Strength, Wealth, Intelligence, Beauty, Generosity, Wisdom

Be careful in choosing aspects to develop. Repercussions are not always what you'd imagine.

If you become very strong, you'll live in a world of weaklings.

Fine! You're the strong guy! You don't need others to be strong!

If you become wealthy, you'll live in a world of thirst.

Same, but with an inexorable problem: you remain every bit as thirsty as they are. Likely even more so. If wealth slaked the thirst for wealth, wealthy people wouldn't invest. But, no, billionaires are more eager than anyone for a killing. (Of course, you know my explanation: every last one of us, in the First World, is obscenely rich, so even "normal" Americans are titans obscenely thirsting for More.)

If you develop your intelligence, you'll live in a world of dimwits.

Exasperating, but, hey, you're the superior one. If that's an ego thing, you'll cultivate the withering arrogance affected by stupid people, which is hilarious. If not, you'll pitch in with it. Like the strong guy, you'll eagerly step in to lift heavier loads.

Ego divides intelligent people into one of two entirely different worlds.

If you develop your beauty, you'll live in a world of ugliness.

Fantastic! You're The One! You needn't be smart of funny or kind or clever. You are endlessly fascinating and universally admired while merely sitting there (see "The Immense Stature of an Attractive Person Making Idle Small Talk"). Problem: the immense thirst of the thirsty world is directed toward you - existentially! - which is maddeningly creepy, albeit monetizable.

If you develop your generosity, you'll live in a world of selfishness.

This presents a conundrum: Real generosity isn't allowing yourself to be feasted upon by predators. And it's not generous to, say, supply alcoholics with vodka. Generous people find prospective avenues of generosity closed down, one after another, as they try to be legitimately helpful in a selfish world of braying aristocrats wanting for nothing (aside from a bracing shift of perspective). Even a Messiah would be hard-pressed to redeem this world in a way that actually works (much less sticks).

Generosity, alas, is a natural byproduct of the next aspect:

If you develop wisdom, you will live in a world of fools.

The sticky wicket is that no one will recognize you as wise, because it takes wisdom to spot wisdom. In fact, you'll seem the greatest fool of all, because Dunning Kruger is slightly "off". Intelligence shouldn't be their point of distinction. It's wisdom.

Society has mechanisms for ascertaining intelligence and putting smart people to good use. But a fool couldn't spot a wise man if one fell on him from the 35th floor (another fool likely having shoved him out the window). And it's all fools all the way down (none greater than the intelligent who opt into withering arrogance).

Then why meditate, read, study, and ponder if wisdom comes to that? First, you don't expect it to come to that, because, duh, you didn't start out wise! But you keep going even as truth dawns, because curiosity is being sated. And if your curiosity is all-consuming, it will not relent until it's had all the epiphanies.

My mentor, saxophonist Arnie Lawrence, cautioned me, at a very young age, that I shouldn't even consider becoming a jazz musician unless I'm powerless to resist.

It's like that.