Humans

The first shtick gets you noticed. It’s usually a job, a core skill, something that makes you credible, competent, and useful. Alone, though, it’s one-dimensional.

The second shtick is the one that keeps you interesting. It’s the twist, the unexpected dimension that makes you versatile, memorable, harder to pin down.

Together, they balance you: you’... See more

Sometimes the shticks work together. Other times they clash in a way that makes someone even more compelling. Elon Musk literally builds rockets while being a pot stirrer on X. Marc Andreessen invests billions while propagating silly memes. One keeps them credible, the other on people’s minds.

The other thing: your shticks have to be visible, else they might as well not exist. And if you don’t define them yourself, the world will do it for you. When attention is currency and visibility is constant, your shticks are your anchors.

Earlier generations were bound by family, geographic location, and their physical being. People today face few limits on their ability to explore, express, and manifest distinct identities. But our approaches are shaped by the platforms and algorithms we identiate through.

The spaces previous generations filled with close human relationships we fill... See more