damn rockstar, always

Someone on tinder had this phrase in their bio. As a life motto I think it's pretty powerful. It's a short pneumonic for 'fuck the world, believe in yourself'.

A rockstar is someone that believes they are awesome. And that self-confidence itself is part of the awesomeness. Mick Jagger is not more technically skilled as a musician than Heifetz or Pavarotti or really anyone, but he has swagger and charisma, which makes him great at what he does.

You can be a rockstar even when young. Even when you don't know anything. Not understanding a particular mathematical idea does not prevent you from being a rockstar. And age complicates things, but oldrockstars can still be rockstars. Roger Waters and Robert Plant are still doing great things.

There's an element of musicality to this refrain. Your life is a song and you are the performer and you can improvise around whatever happens. An element of flow: even if mistakes are made, interruptions or sour notes, the music continues and can build to new crescendos and climaxes and themes.

There's also an element of rebelliousness. Rockstars are uncouth, they do what they want, they don't always follow the rules. But they ultimately bring joy to people which is the only thing that really matters.

Coding bootcamps and shitty tech places say they want to hire 'rock stars' by which they mean the best of the best, which is obnoxious. But I mean this phrase in a more positive way.