Be Cool, Man

My friend was recently ranting about how no one is “cool” anymore. At first, her use of the word bothered me: it sounded like a high school popularity contest. But the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. Meta glasses secretly filming women. AI-generated vocals. Bots running people’s Hinge profiles. Who knew the future would be so uncool?

At forty-eight, I’m well aware that I might not get what younger people are into. But there’s a difference between changing tastes and a culture increasingly devoted to outsourcing the difficult parts of being human. It doesn’t matter whether I like Doechii. That’s taste. But I feel like I’m constantly being asked to applaud someone for the mountain his robot climbed instead of him.

The other night I went to an “installation” where a guy sat onstage with a guitar he didn’t play while an AI-generated soundtrack and light show played around him. I honestly didn’t know how to respond. “Nice prompt you typed into Suno?” “Cool hardware you bought from the Apple Store?”

What is cool, anyway? I’m no expert, but maybe cool is what remains when you can't outsource difficulty. I once bought a self-portrait in Oaxaca painted by a blind boy. I knew a woman in Marrakech who let herself be cast out of her family in order to study literature. I think people who tell the truth about their feelings and risk rejection are pretty cool.

I’ve known some meditation masters in my time, and what’s cool about them is their ability to create beautiful, happy states of mind out of almost nothing. During Hurricane Sandy, my meditation teacher stayed alone in his apartment for a week without power. When I finally found him in the dark, he greeted me with a huge smile and said, “I’ve got some batteries if you want to listen to the radio with me, Paul.”

You have no idea how much you can create with what little you have. You’re way cooler than you think, man.

As always, if you’d like to be held through your process, reach out and we’ll set up a free coaching call.