Things that stand out are either cool or weird.

· Bits and Bobs 9/22/25
  • Things that stand out are either cool or weird.
    • Someone does something notable, out of the ordinary.
    • How do the observers respond?
    • If others are into it, it's cool.
    • If others are not into it, it's embarrassing.
    • Most humans feel shame if others look at them with derision.
    • Some people simply don't care, they persist, and can do something that either makes them a weirdo or cool.
    • The Ozdust Ballroom scene in Wicked is on that knife's edge of embarrassing or cool, until Glinda's decision collapses it into "cool."
    • Which one is in a zone of criticality.
    • It's not an independent decision by other viewers.
      • It's interdependent.
    • The more momentum in one direction the harder it is to go against it, a microcosm of the larger phenomena.
      • Convex, auto-catalyzing.
    • If lots of other people think it's weird, then it's harder for some critical mass to interpret it as cool, to cut against the grain.
      • It can happen when some sub-group actively doesn't care about the opinion of the people who think it's weird, and be used as a signaling thing.

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