We need a puffed man theory more than we need a great man theory 🤔
People who are possibly impressive at one scale, but try to present at as impressive at the next scale up and kinda fail at it... puffed men (and occasionally, women) turning into punctured men
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there's way more puffed men strutting about in various states of puncturedness than there are great men. In fact, I'm not sure great men or live players by theory actually exist. Only puffed men who haven't yet experienced their first puncture do.
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Peter Principle for Public Life: Everybody ascends to their level of puffery and eventually suffers puncture.
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4 dimensions of "greatness" recognized today -- prowess, power, pelf*, perceptions
* pelf = dishonorably attained wealth; having only honorably attained wealth automatically disqualifies you from Greatness Puffery Olympics
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Heh 4Ps
Eg: on pelf front, being suited for angel investing but aspiring to god investing
On power front, being known for powerful ideas (a microgreat trait) but aspiring to be known for powerful values and trying to publish manifestos and things
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Wasn’t going to tweet this, but what the hell, why not. Vaguely inspired by latest newsletter and ongoing production testing of actual greatness/liveness (in sense) of Putin by world events.
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Interestingly, I think nobody talking about Trump at all in the current situation is a major puncture event for him. He was birging Putin a little too much and his RDF has collapsed along with Putin's, but far faster. Putin's RDF still seems to work in parts of the world.
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Love him or hate him, but Elon Musk is pretty much the only god-tier person in my table who has yet to suffer a non-trivial puncture event. The pedo-guy thai cave rescue thing came closest, but ultimately didn't puncture.
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Aside: in visualizing the metaphor of the puffed man, think in terms of a figure made up of individual bubble cells, like bubble wrap/stay-puft marshmallow man, not a single large balloon person.
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"We are as gods, and we might as well get good at it"
I'm genuinely neutral on people who reach for god-tier. I feel no urge to either worship them or actively attempt to puncture them. I mostly just reach for the popcorn and watch, and try to stay out of their way.
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It's a sort of kindness to try and help people identify their right level on the 4 dimensions of godding (there may be more or different ones, these are just my first stab), but once people begin to overreach you kinda have to step back and let events take their course.
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There's a clear "tell" when people try to launch themselves into regimes where overreach risk increases rapidly. A sort of "I'm gonna go for it" launch narrative that's unnecessary when you're in not-overreach zone.
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Overreach risk increases rapidly and unpredictably past your natural point, and I've never yet met anyone who's actually managed to "grow" in a way where they actually shift their natural level. So really, you're kinda gambling your limit is higher than you're at.
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Me, I'm aiming for some modest overreach along the pelf axis to get to a and maybe level up on the prowess front to tell at least one angel-grade story before I die
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