There’s the OUTCOME you want to attain.

And there’s HOW you attain that outcome.

The OUTCOME is concrete .

But the “HOW” is more vague

 

The “HOW” is sometimes clear and sometimes utterly obscure, and usually partly clear and partly obscure.

To get the OUTCOME you are looking for the “HOW”.

You follow, IMITATE THE “HOW”.

If you know the “HOW”— you obviously want to follow the “HOW”. This is HOW you get to the destination the quickest… and often this is the ONLY way to get to the destination

 

But since “HOW” is partly obscure — you can only imitate that part of it which is clear.

The clear part you imitate successfully and it is sufficient to get you the outcome — or NOT sufficient

If it’s not — then now you attempt to get the obscure part of the “HOW” right.

What this means is that you are trying to unravel the missing “sub-HOW’s” of the overarching “HOW”.

“HOW” is a series of actions. You are looking for the missing actions which must be taken, to complete the overarching “HOW-TO” process.

 

Now, any given ACTION, or PHENOMENON — has a series of properties

The properties we are interested in are those which bring about certain outcome

The properties we are less interested in are those which are not directly responsible for the engendering of that outcome

Those auxiliary properties we can call “MERE APPEARANCES”

The very fact that they are KNOWN to us (at this point anyway) necessitates that those are indeed appearances, we can perceive them.

But the fact that they don’t contribute to the outcome, to the state of affairs, to the properties which we’re interested in — is why they are NOTHING MORE THAN THAT

 

This is precisely the CRUX of all problems with “FAKING IT TILL YOU MAKE IT”, or “FOCUSING ON THE PROCESS”, or “PERFECT TECHNIQUE”, etc

When we’re IMITATING the “HOW”, under obscurity and opacity — we don’t always know if we’re imitating the true CAUSE of outcome we desire — or merely it’s APPEARANCE.

 

There are two opposing ways in which we ERR with regards to IMITATION:

-We take IMITATION too literally — mistaking the appearance for the cause, the method, the essence

-Or we don’t take IMITATION seriously enough — DOUBTING the METHOD and mistaking it for mere APPEARANCE

 

There are two primary ways in which excessive imitation of the apparent only method leads astray:

-Methodical dogmatism

-Imitation of appearances exclusively

Both occur when there is a disconnect between the DESIRED OUTCOME — and the MEANS of getting it.

 

It’s common for people to become so obsessed with the game, the technique, the method, the theory — that they forget the reason they were doing it in the first place:

-Theorising unendingly and becoming the great EXPERT, the great THEORETICIAN, the great PHILOSOPHER — long after it ceased contributing any value

–Competing with others long after there’s anything left to compete for

-Comparing to others long after there’s anything left to learn from the comparison

-Making money long after you’ve made more than enough

-Optimising long after everything has been overoptimised already

-Etc

 

It’s yet more common to mistake the desired outcome for it’s appearance entirely

If you don’t even know your goal — only know how it’s supposed to look like — then of course the actions you take will also be utterly misguided

-We want appearance of being worthy and accepted and valuable — instead of actually acquiring value (material and spiritual) — so that we can actually benefit from it, and share it with others

-We want the appearance of being rich — a stupid car or some stupid pool — instead of the true benefits of being rich (freedom, power, safety, fulfilment)

-We want the appearance of being knowledgeable — a fucking bookshelf or dumb aphorism on social media — instead of truly understanding and internalising the knowledge to actually make superior decisions.

-We want the appearance of being happy — an idiot smile on another pointless photo — instead of ACTUALLY BEING HAPPY, fuck

Human is so deeply wired to SURVIVE, and to do so via FITTING IN AND IMITATING those around us — that we would sacrifice are ACTUAL HAPPINESS AND SELF-ESTEEM — for the appearance of it — if that’s what we believe we ought to do

Yes. you can literally make yourself miserable — just to fit in.

 

The other side of the coin of the IMITATION FALLACIES is NOT taking imitation seriously enough.

It’s when you know the “HOW” which you should imitate — but you DOUBT it

You believe it’s NOT the TRUE, ACTUAL “HOW” that you need

You don’t have any better “how”. If you had — you would have done it already. The “HOW” is obscure, after all

Part of this obscure HOW is manifesting itself to you, is PROBABLE to maybe be more than just an appearance, to potentially be a “CONTRIBUTING HOW” to your desired goals.

Alas you reject it

You’re waiting for the “RIGHT HOW”

 

And the problem with this is of course that you may be waiting forever.

Because if the “HOW” was obscure yesterday, it will likely be obscure tomorrow.

This is why it’s better to be NAIVE than to be sceptical

You don’t have to know WHY the “HOW” works.

You don’t have to EXPLAIN IT to anyone

If you truly care about your outcome — you’ll TRY that method — just in case it might work

 

This ironically is a subset of this APPEARANCE problem.

Previously you gladly took on empty APPEARANCES in order to feel like you’re acquiring your GOAL, your OBJECTIVE

Here you gladly REJECT what you believe is just an empty appearance and NOT the true method to obtain desired objective — and in rejecting it — you are deriving satisfaction from NOT APPEARING LIKE A FOOL, trying out a clearly futile method

Thus in both cases you’re a SLAVE to APPEARANCE

You want to APPEAR a certain way

You love your appearance more than you love your outcomes

You love your ego more than you love your life

 

And therein lies the answer

When you let go of your desire to APPEAR so SUCCESSFUL — and let yourself risk some failures and bumpy rides to success — you actually get success

And when you let go of your desire to APPEAR so SMART — and let yourself try the FOOLISH ideas and BE A LITTLE FOOLISH — you eventually stumble upon wisdom. You learn what doesn’t work. This is how you actually learn what works.

 

And this concludes with the final epiphany:

REALNESS is NOT NOT-imitating

REALNESS is letting go of ALL APPEARANCES

IMITATION is you IMITATING, FOLLOWING the actions and behaviours and models which are most promising at delivering you the OUTCOME.

APPEARANCE is merely one of the properties which give some CLUE to the world about your other properties. Thus ultimately merely a vehicle of FITTING IN SOCIALLY.

Thus the CALLING TO BE REAL is the calling to FREEING ONESELF from the TYRANNY of MAKING AN IMPRESSION, of APPEARING A CERTAIN WAY AND FITTING IN.

And it has nothing per se to do with IMITATING the superior tactics and strategies and mentality.

Which you should do, to learn.

But without ever forgetting WHAT’S the GOAL.

Because ultimately, obviously, it’s the only measure if the method was successful

Which is the only point of the method in the first place

After which it neither matters what your method was, nor how you looked