I have been having a hard time performing well in an underwhelming environment. Mostly because of people but also general vibes. I feel it is much harder to thrive in such an environment. I sometimes feel subconsciously justified in not pushing as hard as I should and just motivate myself every time. Now, all of this is known. We are the average of how we frequent the most. My issue is more that I cannot be myself in environments like this because the person I am would never fit in because considered rude or stupid, while in overwhelming environments the opposite would happen. I feel genuinely lost on how to handle this, I feel I'm conforming to what I despise just to feel some little human love. This is NOT to be misunderstood by wanting to fit in or be loved, but more a feeling of surviving emotionally until the change of place I'm currently in. All this to ask, if anyone has strategies to preserve their inner intellectual self that are not completely isolating (I'm already doing so). Do you think you can survive and even grow intellectually and personally by yourself? I'm tired and my thoughts might be not well developed, I hope you'll understand me. I can always expand if needed.
Set yourself a reading program of great books to pursue at home. Each time you finish a book, if you didn't hate it and it's not too far outside the Overton window, bring it to your environment and leave it in sight. Be prepared to chat about it if anyone sees it and asks. You might eventually flush out or filter a few guys with common interests.
>2585 Agreed, but I think it is also wise to develop a sense for how far you can push the intellectual side of your social interactions. Many normies despise this, and if this is an obligatory reoccuring social environment it can really sour relations.
>>2587 For sure. That's why I advised letting a book passively lie around, and the let the other person initiate. I would then casually pursue the chat only as far they seemed interested.
I think my first piece of advice would be to develop your communication skills. I read the post a couple times, and I'm still not sure what sort of situation you're describing. But before becoming a better writer, work at becoming a better conversationalist. Learn to convince. Learn to express confidently and compellingly the ideas you want to share with the people you're forced to share your world with. As long as you're articulate and conscientious, you can share with just about anybody whatever you please. It's fine to lure someone into a conversation by leaving a book out, as other people advised, but you need to be able to chat. Find good models to emulate. Learn to listen, too. This is difficult. It takes practice.
But it's fine to isolate yourself, to wall things off, or whatever. That's my actual recommendation: get used to it. Make cool friends and write things on the internet, but protect most of what's inside your head.
Another thing to consider doing is setting yourself an intellectual challenge to grow in a way you want to and work towards it. This is similar to #2585 but I'd encourage that you actively try to create something as well. When you read a great work, you should attempt to write something about it to engage in a dialogue with the original author.
There is a discourse taking place through the classics between authors of history, so rather than just looking for peers in your own time, find the writers and posters of the past and write for them. Then if you publish this writing, you may find peers today.
This holds for any intellectual discipline btw, if I were a mathematician, I would be trying to impress Poincare or Gauss. The idea is pick the greats that resonate with you and try to first imitate them, then impress them. This resets who your "intellectual peers" are.
We live in a time where it is easier than ever to find intellectual peers, the trick is you have to work to actually become their peer first.