I’d like to tell you about a specific episode of podcast that offered a perfect example of the way a lot of modern experts share information without actually teaching anything.

In fact, I’ve collected many examples of this kind of thing that I want to share and publicly deconstruct.

However, I am still figuring out how to do that without being a sanctimonious jerk.

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Often, I’ll be in the middle of editing a video when I hesitate over a particular moment.

“I just looked really awkward right there,” I might say to myself. Or I cringe a little because I’m coming off as overly earnest or sanctimonious.

However, in order to share my work on the Internet, I’ve had to accept that the earnest, awkward person in those videos is the same one I look at in the mirror. The likeness is accurate.

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I haven’t taken too many guitar lessons in my life. Though I spent years as a guitar teacher, ironically, I’m mostly self-taught.

Almost every teacher I tried did that thing where you pick up the guitar and do a fast run to show off.

No piano teacher I ever had did this. It must be something about having the instrument in your hand, just begging to be played.

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For the longest time, I really struggled when I encountered work from people who I perceived were farther down the path than I was.

They were more established, more accomplished, and more polished. Seeing their stuff made me want to not even bother.

Stage One was just that -- not bothering. Sadly slipping back into my cave like Puff the Magic Dragon.

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At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Fiona Apple, at not quite twenty years old, accepted her award for Best New Artist with a speech that earned the criticism and derision of many.

“This world is bullshit,” she said, her choice of words bleeped by the censors. “You shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.”

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