and wide, it is often (not always) going to be the McDonalds of content AKA the most generic fast-food, most easily spread content. In my book, by definition high-quality information is often too sophisticated to be digested by the masses and is therefore less easily spread other than in a few small circles.
When it comes to sexuality, masculinity, fitness etc, my belief is that the most generic stuff spreads really quickly but is therefore not worthwhile. This is why I rarely listen to gurus anymore. Especially the ones you could find when you first search for dating advice or what have you. I respect Andrew Tate but this is an example of someone that doesn’t necessarily have the most nuanced perspective but his advice is mostly powerful because he has mass-appeal for younger men. Again, not knocking the guy and I certainly respect what he’s done on some level. But there are many gurus that fall into this category but he’s just one of the most well-known.
So what the fuck is the new name Navigating Dionysus about? in the book, Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, he mentions two forces: Apollonian and Dionysian. Apollonian is more about order/structure while Dionysian is more about chaos and what isn’t easily intelligible or coherent.
Taleb is the author I love the most out of anyone and who has changed my life completely. He has helped me re-evaluate my entire life philosophy through the lens of certain ways of seeing the world he talks about in his books: notably by abandoning conventional and scholastic ways of seeing the world and replacing them with ones based on risk, skin in the game and embracing one’s humanity instead of adhering to rigid, inflexible and smart-sounding systems that govern one’s life. This may appear to be a complicated point but you will slowly start to realize the level of influence progressively as time goes on and I release more work.
One of Taleb’s famous quotes is “My aim is to live happily in a world I do not understand.” This quote exudes deep epistemological humility AKA humility in the face of knowledge and the mystery of life. He is arguably one of the wisest people alive today and he claims very little actual understanding of reality.
So Navigating Dionysus parallels his viewpoint. I’m not here to be another manosphere guru although manosphere topics such as dating, sex, health and style are all included. I’m not claiming to not have been influenced by the manosphere. In reality, this may be a different take on manosphere topics, deeply idiosyncratic, deeply personal, and I will attempt to do so with the highest degree of integrity as I can. But at the same time, it’s a place for me to express myself with playfulness. To experiment. To voice my wacky ideas. To tussle with reality and engage with an audience that enjoys watching the spectacle and hopefully allows itself to be inspired in some meaningful direction.
Spartan Ownership was about a young man trying to take responsibility for his manhood by being ruthlessly honest with himself even if it hurt. I interviewed warriors, fighters, veterans, dating coaches, business owners and eccentrics. I was trying to take responsibility for my own development. And at the time I was inspired by Jocko Willink’s idea of Extreme Ownership as well as Spartan warrior culture so here was the inspiration behind the name of Spartan Ownership. But over time, the name began to feel rigid. As I grew as a man, Spartan Ownership ceased to reflect the flexibility and playfulness that was so instrumental to my development shortly after the birth of SO. Spartan Ownership sounds a bit rigid, heavy, and serious. But Navigating Dionysus is more flexible, playful, chaotic yet deep, mystical and powerful. Maybe I’m giving myself some slack with a name like that but so be it. For me, life is becoming more and more about creativity, engagement and play. In order to really create anything worthwhile, I feel many of us need to feel free to make mistakes, to not be so serious, to foresake rigidity and perfection to some extent. To allow things to emerge spontaneously, to be inconsistent, to contradict oneself, to be free.
I’m sure some of my early viewers might not understand this change in direction perhaps preferring someone who reflects certainty, order, discipline and focus.
I tell you, in real life I’m much more like Rory Sutherland than I am like Jocko Willink or David Goggins, two men that at one point were my daily inspiration and who now I view with a certain cautious distance as if afraid that their rigidity and seriousness would somehow pollute my creative process. I’m the last person to knock their will, bravery and skin in the game. I’m also not saying they’ve never applied creativity to their lives. But what I am rebelling against is the feeling of seriousness that sometimes comes with content like that, similar to Gary Vee. The whole hustle culture, discipline, all that stuff is good but eventually starts to become a mental trap that disconnects us from our deeper wisdom. I think the biggest thing from that stuff that never left me is a strong adherence to taking care of myself physically, often learning about martial arts and self-defense so I could be ready when and if shit were to hit the fan, and just remembering that a man should not be afraid of discipline in general and that a man should be capable of violence to some extent. These lessons stayed and have continued to influence how I operate.
I could go into similar analyses regarding the filter/distance I now apply to pick-up/dating related content.
I have since then started businesses, lived in various cities and continents, made life-changing moves, broken hearts and have had my heart broken, read many books, socialized with elites and with the dregs of society, gone down to zero in my bank account, lived in high-rises on Miami beach, seduced and got many different types of girls into bed, and more. Now I’m qualified to tell you how to live your life so buy my new course! Just kidding.
But no, after my last chapter, I started to feel like my life wasn’t adding up. I was living in a cool city (on paper), had my own business, worked a flexible schedule, had some friends around and many I’m sure would have traded placed with me. But inside I was fucking empty. I was bleeding spiritually. “Cut a man’s spirit and he will bleed just the same” – Zack Hemsey. I made one more major move, changed cities, changed continents, changed cultures, changed women, changed friends and languages once again -> throwing the whole thing into the fire, not irreversibly but significantly.
In Chapter 12 of the Way of the Superior Man, David Deida talks about being willing to change everything in one’s life. Throughout my life, I’ve always heard the criticism that I was a man of extreme’s and of intensity. This critique has often come across as negative and I’ve deeply examined myself to see how much truth there was to it. After almost a decade of wrestling with that question, I’m still of the mind that those who criticize are usually not those who’s lives I want to emulate.Often, their lives are stagnant and I guess more acceptable to the masses? More reasonable? More easy to justify to their parents or friends I guess? Maybe I have the gene for deep devotion. Makes me wonder if religion is genetic. Maybe before organized religion, humans were wired to be deeply devoted to something. I really think they were. The gene of devotion is maybe a gene of deep focus, obsession and love. It’s maybe the gene that resulted in survival to some extent. The single-pointed focus of the predator as he stalks his prey or something.
So in short, I’ve learned to trust my capability to surf extremes, take risks and burn it all down. I’ve learned to view it as a blessing and an inherent wisdom that many don’t have the balls or opportunities to act on.
So in short, Navigating Dionysus is a blog for men who are looking for a sophisticated, nuanced, playful and experimental platform to explore themes in dating, sex, addiction, masculinity, decision-making and all of the interesting fields of thought/action life presents. I have a feeling that moving forward, I will have less appeal, more controversy and a more polarized reaction from the world. As in more people will love what I do, many will hate it and many simply won’t understand it enough to feel the need to engage with it and that’s fine.
Furthermore, I have started a forum at navigatingdionysus.com/forum based on the old-school forum style software from Xenforo which I purchased the license for meaning we can’t be canceled or censored, it’s a place where anonymous conversations can happen without the censorship and filtration biases of major platforms and their usually woke ethics panzees. It’s loosely based on some early nofap and pick-up forums I’ve enjoyed because it offers a clean, simple and fun interface without complications and blind adherence to modernity, this is a early 2000s vintage-style forum, I hope you will appreciate. Come join and be some of the first few members .
I have also began to offer private-guidance, notably when it comes to porn-addiction accountability, relationship/dating navigation and general accountability for health/fitness/and productivity. Not to mention to just be a man in your corner that you simply enjoy talking to. My rates are currently low/flexible since I’m in the beginning stage of my coaching practice.
Feel free to shoot me an email as well. Since the website is in its beginning stages, I have some time to engage with newcomers and old legacy members alike. Email me here.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Best,
Maximillian Giamarco