two things I want to talk about today:

> critical thinking

> the burden borne by great men

Critical Thinking

a while ago I made this tweet about what to bring to a part, to which the OP (original poster) replied with this tweet.

I need to be perfectly clear here, and you can take this statement at face-value because there’s nothing more to it: I’m not picking on Ken.

instead, this inspired me to think about how rare critical thinking truly is in this world.

what kind of world is it that we live in when we considered questions like — in the context of going to a social gathering — “who’s hosting? what do they enjoy? how can you synthesize that with the demands of group dynamic?” too complicated and high bar to think about? this is standard stuff, in my opinion.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to elevate an experience from mid to good, and even good to great, just by paying attention and taking a second to think.

In the same way the number “9” is really made of 3’s, a dinner party, or a date, or a sports game, or a marketing event, or a literally whatever, is just a series of smaller experiences mushed together to form a bigger one. critical thinking is simply the ability to factor out the components of something. once you know what a Thing is made of, you’re free to manipulate it how you see fit (this obviously does not speak to the ethics or morality of manipulating people; clearly not what we’re talking about here).

next time you find yourself struggling to think about something, just take a breath and factor out the components, see what you’re working with, and I promise the answers will essentially reveal themselves.

The Burden Borne By Great Men

the thing about great men is that they push the world forward. they solve problems. they get things done, and they do so with an etiquette that delights those they do things for.

the thing about great men is they are exceptionally rare.

the other thing about great men that doesn’t often get discussed is how they have to spend some, if not much, of their greatness covering up and compensating for the mistakes of stupid, fucked up, dumbass, piece of shit, lazy schlub men. the archetypal bottom feeder that ruins things for everyone else.

if you’re a man, and you see other men not living up to the standards of Greatness, particularly if they’re espousing an ego that suggests they think highly of themselves, it is your duty to check that ego. otherwise, you risk their stupidity bleeding over into the greatness you’ve worked hard to achieve. you risk their slovenly and grotesque behaviors tainting the garden of life you’ve worked hard to cultivate.

sooner or later, their constant mistakes will become your problem to solve, because otherwise, they’re not going to solve it and it’s only going to get worse.

I guess a closing question here is this: how much responsibility does one bear when they see others suffering, know they could alleviate it, but choose not to for fear of violating social etiquette?