Short-Cut Mentality

Society suffers from a short-cut mentality.

We watch training montages in movies and believe it takes a few hours, a few days or a few weeks to become brilliant at karate or kung-fu that ordinarily would take years of physical conditioning.

We watch someone go from high school dropout to brilliant scientist or computer hacker in just a few short weeks.

We watch uber-geniuses (genii?) build a powered suit of armour in a few days or weeks and the only trial and error that took place during the design and construction was done for comedic effect.

When people seek a short-cut, they don’t use “short-cut” because that sounds too much like cheating and we all inherently understand that cheating only gets you so far and also because others are telling them repeatedly “there are no shortcuts!”

Society stops using the seeking of a short-cut to try and get ahead of the other guy.

Instead, people start asking “what’s the secret?”

Because if there is a way to lose 150lbs and toughen up like a world-class MMA fighter in just a few weeks, they’d like to know the secret.

There has to be a secret!

Life wouldn’t be fair if there wasn’t a secret.

It’s not research, or persistence, or diligence, or thousands of failures, or perish the thought, actual fucking hard work that will let them build that powered suit of armour they secretly crave but couldn’t get in to because they weigh 200lbs too much, to fit – no, it’s a single, lone genius who “knows the secret.”