Role Models Jun 2026

Do not waste your chisels on fake idols. Do not give your attention to people who make you feel small. Find the quiet, tough, kind people who are doing the work. Watch them closely. Ask them questions.

I was forty-two years old. I had a wife and two children, a house in the suburbs, a car, a dog, a cat, and a career that was neither a success nor a failure. I had never lost my innocence, because I had never had any to lose. I had been born old, like Gertrude Stein, but without her genius. I had been born careful, cautious, skeptical, and afraid. I had never believed in anything, not really, not deeply. I had never believed that the world was good, or that I was good, or that the people I loved would never hurt me. I had always known that they would. I had always known that everything ends, that everything falls apart, that everything is a story we tell ourselves to keep the dark away. Role Models

The cure is interaction. If you cannot email them, ask them a question, or shake their hand, they are not a role model; they are entertainment. Entertainment is fine. Just don't build your moral compass upon it. Do not waste your chisels on fake idols

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to offend you.” Watch them closely