Standing out by fitting in

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen all week.

It got me thinking: so much of what we use to help us differentiate ourselves is itself a by-product of the culture we engage with.

When you think about how everything we see in the world was touched by another human being...who (of course) was a byproduct of the life and times and ideas of countless others, you start you notice how we’re all so intimately familiar.

That we all want the same things. And—in so much as we’re attuned to culture—we’re all the same people.

Maybe you’re take on things (wants, needs, beliefs, habits, routines, tastes, etc.) is a little dissimilar from that of your parents or your colleagues or friends. But radically different in every category? I doubt it.

Really, we’re all an amalgam of something or someone (even if we don’t know it). And our best attempts at standing out are often half-baked efforts to compliment a recurring theme.