The Goon Cave: An Adventure, not a Death Sentence

If you're reading this, then you've probably fallen into a "goon cave". Goon caves are points of terminal loserdom produced by our hypercompetitive, winner-take-all society, where a person who has lost too many winner-take-all games experiences extreme isolation, a lack of employment opportunities, and social ostracism. We borrowed the goon cave metaphor from the porn category called "gooning". In the pornographic context, goon caves are specialized rooms built specifically for masturbation, and goon porn commonly repeats the mantra: nothing exists but masturbation. This analogy encapsulates the drop in economic, physical, and social activity we observe in the losers of our society's winner-take-all games. The analogy also captures the personal nature of the goon cave; every goon cave is different. The stereotype is that the losers of this game spend all their time masturbating in their mother's basement. The losers of this game, known pejoratively as incels, have a term for this state of inactivity: LDAR, short for Lay Down and Rot.

Lay Down and Rest, Not Lay Down and Rot

While Lay Down and Rot encapsulates the inactivity and despair that defines the lifestyle of a goon cave inhabitant, it doesn't paint the complete picture. By understanding the evolutionary development of low mood and withdrawal, we can reframe this seemingly terminal state. There are many evolutionary theories about the origins of depression, but we're going to focus on three: the Analytic Rumination Hypothesis, the Social Rank Theory, and the Energy Conservation Theory.

The Analytic Rumination Hypothesis: Processing the Unsolvable

The Analytic Rumination Hypothesis (ARH) proposes that the symptoms of depression, such as low mood, repetitively thinking about problems, reduced interest in pleasures (anhedonia), and decreased physical activity evolved to help humans solve complex problems. Depression could increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction of a primitive human being who found themselves facing a complex problem like betrayal, loss of status, or resource scarcity. The depressive state narrows focus, reduces calorie consumption, and channels cognitive focus into building a deeper understanding of the problem or finding a solution. 

The Social Rank Theory: A Strategic Retreat

The Social Rank Theory (SRT) suggests that depression evolved as a survival strategy for organisms that consistently lose in social or hierarchical competitions. Prolonged. unwinnable conflicts can lead to severe harm or death. Withdrawal, lower self-esteem, and reduced assertiveness signal submission to dominant rivals to preserve the organism's place in the hierarchy and prevent additional attacks. Depression is a strategic retreat that allows the losing organism to retreat and regroup.

The Energy Conservation Theory: Rest for Survival

The Energy Conservation Theory posits that depression serves as a survival strategy when organisms experience intense resource scarcity or when facing insurmountable problems. In environments where resources were scarce or when continued pursuit of a goal was futile or dangerous, investing energy would be counterproductive. Fatigue, lack of motivation, and apathy would help an organism conserve energy in a resource-scarce environment.

From "Rot" to "Rest": Global Manifestations of an Ancient Response

Normies reflexively counter signal incels by dismissing their ideas outright or blaming their situations on individual weakness or moral failings. However, a deeper look reveals that much of the analysis of those stigmatized as incels is, in fact, spot on despite the seething misogyny and crippling resentment that characterizes the incel spaces. Their analysis of the ever-increasing burden of competition, while frequently mocked, proves eerily accurate when we consider the pervasive phenomena observed around the globe.

The LDAR phenomenon is not exclusive to the Western world; it reflects a universal human response to overwhelming, relentless, and often futile competition. In China, this manifests as involution or "lying flat", a movement that rejects the cycle of increasing competition and diminishing returns. It is a conscious decision by the youth of the nation to drop out of the rat race and instead opt for a low-desire life that prioritizes sanity over endless struggle. In Japan, the rejection of meaningless and self-defeating competition manifests in the Hikikomori, where individuals withdraw from society and become recluses. The withdrawal is often triggered by intense academic, social, and professional pressures. In South Korea, the competition around education, careers, and even beauty standards is causing profound social problems. Alarmingly high rates of stress, depression, and deaths of despair (suicide, drug overdose, alcohol-related deaths) plague the lives of young people. These pressures are often rooted in East Asia's brutal test-taking culture, which functions as an alternative to Western cancel culture, where a single exam can determine one's entire life trajectory, fueling a zero-sum game from childhood.

These widespread global phenomena can all be understood as modern manifestations of our adaptive depressive response designed to help us deal with complex problems, increasing status competition, and resource scarcity. This reframing opens the door to understanding "Lay Down and Rest" not as a surrender to decay, but as a potential, albeit painful, period of reorientation. You can transform your inactivity from destructive "rot" to restorative "rest" and ultimately strategic action.

The Goon Cave as Your Personal Niche: From Isolation to Innovation

While incel analysis is often spot on and undervalued by society, the crippling resentment is unhealthy and prevents incels from leveraging their insights into the workings of the world. It is understandable that after years of frustrated ambitions, some men would sink into a state of learned helplessness. PBO is here to give you the push to reclaim your sense of agency. Indeed, you can never achieve the normal adult milestones through the standard path. However, your situation puts you in a far more advantageous position to navigate the digital, global world. You can no longer play the standard game where the rewards are erased by the intensity and scale of the competition. This has resulted in a temporary drop in status, but you're also exempt from the most pernicious aspects of hypercompetition: cancellation, maintaining a positive reputation, and constraining your career options on the basis of "respectability". If you create a job for yourself, you'll be the best fit, and you'll reap the winner-take-all effects that come with it.

Creating a job for yourself is difficult because most people are not taught to think of themselves as creative people. The education system is designed primarily to prepare people for college or to prepare them for narrowly defined roles. It is difficult, and anyone who tells you it isn't wants to scam you out of cash. At PBO. we encourage our readers to engage in critical thinking and independent thought. Here are some questions that you can ask to discover what niche you should pursue. If you come up with an idea that sounds insane, it is probably the correct one. To make money independently in markets, you must be contrarian and right.

What topics, no matter how obscure or seemingly unproductive, do you find yourself obsessively researching, analyzing, or engaging with for hours on end, simply because you're fascinated?

Think about the skills you've developed through your unique experiences, even if they seem unconventional. What are you exceptionally good at that might not fit a traditional job description?

Consider your current "low burn rate" as a superpower. If you had to, how could you leverage this freedom from conventional financial pressures to experiment with ideas that others couldn't afford to pursue? How does having "nothing to lose" in the traditional sense empower you to take unconventional paths and build something truly unique, without the fear of massive financial ruin?

What controversial or unfiltered truths are you genuinely not afraid to express, precisely because you have less reliance on mainstream approval?

These questions are starting points for discovering your unique niche. When you have discovered your niche, it is time to monetize it. That may mean attracting an audience and selling them advertising. That might mean developing a product that they like. That might mean building an online community. We can give you specific step-by-step instructions on how to find a niche, but we can walk you through the general process of making money online once you have an idea. Please explore our free playbook once you've defined your niche.