I watched Simon Amstell’s stand-up show Do Nothing Live on iPlayer the other day, and whilst it made me laugh plenty, it also made me ponder human existence a bit too. Which I think was Simon’s intention. He’s clearly a very insightful, neurotic man and thus has analysed every social interaction he’s ever had to the point of both complete understanding and uncertainty.

You’re probably better off experiencing the show yourself first-hand (watch on YouTube), instead of reading my (probably misinterpreted) Self-Help Highlights, but I’m going to go ahead and list them anyway, cos I think they’re some ideas worth pondering. Here are the nuggets of wisdom I got from him:

1. “We’re like ants trying not to bump into each other.” For most of us, our days are spent with our heads down, trying to get from place to place, in pursuit of something or other, all the while trying to avoid potential uncomfortable experiences with our fellow man. Instead of letting our lives go by, Simon suggests we grab life, connect with other people, and stop playing our society’s silly social games, which are just silly. Be honest with yourself and others and just do what you want – be guided by that, rather than the social norms that we’re all brought up to conform to. Doing these things stops life from being cyclical and repetitive, which is always a good thing.
2. At some point in the show, Simon describes a friend of his who acts like he’s ‘in charge of the world’. He ‘grabs people from the universe‘ and makes them his friends, like when he meets some people in the park and ends up spending the rest of the day with them. This is almost incomprehensible to Simon, and probably would be to most other people (it certainly would be to me) but, of course, that’s just the social conditioning talking. What’s stopping us from just meeting somebody and becoming friends with them? Really, it’s just our self-image that holds us back. A perspective change – just the sheer fact of knowing it’s possible – could make a difference in your life, so let go of the image you have of yourself. You can be anybody you want to be.
3. “You can’t change other people … it’s hard enough changing yourself.” ‘Nuff said really.
4. “Can’t sex just be fun?” We make it so serious sometimes. Why so serious? As Si points out, we rarely ask: “where’s all this tennis leading?” People simply enjoy a good bit of tennis, and sex surely can be the same way.
5. “When you realize you are a dream figure in someone else’s dream, they call that self-awareness” OK, so this can’t really be attributed to Simon, as it’s a quote from Waking Life. But he did mention it in the show, and it’s an idea I hadn’t heard before. I don’t really agree with it, but it made me think a couple of thoughts: 1) how little we factor into most people’s lives (like that of a dream figure!) 2) how preposterous it is that we all take ourselves so seriously, when we’re just one person in billions who have ever lived.
6. “What can you do about this?” This is the question Simon ends his show on. The answer is that you can either do something, or do nothing. If there is nothing you can do to change a situation, all you have left to do is simply accept it.

Now I’ve spoilt it for you, I suggest you go and watch the show yourself.