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Take "be contrarian" with regards to investing. The "fancy" interpretation is being able to spot the next big thing before everyone else and HODL it even in the face of mockery.

The more prosaic advice there can be something like "Avoid stocks with high price-to-sales ratios because historically that is the best indicator to check if that company is over-hyped."

See how the advice becomes so boring that it disappears in the latter? There's intuitive understanding that a mob is crazy and to stay away from things that are over-hyped. There not even a need to say "Be contrarian".

The trouble with aphorisms is that they're often similarly ornate(poetic). Anyone who has had real world experience sees through it as "fake". E.g. a butcher does not want or need a knife with fancy nooks and crannies and magic rune engravings.

Just like video games transport you into a different world, an elaborate metaphor also is trying to "teleport" you into a different state. E.g. "swing the sword like a fishing rod" doesn't require you to literally believe the sword is a fishing rod.

The more the 'magic' of a metaphor can be parsed, the more concrete the action that results. "Leveling up" ironically is about *reducing* the amount of magic in the world b/c you can do more stuff yourself rather than watch in awe as other people do it.

Same goes for spiritual woo, the stuff that sounds like literally insane magic. (it's telling that the most common entry point is psychedelics...) "think for yourself" means that your heading is right when you feels the loss of magic. You're "disillusioning" yourself.

If the further along you go the more you go "omg omg" then that's a strong sign that you might be in a maze. E.g. becoming a better magician means there are fewer and fewer tricks that amaze you, not MORE.

Often times there's no malice in this by evil maze makers. It's just that if you don't shake off the identity of an audience member and actually get on stage, then you never actually learn anything. It's like watching 100 magic shows. It's mainly ur entertainment.

You can approximate disillusionment by watching 100 youtube videos explaining and dissecting how magic works but you don't gain "embodied" knowledge and you also lose the ability to appreciate the shows.

Knowledge hoarding with knowledge that doesn't do anything similarly strips away color and life from the show that is your LIFE. Unless you actively reject the audience member role and start knitting it together you drain magic from life w/o making it up through action.

Action also btw doesn't restore the color. It's more like how responsibility allows you to bear the burden of meaninglessness. It's a Sisyphean struggle till death. Life IS the devil's bargain because "you" REALLY wanted to see the show and would do ANYTHING for a ticket.

Being able to truly see through bullshit (the true understanding that forces your hand into action) turns you less into a happy fat buddha and more into a frazzled Jordan Peterson. It's *not* a path of happiness by normal standards.

You'd think this would be understood since the entrance to this path has a giant "Life is Suffering!!!" sign on it. but everyone's like 'hell yea!! grand adventure."