Knowledge-Maxxing Serves Anti-Brain Rot, Low-Stakes Intellectualism

Driven by Gen Z and millennial young women, knowledge-maxxing terminology deliberately subverts the self-improvement language of the manosphere and incels; ‘knowledge-maxxing’ plays on ‘looksmaxxing’, a word coined to describe pursuing an ‘optimal’ hyper-masculine aesthetic. Instead, knowledge-maxxing creators encourage audiences to reinvigorate pressure-free quests for knowledge, using phrases like ‘curiosity-pilled’ (a play on the manosphere’s use of ‘red-pilled’) and ‘why-maxxing’ (channelling a childlike desire to continually ask ‘why?’).

Central to knowledge-maxxing is a paradoxical desire to limit screen time while still finding pleasure in broadcasting one’s offline activities online (aligning with the 41% of people in Europe who are unwilling to disconnect altogether, despite their dissatisfaction with social media – Stada Health Report, 2025). Straddling this dichotomy, American TikTokker @wellwithzelle’s video (754k views, 139k likes) shared her doomscrolling cure: journalling about saved TikTok videos. Notably, rather than digital detoxing, the ethos is intentional media consumption (mitigating mindless scrolling) and mixing offline and online sources, with knowledge-maxxing content trends like ‘Anti Brain-Rot Menus’ and ‘Media I Consumed Instead of Doomscrolling’ including both YouTube video and Substack essay recommendations.  

It’s also spurred a revival of commonplace books – personal notebooks featuring thematically organised archives of quotes and information the writer has acquired through learning. Scottish TikTokker @amycatriona shared her commonplace book documenting Celtic folklore and pumpkin carving (86k views, 9k likes), and American TikTokker @quiet.drafts showcased her multimedia commonplace book (507k views, 99k likes), which spans art history, YouTube videos and Substack essay notes. In October 2025, American independent film studio A24 tapped into this desire for analogue archiving by releasing a ‘Movie Log’ notebook, essentially an offline version of mega-popular movie review platform Letterboxd.

For more, see also the rise of ‘Personal Curriculums’ in our Wellbeing Futures Macro Trend report Burnout-Battling Media & Entertainment.