Don’t hide your passions. They’re the key to doing awesome shit.

Weirdness is good. It sets us apart and allows us to be wholly different from the rest of the
world, while still being innately the same. Humans tend to forget that what makes us weird
are the things we are passionate about, and the levels that passion can reach.

We forget that those passions are allowed and are awesome whatever they are, whether it’s a
passion for reading novels, playing chess or writing rock operas.

People learn to do things by imitation. We always have and we always will. It’s the surest way to improve your technique and learn the ropes of anything.

But the problem with this is that we learn who to be, too. And we learn not to be ourselves. We look at the successful people, the ones who played by the rules and we start to cut out the parts of our lives that don’t match.

And then we think surely we can’t still listen to punk rock or write open source software if we want to become star employees and make money. Or, if we really want to make it in a creative field, we have to fit what we’re doing into the mainstream.

We can’t be anything except the image of an employee or an entrepreneur or a creative that people want to work with.

We repeat this to ourselves either consciously or subconsciously and we start to feel embarrassed or ashamed of the way we were before we pushed ourselves into a shitty little box.

When you were a kid, it wasn\’t like that. When you were a kid, you let your freak flag fly. You
ran around dressed in pink storm trooper armour, embracing everything about yourself with
complete abandon.

But when you grow up, you learn to put that side away, to find somewhere to lock it up so you
can forget it was ever there.

We all go through this. Our passions just stop being important to us. We learn not to be weird. And that’s a fucking terrible thing to do.

You want my advice? Here’s what I think you should do.

Go write awesome stream of consciousness science fiction cyberpunk novels. Move into the forest and live without electricity.
Chase your dream job in a law firm and listen to the Misfits when you get home and take off your suit. Collect sequinned hand bags or vintage video games or mugs with Christopher Walken’s face. Take chances. Embrace what you love. Draw. Write. Play. Start a software company that could change the entire world. Or you know what? Don’t do any of that. Find a job you like doing and do it well, read every book in the world, do whatever it is you love. Embrace your passions.

Life is too short to waste while you lock yourself away and pretend your past and your passions never existed. So get out there. Do you And be a fucking weirdo.