How to distinguish yourself — why distinguish yourself ?

Substantive individualism

Individualism with substance 

Are you a real unique person — or a permutation of random fragments? Are you an algorithmically generated person? Can your conversations be recreated by someone else? Do your opinions belong to you, or are you parroting what you’ve heard by others?

Are you afraid of offending others? Do you engage in “safe” conversations in the fear that you might upset others?

Individualism beyond objects

This is the thought I’ve been having:

Many of us desire to distinguish ourselves as individuals — but the way we do it is via purchasing objects/things/cars/clothes/gadgets to distinguish ourselves (instead of distinguishing ourselves with our own personality).

What is “deep individualism”?

My thought:

Individualism is good, but it should be substantive and deep.

Most of the modern individualism is superficial. I show my uniqueness via the clothes I wear, car I drive, and the gadgets and tools I use. But this is what I realized:

No matter how expensive or fancy or unique your things, there are still thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of people with the same thing.

For example, it makes no sense to distinguish yourself with the newest phone or car — because there are still so many people with the same thing!

Perhaps when it comes to material things, better to distinguish yourself by what you decide or opt to NOT own, or things you decide NOT to do or engage in your life.

Subtractive distinguishing

For example, distinguish yourself by NOT using Instagram (I’m more fascinated by people who opt NOT to use Instagram [JAY Z, Dr. Dre] or who used it then deleted it [Kanye, Elon Musk].

Or interesting people who DON’T own a watch (Elon Musk, Kanye), rappers who DON’T wear chains (Kendrick Lamar), or people who lift weights who DON’T use headphones (Arnold, Ronnie Coleman, Eddie Hall).

Or people who DON’T own phones or have data plans, people who DON’T own a car, or people who decide NOT to own a home, etc.

So as a simple tip— when you witness, meet, or study people you consider successful, ask yourself:

What do they decide NOT to do — which has made them successful?

Be a deep you.

ERIC