- Vanguard Weekly
- Posts
- No Guilty Pleasures
No Guilty Pleasures
Jamil Vanheyningen
November 05, 2023
Guilt is a useless emotion. I have many pleasures, and none of them cause me guilt. Think for a second just how silly the idea of a guilty pleasure is. You have something you enjoy, yet fear admitting it fear of ridicule.
The people who self-deprecatingly publicize theirs are even worse! They hedge, hoping people say something like “How silly it is that you like that, but oh I have this one thing I like too…”. Isn’t that sad? Too scared to fully claim your interests as a part of you, so you join a shame party and take comfort in shared guilt.
Just own it. All of it. No shame, no guilt. It’s clear which choice is simpler.
It’s not that I’m not sympathetic — I’ve been there and completely understand. But I think it is so important to claim all of your interests, free of shame, because ownership and accountability open doors.
Own All of Your Shit
When you own and share the entirety of your interests, it allows you the opportunity to make connections you would not otherwise see.
Sharing with friends or on social media every so often about that comedy screenplay you finished in secret and are now in the process of editing could lead to future collaboration.
To put things into more context, think about how powerful a tool the Internet is for building credibility. Naval Ravikant illustrates this dynamic perfectly: the Internet is an infinite leverage multiplier. Use it.
Delivering value to an audience in public view is important for creators and workers alike. Even if the ultimate goal is to be bought out or hired by a bigger company, large companies lately have been requiring some prior independent success. In the age of permissionless and instant distribution, can you blame them?
Assuming factors like intelligence, aptitude, and work ethic are equal or close to equal, would you rather have the writer who has a loyal following and a successful independent launch under her belt, or the unknown rookie writer?
Ultimately, it is important to keep in mind that while this may seem like advice that pertains to your main dreams or prospective profession, the implications stretch far beyond that.
According to Peter Thiel, personal interests can be a big part of team-building:
Max Levchin, my co-founder at PayPal, says that startups should make their early staff as personally similar as possible. Startups have limited resources and small teams. They must work quickly and efficiently in order to survive, and that’s easier to do when everyone shares an understanding of the world. The early PayPal team worked well together because we were all the same kind of nerd. We all loved science fiction: Cryptonomicon was required reading, and we preferred the capitalist Star Wars to the communist Star Trek.
Once you can claim all of your interests and hobbies openly and enthusiastically, it drops a huge weight off of you. It would surprise you to learn how much undue unease hiding these interests can cause.
Beyond that, if you could make just one connection because of your openness, wouldn’t that make it worth it?