Activation Energy: Where Can I Find Fellow Weirdos?

The other day I was at a dinner with someone who I shall not dox but I’ll say they are obviously “out there” by the way that they dress at work (think pink mowhawk & nose-ring for the sake of example). One reason for them that they are able to dress like this is that they’re very talented and skilled at what they do (they wouldn’t be able to get away with it in a corporate culture if they weren’t). The second reason that they are able to dress like this is because they choose to. This was the interesting bit of the conversation we got into at dinner. Somehow the subject of eccentricity and weirdness came up at dinner and my friend/colleague mentioned the idea of “activation energy” for weirdness in different cultures.

As I write this I realize this should probably be a personal blog post, not a pseudonomus post on HN. Activate that weirdness. Anyway, not there yet.

So, now that I’m firmly 15 years into adulthood I finally feel perhaps brave enough to permanently break through the activation energy threshold I’ve either not been able to break past in my past or that I’ve shattered without thinking too much about or without realizing enough about how the world works because the rapidity with which the world shoved me back into my place was quite shocking.

At any rate, here I am, saying “let’s get weird” and not knowing how. Maybe I’m too late. I’m a 38 y/o male WASP. But my big question is: Where are all my weirdos at? I feel on the cusp of a major major breakthrough in my life and I think being around the right kind of people is going to be absolutely key to that. But I’ve no idea where to begin. I’ll hit submit on this for now because I do not have time to edit this and the train is pulling into Paddington, and I worry if I don’t put these thoughts into the world now I never will!