But I’m a Social Chameleon!
At this point you may be thinking: “Yes, I agree with you that my external character shouldn’t be the same as my internal character, but that doesn’t mean I need to expend mental effort creating one. I naturally and effortlessly adopt different external characters in different social groups and never have trouble blending in. I am a social chameleon!”
This is the equivalent of saying, “I am capable of coming off as generic in any context and am content with being forgettable.” Effortlessly adapting to be invisible in different social contexts is a skill with which every socially competent human is born. People who do not exercise this ability are not doing so because of a lack of ability to fit in but because for whatever reason they want to leave an impact on people (assuming they have a base level of social competence). Sometimes the reason someone wants to leave an impact is puerile and self-masturbatory; other times a person desires to leave an impact to achieve a specific objective. Attempting to make the desired impact is difficult, risky, and something that even the most charismatic and tactful individual will fail at occasionally, which translates to having to deal with a chance of rejection every time you attempt it. To protect their self-images, many individuals who fear this rejection contextualize their genericness as a special skill—that of the “social chameleon.”
As much as Western society denigrates the idea of being generic and forgettable, it isn’t intrinsically a bad thing. In fact, being generic and forgettable could be the best path towards your objective function. For example, if you are just trying to maximize positive emotional states or believe the best way to impact the world is through operating invisibly, then the rest of this chapter will not apply much to you. However, it is important that you understand the logical underpinnings of the path you are intentionally taking and have it not be a path you chose by default out of a fear of rejection.
On the other hand, if you want to impact the world in a manner that leaves you personally remembered/recognized for your work, or should you wish to influence a large number of people through the avatar of your own person (e.g., if you want to be “classically successful”), then this strategy is patently ineffective. Obviously, it is still possible to be generic and accidentally fall into success put it certainly doesn’t help your chances.
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