The Ecology of Cool: When Being Chosen Stops Mattering

Why we fake it, how it breaks us, and the strange, wide‑open freedom on the other side.

We aren’t shallow—just absorbing survival code before we had frontal lobes.

Overture: One Aluminum Sigh

The night begins, as every cool night does, with a hiss—carbonated lime slicing the air on a Mission District, San Francisco rooftop. My can fogs, fairy lights blink Morse code, and somewhere a product manager laughs exactly one decibel above believable…