I’m about to get huge trapezius muscles, from all the shrugging I do while reading e-mails (and now also various Youtube and Quora comments – thanks ya’ll, talking me into doing Youtube).
Here, what I’m talking about:
You know how much that sucks, for Hugh?
Imagine you find a possible fix for your pesky myopia. You go out on a limb, against all of what the mainstream says, and you try it. You go through the trouble of reading this blog and learning about vision biology, about strain, about stimulus. You change habits and you figure out how to get all pirate-like with finding sources for reduced prescription glasses. This is a real project, taking up all sorts of time, requiring suspending all sorts of disbelief.
And you get results! Yes!!! Your eyesight improves, you realize that uncle Jake VanJakenhausen was actually right. You’re super excited!
So you tell your friends, you tell your optometrist, you tell everybody. I mean, really. Everybody says that the global epidemic that is myopia is incurable, that you’re going to be running around looking like a dork for life, with those plastic goggles in front of your face. And you found a way out! You did!!
That’s as good as climbing a serious mountain, or winning a serious sporting contest, or making a serious scientific discovery. You didn’t sheeple out, you didn’t just blindly trust the lens-sellers, you went and tested alternate explanations. That’s some 1% of the population level of engagement, you’re stepping out of the matrix.
And what do you get?
You don’t get accolades and curiosity and questions, you don’t get pats on the back. What yo get, is shrugs and disbelief, and unlikely explanations of why your discovery is meaningless.
What a bummer, after you just really made a major discovery.
I feel bad for Hugh, and you probably do too. Doubly so because you’ve probably had Hugh’s exact experience. It’s hard to find out that you are in fact surrounded by sheep in human form, unable (or unwilling) to undertake any sort of personal adventure, to question anything. Sometimes it may be hard to look at your friends, and not think … baaaaah. Seriously, you’re just going to keep buying stronger glasses? Come on!
But such is life. That’s the price you pay for being different, curious, questioning of the health-for-profit paradigm.
My advice for you? Learn to smirk. Instead of earnestly trying to convince people, just … smirk. “Oh, you still wear those glasses? That’s so cute. Is it a hipster thing? Great! Love it”. *smirk*
Don’t wear yourself down trying to explain things to people. Remember that you too were skeptical at one point. Realize that there are other things people get super excited about, that you could care less for. Maybe you’ve got a friend into running, or yoga, or the gym. Maybe you nod and ignore them, when they talk about the health benefits, or about having muscles, or maybe how fun it is to restore vintage cars. Hey, maybe it just doesn’t strike you, whatever they’re into.
You say, but Jake. Didn’t you just call all the nerd goggle proponents sheeple?
I did. A possible side goal might be to try to be less sheeple like about other unusual ideas, listen to people, and realize that preferences and passions can take all sorts of forms. Or you know. Double standards. *smirk*
Cheers,
-Jake
