The masks we wear
Adaptation as the greatest skill
Your fingers press into the cool, pliant clay. They began to dance: molding and shaping. Each touch begins to breath life into the shapeless. Eyes emerge. A nose takes shape. Lips curve — ready to whisper secrets. At first the clay resists but with enough work, yields. A story begins to build with each adjustment. A twist here, a smoothing there. A final touch and its done — the mask stares back at you silently as it begins to set.
It has your essence but its not quite you — who you really are. It brings you safety and comfort when you wear it. You and I travel out into the world with it on. Each day in each social situation wearing it. At first its fluid. Over time, it begins to stiffen. Bent by the rules of society, enmeshed with identity.
You see others, older, with a permanent scowl. It’s become their face. But you know you can’t just go out in the world and be yourself. At some point you might just begin to accept it though: who it says you are.
Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. — V. 20
I’ve thought a lot about the roles we play and how to adapt. In life, in business, in Tech. How we’re defined simultaneously by ourselves and others. What it means to be a son, brother, friend, husband, cyclist, gamer, independent contributor, manager, director, executive. How companies wear masks. And what it takes to break free.
The perception in each social — relational — context. How to get better at it. Which mask to wear — when to cast it aside and renew.
What it means to be in control. The way Power works. How to accrue more of it. No, not in a Machiavellian sense. But rather the way things actually are and could be. Perceptions and their doors1.
One of my favorite essays this year is How to be More Agentic by Cate Hall. It gets at the heart of what Power is: having a degree of control over the events and circumstances of your life. Keyword — degree. You and I know life is full of randomness2. The unexpected and surprising. A powerful person might be able to control a few more percentage points relative to a less powerful person — 8% versus 4%. The same with organizations.
In her essay she talks about the following to increase agency: Courting rejection, seeking real feedback, increasing your surface area of luck, assuming all is learnable, loving the moat of low status, not working too hard.
Many difficult with a mask hardened so tightly to the face it can’t be taken it off. Many deemed too hard to actively try. Many, when we fail to recognize their power, fail ourselves.
Winners and losers in this new AI age will be defined by adaptability. Who catches the right waves and who doesn’t — caught against the tide doomed to crash against the shores. Annealing or not to the change the market demands3. Both as individuals and organizations.
Figuring out how to wear the right mask.
Informed by both Blake and Huxley
I’m absolutely not a determinist
A fantastic article on company-market annealing