use it for good

I was walking last night with my old roommate, up and down Valencia. And he said he didn't even know the difference between good and great anymore. What he thought was that you always needed a rock star. He'd been reading on Freud, and how Freud came to America and blew people away. He was magnetic. He "wowed" them. This wasn't about ideas, that were probably good, or new. This was about charisma, salesmanship.  

 

And I said I'd thought about that often. In particular, the ability to gather 200 people together, which the vast majority of people will never be able to do. They can gather 50, or 75, but not 200. Then I pointed out the difference between this charisma and the kind of charisma it takes to sell out The Greek. And then The Rolling Stones. And David Foster Wallace's essay on tennis and the difference between the number one ranked tennis player and the number fifteen. You can't even see it. It might not be evident watching someone on a stage in front of 200 people. But the person on the stage knows the difference, knows he'll never sell out The Greek. The number fifteen tennis player knows the difference. Those people, that can gather 200 people together, are foot soldiers in the service of generals, or something like that.

I don't know how I got from there to here. We were talking about war. And then we were talking about Sugar. And then we were talking about moms. And I was trying to point out the upside. Hang a note of optimism like an ornament from a tree. And then we were talking about personal limitations. 

 

And somewhere in the subtext is the key to succeeding. 

Perhaps through insight. 

 

Perhaps through something else.