Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher

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THE THREE ORDERS OF BULLSHIT
S
pend any time at the gym and you’re probably familiar with the guy who skips
leg day. The “skip-leg-day” guy is the waist-up muscular dude who has
toothpicks for legs. Of course, these guys don’t skip their leg workouts
periodically; they skip them entirely. Instead, their gym focus is tight-shirt
aesthetics: arms, chest, shoulders—visible assets attracting the ladies’ eyes.
Confront “skip-leg-day” dude about why he doesn’t press or squat and he’ll say
some bullshit like this:
I have bad knees.
Both my ankles are shot.
How do I know? LOL. Because I was once that bullshitter. And yeah, those
were my excuses. Thanks to basketball injuries and a motorcycle accident, both
excuses had slivers of truth. However, both were straw-man excuses: superficial
justifications I grasped while avoiding squat rack pain. This story exemplifies the
next B among the 3(B)s: 
bullshit
.
Bullshit 1.0 is 
crutches
: the stinking pile of excuses and manufactured fairy
tales we tell ourselves. These scapegoats justify do-nothingness. Other times, they
explain away failures or circumstances. And as long as we clutch these
convenient fantasies, change adversity and righteousness bribe us into buying
our victimhood.
Bullshit 2.0 is 
clichés
: a bunch of meaningless mantras and proverbs revered
as gospel; pithy slogans, sweet and soothing, reassuring, and unfortunately,
invitations for more do-nothingness.
And Bullshit 3.0 is 
cults
and their leaders: gurus and slithery figureheads who
will fill your head with whatever you want it filled with.
BULLSHIT 1.0—CRUTCHES: YOUR CEREBRAL DOGMA
The bullshit dwelling in our heads is what I call 
cerebral dogma
—a mental
menagerie of crutches and specious vignettes that insulate our egos and protect
us from doing what’s uncomfortable. As you can see in my crusade against the
squat rack, cerebral dogma is an equal opportunity employer.

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However, behind the cerebral dogma neuroscientists found a much larger
story woven. An internal story of self, identity, and reason. An internal story
upon which we cling, a mental framework that guides us, protects us, and helps
us organize and map a chaotic world—
your narrative bias.
Whereas the narrative fallacy storyboards random data and events for other
people, your narrative bias storyboards yours. Your narrative bias parts your
identity and glues the construction of self. It’s how you make sense of the world,
even if that sense is based on a lie. The negative or inaccurate part of your
narrative bias is your cerebral dogma, the thought snippets skewing truth,
clouding reality, and routinely excusing action. And like other 
SCRIPTED
fibbery, your cerebral dogma acts like a protective mother, insulating egos from
the harsh realities of harsh truths.
See that young guy driving an expensive supercar? Your cerebral dogma
argues, “Meh, spoiled trust-fund brat” or “Lucky”. This explains away your
failures and spares your ego a confrontation with lurking truths. Many times that
narrative is a momentous lie constructed from a filament of truth. Yes, my ankles
are about as reliable as a ’72 Pinto. But no, they wouldn’t 
really
prevent me from
pressing a rack.
Other times, your cerebral dogma exposes itself as a self-defeating
soundtrack, an inner monologue constantly reminding you about your
weaknesses, your dire circumstances, and your failings. For example, commit to
UNSCRIPT
and expect your cerebral dogma to fire up the Rolodex of excuses…