S2. Chapter 20: What Rules Are You Obeying for Free?

Lloyd Dobler takes Lao Tzu’s Chapter 20 and drags it into the fluorescent hellscape of modern adulthood: the inbox, the calendar, the quiet pressure to be “manageable.”

This episode is about self-policing—the rules nobody hands you, but you follow anyway. The ones you enforce on yourself to stay employable, likable, legible. Lloyd reads Tao Te Ching Chapter 20 and turns it into a spiritual crowbar: not a productivity hack, not a life upgrade—more like a small, subversive permission slip.

A calm, dry, anti-guru meditation for anyone who’s been trained to confuse obedience with maturity, silence with stability, and burnout with character and is ready to ask the most dangerous question in late-stage compliance:

What rules are you still following… that no one is enforcing anymore?