“Nick Riggle’s fun book is ‘awesome’ by its own definition. *Bonus PDF Included with Awesomeness/Suckiness Chart On Being Awesome articulates a singular and gripping cultural ideal and provides a new and inspiring framework for understanding friendship, success, and happiness in our everyday lives. What can the invention of the high five and the history of “cool” tell us about the origins of awesome? Can introverts be awesome? How do our expectations of awesome relate to race, gender, and sexuality? How is our desire for awesomeness shaping our cultural landscape-art, altruism, athletics, and public life? These are just a few of the questions Riggle explores in this accessible, philosophical road trip through the ethos of our time. To be down, game, chill, basic, wack, or a preference dictator are just a handful of ways we can create, respond to, or fail to take up social openings in the office, in public, or with our friends and loved ones. We suck when we foil their attempts at creative community building.

At the core of his work is the idea that awesome people are exemplars of social creativity.

you may say you can't give into your deepest/most intense feelings because you won't get a high-paying job, but Romantics would say 'screw it' because you only have one life to live → it's fine if relationships fall apart because you're pursuing your passionsĪt the beginning of the episode, Lacy smiles a lot, and so an observer might assume that she is 'following her heart' and doing what makes her happy.A lively philosophical exploration of what it means to be awesome and not suck, and a plea for more awesomeness in our personal, social, and public lives In this engaging, fun, and astute investigation of a thoroughly contemporary condition, philosopher and former pro skater Nick Riggle argues that our collective interest in being awesome (and not sucking) marks a new era in American culture, one that is shaped by relatively recent social, political, and technological shifts. (three main layers to this answer) Rousseau talked about how (1) we are all innately good - in that case, if we all act towards our deepest & most intense desires, we wouldn't be hurting others // we want other people to suffer 'Noble savage' (?) Specific kind of goodness: we're happy when others are happy and sad when others are hurt The only reason we lose that capacity (and become comfortable with hurting others, or sitting idly as others are hurt) is because we have been socialized to think that's okay The worst harms to oneself and others are only possible in societies, according to Rousseau (2) People will be selfish in a healthy way & will be compassionate, unless they're socialized out of it (3) What people think may be harmful about embracing Romanticism may actually not be all that harmful → ex.

On being awesome riggle