Titans and Nebbishes

Most people never question themselves. In any circumstance, the possibility of being the wrong one, the stupid one, or the awful one doesn't even arise. They are the standard. The baseline. The level. A standard scarcely checks itself for deviance. A baseline can't be biased. And no level questions its own tilt.

Some people question themselves constantly. They carry that rare and faintly disgusting tendency toward self-doubt, which they—and everyone around them—deem a burden, a flaw. They've effectively gaslit into irrelevance.

And let's consider outcomes.

It always comes as a surprise—because they're titans!— that the never-questioning titans are very often wrong, stupid, and awful. It's almost as if the refusal to self-question unleashes our worst impulses and transforms us into our worst selves.

And it's true—though seldom noted, because they lack that studly confidence—that self-doubters tend to be righter, smarter, and more virtuous. While self-doubt is the least valued commodity in modern life, it turns out to be the key to the kingdom.

This explains why the key seems missing. Wrongness, stupidity, and awfulness swell out of control because the antidote has been completely deprecated.


You can feel smart or you can be smart. Never both.