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“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” ~Plutarch
1.) You realize that everything is on the curve:
“To be aware of limitations is already to be beyond them.” ~Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
What is “the curve”? The curve is a metaphor for time, mortality, game theory, and the Bell Curve of life. You see how we are all on this curve and why it behooves us to practice healthy nonattachment to keep things in perspective.
You are strategic about getting out of your own way. You do this by, first, being brutally honest with yourself, and second, by humiliating your false selves. Particularly your cultural self, your religious self, and your political self.
You see how we are all prone to mistakes and cognitive biases. We are all addicted to petty comforts and untested beliefs. We are all fallible and imperfect. More importantly, you see how this all applies to you, and in your heightened awareness, you dare to self-correct.
As Albert Camus said, “An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.”
As such, you are able to elevate yourself above the human condition and bear witness. You get above it all to see how it’s all connected. You stay ahead of the game by practicing James P Carse’s Infinite Player tactics.
2.) You have mastered the art of reconditioning your cultural conditioning:
“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.” ~Dostoevsky
Since you are able to play Carse’s Infinite Game while others are stuck in a maze of finite games, you are able to recondition your cultural conditioning. Understanding that honest rebellion is necessary to see where you stand in the grand scheme of things.
As George Orwell said, “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel; and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.”
To remain conscious, you use self-deprecating humor to keep things in perspective. You cultivate self-interrogation tactics to poke holes into inflated ideals and ideas, especially your own. You question all your masks, all your delusions, all your illusions. And then you have the audacity to turn yourself like a mirror onto society, leading by example, a paragon for a new way of being human in the world.
3.) You keep curiosity ahead of certainty:
“Security is a false God. Begin to make sacrifices to it and you are lost.” ~Paul Bowles
You dare yourself to ask unsettling questions. You sell your certainty and buy curiosity. Faith in curiosity is your spearhead. With it, you cut through all the red tape. You kneecap all the high horses. You dethrone all the gods. You inflict yourself with good questions. You double down on your ability to question to the nth degree and use it to overcome your certainty.
It keeps ahead of the game, surfing Aslam’s Infinite Circle on the surfboard of Occam’s razor, in absolute awe over the beautiful unfolding of an ultimately unknowable universe. On the edge of your own curiosity, questioning all “answers,” countering all beliefs, and elusive of all delusions.
And not even God is safe from your cutting inquiry.
4.) You trick yourself into being courageous:
“The good life is ever changing, challenging, devoid of regret, intense, creative, and risky.” ~Nietzsche
Just because everybody else is chasing shadows in Plato’s Cave doesn’t mean that you are.
You live adventurously. You live on purpose, with purpose. You’re a force to be reckoned with rather than a thing to be forced. You realize that life is too short to live it half-assed. You refuse to miss the forest for the trees. And so, you relentlessly kick yourself out of your comfort zone.
You double-dog-dare yourself to take the Hero’s Journey. You hear the herald call of the inner wild with keen ears. The pangs of mortality urge you to existentially crush out. You seek out crossroads, labyrinths, and your own indomitable Shadow.
As Rumi said, “Run from what's comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.”
And so, you are adept at tapping your inner trickster archetype to keep you motivated, humble, and audacious enough to take on a life full of ego challenging, soul forging adventures.
5.) You are dead set on becoming the best version of yourself:
“If you bring forth the genius within you, it will free you. If you do not bring forth the genius within you, it will destroy you.” ~The Gospel of Thomas
Having tested your mettle on the Hero’s Journey, you’ve learned how to rearrange the nightmare. You’ve become a poet of paradox, transforming chaos into catharsis, triviality into vitality, pain into purpose, and shadows into allies. It’s all a delicious paradox that you continue to wrestle into providence.
For, as Rumi said, “The cure for the pain is in the pain.”
The pain of life is like a fire you use to continue testing your mettle, sharpening it, and transforming it into an antifragile force of nature. You are double-edged and able to maintain the balance between opposites. You are vibrant and prepared to spearhead a new way of being human in the world.
Armed with such antifragile mettle, you are capable of building a bridge toward the Overman. Your high humor keeps you humble and balanced as you build the bridge with the bones of outdated gods. The bird’s eye view from the shoulders of the giants who came before you gives you the perspective needed to stay ahead of the game.
6.) You continuously cultivate a good sense of humor:
“The law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.” ~R.A. Lafferty
A ruthless sense of humor is what makes you great. It’s your saving grace. You use it to unsettle your “settled mind.” You don’t take yourself too seriously. You don’t hold back the power of your humor. You use it to level the playing field, to get ahead of reason with imagination, and to keep your soul always one step ahead of your ego.
As Lao Tzu said, “As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.”
Thus, you can laugh at yourself and the cosmic joke. You are the punchline after all. But you subsume the dynamic. You spearhead the hijinks. You put the “chief” in mischief. You cultivate the “skyhook” of a good sense of humor lest the “deadweight” of hubris hold you down.
As such, you have learned how to get power over power through high humor. The kind of humor that somersaults over itself, gaining momentum, picking up jest and ashes, smiles and razors, thorns and laughter. It’s a cutting humor, an unorthodox humor that takes both thesis and antithesis and smashes it into synthesis, shattering all perceived power constructs and paradigms.
7.) You are able to keep the Truth Quest ahead of "the truth":
“Life is a bridge, cross over it, but do not build a house on it.” ~Indian proverb
Your thirst for the Truth Quest will never be forsaken for the slake of “the truth.” The only rule is to keep questioning, keep churning the coals in the crucible, keep change ahead of choice, curiosity ahead of certainty, and transformation ahead of formation.
This is the only way to stay ahead of the game. It’s the only way to guard against being cognitively stuck, psychologically tricked, spiritually hoodwinked, culturally conned, or politically bamboozled.
You realize this. And so, your faith is in the Truth Quest at the expense of all things. Your Quest splits the universe, and you are the spearhead, a mighty sword of inquisition.
Everything falls to the wayside under the sharpness of your Sword of Inquisition. You split the smoke and mirrors. You cut through nonsense, chicanery, and bullshit. You slit the throat of the devil. You pierce straight through the heart of God. And you keep going. Always cutting with your curiosity. Always in attack formation. Always progressing forward. Always at the forefront. Always ahead of the curve.
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About the Author:
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
This article (7 Signs You May Be Ahead of the Curve) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.
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