Cringe as a moat

"Everything you want is on the other side of cringe".

I read that line somewhere on X, and it changed the way I judge my own actions. It's one of those rare sentences that illuminates a truth that has been experienced but not verbalized. I love those sentences. Anyway, I digress.

Cringe is an emotional barrier that our brain creates to protect us from ridicule. I assume its evolutionary purpose is to preserve our current social status. Fair enough.

But here's the problem – while cringe shields us from the downside of status loss, it also makes multiple upsides unattainable. It's useful if you're prey, trying to avoid predators. But it's not very useful if you're trying to be the king of the damn jungle.

Outsized returns in life nearly always come from doing something different from the rest. And doing something different requires discomfort. Most times, it produces cringe.

In a world that is moving ever so fast, perhaps the ability to tolerate (and even embrace) our own cringe is our moat. Without it, we may survive, but we'll never be kings of our own damn jungle.