The ultimate "hack" is to hack your own brain. It's how the metaphorical man riding the elephant [1] gets the most mileage out of his efforts, figuring out how to manipulate the elephant any way necessary.<p>The intelligent, rational part of the brain sneers derisively at the invisible mask. It's obviously not there. It obviously can't do anything. It is, in its own way, entirely correct. Yet the elephant does not think that way, and to it, the mask is there and effective, and in its own way, it too is entirely correct.<p>This is how you break bad habits, make good habits, deal with procrastination, and any number of other life goals the rider may find desirable. You don't just sit there futilely trying to kick the elephant harder directly in the direction you want to go; you figure out how to lead it to want what you want it to want. The rider has an immense amount of control, once the rider embraces how little control the rider has.<p>(At least for a while, one of the YCombinator entrance questions was to describe a time you hacked a system or something. I think if I were ever to apply, I'd pull my answer from this. One of my biggest personal ones is just telling myself "Look, literally millions of other people have done this (in some cases billions), surely I can manage too?" Is, for example, the first day of college scary in some ways? Sure. But how hard can it <i>really</i> be? An awful lot of people make it through the first day.)<p>[1]: <a href="http://sourcesofinsight.com/the-elephant-and-the-rider/" rel="nofollow">http://sourcesofinsight.com/the-elephant-and-the-rider/</a>
This reminded me of the psychomagic thing by Alejandro Jodoworsky. It's a therapeutic technique to heal psychological traumas via symbolic acts much like the invisible mask. The premise is that through these symbols one can communicate with the unconscious.<p>Much like hypnosis or placebos it seems to work on some people.
Interestingly I've heard this mask meme before - but from a different fantasy author, Terry Pratchett, in <i>Maskerade</i>. I wonder if there's a common origin. Either way it's a lovely story and empowering for some who hear it.
David Bowie really is neat guy. Him and Trent Reznor used to best pals too. He helped Trent come clean from his smack addiction.<p>I would also hands down believe this man's story knowing the issues David went through balancing all of his personas.
Amazing! But not Neil Gaiman. Follow the tumblr chain long enough and you find the original source: <a href="http://lifeonmagrs.blogspot.com/2017/10/fancy-believing-in-goblin-king-my.html" rel="nofollow">http://lifeonmagrs.blogspot.com/2017/10/fancy-believing-in-g...</a><p>This is an absolutely lovely story. Thank you for sharing it. I choose to believe it's true.
Since this post is not a story from Neil Gaiman, I figured I'd post one that is—It's a short anecdote about his experience with Imposter Syndrome that I like:<p><a href="https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/160603396711/hi-i-read-that-youve-dealt-with-with-impostor" rel="nofollow">https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/160603396711/hi-i-read-t...</a>