Creative: I’m Not Cool, And Why It Matters

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There is a point to be made. I’m not cool. Online culture can sometimes present a version of the world that may or may not be remotely accurate. My feeling is that all of us, even the uncool, have a place in this world and are just as valid and relevant as anyone else. So let me explain my uncool history and share a few realities along the way.

Comments 7

  1. The idea of disappearing completely is very appealing. One goal later in life is to only be left with only enough possessions to fill a small rucksack that I can hand on to my daughter (if she wants it).

    Bad news about your injury. I started running a few years ago as a supplement to cycling but got a labrum tear in my groin that still flares up from time to time. It hurts more when I walk or hike downhill than when actually running. So along with the cycling and hiking I’ve recently started rucking. I’m 47 and no longer want to waste time not being able to do things physical when outdoors because of an injury.

  2. Ah, but you have stumbled into the paradox of cool. Only UNcool people think they’re cool, but only cool people think they are uncool.
    So, sorry, but I guess that makes you kinda cool. (And best wishes for a speedy recovery).

  3. This may be my favorite youtube so far, probably because so much of it resonated with my introverted idiosyncratic behavior. But the shorts, not short. I was a seriously addicted runner at the start of the running boom, late 70s early 80s, the days of Frank Shorter, Bill Rogers and Joan Benoit, you know, when Americans used to actually win big marathons on a regular basis. The style of shorts barely covered the arse, I even had a pair that was slit up the sides to the waist, with built in brief of course, so your red shorts, pretty pedestrian by those standards. Here, never cool, never will be, and thankful for it. Makes flying under the radar much easier.

  4. Tim’s got it: Yup, it’s cool, it might be an inverted snobbery of cool, but it’s cool. One protests too much:)) Don’t judge moi, uncool is a nonchalant swagger into materialism, which you fastidiously avoid (apart from the motorbike, which I’ll forgive… just this once). You have a literary cool, which I’m afraid to say, trumps cool. Is it uncool to say you’re uncool?… YES! Congrats, you’ve passed, collect a tattoo and a coffee grinder….oh, by the way…..buy some new shorts :))

  5. You probably described about 95% who I am as well. I don’t fly fish and don’t own a motorbike so I’m even lower on the cool scale! But then again I don’t own orange short shorts.

    Embrace that camera shake man, well places in a video they feel much more real than perfectly steady footage which is often boring … I can’t film myself in public either … I can’t dance … I hate small talk as well it’s such a waste of time … hate adult parties too, our daughter’s birthday parties are so much more fun … science and history are fascinating … pop culture I don’t know anything about it and I don’t care … the world is too big and fascinating to stick to popular stuff everyone has seen … no tattoos – never crossed my mind, ever … I love to be alone as well. I don’t bird watch yet, I love my bird feeders and photographed more birds than any other animals out there… so it’s a close call to birding, when I hit my 50s probably.

    In the end being cool and popular is about pleasing others, once others turn their attention elsewhere (and they will) cool people are left alone. “Uncool” people who are themselves because they stick to what they like and love and being true to themselves are the ones who stay mentally healthy and probably happier for not relying on others for validation.

    In the end, I think uncool people are much better off because we stick to what we like and love instead of trying to follow trends, act to please and love stuff because others do.

  6. And, I have no significant following on any social media site, which makes me way more uncool than you, youtube star, or I’m just not very good, probably both.

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