November 2026
The Joy of Being a Misfit
Making these thoughts and cartoons is bringing me pleasure, and loosening the feeling that I have to conform.
At dinner, a childhood friend asked, “I’ve seen you’ve been posting on LinkedIn. How’s that going?”
There’s a familiar way of hearing that question. Is it successful? Are people interested? Is it turning into something?
What I keep noticing is how much I enjoy making it.
The thoughts, the cartoons, the silly shit. Most of it starts here, on my site. I make it mainly for myself, then distribute it.
And somewhere in the making, I’ve started feeling less obliged to conform.
Later, watching a documentary about chefs, something Marco Pierre White said about cooking as therapy for misfits caught me.
Motherfucker. Misfit. Yes.
I recognised bits of my own eccentricities in these people. That word landed.
Okay. I’m a bit of a misfit.
What’s enjoyable about that?
At the beginning, making these things brought up a lot of resistance. My body and mind weren’t particularly comfortable with it.
Now there’s much less. Peculiarities are becoming something I get pleasure from expressing.
Take My Old Religion. I questioned conventional success and made a story about monkeys discovering they were monkeys.
Part of me could hear the objection.
Am I calling everyone stupid? Am I confronting people too much? Is this offensive?
I’m a monkey in the story too. Still, there’s a tad of that concern.
But making it felt good.
When I asked myself what the pleasure actually was, the answer came out clearly.
It’s just me breaking out of it.
Getting hold of a belief I’d absorbed so deeply it felt like an instruction built into life. Turning it over. Finding something absurd in it. Making a joke.
I can listen to people, find interesting data and change my mind with evidence. But being a socially approved authority doesn’t automatically give someone root access to my mind.
There’s pleasure in questioning that.
And then there’s everything I get to do when I spend less energy trying to fit.
Follow an odd thought because I’m curious where it goes. Make a strange little thing because I find it funny. Try something without needing it to establish anything about me.
Humour is a big one. Some of the conventions I took so seriously become quite entertaining when I stop feeling I have to obey them.
There’s room for unexpected experiences. Different connections. The freedom to change my mind without maintaining the exact person somebody expected me to remain.
Earlier at dinner, another thought had come up.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
Well, the grass is green here too.
There’s green grass in being an employee and being an entrepreneur. In fitting in, and in accepting that I don’t quite fit.
I’m starting to enjoy this patch.
I can make my silly shit. Laugh at it. Say what I think, with some concern about judgment still hanging around.
And feel less like I have to become more normal before I’m allowed to enjoy myself.
Songs 4 Da Misfitz
After writing this, I started putting a playlist together.
Then I listened to Sia’s Bird Set Free.
Fuck. Raw tears of emotion.
Apparently this thought has a soundtrack now.