Twitter has its uses. Today I found out about this fascinating gentlemen there:

What a cool guy! And mega cute, too.

The funny thing is, many people have genuinely fascinating, even amazing lives, and never write about them. One example: I used to know a guy who hitched around Africa in 1991, with no map and no money, where he got caught up in a coup / civil war and nearly died. He lived in a houseboat as a mature student. He spent one Christmas Day shivering in a phone booth in rural Poland. And finally he suffered a series of major psychotic breaks which resulted in a criminal conviction for threatening behaviour.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/16/please-no-more-middle-class-memoirs/

To me, this is a very neoliberal idea of an interesting life. Skipping between continents and having outlandishly mental issues is interesting only within a worldview that promotes the accumulation of experiences at the cost of belongings, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. I see an interesting life as the one where a person figured things out, made something out of nothing, thought deeply, loved with constance, and can share insight instead of outré vignettes of almost dying in coups in places he doesn’t understand or care about.

The most fascinating biography I have ever read is of Anthony Trollope who worked like a dog to provide for his family while pursuing his dream of becoming a well-paid author. He was a very stable person in every way, and I don’t think that made him less interesting than adrenaline-crazed snowflakes making a nuisance of himself in Africa and Poland.