Make Something Real

There’s a lot of phony bullshit out there.

Don’t underestimate it. You can get a lot of dopamine from building a brand on bullshit social media posts, articles, and PR. You can get fans, followers, and invites to podcasts and conferences where bullshit is the main fare.

But you might become shackled to the shit. You might become a slave to the craving for more hits of social status crack that come from endless bullshit peddling. A caffeine or cocaine high might feel great for a bit, but it’s a losing battle. Over a longer period of time, it can’t hold a candle to a solid, healthy diet of real nutrients. It hollows you out inside.

At some point, everyone with any modicum of public success must make a break. You get a choice: surrender to the siren song of bullshit, double down on phony branding for endless attention while it boils your innards into jelly, or say screw this shit, it’s a little fun, a little stupid, and a lot irrelevant to building something real.

Hating it, or shaping your identity around rejection of bullshit is another form of slavery to it. Transcending it means not being threatened by the bullshit game or lured into full immersion in it.

The best way to do this is to stop looking at the bullshit stream and turn your attention to something you want to build that is independent of it. Something you can build whether or not anyone notices. Something that can win or lose whether or not the bullshit peddlers like or dislike you.

It’s the only way to be real in a world of shadows.