How People Think

Most things are harder than they look and not as fun as they seem because the information we’re exposed to tends to be a highlight reel of what people want you to know about themselves to increase their own chances of success. It’s easiest to convince people that you’re special if they don’t know you well enough to see all the ways you’re not.

As much as we know about how crazy, weird, talented, and insightful people can be, we are blind to perhaps 99.99999999% of it. The most prolific over-sharers disclose maybe a thousandth of one percent of what they’ve been through and what they’re thinking.

One thing this does is gives a false view of success. Most of what people share is what they want you to see. Skills are advertised, flaws are hidden. Wins are exaggerated, losses are downplayed. Doubt and anxiety are rarely shared on social media. Defeated soldiers and failed CEOs rarely sit for interviews.

Andrew Wilkinson says: “Most successful people are just a walking anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity.”

What people present to the world is a tiny fraction of what’s going on inside their head.

Paul Graham put it this way: “Half the distinguishing qualities of the eminent are actually disadvantages.”

We are extrapolating machines in a world where nothing too good or too bad lasts indefinitely.  When you’re in the middle of a powerful trend it’s difficult to imagine a force strong enough to turn things the other way.