How Much Do Genes Matter?
Summary
TLDRDr. Gordon Meterson addresses the influence of genetics and environment on personal development, discussing the debate between genetic determinism and free will. He explores the impact of genetics on physical traits and behaviors, using examples of identical twins and their similarities. Meterson emphasizes that while genetics predispose individuals, they don't fully determine outcomes. He touches on the role of consciousness in transcending genetic and environmental influences, suggesting that self-awareness can help one improve despite inherent limitations. Ultimately, he advocates for self-improvement, acceptance of one's constraints, and persistence in achieving personal goals.
Takeaways
- 𧬠Our genetic makeup is largely determined at conception and by the end of the first trimester, suggesting a strong element of predetermination in our lives.
- πΆ The example of Ronda Rousey and Travis Brown's expected child highlights how genetics can influence physical traits, even before birth.
- π€·ββοΈ The speaker encourages viewers to not be limited by their genetics and to strive for their dreams, despite the predetermined aspects of life.
- π The video discusses the complexity of nature versus nurture, emphasizing that both genetics and environment play significant roles in shaping who we are.
- π§¬π³ The study of twins separated at birth, like James Arthur Springer and James Edward Lewis, shows remarkable similarities, indicating a strong genetic influence.
- π However, differences among identical twins suggest that environment also has a say in our development, contradicting the idea of complete genetic determinism.
- π§¬π The concept of epigenetics is introduced, showing how gene expression can change based on environmental factors.
- πͺ Physical attributes like height, weight, and muscle building are largely genetic, but lifestyle choices can influence these to some extent.
- π§ Mental traits such as happiness, intelligence, and beliefs have a genetic component, but environment, especially in early life, plays a significant role in their development.
- πΆπ» Many aspects of our genetic expression are determined during early childhood, suggesting that our environment during those years is crucial.
- π€ The script ponders the philosophical question of free will, suggesting that while genetics and environment are influential, there may be an element of consciousness that allows for some degree of self-determination.
Q & A
What is the main argument presented by Dr. Gordon Meterson in the video script?
-Dr. Gordon Meterson discusses the concept of genetic determinism, suggesting that our fate is largely influenced by our genetic makeup, but also emphasizes that the environment plays a significant role, especially through epigenetics.
What does Dr. Meterson imply about the moment of conception in relation to our fate?
-He implies that from the moment of conception, much of our genetic fate is already determined, including predispositions to certain traits and behaviors.
What example does Dr. Meterson use to illustrate the impact of genetics on a child's future?
-He uses the example of Ronda Rousey and Travis Brown's expected child, noting that the child's potential height and physical attributes could be predicted based on the parents' genetic information.
What is the significance of the study of twins separated at birth in understanding genetic influence?
-The study of twins separated at birth helps to isolate the impact of genetics from environment, showing that even with different upbringings, identical twins can have striking similarities, indicating a strong genetic influence.
Can you explain the term 'epigenetics' as mentioned in the script?
-Epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression that do not involve alterations to the underlying DNA sequence, and can be influenced by environmental factors.
What does Dr. Meterson suggest about the role of environment in shaping our lives?
-He suggests that while genetics play a significant role, the environment, especially during early childhood, has a substantial impact on how genes are expressed, thus shaping our lives.
What is the concept of 'genetic determinism' that the script discusses?
-Genetic determinism is the idea that our traits, behaviors, and even life outcomes are predetermined by our genetic code.
How does Dr. Meterson address the idea of self-improvement in the context of genetic determinism?
-He acknowledges the limitations set by genetics but encourages self-improvement by understanding and working within those boundaries, suggesting that while genetics may predispose us, they do not predetermine our outcomes.
What is the 'fixed mindset' mentioned by Dr. Meterson, and how does it relate to gifted individuals?
-A fixed mindset is the belief that abilities are static and cannot be changed or developed. Dr. Meterson suggests that some gifted individuals may develop this mindset, leading to complacency and a lack of further development.
How does the script address the idea of consciousness and its potential role in overcoming genetic and environmental influences?
-The script suggests that consciousness, being self-aware, might allow humans to ascend beyond their genetic and environmental predispositions to some degree, although it acknowledges that this ability is limited.
What is the conclusion Dr. Meterson reaches about the balance between genetics and personal effort?
-He concludes that while genetics set certain boundaries, personal effort and environmental changes can still influence outcomes, and encourages individuals to strive for self-improvement despite these genetic constraints.
Outlines
𧬠Genetic Determinism and Fate
Dr. Gordon Meterson introduces the concept of genetic determinism, suggesting that much of an individual's fate is decided before birth due to genetic makeup. He uses the example of Ronda Rousey and Travis Brown's unborn child to illustrate how early in development certain traits can be predicted. The speaker also addresses the complexity of nature versus nurture, hinting at the idea that our genetic code may limit our potential but does not entirely dictate our lives. He encourages viewers to strive for their dreams despite these predetermined factors.
π¬ The Impact of Genetics on Identity: A Study of Separated Twins
This paragraph delves into the study of identical twins separated at birth to understand the extent of genetic influence on identity and personality. The research sheds light on how genetic factors play a significant role in shaping who we are, even when environmental factors differ vastly.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Genetic Determinism
π‘Epigenetics
π‘Heritability
π‘Environment
π‘Self-Improvement
π‘Fixed Mindset
π‘Consciousness
π‘Genetic Predispposition
π‘Physical Attributes
π‘Mental Components
π‘Personality
Highlights
Dr. Gordon Meterson's humorous introduction and the concept that our fate may be predetermined from birth.
The idea that genetic makeup is formed at conception and is influenced by the first trimester of pregnancy.
The example of Ronda Rousey and Travis Brown expecting their first child, highlighting genetic influence on physical traits.
The contrasting messages of genetic determinism and the potential for self-improvement and change.
The presentation of epigenetics and how environmental factors can influence gene expression.
The study of twins separated at birth to understand the impact of genetics versus environment.
The case of James Arthur Springer and James Edward Lewis, identical twins with striking similarities despite different environments.
The acknowledgment of genetic influence on personality traits, intelligence, and even religious beliefs.
The concept that genetics predispose rather than predetermine, offering a probabilistic view of life outcomes.
The impact of early childhood environment on gene expression and its implications for personality and behavior.
The debate on the extent to which adults can change their genetic predispositions through environmental changes.
The role of consciousness in potentially transcending genetic and environmental determinism.
The importance of accepting one's genetic limitations while still striving for self-improvement.
The discussion on the inheritability of happiness, intelligence, and political and religious orientations.
The idea that most gene expression variations occur during early childhood, impacting one's future personality and behavior.
The philosophical question of determinism and whether our lives are solely the result of genetics and environment.
The speaker's personal belief in the role of consciousness and the potential for humans to ascend beyond genetic and environmental constraints.
The conclusion that while genetics play a significant role, individuals should continue to pursue self-improvement and personal growth.
Transcripts
ladies and gentlemen give it up for dr
gordon meterson hello everybody hello
everybody here
calm down calm down
stop acting like a bunch of [Β __Β ] monkey
from the moment that your parents
decided to boink and you came swimming
out of your father's taters into your
mother's
your fate was already decided it was
over before you were even born then your
genetic makeup was formed after you were
conceived it was already all were
by the end of the first trimester your
fate was already written in stone
guys i want to show you this ronda
rousey and travis brown are expecting
their first child for those of you who
don't know they were about professional
athletes and travis brown is 6'5 this is
what the doctor had to say about their
child so we are measuring at 11 weeks
and 5 days today
and you are 11 weeks so this is when big
kids start to be big and
they kind of show off after the first
trimester
you were destined to get no [Β __Β ]
you were destined to get addicted to
lowly hentai
you were even destined to watch this
video or maybe you weren't you know
maybe you're not limited by any of that
stuff the sky is the limit the world is
your oyster just never give up
keep on trying and you can be anything
you want to be
telling you guys anything is possible
don't ever get up keep keep grinding
keep hustling
shoot for your dreams
you can do anything you want i promise
you
you just have to take that first step
take that hard step actually doing
something
are you sure about that which one is it
you know because these are two different
messages
i'm hearing from from different people
and i want to get to the bottom of it
well it turns out that it's it's pretty
complicated and it's kind of both of
them but it's uh it's mostly the first
one and just as a disclaimer i'm not
like smart or anything anytime i say
anything smart on this video i'm just
copying people with degrees and also
this is just a presentation of ideas
it's not it shouldn't be taken like a
[Β __Β ] academic journal or something
also this video might have some pretty
harsh truths in it but my intention is
not to to get people to give up or lose
hope or whatever it's is my opinion that
that knowing the truth even if you know
these truths are hard to swallow at
first it only serves to help you even if
you're like you're all about
self-improvement knowing these things
helps you i can think of plenty of times
where
knowing the truth would have helped me a
lot it would have saved me from a lot of
pain and
confusion and anguish you know people
people just say [Β __Β ] to make you feel
better they just sell you white lies it
definitely doesn't help you you know
it just makes you delusional and that's
not the mind state you want to have if
you're trying to improve yourself at all
because you're going you're not going to
accept what you can't change and that's
gonna just that's gonna hurt you
mentally i just wanna be honest because
i feel like these truths really helped
me
you know and i think everybody lies
about them i think these ideas should be
more mainstream because they're very
important and they have a lot of
scientific backing the truth can guide
you you know i'm just going to give you
what i've found and whether or not you
use it to develop self-limiting beliefs
or use them to take the proper steps
going forward is completely up to you
take my little friend here for example
i'm looking down at him right now and
i'm not impressed you know he's it's a
pretty disappointing sight so i have a
few options i could either be like oh no
i'm never gonna please a woman
it's totally over for me my little
shrimp it's just so pathetic i hate you
or alternatively i could accept hey
my dong isn't great
you know i'm never gonna be johnny sins
i'm never gonna hit him i'm never gonna
hit it like jordi el nino poyo
but that's okay
because i can keep moving forward
i could put in the work put in the hours
you know maybe buy some online courses
and you know learn how to really [Β __Β ]
good learn how to stroke it nice you
know
learn how to really work this anyways
when we're talking about genetic
determinism
one of the main like studies we can use
to really isolate how much genetics
matter is by looking at twins who were
separated at birth who had different
environments but you know identical
twins share 100 percent of their
genetics a pair of separated identical
twins that are often sighted are james
arthur springer and james edward lewis
they are pretty much the exact same
physically
same height same face they had the same
job they were a sheriff
they had the same habit of biting their
nails
they had the same food preferences both
of them were married twice and their
wife's names were linda and betty
both of them had a dog growing up that
they named toy they even both named
their son the same thing and this is
this is a pretty crazy thought because
you know naming your your son or your
dog
that's like a whim you know that's
something you think you would just
come up with
and to think that even that does not
escape
the the determinism of your genetics
even that doesn't like escape the cause
and effect of like your genetics brought
up that thought that's pretty nuts you
know but it's not like all separated
twins have this many like uncanny
similarities you know there have been
multiple of them that have been studied
they're all like pretty similar
generally but even with james arthur
springer and james edward lewis there
are key differences you know one of them
married a third time
they they did some different [Β __Β ]
there are there are differences in
identical twins which automatically
rules out that genetics are 100
deterministic because identical twins
share 100 of their genetics it's this
when the same egg splits into two
embryos or whatever the [Β __Β ] so if they
turn out different that means
environment definitely plays a role for
example there are twins named ann and
judy from wales who were separated at
birth and they ended up growing up in
different
socioeconomic backgrounds but in the
same country
and you know one of them was like a
street kid and one of them was like a
super academic kid and they ended up you
know making different levels of money
and having pretty different
personalities but even still their face
was still the same there have been
identical twins raised on opposite sides
of the world and just completely
different environments and their face
and bodies still end up being very
similar which means that you know
physically it makes sense you know it's
intuitive physically that's just genetic
unless one of the twins would have like
taken roids and go on heavy on
bodybuilding or you know done the
opposite like stuff their face with
donuts but the thing is
like the inclinations to do that are
also genetic
so that's when it gets really murky
either way what geneticists have
concluded is that genetics don't
predetermine but predispose right so
they're probabilistic not deterministic
in other words like they don't determine
the outcome of the game but they
determine your hand and if we're talking
about probability what you get in your
hand uh makes the chances
of how you will do in the game but it's
not like set in stone you know you could
really play those cards right so for
being like very technical with the
definition genetic determinism isn't
real but you know the implications of it
do sort of still remain this does not at
all mean that genetics don't matter
because they definitely do you know in
terms of individual factors that impact
your life genetics have to be at the top
they have to be number one
choosing the right parents is the most
important decision that you could ever
make it's just not everything you know
and it's very complicated and there's a
lot of different variables
that can impact how you turn out and
this is because genes can express
themselves based on their environments
it's this new thing they they have
called epigenetics based on outside
environmental factors your genes will
will come out in a different way for
example you could have this sort of uh
this dormant muscle building gene and if
you never worked out you'll never find
it but if you start to you know lift you
could find you have like very good
muscle building genetics get jacked as
[Β __Β ] but it won't come out if you like
live a very sedentary lifestyle but even
this has limits you know especially
physically it's not like if i were to go
to brazil you know change my environment
i'd suddenly you know my dick would get
bigger or something it's not like if i
start working out i'll get four inches
taller the truth of the matter is
genetics are a big deal and they are
restrictive you are bound by your
genetics to a high degree
especially when you consider
you know people treat you differently
based on your genetics and
scientifically they largely determine
your success in your career
in relationships in life in general
knowing this and acting accordingly
can give you a higher level of control
the degree of this control is debatable
and it also is variable it varies from
person to person but let me just give
you the science physically what is
genetic
is pretty intuitive your face very
genetic
the only thing you could do to change
that you get surgery
you can change
your overall like body fat percentage to
make your face more lean
and you could do skin care like that's
about it height and weight are mostly
genetic your diet and sleep growing up
will impact your height and you can
change your weight you know based on how
much you're eating so you have you have
some level of control then again you
know your muscle building is also
very genetic no matter how much i work
out i'm not really gonna be like a super
buff dude i'm just sort of a wiry guy
you know and it's cool for me
that that that means i won't develop
some sort of body dysmorphia and [Β __Β ]
it's why it's important you know this so
you don't blame yourself and hate
yourself and you just accept it but
mentally is where it gets interesting
and also pretty brutal there are studies
that have found happiness has a large
inheritable quality to it so does
intelligence
so does your political orientation your
religiosity all of these things have a
large genetic component but the thing
about these heritability figures
is that they're very different because
they're based off the population that
they've been measured in so they vary
wildly
you know you'll hear that iq has a
heritability of 70 percent on average
but if you go to populations communities
around harvard it's above 90 percent
and if you go to you know detroit
where there's a lot of like drug
problems it's close to zero percent
so this this shows that environment
actually has a larger uh play in mental
components like intelligence than
genetics for example to predict whether
or not someone believes in god it's more
important to know if they were born in
texas than what their genes are but
here's the kicker
most of the differences in your gene
expression the variation
physically or mentally happens when you
are zero to three years old
when you're super young when you don't
have any control over your environment
and it keeps on going down so by the
time you're an adult and you really have
the the influence to
change where you are change your
environments a lot of things have
solidified by then and it's you know
it's still a debate scientifically like
how much
you can change by altering your
environments when you're grown
but you know the brain is still plastic
but not nearly as much as it was when
you were young and this leads to a
question about determinism in general
not even genetic but
when you combine genetics and
environment
besides your genetics which you don't
choose
and your environment when you're young
and you can't change it so you don't
choose that either
what else is there
what else is there that influences your
physicality your personality all those
things that will go on to determine your
whole life
what else is there besides genetics and
environment you could logically say
there is nothing else like that's it
we're pretty much automatons in that way
you look at your genes you look at your
environment and you could trace back all
of the variables that made you who you
are and you didn't choose any of them
i'm not saying that's what i believe
but i understand it and i respect it
i've had this conversation multiple
times when i've tried to uh
blackpill people but it's like
if you were born
white
in the early 1800s in the american south
you would be racist
you'd like to think you're the one who's
like no i would have realized it's wrong
i would have gone against like no you
wouldn't have the thought wouldn't even
have occurred to you
your genes and your environment that
would have made what you believed
you know you wouldn't have the percep
you wouldn't have the perspective to see
beyond that the stance that genes and
environment are everything
it's hard to argue with you know i
personally don't believe that
but i respect it and i totally
understand that standpoint i just choose
to believe
there's something else now this is
purely just my opinion and i'm not even
like super confident about it this is
just like how i feel sort of but i think
um that something is what separates
humans from other animals i think
animals are purely genes and
environments but you know the human ape
which is just much more complex i think
that's what consciousness is
what's the purpose of it if not to
you know be self-aware
and look at these things and be able to
ascend them to some degree i think it's
a very small degree
you know i think we're still mostly
automatons but
less so than than other animals you know
they just work according to nature but
even if i'm working under this
assumption that that's what
consciousness is this thing that allows
you to
ascend your genetics and environment a
little bit it's still brutal you can
work extra hard and still be bested by
someone who was just born better i guess
the life fuel there is that
people who are born like super gifted
usually develop a fixed mindset or
whatever it's like the tortoise in the
hair thing
but also there are people who don't do
that there are people who are just like
100 better than you lebron james was
born to be like a super athlete i
couldn't be as good as him no matter how
much i practiced i'm just not built that
way stephen hawking was born to do
science saddam hussein was born to do
war crimes
you know in that way i guess i was born
to [Β __Β ]
and you're never going to be able
to [Β __Β ] as much or as hard as i do
and you have to accept that because i
was just made to [Β __Β ] anyways that's a
lot of overthinking [Β __Β ] the application
of it it couldn't be any other way
you imagine people could just completely
change their like their looks and
personality at the drop of the dime that
[Β __Β ] wouldn't work you have to be born
and have like a certain flow to your
actions if you want to change your
personality or certain mental components
you know things like your iq a lot of
that gene expression probably does
happen when you're young but i think you
could change it to some degree if you
really want to change your personality
you have to do things and be in places
that are like completely out of your
wheelhouse and that will will code new
proteins in your brain that will really
it'll change how you act that's what
walter michelle found with his
personality coefficient is that its
personality is mostly dependent on
environment rather than like some
underlying character you have you don't
got to be that complicated just stay on
your grind except what you can't control
i still think you should you should try
to improve yourself try to see you know
try to be the best person
you could be you know what's the
alternative just texting underage girls
you don't need to do that
keep on keep on giving it your all baby
by the way i really appreciate the way
the the channel is grown if you relate
to me that's kind of cool because i feel
like i'm uh
i'm being myself and a lot of people
don't understand it so
if if you if you get it that's pretty
sick
and i appreciate you by the time this
came out i probably made a discord uh
like an instagram page for
this channel and uh
uh what else a second channel where i
just talk and don't edit it so
yeah check those out if you uh
if you want daddy
if you want more of daddy if you don't
want more daddy
i completely understand
[Music]
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