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How To (Start To) (Try To) Be Somebody
Generally random and probably not actually useful tips
Be Alienated
This one’s easy. Because if you’re on Medium.com reading articles with titles like this then you’re definitely already alienated — probably from your self. Even for the secular, The Fall makes sense as an origin story of our deep-dive dislocation.
The better question isn’t whether or not alienation exists — you’re a person, so it’s kind of baked in — but what you are alienated from.
You scroll down the feed and see the shiny people and wish you were one of them — you know you do, it’s okay — but can’t you see, this would be a death sentence?
Healthy alienation is essential for artistic growth. It provides a vantage point, a distance, an incredulity at the water the fishes mistake for air. It makes it easier to say things like “this is a dumb way thing to care about”, and then build alternatives.
Alienation is a bell that tells you that something is off. It’s a good place to start.
Don’t Set Goals
Goals mortgage the present in service of an imagined future. Almost all of them are, in practice, sophisticated avoidance strategies, soothing flights into fantasy. They operate on the…
