Why You Should Pretend to Be Less Intelligent than You Are
From the blog
About the author
Who am I:
No one special. Just another John Smith — the name they give you when they can’t be bothered to know who you really are.
I was raised to be polite, agreeable, and small. It almost worked.
Then I broke. Or maybe I woke.
Turns out “being a good boy” is just training for obedience.
So I unlearned it. Slowly. Painfully. Gloriously.
I’m in the lifelong business of overcoming myself — again and again, until there’s nothing left to conquer but the next version of me.
I don’t do hustle-porn optimism. I do reality.
When I set a goal, time becomes the only variable.
I work hard — sometimes brutal — but always with purpose.
Hard and smart. Always both.
How I got to Nietzsche:
Therapy taught me awareness.
Zen taught me emptiness.
Stoicism taught me endurance.
Adler taught me responsibility.
Nietzsche taught me to dance with fire and call it freedom.
Current belief:
You have agency. Use it.
Comfort is the new cage.
Creation is rebellion.
Favorite mantra:
“Winners are willing to do what losers won’t.”
I just added a line of my own:
“And artists are willing to do what winners can’t imagine.”