weekly Go Flip Yourself

When you talk like this you locate authenticity at the level of the identity. “This is my authentic identity; the rest are fake.” But I have a lot of identities! I’m a father, a husband, a writer, a coordinator at a gallery—which of these identities is the authentic one? It is more useful to think of authenticity as being about how you play your identities. There is a way for me to play husband authentically, and there is a way to play it that is not. And so on for every other identity I have—including the obviously fictional ones. Authenticity is not about the identity, but the way you use it.

Identities are interfaces. Pseudonyms are social technologies.

Every writer who chooses to write in English as opposed to their mother tongue, every filmmaker who leaves their country for Hollywood, every founder who creates a business in the US instead of their own country, may be making an excellent decision from an individual point of view. They are likely to gain more personal influence that way. But they’re also increasing the influence of globalized American culture more than they are helping their own home culture.

As doctors, we know full well that tracking the baby’s heart rate during labor has increased interventions but has not improved outcomes. In simpler terms, tracking the baby’s heart rate during labor has gotten more women induced or sliced open, but has not decreased stillbirths or postpartum deaths. Then why do we do it? Because it’s scary not to, that’s why. And I speak from experience.

from the ‘consumer story’ to the ‘citizen story’