What are your -isms?
George Mack on how to make your life look like a fingerprint.
George Mack on how to spot non-fungible humans. Pretty good advice on what makes for a unique and memorable comedian too…
1. Hard to forget - Some people love them. Some people hate them. But nobody forgets them.
2. Unique language - Listening to them is like logging into Duolingo.
E.g. Musk-isms. Munger-isms. McGregor-isms.
The more "isms" they have, the more non-fungible they are.
3. Stories - The more stories you tell about a person, the more non-fungible they are.
The fewer stories you tell about a person, the more fungible they are.
4. Extinction > Funeral - When they die, it doesn't feel like a funeral. It feels like the extinction of a unique species.
5. Fingerprint - Their life looks like their fingerprint. 1 of 1. Distinctly unique to them.
6. Overton Windows - Fungible people see overton windows as reality.
Non-fungible people see overton windows as prisons of the mind.
7. Impossible to replace - When they leave a room, a party or a business - they cannot be replaced with another human.
They open up a black hole that an infinite amount of square pegs can't fill.
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Nuance: Every human is non-fungible at the DNA level.
It's society, shame and conditioning that chips away at individuality.
If society, shame, and conditioning chip away at individuality, think about the places where you’re willing to swim against those tides. Where is society wrong? What views do you have that you’re ashamed of? What do you feel that' the world’s tried to condition you out of that you just can’t shake? The answers to those questions can lead in funny directions that only you would come up with. If nothing else, people sit up and listen to your oddball takes.
Btw, Mack also writes about how to spot high agency people. This one reminded me a lot of Carlin.
You can never guess their opinions - The boxer that writes poetry. The advertiser obsessed with the history of war. The beauty queen who reads Nietzsche. If their beliefs don't line up with their stereotypes, they've exercised agency.
Shows
2/9 NYC | Misguided Meditation with Matt Ruby, a comedy happening with live visuals/ambient soundscape – promo code PLANTS
2/10 Morris Plains, NJ | The Dojo of Comedy (tickets)
And speaking of -isms, check out some of my Rubyisms via podcast:
Or the easy way, turn yourself into an NFT.