An unrelatable story of remarkable success becomes interesting when you juxtapose the ascent with the mundane moments and failures along the way. At the core of these stories is the outlier/accidental success trope. Ironically, that is what makes the story tick. It is not however, as you point out, the actual key to their success. There isn’t a formula for success but there sure is one for storytelling about it.
That's a very astute observation, Jesse. I appreciate hearing your perspective. It is telling that what makes these stories fun to hear is also often what makes them hard to apply to our lives or useless as anything other than entertainment. This is a contradiction I first encountered when writing about Malcolm Gladwell Books and TED Talks, and it's fascinating to see how common it is. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Enjoying the ideological undertones in this one - are outlier worship and privilege-blindness features of capitalism? Also, "How I Unbuilt This" reminds me of Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing. Decolonize our minds!
Thanks so much, Karl! I appreciate your perspective. I think you're onto something here. Our tendency to worship edge cases and astounding successes and hope that their past rise will resemble our future ascent is one of the most prominent calling cards of American individualism and our "capitalism of the self." We see this show up all across in modern business media. It's especially prominent when this hope and desire can be weaponized for engagement and investment, literal or otherwise. We all have to do what we can to not buy into narratives, identities, and aspirations that aren't actually serving us.
Besides the point, but I also had the confusing week of "only Benny Blanco" on my apps. It wasn't so bad- like a theme party week but for social media. Maybe we can recreate the "3 TV channels" monoculture by glitching everyone onto a random item like that one week a year across all apps
Thanks, Jordan! I really appreciate it and glad it resonated with you. Yes, the lesson seems universal these days-- comparison really is the thief of joy, especially for those of us in creative endeavors!
An unrelatable story of remarkable success becomes interesting when you juxtapose the ascent with the mundane moments and failures along the way. At the core of these stories is the outlier/accidental success trope. Ironically, that is what makes the story tick. It is not however, as you point out, the actual key to their success. There isn’t a formula for success but there sure is one for storytelling about it.
That's a very astute observation, Jesse. I appreciate hearing your perspective. It is telling that what makes these stories fun to hear is also often what makes them hard to apply to our lives or useless as anything other than entertainment. This is a contradiction I first encountered when writing about Malcolm Gladwell Books and TED Talks, and it's fascinating to see how common it is. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Enjoying the ideological undertones in this one - are outlier worship and privilege-blindness features of capitalism? Also, "How I Unbuilt This" reminds me of Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing. Decolonize our minds!
Thanks so much, Karl! I appreciate your perspective. I think you're onto something here. Our tendency to worship edge cases and astounding successes and hope that their past rise will resemble our future ascent is one of the most prominent calling cards of American individualism and our "capitalism of the self." We see this show up all across in modern business media. It's especially prominent when this hope and desire can be weaponized for engagement and investment, literal or otherwise. We all have to do what we can to not buy into narratives, identities, and aspirations that aren't actually serving us.
Besides the point, but I also had the confusing week of "only Benny Blanco" on my apps. It wasn't so bad- like a theme party week but for social media. Maybe we can recreate the "3 TV channels" monoculture by glitching everyone onto a random item like that one week a year across all apps
I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me. I have to imagine this was deliberate PR on his part/his team's part. Social media is so weird sometimes.
So good. As a musician constantly comparing myself i definitely relate!!
Thanks, Jordan! I really appreciate it and glad it resonated with you. Yes, the lesson seems universal these days-- comparison really is the thief of joy, especially for those of us in creative endeavors!