The Ungated Manifesto
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Highlights
- That’s the first important thing you should know about The Pattern. If we’re not vigilant in our defense against it, it gradually turns us into cynics and nihilists—ignoring the voice within that knows we’re capable of more. When you’re living out of alignment with your values, you can feel it. But in a world controlled by The Pattern, it’s easy to rationalize away that sense of discontent. When the economic incentives are stacked up against you, it’s easy to convince yourself nothing matters. But even if you ignore that inner voice, it never goes away. It’s always there, poking and prodding, reminding you that you’re off track, and that you have so much more to give.
- I don’t know which corners of the internet I’ll be drawn to next. But I know The Pattern will be there waiting for me. And it fills me with dread. Can you also feel it? That nagging sense that there’s a cancer spreading through the internet? That sense that humanity’s greatest invention has been captured by mediocrity and bad incentives and cowardice? Can you feel the vastness of the potential being squandered?
- Because it turns out, The Pattern has little to do with business models, and everything to do with our collective inability to grapple with insecurity, ambiguity, uncertainty, and fear.
- Put more directly, The Pattern is partly about the systems we live in, partly about our innate drive to fit in, compete, and seek status, and partly about wanting to feel secure in an increasingly complex, chaotic world.
- But if you’ve made it this far down the page, I suspect you feel what I feel. Your intellect sees the ways the status quo is broken, and your heart, despite not having all the answers, knows a more beautiful world is possible. And most importantly, I’m willing to bet you have a sense that you are capable of so much more—in your creative work, your business, and everywhere else. If that’s the case for you, I’d like to invite you to fight alongside me. That starts with making the decision—right here, right now—to commit to the messy, uncertain, long-term work of breaking The Pattern.
- First things first. We need to accept that The Pattern originates within, then act accordingly. We can delude ourselves into thinking this is just about external factors like capitalistic systems, business models, and incentives. But I believe the real work of breaking The Pattern begins by understanding our inner world, then doing the messy work of healing the wounds we find there. My suspicion is that getting ourselves to a place of Deep Okayness is far and away the most important work in this fight. When we know, deep in our bones, that we are enough exactly as we are, and that we’ll be okay no matter what the world throws at us, we lay the strongest foundation possible for the journey ahead. The Pattern nourishes itself on our fears and insecurities. The Pattern runs on uncertainty and self-doubt. So let’s strike at the root, and take away its primary fuel source.
- One of my deepest held beliefs is that creativity, in its many forms, is humanity’s greatest gift, and our most potent source of strength. We’re at our best both individually and as a species when we’re creatively and courageously confronting the world in front of us. The Pattern is the greatest threat to creativity in all its forms. And it’s going to take every ounce of courage we can muster if we’re to defeat it, and restore the soul of the internet.