Basically everything is a cult — Teslas, social media apps, crypto, money, etc. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it can lead us to make dumbass decisions and hang around people who are bad for our mental health.
Here are some overrated things crowdsourced from the internet.
The contentious one I don’t agree with
Let’s start with a bang.
(Oops … poor choice of words.)
Many people online think sex is overrated big time. They think it takes a lot of time and effort for a few minutes of overrated bliss. Some even said it’s so boring they think they should do it only if they get paid.
“It’s like a nice massage” one person said.
If you’re not in a relationship there’s so much work required to find a mate for a date, and hopefully get down to business at the end.
Have you ever been on dating apps? Nightmare on Elm Street.
Randoms you don’t know either never reply or simply wanna get down and dirty with you in the next 10 minutes at a 2-star motel that’s convenient to them!
I disagree with this common narrative that sex is overrated. Maybe because I’m a man. Monkey man see tear-dropped object, monkey wanna do.
What I love is that people who are on my side say “maybe you’re not doing it right.” Bang on. (Ooops … soz again.)
Riding a Keanu Reeves motorbike
Keanu Reeves is my man crush (if I ever swung the other way).
But there’s one thing I don’t like about him: motorbikes. Motorbikes everywhere. They’re bloody dangerous.
In Australia we have a nickname for motorbikes: donor-cycles.
So many people die riding motorbikes that the victims become organ farms the medical industry can swipe free body parts from to help those waiting for a donor.
My issues with motorbikes started when someone close to me got a brand spanking new one.
She was so excited.
Her boyfriend was about to propose. She knew it. The birth of tiny humans was well on the way. One long weekend she went with my two friends for a ride up a steep Australian mountain.
The road goes round and round. Every turn is a hairpin turn. You can’t see around corners. But the scenery is spectacular.
They got to the top of the mountain. They took some photos and drank a calming cup of tea. Then they made their way back down.
The three of them rode their motorbikes like they were free from all of life’s harsh realities. They were in their late 20s and having the time of their lives.
“Where is she?”
Suddenly one of them could no longer be seen in the rear-view mirror. It was her. They went back up the mountain to see if she’d got stuck in traffic.
That’s when they saw the most horrific sight you can imagine. Her body lay under the car. Mangled. Probably decapitated (but I dare to ask).
A beautiful human was lost that day. And that’s why I hate motorbikes. They kill so many innocent people with whole lives ahead of them.
One good thing about motorbikes
There’s another side to motorbikes which I appreciate, although I think there are better ways to access this pleasure.
Robert Pirsig who wrote “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” describes cars as compartments. You’re stuck in them and the scenery flies past as if you’re watching tv on a screen.
Inside a car you passively observe and the outside world is in a frame. On a motorcycle the frames of the car windows are gone. He says, you’re in the scene, not watching it like a couch potato.
The sense of present-moment awareness you get on a motorcycle is extraordinary.
Takeaway: find activities that give you present-moment awareness without the danger of a motorbike.
Photo by Vignesh Rajendran on Unsplash
The greatest sucker of time, giver of stress, and creator of obligation
America and Australia both preach the gospel of homeownership.
It’s a pain in the ass.
Here’s how the collusion and scam work. The corporation you work for pays a salary and attaches you to a location near their office. The mortgage industry then ties you down with debt, so location freedom is gone for good.
Wanna move? Good luck to you pal.
Find a buyer. Waste time. Pay fees. Maybe get what the property is worth. Freaking nightmare.
The goal is to break free of this curse. It’s so overrated. You can’t own anything, anyway. Why? When you die everything you had in this world gets taken away.
So even the home you think you own is rented to you on borrowed time.
Having a sexy as hell lover
Good-looking people are great. For a while.
Once you’ve been dating them for a bit the first thing that fades into the background is their looks.
Another issue is everyone is always trying to hit on your sexy little fox. This gets tiring after a while. And sexy people often know they are beautiful. So they strut around like they’re god’s gift to humanity.
I’ve found them high-maintenance and often lacking humility. I mean how many times can you get excited by a pretty face after you’ve licked it?
Not many.
The worst part is looks fade. In their 20s or 30s they might be physically attractive. Once they get older those looks start to fade and wrinkles set in.
That’s why it’s smarter to date for personality, emotional intelligence, and someone who likes some of the things you do. The rest is overrated AF.
Getting drunk
I hate the drunk life.
It was my existence for many years. And I don’t remember much of it. That’s alcohol for you … haha.
You get drunk and likely end up making bad decisions or telling your boss to go get f’d. I got so drunk at a work function that I was singing “~Will go riding on the horses yeah yeah” with my then boss.
There’s a video of us online bro-hugging and looking super happy.
A week later he fired my ass and threw me to the curb like a piece of trash. Who knows, maybe seeing me drunk contributed to my sacking.
The other issue with getting drunk is you can end up having a one-night stand. These often suck.
Jack hammering or starfish behavior isn’t uncommon. The next morning you’ve gotta pretend you like them when all you really want them to do is get them out of your house so you can do a poo.
Then you look at your wallet and realize all that drinking costs more than one whole Bitcoin. Crap.
Slowly a hangover takes over. Your head feels like it’s going to explode. The next few days you’re operating on 1% battery life.
Alcohol kills brain cells.
Listening to loud music in cars and homes
I see people cranking their music all the time.
They don’t know what I know. Loud music gives you tinnitus. What’s that? Imagine a loud, high-pitched sound that you hear 24/7 and can’t turn off. Like the piercing sound they use in horror movies to represent a blackout.
That’s your life.
All the Snoop Dog beats and massive subwoofer bass destroys your ears. Doesn’t take long either. Young adults are getting this earlier. I have it because I was a dumbass DJ. There’s no getting used to it. It just sucks.
Turn the volume down to turn up the longevity of your hearing.
Likes on social media content
“Likes ain’t cash, bro” a friend said to me.
Quit hunting for likes. Quit attention-seeking. Quit the outrage. Quit being a circus monkey acting up to get bananas from the crowd.
Social media is great. Use it to fund your financial freedom, not get Zuckerberg ‘likes’ that can’t pay for food and shelter.
Becoming Kardashian-famous
Fame is a nightmare. Read that again.
Privacy is true wealth. Who wants photographers and teenagers with selfie poles taking photos of them? Not me.
Pre-internet fame was easy. Humans could pretend to be whatever they wanted. There was no easy way to know intimate details about your favorite celebrity. Now the spread of information is much faster.
No matter how hard you try, people can find out things about you. So it’s easy to get overexposed online.
With this new feature of society, who knows, maybe in a few decades we won’t have modern idols or heroes anymore. Only the pre-internet dead people will be worthy of our praise because of our high standards.
Lesson: all humans are flawed. Low your expectations and expect people you admire to screw up. You’re not perfect either sunshine.
Secret texting while driving
Everything is now urgent.
So if the phone buzzes or makes a sound while driving the overwhelming temptation to stroke her screen and reply is enormous.
Yes, it’s illegal, but you can secretly text under the steering wheel, right? You can but it’s dangerous. People die every year trying to reply to a pain-in-the-ass boss that could’ve waited for a reply once the person arrived at their destination. Such a waste.
Eyes on the road. Always.
Let me leave you with this underrated thing
We’ve talked about what’s overrated.
Many of those ideas seem good on paper or in the fantasy that plays in our heads. In reality they cause more problems than they’re worth.
Let’s conclude by going in the other direction. One underrated thing in life is birthdays. Too many people don’t acknowledge the importance of their birthday. They think it’s just another number.
Celebrating a birthday sends a message to your brain that your life matters. The best way I’ve found is to buy yourself a birthday present.
