Crossing the Cringe Minefield

surrender to the cringe

Take a moment to consider why you’ve heeded the call. What’s stopped you from doing the damn thing? A fear of being cringe? A fear of not being good enough?

It's all going to flicker out at some point with everything else.

When you first start out, life will be exactly how it was before you started doing the thing except now t... See more

There are infinite quotidian human experiences ripe for interpreting: putting off housework, caring about who I sit next to at a dinner party, struggling to get dressed. They stack up every day. I’m particularly fond of using them to draw ungenerous conclusions: I’m shallow, selfish, lazy, dishonest. I’ve trained myself away from defending my goodn... See more

When you’re willing to look cringe, a whole world of opportunity opens up. You realize you can’t please everyone so you stop trying. You just focus on winning your game. If you’re trying to make in on the internet, you’re playing a different game than 99% of people—so stop trying to play their game. When you focus on your game 100%, you’re free to ... See more