How does being sincerely ironic empower us, then? If you internalize the ironic ridicule of others before they have a chance of applying it to you, you can more easily shrug it off; you can work from a place of near invulnerability, and thus dare to be truly vulnerable.

@issacrosen Not as I have thought of it, but am open to suggestions of other views.

Trust (def. from upcoming book): 1. competence (or credibility, or skill), 2. goodwill (i.e. you think they have good intentions), 3. reliability (they won’t be flaky), and 4. alignment (that our interests align and don’t contradict one another).

I command you to live in a mess. medium.com/@hanzifreinach…

9. How can such an intelligent and kind person be so dysfunctional, after so much effort to transform and develop? A big part of it is, I think, that they come to expect too much. They fail to be mediocre. Or, should I say, we fail at it, since I am also part of this

1. As a member of what could be called “the creative class” (and the “Triple-H population” of allied Hackers, Hipsters, and Hippies) and its transnational networks, I have become witness to a significant social and psychological fallout within these groups.

7. They truly are kinder, more creative, more open-minded, with softer and more universal values and more self-sacrifice in them, than the people I met when I grew up, and who still know me today, from my “ordinary” life.

6. I used to be so deeply impressed by many of these people and their varied talents. I still am. I used to think that with such people, life would be different.

5. A lot of them stagnate and become pale shadows and excuses for where they thought they were headed in their lives. The iron law of mediocrity reasserts itself, but not very sublimely.

4. Some become invested in their own philosophical or spiritual or media-driven greatness and begin to compete with others for the immortality that fame is implicitly believed to bring. They look for their chance to change the world, to make a dent in the universe.